Please sign in to post.

Pueblo Blanco accommodation review in Gaucin

Posted by on

We recently stayed at a wonderful inn in the small village of Gaucin, one of the many "pueblos blancos," or whitewashed villages, in the province of Malaga in Andalusia. Casa Emiliana has been said to have the best views in town, and they are spectacular! The two queen rooms face the mountains and you can see as far as the Rock of Gibraltar and Morocco. The rooms and common areas are lovely, particularly the common terrace on the upper floor, which is incredible. The hosts, Marina and Jeffrey, are so hospitable and helpful. https://www.gaucinemiliana.com/

If you are considering spending some time exploring this area of the country, Gaucin is an excellent base. It is a charming village with restaurants ranging from casual to special occasion, as well as shops to buy supplies if you are planning on cooking at home (the inn features a very well stocked modern kitchen). We rented a car and bopped around to different villages for 6 days. We always enjoyed returning to our lovely and peaceful home base. Marina and Jeff provided excellent tips on which villages to check out as well as local hikes and walks to enjoy from the village itself.

I am happy to answer any questions you might have about the inn or the White Villages area.

Posted by
1065 posts

Interesting. I rented a house in Gaucin about 15 years ago and found the village very disappointing. Many, many expats, and little of the atmosphere you might find in some of the other Andalusia villages and towns. There seemed to be very little to do, and most of the businesses were owned by expats (UK; Northern Europe).

I'm sure the inn you are promoting is lovely, but I'd never choose Gaucin, with all of the other options in the Serrania de Ronda.

What other destinations (white villages, etc) did you visit during your stay in Gaucin?

We loved the drive through the cork forests and the cork museum in Jimena.

Posted by
3 posts

I totally take your point that compared to Ronda, for example, and some of the other small "white villages" in the surroundings, Gaucin was less quaint, (although still plenty charming), and I would not want to stay there for a whole month either. The views from the village were spectacular from many vantage points. There is a reason it is called "the balcony of the Ronda Mountains." That said, for a week, it was perfect because some of the other more quaint villages, like Benalaurie, for example, were extremely small, and Ronda was overrun by tourists, so places like that were great for day trips. We also took advantage of the hiking and extended walks we could do in and around Gaucin, so our place served as a great home base for exploration.
Apparently, the expat community in Gaucin is a few hundred people and the remaining 1,500 -1,700 or so are native born. There were lots of kids playing out on the streets (racing their bikes down those steep and windy narrow streets), bar/cafes and restaurants filled with locals, etc. We were prepared, after meeting our expat hosts to find less of a local Spanish flavor than we ultimately did- and were forced to speak our rusty Spanish quite bit while there.

Posted by
1065 posts

Sounds like you had a wonderful time there!!

I'm not a fan of Ronda, either--just too many tourists for me.

Next time, if you do not go back to Gaucin, you could think about some of the villages/towns in the Province of Cadiz...fewer tourists, for the most part, and some are within 15-minute drive of very good beaches. This area almost never gets mentioned on this forum and I see very few North American tourists. Jerez is a lovely city, easy drive from those pretty "white towns." Cadiz also worth visiting for a few days.

https://www.spain.info/en/region/cadiz-province/

I could return to Spain over and over again and never run out of places to discover.

Posted by
3 posts

Cadiz was definitely on our list (as was Jerez). We just needed to make some tough choices about where to go and stay, keeping driving distances in mind as well. Yes, next time, Cadiz and Jerez are definitely on our list! Thank you for the recommendation and the tip that it is much less touristed around there.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.