White Villages, scenic route, parking, sights and restaurants, wine,sherry (in November)

I feel a GPS or smart phone is a necessity when driving, not necessarily to get from city to city, but to find your way in the cities and towns themselves. In Arcos I stayed at the Hotel los Olivos and there was plenty of on street parking near the hotel and it was only a short walk into the center of Arcos. There were various places to park in both Zahara and Grazelema as well as good sized parking lots. I don’t remember seeing any places to park on the outskirts of these small towns. Ronda has a super convenient underground car park in the center of the city. Personally, I wouldn’t spend 2 nights in Grazelema. I would do so in Ronda.

I found the area from Sevilla to Arcos to be fairly boring but the ride between Arcos and Ronda to be beautiful, turney, twisty, mountainous and exhilarating! I drove in the reverse direction from Madrid to Sevilla. Here’s a link to the Google Map of my route. If you’re making the drive from Sevilla on a Sunday morning, be sure to look for the small stand selling the best churros in Spain in the small town of Espero on A393 at Calle Naciente. The road narrows and becomes an alternating one way road controlled by traffic lights. The Churro place is on the east side of the road at the south end of the one way.

In Arcos, try the Restaurante Café Babel. Great Arabian food and cocktails. But don’t accept the offer of dynamic currency exchange when using a credit card.

A paper map would work, or GPS, or download maps to your tablet for offline use. The road are pretty well marked throughout the country, but it helps if you know some of the towns enroute to your destination. Yes, Jerez is the center of sherry production, which is the reason sherry is referred to as Jerez. A few of the larger companies are William & Humbert, Osborne, and Gonzales Byass. You’d need to look up which give tours, but years ago, most companies did. Both William & Humbert and Osborne tours used to be in town, not on the edge of town. Again, that was years ago. Personally, it’s not worth the risk to drink and drive anywhere in Europe. Maybe save the drinking until after you’ve Stopped for the night.

There are very few roads going through the white towns. Running east-west are the CA8102, A372, and A374. North-South are the A373 and CA9104, and CA9123. (CA stands for Cadiz and A is for Andalucia). All are scenic, two lane, and wind and twist through the mountains. You won’t be traveling at a high rate to speed on them. The road that winds the most is the one between Zahara and Grazalema (CA9104).

In Arcos, if coming in from the south or west, there is a parking lot at the bottom of the hill. From there you can take a tram to the top. In Ronda, there’s only one main road through town. If coming in from the west, pass the bull ring, go over the bridge, and go another 1/4 miles or so, and there’s a parking lot on the right. In Zahara, there seemed to be plenty of parking by the tower/Castillo. From it, you can walk into town. There are other parking areas along the roads on the edge of town, if you can get a spot.

With your interests I would choose Jerez over Arcos. Ensure you get early starts on the road to get the most out of your time. Something like ...
Day
1. Drive via stop in Jerez to Grazalema
2. Round trip by car to Zahara & Olivera
3. Drive via stop in Ronda to Granada

To detail what Philip said, here are my no-GPS experiences. First time, I picked up the car in Jerez and had a little trouble finding my way out of town, none after that until I entered Granada. I missed one turn, which it was pretty easy to correct. When I got to the historic center I missed the street my hotel was on - it looked like an alleyway. I then drove around Granada for an hour until I got back to that spot (in good part because there were roadworks on two of the major streets and lots of detours) and found the hotel. Second time, I started in Sevilla and it took me about 15 minutes of confusion to identify and enter the highway in the direction I needed (convergence of several limited access roads). I returned the car in Cordoba and there was construction on the highway at the entrance to town, so the written directions I had were of no use. Once I was out of the cities, I had no trouble at all. As for scenic drives, look at a topographical map - if it's hilly, it will be scenic. Plan for extra driving time because 1 you'll want to stop at pull-outs to admire the views and take photos and [2] you'll be tempted to enter tiny villages that aren't on your list.

In Arcos there is a big parking lot at the foot of town. I took the bus from Jerez and that's where it let's you off. From there you can walk the steep route up to the center or take the town's minibus. There's also nice 'back' route down the hillside.

As Philip said, the best place to park in Ronda is the garage in the center. Ronda is not a village, and if you park on the outskirts, you'll need to take a bus or taxi to get to the center. It's another city where GPS will be useful. On both my trips, Ronda was my base and I really enjoyed staying there and using it as a base for exploring the pueblos blancos.

In Jerez, some bodegas have "walk-in" tours, others must be booked in advance. I toured Tio Pepe (fun) and Pedro Domecq , both are in the city center. You may want to see the horse show at the Royal Equestrian School, offered several days a week.

Chani, your post made me smile. I was in San Sebastián and dropped my GPS and it broke so I had to reply on the Michelin Man’s paper map of España. When I got to Segovia, I kept driving around trying to follow the map to my hotel on the Plaza Mayor. No way! 45 frustrating minutes later, I finally pulled in to an underground car park. Then I took my overweight couch potato body to the staircase leading to the upper part of the city followed by a steep climb over the cobbles. Parking at the municipal garage cost €40 a day. Had I found the hotel, not only would I have not tested my cardiac endurance, but they had valet parking for €20 a day.

If I didn’t have a GPS, I’d still be trying to find my way out of Palermo.

a) I find Granada a confusing city in which to drive; partly because it just is confusing (and wonderful!), but also because they seem to be constantly digging up the roads and making diversions. So unless you are staying somewhere obvious like up near the Alhambra, in addition to a sat nav I would have a paper map marked with where you want to get to. Then you can see the alternative routes if the sat nav gets stroppy and, even better, you can stop and show a local where you want to be and get real directions.

b) "We also would like recommendations for the most scenic way to get from Ronda to Granada."

For the Ronda to Granada trip, I'm not sure you will want "scenic" if that means slow. Presumably you are staying overnight in Grazelema then going to Ronda the next morning before driving onto Granada? If so you'll spend much of the day in Ronda and won't want a long route to Granada since even the "fast" A-road route takes over 2 hours. But taking the A route, you might consider stopping on the outskirts of Antequera, which is not far off the direct road and you can visit the ancient dolmens - v. interesting and a nice variety from other sights. There is a car park. Or after Antequera on the A92 motorway you could stop in & around Loja, either to visit the village itself or Los Infiernos waterfalls .

We are going to return the car the moment we get to Granada and walk to our inn. We choose a highly recommended inn (Rick Steves) in Grazelema. If we wanted to do dinner in Zahara or Ronda, what are we looking for in terms of time for the drive? If I use google maps, are their time estimates accurate given the windy roads and other considerations? Thanks!

Google's probably fairly accurate, but since the roads are two-lane with very few opportunities to pass and lots of ups and downs, it is possible to get stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle for ways. The issue I foresee is not the length of the drive back, but that it will be well after dark. Remember, early dinner in Spain is at 9.00. And the dfriver won't want to have more than one glass of wine at dinner.

It’s only 6 miles between Grazalema and Zahara, but it’s over a mountain. If you do a Google street view of the road (CA-9104) you’ll notice it’s 2-lane, with no shoulder or center line. In parts, there are simple concrete blocks to keep you from falling off the mountain. As a general rule, the more digits in a road number, the more rural the road is. I’ve driven that road a few times, but never when it was dark. There are a few hair-pin turns and if not paying attention, you could easily go off the road. It’s 21 miles from Grazalema to Ronda and the A-372 is the same as the CA-9104 and also through a mountain. I looked up the Google maps time of 32 minutes to go from Grazalema to Zahara and it’s fairly accurate. At night it would be longer.