In Ronda, you have the Cafetería Churrería Alba in the center of town, pedestrian Calle Espinel, that serves molletes in addition to churros. And it has an outdoor terrace. In business for almost 80 years and now in the hands of the 3rd generation. They open at 8.

https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/...121233-nt.html

Make that Alfileritos 24 in Toledo.

If you do decide to stay at the Parador the "best" room is 417 with double sit-out terraces and double views. We've stayed in it and the views are a "wow".
But in April the terrace may not be open for alfresco dining due to inclement weather and/or staffing issues. Dining at a Parador Esencia restaurant is a very slow affair.

The Plaza de Zocodover, the main square, will have outdoor terraces. Check the google images.

f you stay in Granada's Albaicín you have Café 4 Gatos on the Placeta Cruz Verde with Alhambra views.

https://www.cafe4gatos.com/en/cafe-4-gatos-english/

Thank you for the advice Maribel.

I may spend 2 nights instead of 3 at the Parador then. I don't want to take just quick snaps but some long exposures at night and movies.

I guess the place is really popular for visitors during the day though, as people apparently come up there for drinks or meals to take in the views. I also saw some people complain that they weren't allowed on the terrace because of weather or because they were cleaning up.

The half board rate was about $20 more a day and apparently could be for dinner or breakfast. So I'll figure out something.

For breakfast, I did find some places open early in both Granada and Ronda. Had also found that Cafe 4 Gatos place too and bookmarked it. I may just have a light breakfast with things I pick up at a grocery store and then maybe have an early lunch when I walk down to the town. Same thing in Ronda, though I will be near restaurants south of the bridge.

Sevilla will be in center of town, a bit north of the cathedral. Haven't booked the last two nights of the trip in Madrid yet but probably will be in the center as well.

Yes, scrb11, it is popular with visitors who take a taxi up during the day or evening for drinks and the views. These Parador terrace dining options are really limited to very good weather, ime. The other option at the Parador for evening is their bar café, that serves snacks, sandwiches, light fare until midnight. We often use this option because we don´t want a heavy and expensive meal at night.

I just counted, out of curiosity, and I've stayed, dined or stopped for a coffee/snack break or to tour rooms (my day job, occupational hazard) in 75 Paradors now, over many, many years. My first: when I was a teenager in Avila. My last: Hondarribia this summer.

Have you seen the 70s Luis Buñuel move, Tristana, based on the Pérez Galdós novel, starring Catherine Deneuve, filmed in Toledo? A classic.

More breakfast options in Granada:
In the Realejo there’s Mummo Café. A short block from the cathedral you have Café Baraka. Both even have been awarded a Repsol guide “solete”. They open at 8 am.

Half board at the Paradores, as I understand it, is either for breakfast and lunch OR for breakfast and dinner. Your choice.

In Sevilla you'll have plenty of options open for breakfast.
The classic, iconic place for churros y chocolate is the Bar Comercio on Calle Lineros (but they have a large menu). We stayed nearby and had breakfast there every morning. It's a Sevilla institution. Constant ebb and flow all during the day. It's close to Las Setas, one of the largest wood structures in the world--5,000 square meters of canopy over the Plaza de la Encarnación. Great sunset views from the top and a new light show. You may want to photograph from the top.
https://setasdesevilla.com

In Madrid I would suggest you book in the Las Letras quarter, Barrio de las letras, the Literary Quarter (also known as Huertas and officially Cortes).

Thanks for the tips. Yes I had found the Setas on Google Maps. My last visit to Seville was in 2012, so I thought it was something new since then but they say it was opened in 2011. Guess I never ventured into that part of the city, mostly stayed to the east of the cathedral but also walked around the river, where the bullfighting ring is.

I booked 2 nights at the Parador and one night at this hotel overlooking Zocover, called Hotel Boutique Adolfo. It also has a beautiful terrace like many of these hotels in the center. Costs more but like the proximity to Zocover the the last day/night in Toledo.

Las Setas opened in 2011. They now have a light show, Aurora, at night. It's fun to go up to the top and walk around the structure, especially at sunset.
https://setasdesevilla.com/aurora.

More info about las Setas in English-
https://setasdesevilla.com/en/frecue...sked-questions.

