Andalucia & Gibraltar & Costa del sol

Last year we based ourselves in Malaga & did day trips to Nerja, Ronda & Granada by car.

Rome2Rio.com indicates that each of the legs Seville-Ronda-Nerja-Granada can be done by bus. Usually if you keep clicking, Rome2Rio will eventually give you a link to the appropriate bus company's website where you can find a schedule. Alternatively, you can try Googling "bus Seville to Ronda" and so on.

I wanted to visit Gibraltar on my first trip to Andalucia, but I nixed it after seeing how much time (out of a 23-day trip) it would use up. While I was there, I met lots of British expats and they all said Gibraltar isn't worth it. One of the big attractions for me was the Barbary apes, who are said to be rather unfriendly and aggressive. Oddly, on a trip to Alsace I visited Monkey Mountain which turned out to be a lovely colony of about 100 Barbary apes. The other attraction was an English tea. The expats said that can be had around the coastal towns because there are so many Brits around.

On my second visit, I did drive from Ronda south to the coast and then west to Gibraltar for the drive (bad luck with clouds and fog in the hills and I wanted sunshine). The drive wasn't particularly scenic. Going I eschewed the toll road and it was pretty slow, seemed to be a roundabout or a traffic light every 2-3 kms. On the return I took the much faster (and expensive) toll road. I did see "The Rock" and a long line of cars waiting to drive into Gibraltar, decided it wasn't worth the trouble of parking and walking.

Driving from Sevilla through the hills and stopping to see some of the pueblos blancos is great. Ronda has a couple really good sights (the bullring/museum and the bridge/gorge) and several fun, quirky museums, worth a full day. I've done it twice, beautiful scenery and frequent pullouts to admire the view. I'd keep the car until Granada. The only difficulty I had was finding my way out of Sevilla (I didn't have GPS and the signage was confusing, for me anyway).

My thoughts: if you are interested in visiting only the towns/cities you name, then bus and/or train would be best. If you wish to independently visit some of the hill towns around Ronda, then having a car would be best.

Last May, after we had been to Granada, we got a car for our last day in Nerja and visited Frigiliana and the caves. Then we drove to Ronda, took in some of the hill towns in the vicinity, and eventually ended up in La Linea where we got rid of the car. Then we went to Gibraltar by walking across the border to catch the local bus. Everything worked out well.

Have a great trip.

Thanks everyone for your advice. We ended up cutting out Gibraltar and going to Malaga instead. It worked out fine since it was a short bus ride from Ronda, and another short bus ride to Granada from Malaga. We enjoyed our day and night in Malaga. There was some kind of festival going on, and at night the streets were filled with people dressed up in different costumes and performing. I will just have to include Gibraltar on another trip maybe on one going to Morroco. Just talked yesterday to someone who is from Morroco and I think it would be interesting to see.

Now time to think about our next trip.

Morocco is wonderful. You won't regret planning a trip there.