The best museums in Málaga

Málaga has more than thirty museums, and these five are the ones you should choose if you’re only staying for a few days.

Starting with the thing that’s most confusing: each one closes on a different day.

Closing days, all together

This is what ruins the most visits to Málaga, because they do not match:

Museum	Close	Timetable
Picasso Museum	Open every day	10.00–20.00
Picasso's Birthplace	Open every day	9.30 am–8.00 pm
Carmen Thyssen	Monday	10.00–20.00
Museum of Malaga	Monday	9.00 am–9.00 pm (Sundays until 3.00 pm)
Centre Pompidou	Tuesday	9.30 am–8.00 pm

Take a look at the Pompidou Centre: it’s the only one that closes Tuesday. If you plan to visit «the museums on Monday», you’ll still have the Pompidou and the two Picasso museums left. And if you leave them until Tuesday, the Pompidou is out of the picture.

And how much each one costs

• CAC Málaga: always free. No exceptions or time slots.
• Málaga Museum: free for EU citizens. Otherwise, it’s very cheap.
• Centre Pompidou: free admission on Sundays from 4.00 pm.
• Carmen Thyssen: around €12.
• Picasso Museum: the most expensive of the five. Shop online: It sells out and saves you from queuing.

If you’re on a tight budget, we have Free museums in Málaga with each one’s stripes.

1. Picasso Museum, Málaga

Buenavista Palace, 8 San Agustín Street. 4.3 out of nearly 37,000 reviews: it is the most widely reviewed museum in the city.

Over two hundred works which span all the stages: his student drawings, the Blue Period, Cubism, Surrealism, sculpture, ceramics and his work from the 1970s.

What you need to know: It’s smaller than people expect and the Picasso of great icons is not here. What it does offer, however, is view the full history, which is something else entirely, and there aren’t many places where you can do it.

Open every day, y Fridays from 9.00 am: It’s the best time of the week to get in without queuing.

2. Málaga Museum: the highest-rated and the least well-known

Palacio de la Aduana, Plaza de la Aduana. 4.7 out of 8,260 reviews: the highest rating of the five, and it is the one that the fewest people include on their list.

It’s two museums in one:

• Archaeology: Punic, Roman and Al-Andalus artefacts, representing 2,500 years of cultural exchange along this coastline.
• Fine arts, featuring Andalusian paintings.

Three reasons to put it at the top of the list:

1. It’s free if you’re an EU citizen, and for everyone else it costs less than a cup of coffee.
2. That building is absolutely enormous and it has powerful air conditioning: in August, it’s a haven.
3. There’s a Michelin-starred restaurant on the rooftop, and a café on the ground floor.

It’s closed on Mondays. And on Sundays it’s only open until 3.00 pm.

3. Centre Pompidou Málaga

At the harbour, next to Pier One. It is «The Cube», the colourful structure that can be seen from the entire seafront promenade, and which is illuminated at night, is one of the city’s iconic sights.

4.4 out of 18,793 reviews. Contemporary art and 20th-century design, featuring works by Claes Oldenburg among others.

Two pieces of information that are worth their weight in gold:

• Closed on Tuesdays, except on Mondays. It’s the exception in the city.
• Free on Sundays from 4.00 pm.

4. Carmen Thyssen Museum

Villalón Palace, Calle Compañía. 4.6 out of 10,128 reviews.

Its subject is 19th-century Andalusian painting: genre scenes, landscapes, scenes from everyday life. Don’t look for international names: the point is precisely what this land was like before the modern era.

And a spot that often goes unnoticed: There is an archaeological site underground of the palace, included in the tour.

Practical: closed on Mondays, you’re not allowed to bring in drinks, and there are lockers with a deposit of 50 cents or one euro, which is refunded.

5. CAC Málaga

Calle Alemania, next to the Guadalmedina. 4.4 out of 5,385 reviews.

And the argument is simple: it’s free, always. Contemporary art, featuring a permanent exhibition and two temporary exhibitions that change frequently.

A word of warning: you either like contemporary art or you don’t, and here your opinion depends very much on the exhibition in question. As it’s free, it’s good value for money. The catalogues can be downloaded via QR codes, although not everything has been translated.

El museo de Dalí que no existe en Málaga

In Málaga city itself, no. This is a very common search query, and it is worth clarifying.

The nearest one is in Mijas: on CAC Mijas, in the white village, displays original prints by Dalí and Picasso. It’s about 30 kilometres away and takes half a morning.

And in the capital, the surrealist artwork You have to look for it in the Centre Pompidou and in the Picasso Museum, which cover that stage.

How to fit them together

They’re almost all on top of one another. Only the Pompidou requires you to go down to the harbour, and the CAC to cross over to the river.

• In half a day: The Picasso Museum and, a hundred metres away, the Málaga Museum.
• In one day: those two in the morning and the Pompidou in the afternoon, walking down to the harbour.
• In two days: adds Thyssen and CAC, and rises to the Birthplace in Plaza de la Merced.
• One Monday: Picasso, the House where he was born and the Pompidou Centre. The other two are closed.
• One Tuesday: All of them except the Pompidou.

To make it fit in with the rest: what to see in Malaga y the Cathedral.

Leaving the city

We are a local tour operator based in Málaga with over 50 years’ experience organising trips around Andalusia. If you’ve got a spare day, the province and the neighbouring capital cities each have their own art:

Córdoba, Seville and Granada These are day trips, with a guide, departing from Málaga and the Costa del Sol.

Frequently asked questions

Which museums in Málaga are closed on Mondays?

The Carmen Thyssen Museum and the Málaga Museum. The Centre Pompidou, on the other hand, is closed on Tuesdays, whilst both the Picasso Museum and the Birthplace Museum are open every day. This is the most common planning mistake in the city, because the closing days do not coincide.

What is the best museum in Málaga?

Based on visitor ratings, the Málaga Museum, housed in the Palacio de la Aduana, which scores 4.7 and is often left off the lists. In terms of its collection and reputation, the Picasso Museum, the city’s most widely reviewed museum. And in terms of value for money, the CAC, which is free all year round.

Which museums are free in Málaga?

Admission to the CAC Málaga is free at all times. The Málaga Museum is free for European Union citizens. And the Centre Pompidou is free on Sundays from 4.00 pm. The other venues have specific free admission times, which you should check before your visit.

Is there a Dalí museum in Málaga?

There is no museum dedicated to Dalí in the capital. The nearest one is the CAC Mijas, about thirty kilometres away, which exhibits original graphic works by Dalí and Picasso. In Málaga city, surrealist works can be found at the Centre Pompidou and the Picasso Museum.

How many museums are there in Málaga?

More than thirty, making it one of the Spanish cities with the highest density of museums in proportion to its size. Five of these account for the majority of visits: the Picasso Museum, the Málaga Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Carmen Thyssen Museum and the CAC.

Is it possible to visit more than one museum in a single day?

Yes, because they’re very close to one another. The Picasso Museum and the Málaga Museum are just a hundred metres apart, and the Carmen Thyssen Museum is only a few streets away. Only the Centre Pompidou requires a trip down to the harbour, and the CAC means heading towards the Guadalmedina. In a full day, you can visit all three without feeling rushed.