The Caminito del Rey is something I have wanted to do for a long time, here we are going to tell you about the experience, the options to do it, how to book tickets and everything you need to know if you want to walk it.
Indice:
Where is it and what is it?
The Caminito del Rey is a passage built on the walls of the Gaitanes gorge that is walked along footbridges attached to the rock.
The Caminito del Rey is located in the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, a canyon carved out by the Guadalhorce River and located between the municipalities of Álora, Antequera and Ardales in the province of Malaga. 59 kilometer(s) from the city of Malaga.
The construction of the Salto del Chorro power station made it necessary to open a service road to facilitate the maintenance of the canal. Originally known as the Camino de los Balconcillos (the path of the balconies) due to the small balconies that it still preserves, it changed its name to Caminito del Rey (the Little King’s Path) after King Alfonso XIII walked along it after inaugurating the El Chorro Reservoir in 1921. Today this hiking route attracts loads of tourists year after year.
Preparing for the visit
First of all, we must say that if you have vertigo problems, or you are not in good physical condition, this is an activity that is not recommended. Although it is of medium difficulty, we must know in advance that the total length of the Camino del Rey is 7.7 kilometers, of which 4.8 kilometers are access and 2.9 kilometers are walkways, and that the total journey will take you between 3 and 4 hours.
After deciding to do so, we will have to get our tickets. We have two options, think about whether we are going to access by car or train on our own or if we are already traveling staying for example in the city of Malaga for a few days we want to do it with transport included, in that case we will take an excursion that includes the entrance fee.
Tickets
For those who are going to access the place on their own, they will first look on the Caminito del Rey booking platform, we have two options, the general admission (at our own pace) the price of the 2022 ticket is €10, or the ticket with an official guide (in groups of up to 30 people) cost €18. Keep in mind that there are not many places, so once you have decided try to get the ticket, in fact for the unguided of the times I entered the page I never found.
If you cannot get tickets for the dates you need on the official platform, you can also get tickets with a guide on the sales pages of tourist attractions. The price will be a bit higher, but it is worth it if you are interested in taking the tour.
If you opt for an excursion with transport from Malaga, Ronda or elsewhere, we will look directly at the ticket sales pages of tourist attractions. They are around €50/60 depending on where you are departing from.
Arrival
The distance by road from Malaga is 59 km., from Antequera 55 km or from Ronda 60 km. By train to El Chorro station. In this case you will have to combine the train schedule with the shuttle bus, we will talk about this later.
The route is linear, so you will start at one point and end at another, from north to south, starting in Ardales and ending in El Chorro.
When you arrive by car to Ardales you will leave it in the parking lot (the cost is €2), and at the end of the tour in El Chorro there is a shuttle bus that connects it with Ardales (where you have left the car), the cost of the bus is €1.55 and the schedule is from 7:50 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a frequency of 30 minutes.
If you want, you can do it the other way around, leave your car in El Chorro and take the shuttle bus to Ardales to begin the tour. At the end of the tour you will arrive back at your car.
If you arrived by train at El Chorro station, you should do the latter: take the bus to Ardales to begin the tour.
Starting the Path
Once in Ardales, having left the car, you will find the restaurant El Kiosco, where you have bathrooms, drinks, whatever you need to prepare yourself. From here you have two different entrances to reach the control booth for the northern access to the Caminito del Rey, at the old Electric Substation and Gaitanejo Dam, the start of the official route.
Expect to be at least an hour earlier than your ticket says at this point.
One of them is the “Big Tunnel” right next to the Kiosk, here the journey to the control booth will be 2.7 kilometers, (this is the one we chose), the route will be along a tree-lined path.
The other is the “Pedestrian Tunnel” that leaves about 200 meters before the Kiosk, here the route to the control booth will be 1.5 kilometers. You will save more than a kilometer by doing it here, it is an option if you want to save energy.
Both paths end at the point where the official route of El Caminito del Rey will begin, at the old Gaitanejo Electric Substation and Dam, having taken you here between half an hour or an hour depending on the path chosen and your pace. (Keep this in mind since the time marked on your ticket is for showing up at this point in advance). ↓↓
You have here, at this point, bathrooms to use before starting the tour, keep this in mind since you will not have them until you finish it.
After checking in at the control booth, you will receive a helmet for the tour, as well as an audio system with headphones so you can listen to the guide calmly even if you are some distance away and not miss any of the interesting explanations. Selfie sticks, hiking sticks, umbrellas, strollers or wheelchairs are not allowed on the trail. Remember to wear appropriate footwear. Children under 8 years old cannot access the trail.
Now yes, ready, you will start a wonderful journey! The views of the places are magnificent.
As we were saying, the Caminito del Rey is a path built into the walls of the Gaitanes gorge. It is a pedestrian walkway of more than 3 kilometres, attached to the rock inside a canyon. The passage of time greatly deteriorated this walkway built for the passage of workers from the El Chorro hydroelectric plant. Almost the entire route lacked a railing and there were collapsed sections, leaving only the support beam.
During the tour in several parts we can observe the remains of the old footbridge.
This path was considered the most dangerous in the world, because many intrepid people walked along these half-destroyed walkways, without railings and without any safety.
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The Caminito del Rey was rehabilitated and put in order in 2015 so that it can be walked safely and the surroundings can be enjoyed. The route is calm, with a medium difficulty and is very enjoyable.
And we come to the highlight of this little path, the passage over the suspension bridge. The wind is felt more in this part. We must know that if the speed of the same exceeds 35 km per hour, the passage is closed.
The guide accompanies us up to here, now we will continue to El Chorro on our own and once we arrive we will hand over the safety helmets.
In short, we found it easy to do, not tiring at all and super enjoyable, but you can evaluate it based on the information we have given you if you want to do it.
As we told you, the walkways are 3 kilometers long, but with the entrance and exit accesses, the total number of kilometers you have to walk is 7.7 kilometers.
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Are you coming to Spain from far away like us and having internet all the time is a problem? When we make this type of journey by car we always use maps on our mobile, or we want to be connected in case of any eventuality. In our case we have used the Holafly data SIM for travellers, a very good option. In the link you will find all the information as well as a discount for followers from Europe accompanied by the following code: EUROPAACOMPAÑADA5.↓
Did you see our post about Malaga?► What to see in two daysin Malaga
Are you going to spend a few days on the Costa del Sol?►Nerja, Costa del Sol
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NOTE: The information in this article is based on our own experience, being totally objective. This article contains affiliate links
