Can anyone suggest a driving route from Seville Airport to the Marbella area.
We want to go thru the "White towns" and end up the day/evening in the Marbella area.
We are renting a car at Seville airport around 10am and want to spend the day visiting the towns and stop for lunch someplace.

I know we want to see Arcos and Ronda but I don't know the best route or what other towns we may be able to visit.

We will be traveling the end of November.

Thanks,
Mary

I can't help you with the whole route, but the road A376 from Ronda down to Marbella is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of curves and sea views as you descend down to the coast.

We loved Ronda so much, but like you were trying to fit it in with other villages, and ended up regretting not spending more time there. Arcos is great too, but can you see Arcos on another day? If so I'd suggest you devote your day to Ronda. If not, you should definitely not try to add a third village.

You'll be hard pressed to see more than Ronda - unless you just want to drive through. The towns are very cute and deserve exploring.

And the roads are very mountainous - often narrow and curving and unless you're a local you won;t want to get up a whole lot of speed. (We're ordinarily fast drivers - have no problem doing 120 on the autobahn - but we pulled over a couple of times to let local cars pass - since we just weren't comfortable driving as fast as they were on mountain roads.)

You can visit Arcos de la Fontera and Ronda on your way to Marbella, but you will have to drive south from Sevilla to Jerez, taking the A-382 from Jerez to Arcos (around 2 hours total). From Arcos you follow the A-372 to Ronda (about 1-1/2 hours). The drive for Ronda to Marbella will take you around 1 hour. Allowing a couple of hours in Arcos, and a lunch stop in Ronda, it becomes a fairly long day. The sun will be setting around 8:30 in late November, so you have a couple of hours to play with while the sun is still shining.

There are a couple of small towns between Ronda and Arcos, that you might like to see. Take A-374 to the direction of Algodonales and then turn south to Zahara de la Sierra. Continue driving south inside the Nature Park of Sierra de Grazalema. I recommend you to visit Grazalema in the park.
After that you have two alternatives (A-372/A-2302). I would take the little longer route through Villaluenga and Benaocaz (A-2302) before heading to Arcos.
You will find the road map of the Nature Park over here:
http://www.topwalks.net/en/sierra_grazalema.htm
Also there are lots of photographs from the nature park.

The curvy roads inside the park are very nice and well maintained. You will have some fantastic views and the small towns are idyllic, especially Zahara, Grazalema, Villaluenga and Benaocaz.

I'd drive A-394 Sevilla to Algodonales, and then head to Zahara and Grazalema, skipping Arcos, or head to Bornos and Arcos, and then drive towards El Bosque, Benamahoma and Grazalema, skipping Zahara. From Grazalema drive to Ronda, than to Marbella. Otherwise is too ambitious, it takes longer than it seems. Read my post Pueblos Blancos trip for detailed driving directions.