My year abroad in Malaga, Spain

 04/02/2026

My name is Alasdair Hunt and I’m a third year Business Management and Spanish student studying a year abroad in Malaga in sunny Spain.

It is Easter break right now and decided now would be as good a time as ever to reflect on my year here seeing as I really am on the final stretch now. Overall, my year in Malaga has been one of if not the best year of my life, I have met incredible people, made friends for life, travelled, played a load of sports and immersed myself in the Spanish university life. If you told me I would feel this way just before my year abroad I likely would not have believed you as I will be honest, I was nervous going into it. My first and second years in Southampton were incredible and the thought of leaving a close circle of friends, my football team and my girlfriend behind all seemed very daunting. However, it is April now and I can say that everything has gone incredibly! My friends and I keep in contact as much as we can and me and my girlfriend are doing great despite the distance, seeing each other whenever we can and facetiming frequently. An important peice of advice I think for anyone looking to study abroad next year is that relationships in your life, whether it be boyfriends, grilfriends, family, mates etcetera, will stay strong despite distance put between them if those relationships are really worthwhile. 

In terms of Malaga itself, in my opinion it is possibly the PERFECT town to spend a year abroad. It has a mix of everything. Beautiful beaches, incredible roman architecture, the most amazing food, a vibrant nightlife, basically year round sunshine and an amazing international student community. Some of my favorite days were right at the start of my year abroad in September and October where the weather was still 24-28 (sometimes even 30) degrees every single day. So any time I had between lectures was spent on the beach with friends, certainly not a bad way to get settled into my year abroad. I got stuck in immidiately joining into the ESN (Erasmus student network) and MSE (Malaga South Experiences) sports groups and found myself playing football with a group of great guys 2-3 times a week, which I still do now. I also took up Padel, which is a very popular sport in the south of Spain. I am completely addicted and ended up playing with 4 of my best friends every single week. I would highly reccomend! 

I also made a conscious effort to use my time in the south of Spain to travel around the region as much as I can. This starte with an incredible trip to Nerja, then Ronda, Granada, Marbella, a hiking trip to the Sierra de Mijas, Torremolinos and Benalmadena, Gibraltar and a beautiful mountainside town called Alora where I had the most amazing Andalusian food. My favorite experience by far though was when me and my friends, after exams for semester 1 had finished, flew to Marrakech in Morrocco which was a totally eye opening experience which saw me haggling in local markets and riding quadbikes through the desert. 

I am also super pleased with how my language has developed this year. My listening skills have improved so much to the point where there is rarely a moment where I cant understand what someone is saying to me in Spanish on a day to day basis. That being said though the accent here in the south of Spain is not for the faint hearted so do not feel discouraged if you cannot understand anything at first, it takes day to day exposure. My speaking skills have also come on leaps and bounds and I no longer feel so nervous when I am speaking. I think it is important to remember though that Spanish is a very difficult language to learn, especially in Malaga, Spainards are animated, colloquial, fast-speaking, direct and very interesting people. Achieving a native like spoken fluency will require far more than just a year abroad just do your best in the time you have. I am currenly working towards my C1 certificate in classes provided by the university here which I am hoping to achieve at the end of May. 

I am overall a fan of the university system here. The campus is huge and really well layed out. My classes are immersive and really have helped with my language development but also in making friends with natives. Beware though that student support abroad isn’t necessarily taken as seriously as in Southampton. A lot of the time you will have to find the answers to problems yourself. Ask questions to your lecturers in person, DO NOT rely on email as from my experience, sometimes Spanish professors take a while to respond. 

My final pieces of advice would be to put yourself outside your comfort zone, speak as much Spanish as you can even if it makes you feel silly, get involved with international student networks and remember to keep in contact with those waiting for you back home! 

Thanks for reading and here are some of the photos from my time here