Charca de las Extranjeras

El Padrón is our favourite of the river walks around here. It's in the same area as the Castor walk, but this is the one we prefer, there are more natural pools to cool off in and even in summer there's enough water in the river. At weekends you can run into a few locals, but we've never found it really busy, not even in summer. We've been more than once now, also with the kids, the last time on 17 July 2025.

The nice thing is that you can drive almost to the river. It's not really a parking, more a sandy track that you have to climb quite steeply by car, but it's doable and there's always room to park, or you can leave the car along the side of the road. From there it's only about fifty metres down to the river where the walk starts. Put shoes on before you go into the river.

One of the best known places to cool off along the Padrón is the Charca de las Extranjeras. According to the Málaga tourist info, the water is nowhere higher than chest height along this stretch, and if you're agile you can hop from rock to rock without getting wet. The pool has high rocks on both sides and dark green water, and how much water there is depends on the time of summer. If you follow the riverbed upstream for about 500 m you reach the Marmitas del Padrón, cauldrons of white, highly polished limestone.

Please Note

The pool is of average size and only deeper than an adult in the middle. The rocks on both sides are tempting to jump from, but check first that there are no rocks just under the surface. The edge is very stony and not a comfortable place to linger, although the narrow valley gives some shade in places.