"white towns' of Andalucia
 

I am very interested in going to these small white towns....Which ones have you gone to? What do any of you reccommend? Also, any fabulous B&B's or small hotels in these towns?
Rosalie

what do you mean by white town?

A drive following the Route of the White Towns is one of the best ways to visit and learn about the beautiful Andalucia Region in Southern Spain. You can day trip or you can drive for days. The towns are typically high up in the mountains ("serranias") and owe that peculiarity to the fact that these towns propspered after the Arabs were expulsed from Spain. The Arabs that chose to stay were allowed to live only in the mountains, far away from the coast and from the posibility of building up an army and receive reinforcements. The white house coating material comes from the area and it has the cooling quality badly needed during the scorching Andalucian summers(similar to chalk, a sort of white slate).

I particularly loved Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, Casares, y Gaucin. Only wished that I could had stayed in any of them. I was home basing in Malaga. If this region attracts you, my only advice is to go for it!!:-D April, May, October are prime times of the year.

Rosalie:

We spent 10 days in May in Andalucia, and particularly enjoyed Arcos de la Frontera and Ronda. We used Marbella as a base, had a rental car, and went on daytrips to various towns.

Woody

Mojacar is lovely, especially sitting in the main square looking out over the coastal plain so far below.

I loved Ronda. Hotel San Gabriel was fabulous. Highly recommend it.

Karen

You can find the itinerary of <b>THE</b> Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos on following webpage: http://www.andalucia-web.net/ruta_1.htm

Rosalie - check out my web page describing our trip to Andalucia:
http://www.travel.stv77.com/andalucia/andalucia.html

It includes our impressions of the &quot;white villages&quot;.

Ronda and Arcos are both quite substantial towns. Indeed Ronda runs to an industrial estate and a Parador. Although it has a spectacular gorge and bridge, a couple of restaurants aimed at serious eaters and some lovely streets on the less commercial side of the bridge, it also has one of the tawdriest shopping streets in Spain, and great swathes of very charm-free modern building. The other pueblos blancos, like Gaucin and Casares, have a much more villagey feel, and are almost entirely charming. However, personally, I've never found any hotel or B+B in any of the smaller villages that's anything better than OK (though they're a great deal cheaper than similarly mediocre hotels in the Cotswolds or Tuscany).

Others may disgree, but I wouldn't spend too much time travelling round these villages: once you've seen one you've seen them all. What's infinitely more exciting is to take one - and I'd suggest Grazalema - and do some serious walking around the spectacular (and spectacularly varying) countryside around. The hotels in Grazalema (Hostal Casa de las Piedras will never make it into a Top Hotels of the World guide, but with double rooms at &euro;42 and charming staff you can't go wrong) sell for about &euro;2 leaflets with a number of stupendous walks. Just remember that the weather can be as dramatically variable as the countryside, and make sure you've got something warm in your backpack.

Maybe it is a problem of my English language, but I thought &quot;town&quot; refers to a middle-sized location and most of these &quot;Pueblos Blancos&quot; are very, very little :) It is not a better translation &quot;White Villages&quot; ? Help a Spanish English student !!

kenderina You are correct; in English, villages are usually considered smaller than towns. Interestingly, 'village' is usually not used for small towns in the USA, but more for non American countries. For example, an American would visit a small village of 500 people in Spain, but would visit a small town of 500 in the USA.
To make things even more confusing, 'village' is often used for a distinct neighborhood in a large city, such as Greenwich Village in New York. Village is also sometimes used to name a section of a town, such as 'Mill Village' in the town of Plainfield.
The English language must be very difficult for others to learn!

Thanks, zootsie :)

The difficult thing with languages is the use the average speaker makes of it :) English is not an easy language to learn but I think Spanish is worst. I feel lucky because I don't have to learn it as a second language, hahaha.

While Mojacar is white, thanks to whitewashing, it isn't one of the villages of the Pueblos Blancos. In fact, it's nicer than they are !

I am relatively new at using this forum....How do I respond to someone directly who has responded to my question?
thanks,
Rosalie
ps: Karen, I am wondering if you think we need to make reservations at your hotel recommendation in advance or can we just wing it? Again, my home base will be Sevilla.

A couple more suggestions.
My wife, who is a Malaga native, and I have enjoyed going to these typical, white Andalucian &quot;pueblos&quot; and I strongly recommend Mijas (the pueblo as opposed to Mijas Costa), Nerja (Cave of Nerja is awesome), and Frigiliana (just north of Nerja). Ronda is nice but it gets really hot in the summer.
Good luck.