Driving around Andalusia - Malaga to Cadiz

Alhambra, pearl of Andalusia

Last year during fall, I got a chance to spend about 10 days in the Andalusian region of Spain. We had started with a plan to drive from Malaga to Lisbon in Portugal, but after realising how much there is to explore there itself, we changed our plans to just stay in Andalusia. We did a round trip with stays in Cordoba, Cadiz, Tarifa and Marbella and had a fabuous time, enjoying the sun, the landscapes, the beaches, the history, the architecture, the small towns, and the spectacular drives all around. I totally loved the trip and can see myself going back a few more times.

We stayed at 4 different locations during the holiday and spent one day exploring the place we stayed in, the rest of the days either driving to other places nearby or stopping at places while driving from one place to the other.


Itinerary

Day 1: Fly to Malaga and stay the night
Day 2: Drive Malaga -> Nerja -> Granada -> Córdoba (4 hours); stay in Cordoba at the Abetos del Maestre Escuela hotel
Day 3: Explore Cordoba
Day 4: Drive Cordoba-> Seville -> Cadiz (2.5 hours); stay at Cadiz at Monte Puertatierra Hotel
Day 5: Explore Cadiz old town
Day 6: Drive Cadiz -> (Medina Sidonia) -> Vejer de la Frontera -> Zahara de los atunes -> Tarifa (2.5 hours); stay at Tarifa at an Airbnb
Day 7: Visit Bolonia
Day 8: Diving and beach day in Tarifa
Day 9: Drive from Tarifa to Marbella (1.5 hours); stay at Marbella at Eden Roc apartments
Day 10: Visit Setenil de las Bodegas and Ronda
Day 11: Explore Marbella
Day 12: Fly back from Malaga


Getting to Malaga

I was supposed to land in Malaga in the morning but my flight got delayed by 7 hours! Anyways, once I managed to get there, I picked up the car and drove to our hotel. We had booked a simple small hotel near the airport to reduce the amount of travel time that day but I was quite flabbergasted when I saw the hotel and its location! Apparently, we had booked the hotel in some suburbs of Malaga, which turned out to be quite residential and rundown in reality! Or actually, one side of the street looked really rundown while the other looked ok. Anyways I checked in, thinking to myself if it had been a bad decision to stay here.

And then I started searching for places to eat, which was not very comforting either! As we were quite outside the city, there weren’t a lot of options to eat nearby. There was just one place, a hotel nearby - the Hotel Romerito. Once I got there though, jaan main jaan aayi.

It was actually quite a cute little posada hotel and had a nice restaurant. It had an open square for eating, decorated with ceramic paintings on the walls, some fountains and lots of beautiful plants all around. It felt amazing to be able to sit outside and have your dinner as the temperature was above 20 degrees – it was warm even in November. We had a tasty dinner there, already trying some of the Spanish local foods.

While walking back to our hotel, we noticed that the shops around were open till midnight! And women and children were walking around even at 12 at night. It felt so different, and such a welcome change from where we live. I think it was mostly because of the weather, that going out for a walk at night also felt comfortable. I had finally ended up enjoying my first evening in Andalusia. And it only got better over the week.


Driving from Malaga to Cordoba through Nerja and Granada

Most of the days, we drove just for a couple of hours. Today was the only day when we were driving for long, 4 hours, with a few stops on the way. We took the coastal route to get to the old Moorish town of Granada. On the way, we stopped at a coastal town called Nerja for breakfast. It is a small place on the sea with some nice resorts and eating places, and loads of British tourists.

It was mostly a random village we had decided to stop at to have breakfast, and after parking, we just walked to the town centre to a restaurant overlooking the sea. It turned out the restaurants opened only at 11am and we were early! (And this is something we faced everywhere, Spain really doesn’t like to wake before noon). We sat outside at the Bamboo restaurant and had a lazy breakfast, and that was enough to get me into the warm tropical holiday mood😊.

Beach at Nerja

After that we just walked along the beach promenade to take in the vibe of the place. The beach was nice, and some people were snorkelling there too. But it really felt like the place hadn’t woken up yet.

Then we drove towards Granada through the Sierra Nevada mountains and it was quite a green drive. On the way, there were some picturesque bridges spanning multiple mountains, and lot of charming little villages and greenery all along.