For lodging in Sevilla we like that area around the Plaza de la Encarnación (we stay at the new-ish H10 Casa de la Plata), and also the area of El Arenal, west of the Cathedral (Casas de.el Arenal, for example), as both are less tourist clogged than the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

Yes, I know the Adolfo. It belongs to Toledo's premiere restaurant owner and wine maker, Adolfo Muñoz.

Andalusia in April will be stunningly. Malaga, Sevilla, Cordoba and a day visit to Alhambra would be a great combination.

Dunno SCRB, maybe check out Arcos de la Frontera for a new base in Andalucia?
As for Menton, maybe check into whether staying further uphill at say, St. Agnes might suit you? Whatever, move heaven and earth to visit nearby Saorge, even as a daytrip.
Croatia: Rovinj is hardly a secret but did the trick for us.
Good Luck!
I am done. the forum folks

Well the recommendations to visit other White Villages from Ronda would be Zahara, which is closer than Arcos.

Menton I definitely want to visit and it's also near Cap Martin which also seems to have an upper part looking down to the coast.

The closer pueblos blancos to Ronda would be both Zahara de la Sierra and Grazalema, both about a 40 min. drive, and both are beautiful.

The pueblo blanco with homes built within the rocks, thus cave like dwellings, Setenil de las Bodegas is 25 min. north, rathen than west from Ronda.

Zahara and Grazalema are both worthy, but have to agree with some travelers who've observed that they look best at a distance. Whatever, Zahara is one village where visitors can buy those lovely marquetry boxes with inlaid materials. There is a great foto op of that village from a distant spot, just prior to where the local road meets the highway--I'm looking at our old framed shot of that view right now.

In Menton, you may want to walk all the way out to the end of the local pier--superb views from there, whether you are a shutterbug or not.
I am done. the european choices

Here are some photos of photogenic Zahara de la Sierra with the El Gastor reservoir near by.
https://www.traveler.es/naturaleza/a...ra-cadiz/15521

There's a great photo op of the town from beyond the lake/ reservoir.

The Hotel Al Lago is a pretty place to stay and to dine.
https://al-lago.es

The Sierra de Grazalema is noted for its merino wool woven blankets and its award-winning Payoyo cheese (World Cheese Awards), a mixture of Payoya goat and Merina ewe's milk.
https://blog.fuertehoteles.com/en/fo...ese-el-payoyo/

Yeah I want to visit but looks like I would have to rent a car before I came to Ronda and return it somewhere else than Ronda.

Most of the white villages tour depart from Sevilla or Malaga.

So I'll have to research either buses or just see if it's worth renting a car for a couple of days, just to have it in Ronda so that I can drive over to these villages.

Suggested viewing/listening prior to departure: the fantastic new doc about flamenco superstar Camarron de la isla. Despite its being in B&W, must see in our opinion. Very well-produced with some rare footage of the singer from day one through to his death.
I am done. the buleria

When we tour the white villages we pick up a rental car upon departing Sevilla and return it in Málaga at the airport. The car rental return at the train station is a major PITA, ime (no signage).
There is only 1 local car rental agency in Ronda for just a local rental. A car in this this area is really the best way to explore the white towns, especially for photography.

scrb11,
The reason most bus tours to Ronda depart from the Costa del Sol, either Málaga or Marbella is due to the difference in distance.

For example, it´s a much longer bus ride from Sevilla to Ronda on Autobuses Damas. There are only 2 morning departures on weekdays at 9:00 (takes 2 hrs. 55 min) and at 10:00 (2 hrs. 15. min), from Sevilla to Ronda. The Sevilla-Ronda bus route is very limited.

The trip up north from the coast from Marbella (closer) or Málaga takes about 1 hr. 20-40 min. The town gets filled during the day with Costa del Sol day trippers.

So now I'm about a month out from flying into Malaga.

Since I planned this trip, I'm now under medical advice to eliminate salt as much as possible from my diet, as well as limit protein. This is not a problem for me at home, I can prepare meals, a lot of salads to meet the advice.

But when traveling, obviously one is going to go to restaurants more often for meals and you don't have as much control.

I notice in a lot of European cities recently, there are a lot of vegan restaurants showing up on Google Maps (and probably TripAdvisor as well) and they tend to have very strong reviews. I'm willing to try some of those but in some of the smaller places like Ronda and probably Toledo, there won't be such options.

