Sarunas

Hello everyone,

Our family (my wife, our 1year old son and I) had a great vacation last summer in Andalucia, where we explored Seville, Granada, Sierra Nevada and El Torcal. We liked it so much, so we decided to come there in winter too, and I've just got ourselves tickets to Malaga and back (for 2 weeks in Feb).

The problem now is to make an itinerary for the trip.
So far my idea was to base ourselves for ~8-9 days somewhere around Ronda (maybe in Montejauqe) and to do the day trips to the surrounding areas by car (Pueblos Blancos, the coast, Cadiz, maybe Cordoba). The rest of the time we though of spending in Malaga.

So the questions are the following:
1. How many days one needs to fully enjoy Pueblos Blancos?
2. Does it make sense to drive for one day there and back from Ronda region to Cadiz/Jerez de la frontera/Cordoba/Marbella?
2.1 if not - where geographically would be the most beneficial to establish a base to explore the region?
3. What are other sights not-to-miss in Western Andalucia?

Any other ideas are very appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!

sarunas

CathyM

I would definately spend a couple of nights in Cordoba. My other favorites: Cadiz, Sanlucar, Jerez, Vejer, Osuna. With a car it would be lovely to explore the area around Priego de Cordoba and also to visit Ubeda (although not technically Western Andalucia).

Spaniola

It´s such a difficult choice because everywhere is lovely and worthy of exploring.

Personally I wouldn´t want to do the winding roads from Ronda too many times when you could be exploring other parts. Antequera is supposed to be the literal centre of Andalucia but you want to be further west than that.

Carmona is another town that´s worth a visit, don´t miss coffee in the Parador.


I´d definately second CathyM´s idea of Priego de Cordoba and Ubeda but as it isn´t in the east maybe that is another trip?

You´ll love it whereever you go.

josele

Priego is much better visiting in the late spring, not Feb.
Ronda is a good base for daytrips to Pueblos Blancos, I'd do one daytrip to Grazalema and Zahara and another one to Arcos de la Frontera and Bornos. Read my post here "Pueblos Blancos Trip". That's basically, as there are other places to visit (for example driving towards Gaucín, even reaching Castellar de la Frontera), and the daytrip to the coast (Marbella). In Feb days are shorter, and winding roads you better avoid in the dark.
I may rec. apartments in Ronda: Apartamentos La Ermita, in the very center of Ronda very near the Parador, and amazingly you can park by the door: http://www.apartamentoslaermita.com/
Osuna, Carmona are really worthy, but that's another trip.

Sarunas

Thank you all for the ideas! We thought of establishing ourselves for a week in Gaucin (where you can get amazing views towards Africa and hopefully more sunshine), exploring Pueblos Blancos and afterwards moving towards the west and maybe staying couple of days next to Vejer de la frontera where Cadiz and Jerez are less than hour away...

mamcalice

We stayed for several days in Gaucin and I have the following observations. The views are spectacular and it was clear enough to see Africa on several of the days. However, here isn't much to do there and we did not fine a good restaurant. We hiked and visited surrounding white villages. It was a good base for visiting the surrounding area but there isn't much going on in Gaucin.