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Which White Villages in Andalusia?

Posted by (Seattle) on

We are three couples traveling through Spain in October. Our itinerary is as follows:

  • Barcelona - 3 nights
  • Malaga - 2 nights
  • Seville - 3 nights
  • Madrid - 3 nights

We'd love to visit a few of the White Villages and are looking for recommendations on which 2 or 3 to include, and the best time in our itinerary to visit them. We're considering 2 options:

Option 1: Hire a private driver to take us from Malaga to Seville, stopping in Ronda and one additional village along the way. Since Ronda is only 80 minutes from Malaga, it seems like a good time to stop there. I've read Arcos de la Frontera is a Rick Steves favorite, but we're open to other suggestions for our second stop.

Option 2: Take the train from Malaga to Seville, and use one of our days in Seville to explore the surrounding White Villages on a day trip.

We'd love to know your favorite White Villages and when it would make the most sense to visit them during our visit.

Thank you.

Posted by
6076 posts

Because you would need a van to transport six people, I would research if you can realistically visit any of the towns by public transport instead. You don't have a lot of time in any of these places, so I would consider giving it a miss--just my honest opinion that it's something to save for a future trip. An afternoon stop-by is not going to be as satisfying as having time to soak a place in. All of those places will have so much to offer you without leaving town.

Posted by
632 posts

Agree with @valadelphia. Skip the so called white villages. Suggest instead, Cordoba to see the amazing Mezquita, and Segovia. Both are much more interesting. So, maybe, go to Cordoba from Seville and Segovia from Madrid. Happy travels!

Posted by
7435 posts

To answer your question, my favorite white villages were Zahara, Grazelema and Sentinel. That said, I feel your highest priorities in Andalusia should be Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada. I'm assuming you will fly between Barcelona and Malaga? I feel like you are spending a lot of time just getting between places. I've been to Barcelona and liked it. But, my recommendation would be to drop it in favor of other cities.

Posted by
7909 posts

Believe auto-correct changed the name of one of jules suggested towns. It should read Setenil de la Bodegas. Zahara de la Sierra and Grazalema are very popular towns people visit. All the towns are fairly close to each other, but because of the winding roads, it can take longer than expected to reach them. Another popular white village is Arcos de la Frontera. It is further west than the other mentioned villages.

Coming from Sevilla one could reasonably visit Setenil, Zahara, and Grazalema as a long day trip and only spending 1-2 hours in each village. If you skipped Setenil, then you could add Arcos and drive past some other villages. The villages themselves don’t have much to offer and are best seen from a distance where one can observe the white buildings. Arcos has a nice overlook by the Parador and Zahara has a smallish tower one can climb to get a view of the nearby reservoir.

If you decide to visit Arcos, park in the lot at the bottom of the hill. A vehicle that fits 6 is probably too big to make a couple of the turns by the Parador and Basílica de Santa María de la Asunción at the top of the hill.

Posted by
7435 posts

Thank you James for the correction. And ABSOLUTELY agree, park at the bottom of Arcos hill town. We had a small car, and I wished we'd parked at the bottom, and we were there on the off season.

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