El Caminito del Rey

In Malaga province, hidden away in the gorge of the Chorro river you’ll find a bit of adventure that makes for a must do daytrip when you are in the area.

With walkways fastened high-up against the rock faces of the gorge, the caminito was originally built in the early 1900s to help workers build and then get to the local hydroelectric plants.

It started to be called the Caminito del Rey after King Alfonso XIII crossed the walkway in 1921 for the inauguration of the dam. Falling into disrepair towards the end of the 20th Century the caminito soon became known as the world’s most dangerous walkway, but in 2015, after a period of closure, the newly refurbished caminito was opened…still with lots of breathtaking vistas and adventure but far fewer deaths involved!

Book your tickets in advance on the website, you can opt to hike at your own pace, or for 10 eur more go with a guided group that gives you little snippets of the history as you go.

If you are getting there by car then note that the route is one way only; so you can either drive to the start at Ardales or leave your car at the finish in El Chorro. Both have a coach that connects the two on at least an hourly basis (there is not much infor on the website about the bus connection, but trust us it is there and running!).

Get to Ardales in advance as parking fills up quickly during the day, plus to get to the true start of the Caminito requires a small hike (20-40 mins) in itself from where you park the car to the ticket office, through one of two tunnels close to the Kiosko restaurant (the one next to the rest is a longer route).

We took the guided hike that lasted around 3 hrs to cover the 7.7km, mainly because all the other tickets were sold out, but actually the guide was via a mic and earpiece that made it quite unobtrusive…and the pace was enough to have a good length of time along the route to experience.

The route effectively has 4 main sections: The First Canyon of the Gaitanejos Gorge

Where you get your first experience of being a hundred feet up with the narrow rocky canyon visible between the 1 meter wide boardwalk!

This gorge then starts to open up a little to the Las Palomas Cliff, where the views strecth across the sunny walls of this wider canyon

Through little tunnels

over precipices

and across narrow bridges

before being able to take a little break in the Jurassic-like Hoyo valley. This stretch will give the guide a bit of time to tell about the families that lived in this secluded valley…where the kids did this route everyday to go to school, and maybe see a train pass by through the tunnels on the other side.