In mid-May, I'll be staying (with a car) in the countryside about 5 km from Ronda. The possibilities seem endless and narrowing the list down is difficult.

What would you recommend for villages, markets, unasphalted coastal areas, or any other favorite sites? As for interests, virtually everything sounds appealing. The only thing that doesn't really is overly developed areas or cities (we'll be in Seville for 4 days prior and are heading to Granada after).

Thank you, in advance, for any suggestions.

We liked Grazelema, Zahara, and Arcos, but didn't get down to the coast itself as we were in late March.

Have a great trip!
Sally

The beaches that are closest to Ronda are on the Costa del Sol: Marbella, Estepona, etc. Estepona has a nice beach, mid May won't be too crowded yet. In Marbella it's tourist season year round but even then I love that town (the old town).
If you don't mind driving a little further, the coast around Cádiz (Costa de la Luz = coast of light) is still unspoilt.
I would certainly take a tour of (some of) the White Villages, as suggested by SRS. I particularly liked Arcos de la Frontera, and closer to the coast, Casares and Ojén.
Lots of good information on http://www.andalucia.com
Enjoy making plans!

Just driving the mountain roads is great fun - driving past cork trees with bulls sleeping under them. The drive to Zahara is amazing. We also did a cave tour somewhere outside Ronda that was very memorable. We had to wait for the farmer to show up and unlock the creaky iron gate. We all were given kerosene lanterns to carry as he led us thru a dank, winding cave - very uncommercialized! Sorry I can't remember the name of it. The seacoast area we stayed at was Nerja, which is south of Grenada. Nerja is a very pretty resort town, not yet ravaged by concrete high rises. There are some great hiking trails just outside Nerja, near the Nerja caves.

These are wonderful suggestions! Thank you so much for sharing. All of these are being cut and pasted into my notes.

Hopefully, tonight's dream will be filled with drives through mountain roads with bulls sleeping under cork trees. That image is lovely.

Heather,

Here's a link to my Spain trip report - I have a section on the hill towns.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34487363

Sally