What to do in Ronda

To me, one full day in Ronda is sufficient. December will play a part because it will get darker earlier; about 6pm. Sentenil de las Bodegas can be seen in an hour as can Zahara de la Sierra. Neither is very large. The main draws in Ronda are the New Bridge and the gorge. You can walk around the town hitting all the sights in an hour. Walking into the gorge, depending on where and how far, could take a while. I think your plan can work if you get a fairly early start out of Sevilla. What it doesn’t take into account is if you’re having an enjoyable time in any one place and want to spend more time at it. There are plenty of twists and turns on the roads in that area, so you’ll be driving 50-70kph (30-42mph) at most times.

Your in Seville for 3 days, I would not head east to Ronda then west to Portugal. Ronda is beautiful and so are the mountains, concider going south/west from Seville. Save the mountains, Zahara and Ronda, for a Spring time trip when the grass is green and the wild flowers are in bloom. The weather would be warm enough to get out of the car and enjoy those towns. Winter is best spend in towns with museums to see rather that walking around in the cold/rain/snow. J

Would you recommend to go to Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera or Tarifa instead? We are travelling for 2 weeks and we are planning to visit Portugal (Lisbon, Sintra, Evora), then head to Seville and we have 2 more days before going back to Portugal. At first we wanted to go to Granada, then changed to Ronda.

Could you post your itinerary- # nights, transportation, who is we?

For me Granada and Cordoba are both much more interesting than Ronda; they are truly world-class destinations. It sounds as if you don't have a lot of time for Spain, so I'd stick with Seville and Cordoba; travel time between the two is less than one hour by train.

We are family of 5 - me, my husband and 3 kids (14, 9 and 6 years old). Our itinerary for now is: arriving in Lisbon on December 5 in the morning, 3 nights in Lisbon, as it includes 1 day in Sintra, then we go to Evora, sleep there and spend next day in Evora and in the evening head to Seville. 3 full days in Seville and after Seville we have 2 days that we wanted to spend in Spain - either Ronda or something else like Cordoba, Granada, or Cadiz. After that we go to Algarve in Portugal and then back to Lisbon and fly home on December 19.

Three nights in Lisbon is only two reasonably non-jetlagged days, and you're going to spend one of those days in Sintra. Lisbon's definitely worth more than one day. I hope you'll have another day or two (meaning at least two nights) in Lisbon at the end of your trip.

The Algarve in winter doesn't draw many positive comments here.

If I were planning that trip, I would eliminate the Algarve. When you posted about visiting, you didn't specify that you'd be there in December. Also note that you'll have short days - sunrise in Lisbon around 7.45, sunset 5.15. That means long evenings. Especially with kids, you want to stay in places with things to see and do after dark. That would give you lots of time to enjoy the cities.

In any case, I would spend another night in Lisbon, stop for a few hours in Evora or just drive straight to Sevilla. That saves one hotel change and Evora is not much of a draw compared to the other places. There's more to see in Cordoba or Granada than in Ronda, especially when the days are short.

In early January 2020 my husband and I did a road trop from Lisbon - Sintra - Algarve - Seville - Ronda - Granada and Cordoba. Ronda is a great place to spend the day and I would even suggest to spend the night. Great food and a really nice place to break up the road trip. I honestly think it's underrated. The view, the old bull fighting ring, the food, it's breathtaking and very relaxing. If you are a foodie, Bardal is a wonderful choice for an evening. It's spendy but it might be one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. 3 days in Seville will be a highlight. The Algarve will be pretty much boarded up for the winter. It is a hot destination in the summer for tourists so not a lot will be open in the winter. However, we found it to be great because there were no crowds... like, zero people basically. Make sure to tell your rental car company that you will be crossing from Portugal to Spain because there will be an extra fee. I do agree with some of the other comments that Lisbon is worth extra time. It's an amazing city. Sintra is a bit of a weird one because it, in my opinion, wasn't really worth the hype. The one way road, traffic, giant hills are not for the inexperienced driver. The castles were cool but it almost felt like Disneyland... not quite authentic because they are so (relatively) newly constructed. I would echo some of the earlier comments that Granada and Cordoba are 100% worth it if you head East instead.

Your plan for Ronda is sufficient. If your family likes classical guitar, we went to this concert in 2017 and recommend it:

As we walked into town from the train station, we walked by the Guitar Round House store on Calle Padre Mariano Soubiron, so I could buy tickets. I’d read about Paco Seco (excellent credentials) performing a concert of classical & flamenco instrumental guitar in the back portion of the store each evening.