Where are the train stations in Benalmádena?

The main one is at Arroyo de la Miel, inland from the seafront, and there are two smaller stops further southwest at Torremuelle and Carvajal. None of them is on the beach. The line runs between Málaga, the airport, Torremolinos and Fuengirola, so it is excellent for the length of the coast and useless for the last stretch down to the sand.

How far is Arroyo de la Miel station from the beach?

Roughly two kilometres to the seafront at Puerto Marina, downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back. In April that is a pleasant twenty-five minute walk. In August with beach kit and two tired children it is the reason people stop using the train after the second day.

Is the train useful for reaching the airport?

Very. The line calls at the airport station on the way into Málaga, which makes it the cheapest way to arrive and leave if you are travelling light. With three suitcases and a pushchair the arithmetic changes, and the walk or taxi at the Benalmádena end is the part to plan.

Can I combine a hire bike with the train?

Sometimes, and not reliably. Full-size bicycles are accepted on the coastal line at some hours and restricted at others, and folding bikes are treated more generously. It works well enough as an escape route if you are willing to ride home when the answer is no, and badly as the basis of a plan.

Do we need either, if we are staying on the seafront?

If your flat is on the Paseo Marítimo, you can have a good week on foot. The bike earns its keep when you want Fuengirola or the far end of Torremolinos without a car, and the train earns its keep for Málaga, the airport and rainy days.

Bike hire or the coastal train for getting about Benalmádena

The coastal railway is fast, cheap and two kilometres from the sand. The promenade is slow, free and goes exactly where you want to swim. Which of the two actually gets a family about in Benalmádena, what the station-to-beach walk really involves, and the combination most people end up using by Wednesday.

The railway through Benalmádena was not built for holidaymakers. It runs inland of the hotels, behind the first line of blocks, at the point where the hillside starts to rise. The beach is downhill from every station on it.

That single piece of geography is why the same question comes up in every apartment on the first evening: do we hire bikes, or do we just use the train?

What each one is actually good at

Where you want to go	Train	Bike	Better answer
Puerto Marina from the flat	Station then 2 km downhill	Direct	Bike
Playa Malapesquera or Santa Ana	Same walk, with kit	Direct, park at the ramp	Bike
Fuengirola for the day	10 minutes, frequent	10 km each way of promenade	Train, unless the ride is the point
Málaga city	35–45 minutes, direct	Not sensibly	Train
The airport	Direct, on the line	No	Train
Torremolinos and La Carihuela	Two stops	5 km of flat promenade	Either
Benalmádena Pueblo	Does not go there	A real climb	Neither, without help
Arroyo de la Miel shops and the park	On the doorstep	Fine	Whichever you have

The pattern is clear once it is written down. The train is a coast-length tool. The bike is a last-two-kilometres tool. They solve different problems and the mistake is expecting either to do both.

The station-to-sand problem

Arroyo de la Miel station sits in the middle of the inland town, near the park and the streets where most of the year-round life of Benalmádena happens. It is about two kilometres from the harbour, and the walk is a gentle descent through residential streets and across the coast road.

Coming back is the same two kilometres with a rise in it, at six in the evening, carrying a cool box. Families do it once. Then they either hire bikes, start using the local buses that link the station with the seafront, or stop going to the beach on the days they use the train.

An empty holiday apartment with a tiled balcony, folded sun chairs and a bare kitchen counter. — The transport decision is made when you book the flat, not when you arrive at the hire shop.

Two smaller stations, Torremuelle and Carvajal, sit further southwest and are much closer to the water, which is worth knowing if you are choosing where to stay. They are also request-level stops on a busy commuter line rather than transport hubs, and there is nothing much at either besides steps down to the beach.

Cost, honestly

Fares on the coastal line are set by zone and are among the cheapest ways to move on this coast; a rechargeable card knocks a further slice off each journey and pays for itself quickly if more than one person is travelling. Bike hire is quoted by the day and falls steeply for a week, so the weekly rate is often about the same as three or four daily rates in high season.

That means the comparison is not really about money. Two adults and two children making a handful of return trips will spend a modest amount either way. It is about whether the thing you want is range along the coast or freedom at the beach end.

The one place where the money does bite is a full week of daily family train travel to somewhere specific — four sets of fares, twice a day, adds up faster than most people expect, and at that point a week of hire bikes looks cheap. Whether a week of hire is cheap against simply buying something at a supermarket is a separate calculation, done in a week of bike hire against buying cheap.

The pueblo, which neither solves

The train does not climb. The bike climbs badly unless it is electric. The old village above the coast is the one destination in this municipality that defeats both defaults, and it is also the one most visitors want to see.

Options in rough order of sense: an electric bike, which is covered in e-bike hire and the climb to the pueblo; a local bus from Arroyo de la Miel; a scooter, if the family shape suits it, as argued in scooters and mopeds for a family week; or a taxi up and a walk down, which more people do than admit it.

The lower station of a cable car on a dry hillside above the coast, with an empty car park and a bike rack. — The cable car base is on the inland side of town, walkable from the station and nowhere near the beach.

What most people end up doing

By Wednesday of a week here, the arrangement that has settled is usually this: bikes or feet for everything inside Benalmádena, and the train for the two or three days that involve leaving it — Málaga for a morning, Fuengirola for the market, the airport at the end.

If you are only here for a long weekend, skip the bikes. There is not enough time to amortise the hire, the deposit and the storage problem, and the promenade between the harbour and Torremolinos is a walk rather than a ride.

If you are here for two weeks with children, hire the bikes on day one rather than day four. The fortnight in which the bikes exist from the beginning is a noticeably different fortnight from the one where they arrive halfway through.