My husband and I will be spending 2 nights in either of these places in mid April. Which town do you recommend staying in for interesting places to walk, good food, beauty? Are there any of the White Villages you'd highly recommend visiting, and, if so, which ones are they?
thank you to anyone who might respond.
Please share the rest of your itinerary and how you are traveling, thanks!
Andalucia has a lot of fairs and annual events in April. Easter processions and the Feria de Sevilla (flamenco fair) later in the month. You may want to review the regional calendar of events and de ideas whether you want to participate...or avoid.
We’ll have a car - and will be coming from the area of La Mancha where our son has a house. We’ve been to Seville, which we loved - but are looking for a different, smaller village experience for the few days we’ll be traveling with him in SW Andalucia.
Neither has any “must see” sights like some other places. To me Cádiz has a small city feel to it. It has a nice park to walk through as well as a beaches. Its cathedral is under continual restoration due to the materials used in its construction. From it you can take a ferry across the bay (weather dependent) to either Rota or Puerto de Santa María. Puerto has a nice, but small castle if you can get there when it is open and its catedral is nice. The castle is where Ferdinand and Isabella gave Columbus money for one of his voyages. Depending on what all you wanted to do while there, Cádiz may be out of the way, e.g., the white villages.
Jerez de la Frontera still maintains a large town feel to it. It has a small Alcázar worth about an hour of your time. There are numerous sherry bodegas is you want to take a tour. Arcos de la Frontera, the closest white village, is only 30 minutes away. Puerto de Santa María is about 15 minutes away. If you wanted, you could get over to Doñana National Park bird observatory in about 30 minutes. Jerez is inland and doesn’t have the beaches like Cádiz. From Jerez you could make full day trip to a number of the white villages.
Oh that's quite a drive! With only two days, I would still make the decision based on where I was ending up.
I loved Cadiz but I would not necessarily consider it a most beautiful place, more of a faded charm, though definitely beautiful in its own way. I would look for somewhere in the mountains.
The Los Pueblos Mas Bonitas list might be helpful--https://www.lospueblosmasbonitosdeespana.org/
I like the suggestions north of Ronda (Sentenil, Grazalema, Zahara).
Vejer de la Frontera, which is near Cadiz, made the cut.
If you have an interest in flamenco music (and I realize you didn't say that you did), that may tilt the decision to Jerez. During my four-night visit I found Jerez to be a real flamenco town, where small performances were still staged in humble tabancos (sherry bars). These were not big tourist performances requiring reservations; when I heard flamenco from the sidewalk, I had only to slip in. (They could get crowded, though.)
I should point out that my visit was in December 2019, so I can't say for certain what the flamenco scene is like at other times of the year, or whether the pandemic has affected it..
You may wish to investigate Carmona (and Italica as a daytrip nearby.) I think Carmona gets a lot of visitors, but it is very attractive. It has a Pousada that may be nice to stay in. We found Jerez urban and unattractive. The horsemanship show was not as good as in Vienna. (Opinion.) Have not been to Cadiz.
Rick (our host here) is very big on Arcos, and everyone is very big on Ronda. We were happy to sleep in Ronda for three nights (with a car), but many people find it too popular in the daytime.
When I was in Jerez in February 10 years ago I didn't have a car but outside the very center, it looked like there was street parking. It was easy to get to Jerez by train and then day trip to Cadiz by train and to Arcos by bus. I spent a whole day in Cadiz, which was enough for me, less in Arcos. I enjoyed both. I walked everywhere in Cadiz and in Jerez - except to the Royal Equestrian School (for the very good horse show). I rented a car when I left Jerez to explore the white villages (3 nights based in Ronda), hike in El Torcal and visit the "pink lagoon" to see the flamingos on the way to Granada where I returned the car.
I've been back to Andalucia twice since then and only used a car for a trip to Ronda for day-tripping in the area.
