EPerez

Hi, we're visitin for our honeymoon in March, with most of our time in Andalusia. In between our time in Granada and Sevilla, we'd like to spend a day driving through the white villages. <BR>However we're unsure whether we should do the Alpujarras route or the villages near Ronda. We don't want to rush it so we thought we'd do one or the other. Anyone have any suggestions? <BR>By the way, we're staying in a small town abt 35 km south of Granada called Otivar (not far from Almunecar), should we even bother with the coast?

Maribel

If you're staying in Otivar, I would say most definitely make the drive down to Motril then west on the N340 to Nerja. Nerja has managed to skirt most of the overdevelopment of the coast and isn't blighted by the Torremolines type row after row of concrete block apartment buildings. It still has charm, the views from the Balcon de Europa are very pretty, and there is a lovely, blindingly white Moorish hill town, Frigiliana, just 7 km north of Nerja on the MA 105. It's become a haven for British expats and something of a little artist colony. If you visit Frigiliana you can skip the Alpujarras and do the "pueblos blancos" from Arcos to Ronda. While the Alpujarras are picturesque, they are more remote, isolated, mainly agrarian, kind of mysterious, quiet, harder to see and less equipped for tourists than the very well travelled "ruta de los pueblos blancos". Tourism has not yet made a great impact there (except perhaps in Capileira), and the villages are very Arab looking-very interesting, like going back in time, but I believe that not including Ronda on a visit to Andalucia would be something you would later regret. I would save the Alpujarras for my next visit.

Dick

I'm unfamiliar with Alpujarras, so can't comment on that, but we spent a day picking our way through the pueblos blancos between Ronda and Sevilla as part of a week in Andalucia a couple years ago. It was at the time and remains to this day the best part of the trip. Stop in a little market somewhere for some cheese, bread and wine - find a nice spot alongside the road in one of the cork oak plantations - savor slowly - life is good.

Monica Richards

And if you go to Ronda, don't skip the Cuevas las piletas, caves with prehistoric cave paintings. They're about a half hour drive from Ronda, down the road the Benoajan.

EPerez

thanks everyone for all the responses. we're looking forward very much to our trip.