Juan Carlos I Warship Opens to Visitors in Malaga Spain's largest warship, the Juan Carlos I, is docked at Malaga Port this weekend and open to the public on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Here is how to visit. Spain's biggest warship is docked in Malaga this weekend, and for two short windows the public is being invited on board. The Juan Carlos I, the flagship of the Spanish Navy and the largest military vessel ever built entirely in Spanish shipyards, is moored at the Muelle Adosado de Levante in the city's port. Visitors can board the ship on Saturday afternoon between 3.30pm and 6pm, and on Sunday morning between 10am and 1pm. There is no access outside those hours, so anyone hoping to see the vessel should plan the day around them. These open days are rare, and they usually draw large crowds, so arriving early is the sensible move. The Juan Carlos I is hard to miss. At 231 metres long, with a beam of 32 metres and a crew of 295, it dominates the quay. The ship is normally based in Rota, across the bay from Cadiz, and its visits to Malaga are special events for the city rather than routine calls. What makes the ship genuinely unusual is its flexibility. It is officially classed as a Landing Helicopter Dock, a hybrid design that lets the same hull perform four very different jobs depending on the mission. It can land troops and vehicles on a beach, serve as a floating runway for fighter jets and helicopters, act as a command centre for military operations, or be deployed to help civilians in humanitarian emergencies. The numbers behind those roles are striking. On the aviation side, the ship can carry up to thirty aircraft, mixing medium and heavy helicopters of the types used by Spain's armed forces, or between ten and a dozen fighter aircraft alongside a similar number of helicopters when it operates in its aircraft-carrier role. Its amphibious capacity is just as impressive. The vessel is designed to embark a Marine Corps force, often drawn from the Tercio de Armada in San Fernando, Cadiz, with a total transport capacity of up to 1,500 people. For landing operations it works with small landing craft launched from its floodable dock, and it can carry a substantial fleet of land vehicles, including main battle tanks and armoured vehicles. For the crews, the open days are a chance to show the public what life on board looks like: the flight deck, the hangar spaces, the vehicle decks and the living quarters of a floating city of several hundred people. For visitors, it is one of the few opportunities to walk the same deck used in real amphibious operations and humanitarian missions. The visit is a family-friendly event, and it is one of the more memorable free weekends Malaga offers, but a warship is still a working military installation. Access is only through the designated gangway during the published hours, expect queues, and allow time for security at the entrance. Comfortable shoes are worth the thought, because the tour involves steps, ladders and long walks on hard steel decks. The port area itself makes the trip easy to combine with something else. Muelle Adosado is a short walk from the city centre and the Palm Grove, so a visit to the ship slots neatly into a Saturday in Malaga between the museums and the evening tapas. The Juan Carlos I leaves Malaga after the weekend, and there is no promise of when it returns. For anyone on the Costa del Sol this Saturday or Sunday, it is a rare chance to step aboard the flagship of the Spanish fleet without leaving the province. For those who cannot make it on board, the ship is worth seeing even from the quay. The silhouette of a 231-metre assault carrier against the Malaga skyline, with the cathedral district in the background, is one of the most striking sights the port has offered in years, and the nearby viewpoints give a clear sense of the vessel's scale.