Granada old town

Granada is a remnant from the Moorish past of this region and is quite picturesque because of that. The old town is built on a few small hills. One is topped by the Alhambra – a magnificent fort and palace. The neighbouring one is lined with Moorish houses in white. The houses are decorated with local ceramics and pottery decorations on its walls, with some of them showcasing tiles with Christian motifs and themes. It exudes a Moorish/Arabic feel to it which is difficult to explain. The old town is extremely clean and very inviting to walk through.

Everywhere, you will see people walking around, shopping, eating, listening to music and just having a great time. And as the whole town is surrounded by hills it gives it a cosiness I love. It’s definitely one of my favourites places in Andalusia and I can see myself going back there, yet again.

House decorations

In Granada we tried to visit the Alhambra but it was fully booked. So we walked down from the Alhambra into the old town. We spent some time exploring the small shops. And then we climbed the mountain in front, lined with the white houses all the way up. The whole area felt from a different era, with all the ceramic decorations, plates and pottery on the wall, the flowers and all the gaiety around. We stopped at a few squares, where there were loads of people just enjoying a day out. With someone nearby playing the guitar (always). It was so lively, it was fun even to just keep walking around and partaking in the gaiety. We also saw an unusual number of hippies around.

Views of Alhambra

As we kept walking up, we passed by a few spectacular viewpoints of the Alhambra. I have to say this, the Alhambra is always a pleasure to look at. Even though I have been there before, I loved it even now, sitting so daintily on top of the mountain, visible from everywhere across the valley and the old town. So serene, so calm, so charming. It was lovely. We went to one of the viewpoints up top, the Mirador, and just sat there for a while. Admiring the Alhambra. At leisure.

All through the day, we would stop for a while and listen to someone play the guitar, it was like a constant with us all our time in inland Andalusia. And everywhere there were lot of tourists, enjoying a warm fall day. Most of the restaurants were full, so we just walked around a lot that day, trying to find a place to eat. The day just felt like a dream, again.

When we left Granada, it was already getting dark, so we missed part of the landscapes during the night drive. We did see a gorgeous sunset while driving out of the city. The whole drive for sure would have been spectacular, but we could only make out some of the shapes on the way. We saw some 4-5 castles on the way. All lighted up, and located on top of small hills. They all looked so charming. And we also saw some bull cutouts of top of some hills, maybe to highlight the bullfighting heritage of the area. They were all visible from afar. We think we drove through some mountainous landscape all the way till Cordoba but of course can’t say for sure. It was dark all the way.


Cordoba

We spent an entire day walking around and exploring the old town of Cordoba. And I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. (I had heard years ago from some friends that it was not a place worth visiting and now I disagree 😊). The city around seemed quite big and bustling. It had wide roads, lined with trees on both sides. And lot of pretty houses and modern buildings all around. While driving through it, I did wonder though if it was worth coming here or not as it seemed like quite a usual modern city.

Cordoba bridge

Its when you come to the old town you see what the old Cordoba is all about. We first walked along the Guadalquivir river, one side of which had modern houses in orange and yellow, the other was the old town. Then we crossed the famous Roman bridge to get to the old town (this bridge was pictured in Game of Thrones). We ended up spending a lot of time on the bridge itself. It was fun just being there while an artist regaled us with his guitar music for a long time and my friend got her name written in Arabic calligraphy. There were lot of tourists there and I just sat for a while, taking in the feeling of having landed in a different time and place.

Cordoba mosque cathedral

We then crossed over and walked around the old town. It was a facinating experience. We first reached the mosque cathedral, the symbol of Cordoba. It was a huge structure, decorated exquisitely with carvings and sculptures all around. And there was a huge garden in the centre full of orange trees. My friend went inside it and found it mind-blowing.

Streets of flowers

We just ambled along the whole day through its old streets. Eating, shopping, photographing and so on. The whole area looked old, with the narrow streets lined with old yellow stone buildings. We walked by the street of flowers, called the Callejas de las Flores. And sat in a square with the guitar playing in the background (again). We passed by a horse performance and the Alacazar – the local fort on our walks but didn't have the time to see them.

Streets of Cordoba

The rest of the time we just explored the shops around, they were all selling such beautiful art and handicraft objects. Everything was so cheap here too. Overall, we didn’t do much during the day, but still felt we had experienced and enjoyed a lot. And I would suggest Cordoba as definitely a nice place for a stop.