In US restaurants, you can partially have a dish and request to take leftovers home -- this would help limit my protein consumption and maybe half a portion of something salty is also another way. Not sure if that's an option in Spain or Europe in general. With the pandemic, you see a lot of Google Maps restaurant listings indicating many offer takeout or pick up, even contactless delivery. So they are probably better equipped to provide food to go, but I wonder if that would be true to eat part of an order and take home leftovers. Failing that, I may have to eat a small portion and leave the rest on the plate, which I could live with.

The other thing is, what are the chances of asking the dishes to be prepared without salt? They must have lot of patrons who are trying to reduce or eliminate salt but I wonder with traditional foods. But I would think in many cases, some things are already prepped, like sauces and such. I've had salads where they have on the table olive oil and vinegar as well as salt and pepper, at least in Italy. That would be great for me, but salads are usually small side dishes -- though I've seen American style salad dishes with chicken or smoke salmon which is sized more like a dish than a side dish and priced like the former.

All I can do is ask if possible, prepare without salt. I will probably try to pick up some food at supermarkets more, maybe produce and try to prep salads on my own -- a lot of the places I'm staying in have kitchens I believe.

Just returned from my trip. Lovely weather though it was windy and cool in the mornings and evenings in Granada and Ronda.

Walked a ton, made the most of my time in Malaga and Sevilla despite only 2 nights in each.

My previous trips to Spain have been mostly in March and February, hoping for warm weather. Only exception was Asturias and the Basque country in July one year.

So April was positively warm. In fact I packed maybe 2 pairs of long pants and one windbreaker, a sweatshirt. Only place where this was an issue was in Ronda, where I stayed in this apartment with terraces looking over the valley and gorge to the west -- had view of the Parador there. But this apartment, which had a bug problem, also had remote-controlled thermostat and it always showed 20 degrees Celsius but it was in fact colder, especially at night. I had to ask the owner repeatedly to turn on the radiators at least in the bedroom and the living room.

You had to wait until around noon or so to warm up and even then there was some prevailing wind so never needed AC or anything.

For food, I had tapas a couple of times but I was staying on the low or no salt diet. Once or twice, I asked them not to add salt if possible. One meal was a gazpacho and it tasted pretty salty, but it was good. I stayed at the Parador a couple of nights in Toledo and had breakfast there. They had salmorejo in these little bottles and I had to have it. I had a little of the jamon and cheeses there too.

Otherwise, I went for things like salads with dressing on the side. In a couple of places I found Poke bars and got them to prepare it with sauces on the side and they were great.

One thing that was interesting was that in Toledo, a lot of places had deer, not just as some big dinner dish but in sandwiches and other takeaway type of fare. I didn't try it but I gather they're able to source a lot of deer meat in the area. I think there were deer sandwiches under €10 IIRC.

I only booked 2 nights in Madrid, which I've been to several times. However, the weather was so much better than in my previous visits there, which were in March. It easily hit the mid 80s and above both days, clear sun. Lot of great phots with a much better camera than in previous visits.

Retiro was a revelation for me. When I visited it previously, it was deserted, gray, cold and windy. Now on a weekday afternoon, it was full of people and a lot of children from different school groups. They had beautiful landscaping, like hedges which were very photogenic. Then I went to a garden in the eastern edge of the park where there were peacocks there. The crystal palace near the center was full of people, with ducks, swans, turtles.

Just amazing what difference a month makes.

Weather was perfect, could walk long distance without becoming overwhelmed by the heat. If it was approaching 90s in mid to late April, I'd hate to be here in July and August.

I hadn't been going regularly to Spain, as much as France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria in the last 5-10 years. Now I want to go again, revisit Salamanca, Segovia, Avila, maybe even go back to Toledo again, as well as Mallorca.

Haven't been to Valencia or much outside of Barcelona.

Also another idea I'm kind of throwing around is to go back to Spain in October for a couple of days bookended around a visit for a week or so to Morocco.

That's the other thing I found myself seeking out Lebanese or Moroccan restaurant and dishes more than tapas or anything too heavy in jamon. Even before the salt restrictions, I had concerns about having too much cured meats. Bacalao is good but I'm good with salmon or shrimp and apparently in Spain. Also a couple of places touted having Almadraba tuna, which presumably comes from the Mediterranean or maybe the part of the Atlantic close to the Mediterranean.

But looks like there is white tuna caught off the norther coast as well.

Either case, it was good since I was seeking lightly seasoned poke, to control salt intake.

We will be spending 5 weeks next March. Maribel’s suggestions are very helpful. Thank you.