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Ronda or Malaga - Car Sickness

Posted by (Small Island in the Caribbean) on

I have posted before with questions regarding our itinerary for our trip to Andalusia and Barcelona in May. I am so thankful to everyone who took the time to respond so helpfully.

We are a family of four (two young adult children).

We prefer to avoid one-night stays. Two nights are easier, but three nights tend to be our favorite.
We will rent a car for the countryside places.
Since we live in a tropical climate and near the beach, beaches in Europe are not our priority.

Our plan was to spend 3 nights in Granada, before renting a car and heading to Ronda. We would drop the car off upon arrival at Sevilla. Our plan has been to spend 2-3 nights in Ronda as a base in order to be able to visit all the beautiful pueblos blancos nearby. We have so far had a hard time finding accommodation in Ronda.

So then we came across the beautiful Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park and found a B&B there. It looks like the sort of place that we'd love - a nice change - all countryside, horses, etc. Then my husband reminded me of my problem with winding roads and car sickness. I am starting to worry if the Grazalema and Ronda areas might be problematic for me. I can take motion sickness tablets. My problem is if the winding part of the drive is more than say 30 minutes or so at a time.

Given my problem: should we perhaps stay in Malaga and use that as a base for day trips? We would certainly prefer Ronda or somewhere with a quieter, country feel, but we are having a hard time deciding since we're not familiar with any of these places.

RS mentions other places and I wonder what their roads would be like:
Arcos de la Frontera
Zahara
Estepa

Thank you so much. I apologize for this lengthy post.

Posted by
7161 posts

Ronda or Arcos shouldn’t be much of a problem. While the roads are rural, I don’t recall them being very windy getting to those two places. Grazalema is a different issue. The road between Zahara and Grazalema is windy, and while only about 7 miles separate the towns, it takes about 30 minutes. While I haven’t been to the park, I would guess the roads in the natural park would be the same.

Posted by
15788 posts

The roads through the hills do indeed curve around those hills. However, there aren't many sharp turns and there are frequent pull-outs, where you can stop and get a a few minutes' respite as you admire the views and take a few photos. There are also a goodly number of villages that you can stop in to explore on foot.

On my first visit, I spent 3 nights in Ronda, leaving from Jerez and heading to Granada. The first day was stopping at various pueblos blancos on the way to Ronda. The 2nd was sightseeing in Ronda itself. There's the bullring and museum, the gorge and views, and several quirky interesting museums. My favorite was the Centro de Interpretacion del Vino, lots of folk exhibits and wine tasting at the end (optional). The 3rd was tootling around the hills and seeing more pueblos blancos, then on the 4th, I did some hiking at El Torcal and saw a bit of Antequera (but missed the prehistoric dolmens) on the way to Granada. In May the flamingos may be in residence at the "pink lagoon" (the Lagoon of Fuente de Piedra ), I was there in February and there were only a couple hundred birds.

Posted by
5541 posts

I've been to Ronda on many occasions, always from the coast so I can't speak for the conditions from other directions. The road from the coast to Ronda is very windy, I love driving it but my wife hates being a passenger. She is not one to suffer travel sickness however this route certainly induces it in her. If you're prone to travel sickness I suspect that the route from the coast will certainly cause you issues.

Posted by
183 posts

Thank you all so much for your kind help. We managed to find a place in Ronda. We'd still like to travel to the Sierra de Grazalema, but I know that I'll most likely need to take something to help alleviate motion sickness.

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