My family of four (2 adults, 2 teen daughters) is planning a two week trip to Spain at Christmas time. My current itinerary, flying into Madrid, is: 1 night Madrid, train to Sevilla, 2 nights Seville, 1 week house/rental Ronda area, 1 night Nerja, 1 night Granada, train to Madrid. My main question now is about the one week house rental. It seems to me that it would make the trip more relaxing than moving around a lot. Is this a good idea and is Ronda a good base for day trips? Does anyone have other suggestions? We like scenery, history, walks. I have spent many enjoyable hours on Fodors studying all your trips and planning this one -- and now would really appreciate advice, please!

Yes! You do have the right idea in a house rental. this is more how europeans travel but for some reason, it's not as popular with americans. with the kitchen you can cook the good foods on offer in the area when you don't feel like going to restaurants. you cannot beat the feeling that you are moving in and not having to leave for a whole week (longer is even better, of course)...it makes you feel more like a local rather than just passing through for 48 hours. don't worry about "missing out" by staying in one place. i never found staying in one place to comprimise seeing and experiencing a broad range of things.

we used nerja as a base but by your choice of ronda, this may not be your thing. the ronda area is beautiful and well located for day trips around the area.

Will you have a car?

Thanks for your comments. We will have a car, but not having been to this part of Spain (or any part of Spain for that matter) I am wondering if there are plenty of day trip options in this area to keep us busy for a week.

there are plenty of day trips from ronda...

gibraltar
malaga/marbella
cadiz
jerez de la frontera
beaches/coastine in all directions
las alpujarras
etc, etc.

most of which we did from nerja, with the exception of the ones toward the west coast.

it all depends on how far you wish to drive (and i assume, like everyone, the less the better). our longest day drip was from nerja (our base) to gibraltar. to give some idea of the distance and time, this was not overly taxing in one day. the motorway along the coast, is quite expensive with tolls but is very modern and fast.

when we stayed in nerja, we ended up taking less day trips than we had originally planned (although we did take quite a few). this was not because there was nothing to do but because we enjoyed relaxing by the sea so much.

House/Apartment rental is a great idea for families traveling to Southern Spain. What I wonder though, is your choice of home base. Ronda is perched up in the mountains of Andalucia, and while the roads are good, they are treacherous drive at night. On Christmastime, when it gets darker earlier, cold, and more rain than down in the coast, I would urge you to re-consider the Ronda locale and consider Costa del Sol as your home base(Marbella/Malaga/ Puerto Banus; check vrbo.com).

This is what I suggest: 2 nights Madrid, train to Seville (3 nights; day trip to Cordova), rent a car in Seville train station San Justa (Avis), drive early morning to vacation rental in Costa del Sol (Marbella/Puerto Banus) (day trips to Granada, Ronda, Jerez de la Frontera, Route of White Villages, Mijas, Gibraltar; PLENTY to see), drop car in Avis Malaga International Airport, fly back to Madrid.

Keep us posted; have fun planning.

P.S. if you all enjoyed history do not miss the Roman Forum in Merida (near Seville), and the Roman Town of Baelo Claudio near Tarifa. Let me know if you need more info.

chatters has a good point about the roads. since we visited from nerja, we were not "forced" to use the roads around this area for every day trip. I do not remember them being treacherous - although they could be at night.

i was not pushing for malaga or nerja because these are the more obvious places to stay and since you overlooked them in favour of ronda, i figured you did not want to stay on the coast. There are reasons not to stay on the coast - primarily, some of the resort towns are not very well done (lots of cement). Even the better ones do not have as much spanish flavour as you would find up in the hills. these areas are very popular with tourists from UK, germany, scandinavia. Nerja is British for example, where torox is german.

that said, we enjoyed nerja despite the fact that it is a little bit of britain in spain and would return. i hope i'm not exaggerating this point as there is a lot of spanish character.

All the concerns you mention are things I had wondered about -- especially the rain. I had thought that perhaps the coastal areas would be empty/dreary in the off season, but -- since I don't know the area at all -- please do tell me: in general, where is the best weather; the most open attractions, sites, restaurants, etc.; and most to see during the Christmas/New Year's holidays. Also a charming location/pretty village is very important to me. Is south toward Marbella a better option than toward Cadiz or Jerez/Arcos de la Frontera? Thanks so much for your helpful input! Also, the info on the Roman sites is a great addition as that is an interest of ours.

I would not go to Cadiz in winter. I think its crap enough in summer when I visited let alone in December when most of the place would be dreary. Its basically a port town and not very attractive.

I was just a passenger, not the driver, on a visit to Ronda in late spring, but I think the winding drive down the hill to take day trips would exhaust me. I would visit or spend a night in the area, but spend most of my time down south in the "lowlands" to make the day trips easier.

I agree with Chatters and other posters about Ronda as a base. Certainly, you'll want to see it as a day trip, but the roads are windy and I think you'd be better off using Marbella or Nerja as a base.