Benalmádena Beaches: 3 Blue Flags in 2026, and No Dog Beach

Three Benalmádena beaches hold a Blue Flag in 2026: Carvajal, Fuente de la Salud and Torrebermeja–Santa Ana, the last of which won its flag back after losing it. The Puerto Deportivo marina holds a fourth, awarded in a separate category. The flags went up on 23 July 2026.

Two other things this page told you until today were wrong. The dog beach at Tajo de la Soga has been closed by court order since 2023, not operating under seasonal rules. And the "11 beaches" figure printed here matched no source we can find, including the town hall's own.

How many beaches does Benalmádena have?

Nobody publishes a number everyone agrees on, so here is every figure we could trace to a source rather than to another travel blog.

The 9 km figure is the safe one – two independent municipal emergency documents give it, and those are written for people who have to reach a casualty, not for marketing. The beach count is not safe. Twenty-two is the most official number available, but it counts stretches of sand that no visitor would think of as separate beaches, and there is no register that settles it.

So treat any precise beach count you read here or anywhere else with suspicion. What matters on the ground is simpler: the eastern half is a serviced urban strip, the western half turns into coves, and the sand gets stonier the further west you walk.

Which Benalmádena beaches have a Blue Flag in 2026?

The award comes from ADEAC, the Spanish arm of the Blue Flag scheme, and it is re-judged every year on water quality, safety, accessibility and environmental management.

• Carvajal – retained its flag from last season
• Fuente de la Salud – retained its flag from last season
• Torrebermeja–Santa Ana – regained it in 2026 after a year without
• Puerto Deportivo de Benalmádena – the marina, judged as a marina rather than a beach

Costasol Cruceros, which runs boats out of that marina, holds Blue Flag certification on two of its vessels and has done for ten years – a category most people do not know exists.

The eastern strip: sand, chiringuitos and paid loungers

This is the Benalmádena people picture. Promenade the whole way, bars behind the sand, sunbed rows, and a beach you can reach on foot from most of the Costa hotels.

Fuente de la Salud is the easternmost beach in the municipality, on the Torremolinos boundary and right beside the marina, which makes it one of the most crowded stretches on the coast in August. It is sandy, fully serviced and holds a 2026 Blue Flag.

Malapesquera is the largest and best known beach here, and the one to pick if you came to do something rather than lie down. Bodyboarding, paddle surf, jet skis and waterskiing all operate from it in season. Operators change from year to year, so confirm what is running on the day rather than booking on a name you read online.

Torrebermeja has something no other beach in Benalmádena does: a green zone of grass and palms behind the sand, more than 25,000 square metres of it, with direct access to Puerto Marina. Fine sand, and it shares the 2026 Blue Flag with neighbouring Santa Ana, which is the better bet with small children – ramps, adapted walkways and assistance services, and a shallow, gradual entry to the water.

Bil-Bil sits below the Moorish-style Castillo de Bil-Bil, which makes it the most photographed stretch of this coast. The sand is medium-fine and dark rather than pale, and the waves are calm. Good for a central base, less good if clean fine sand underfoot is the point.

Arroyo de la Miel is the local one – sandy, central, and noticeably less tourist-heavy than the beaches either side of it, though August flattens that difference.

The western coves: quieter, stonier, and you will need a car

West of the developed strip the promenade runs out and the coast breaks into coves.

• Torrevigía: the transition point – cove-shaped, clear water, fewer chiringuitos
• Torrequebrada: small and sheltered by rock, seabed of stones rather than sand
• Las Yucas: rocky, minimal services, quiet even in August
• La Viborilla: the most remote of them, and the longest walk from any road
• La Perla and La Morera: mixed ground at the far western end, quiet in high season

None of these is a bad beach. They are simply not sand beaches, and taking a toddler or a wheelchair to any of them is a mistake the photographs will not warn you about.

Carvajal is the exception at this end – it holds a 2026 Blue Flag and sits on the boundary with Fuengirola, which means it is often easier to reach from that side of the line. If you are staying west of here, the Fuengirola beaches guide covers what continues past it.

Tajo de la Soga is the wildest and most irregular beach in the municipality by the town hall's own description, and it is where both of the questions below get answered.

The dog beach has been closed since 2023

Benalcan, at Tajo de la Soga, was Benalmádena's first dog beach. It is not operating and has not been for three seasons.

A resident complaint led a court to impose precautionary measures, the council was required to remove the signage and all dog-beach use of the site, and the case has not been resolved. The council's own position is that there is currently no dog beach in Benalmádena, and that one will be installed when a judicial ruling authorises it.

That matters practically, because dogs remain banned from the urban beaches in summer and Benalcan was the alternative. Until the case ends there is no legal dog beach in this municipality at all, whatever the older blog posts and map pins still say.

Benalnatura, and how nudist it actually is

Benalnatura is the designated nudist beach, also at Tajo de la Soga, signed from the access path as Playa Nudista Benalnatura. It is small – roughly 100 metres by 40 metres – and nudity is compulsory rather than optional, which is the detail that catches people who wander in expecting a clothing-optional cove.

There are no facilities to speak of. Bring water and shade.

Reaching the beaches, and where to leave the car

The eastern beaches are walkable from most Benalmádena Costa hotels and from Puerto Marina, and that is the whole answer for most visitors. The western coves are not realistically walkable from the tourist strip – plan on a car or a taxi.

Parking is the reverse of what you would expect. It is tightest around Puerto Marina and the eastern beaches, where paid car parks fill by mid-morning in August and the street parking behind the promenade is limited. The western coves have far less competition for spaces.

Arriving by rail, the Cercanías C1 stops at Arroyo de la Miel and the central beaches are about twenty minutes downhill from there. Fares are zone-based and not published as a fixed station-to-station price, so the Benalmádena train guide covers how to check yours rather than quoting a number that moves.

What the flags on the beach mean

The colour on the lifeguard post overrides anything you read before you left the hotel.

• Green: safe to swim
• Yellow: swim with caution, conditions are moderate
• Red: do not enter the water
• Purple: marine life present, in practice almost always jellyfish

No Benalmádena-specific jellyfish data is published. Across the Costa del Sol generally the risk runs highest from July to September, which is exactly when the beaches are fullest. Check the post, not the forecast.

Everything behind the sand – the marina, the cable car, the pueblo – is in the Benalmádena guide, and the boats that leave from the eastern end are covered in the dolphin watching guide.

FAQ – Benalmádena beaches