Abetos hotel, Cordoba

In Cordoba, we had stayed at a hotel outside of town – the Abetos del Maestre Escuela Hotel. And it was fabulous. It was located in the suburbs, in a residential area in the mountains with only greenery and forests surrounding it, with some huge bungalows in those woods. The hotel was built in a traditional Spanish style, quite grand in its appearance. Every day we had our breakfast and dinner in the hotel itself on its terrace. From there, you could get a panoramic view of the greenery around. And it felt delightful to start the day with a view like that. And it was so cheap! I was surprised by how reasonable food was in Spain, much more than London and Netherlands. 

One day, I went out for a run in the woods nearby and found a hiking trail to follow. It was a bit narrow and tricky at times to run but was still nice to run amid the greenery. I would definitely recommend this hotel to stay in if you have a car. It was a great experience for us, away from the crowds.


Driving from Cordoba to Cadiz through Seville

During the drive from Cordoba to Cadiz, we realised that the landscape in this part of Spain changed every 100 kms. Sometimes you would see bare deserts, something forests; sometimes flat lands, sometimes high mountains; and so on. During this drive, it was mostly bare deserts, with some places having scrub vegetation, but not a lot.

Plaza de Espana

On the way, we stopped for a few hours at Seville, at the Plaza de Espana. It was the location of a major exhibition in 1928 and has since stood as a symbol of Seville. The day was very hot which limited how much we wanted to exert but we still enjoyed walking around a bit. 

It is still as grand and majestic as ever, and doesn’t fail to impress. There was a dancer doing the flamenco on its stairs but we got there too late to watch it. We then walked a bit through the bridges along the small canal in front. They even have gondola rides there now, though it was too hot to get into them now!

All along the Plaza, there are paintings representing all the Spanish cities which had taken part in the exhibition in 1928. I took a photograph in front of Barcelona, at the same spot (and in the same pose) I had taken a photograph 10 years ago. Though it's only now that I looked at it closely, and realised how colonial that painting was. It’s so interesting that we have all become so much more aware of these things now, than before.

Seville

After the Plaza, we walked in the park next to it for a while, enjoying the cool shade of the plants. And watching the small fountains and other structures in the park. We had lunch at one of the local places. We walked around a bit and somehow, I liked the town a lot more this time than the last. The city felt so nice, clean and grand.

While driving out of Seville, we initially had some mountains which turned into plains and most of the drive was lined with gorgeous trees on both sides. Towards the evening, we could even see the sun and the moon together for most of the evening. It was a short drive and soon we reached our next destination, Cadiz.


Cadiz

Streets of Cadiz

Cadiz was a nice seaside resort town on the Atlantic ocean. It’s almost an island by itself. Cadiz has both an old town, and a more modern resort side to it. The old town was quite small and slow, with more white than yellow houses. It has a bit of history, apparently being the oldest city in Western Europe. There was one main church, a few castilles, a few squares and some other places to see. It is really very small though, with very old buildings and very narrow roads (It was where the Pathaan song was shot recently).

Cathedral of Cadiz

We were staying at the Monte Puertatierra Hotel, just one lane away from the sea. It was in the transition zone between the old and the new Cadiz. From our hotel started the more modern buildings, the hotels, holiday homes and the restaurants. And so the area around the hotel felt a lot more open than the old town. 

Main road, Cadiz

One of the days, we walked into the old town. I ran along the coast and onto one of the forts into the water, the Castillo de San Sebastian. We sat next to the rocks there for a while, watching the waves crash into the rocks. Then we walked in to the town centre and walked past some stunning squares in the city centre including the Plaza de San Juan de Dios, eating at one of the restaurants around. (This square is also in the Pathaan song). There was a local market there and the vibe was quite lively, with lot of people just sitting outside and having a nice time. As we walked back, we walked past the port which was full of cruise ships of that day.

One of the evenings, we walking towards the old town and saw a group of people practicing in a band together for a few hours right next to the sea. At 10 pm! Its sound could be heard all around town, and provided a nice ambience for our walk around.

The next evening, we walked all along the waterfront, till the end of the promenade. It was a nice walk with lights and palm trees all along the beach on the waterfront. And resorts, hotels and holiday homes lining it. There were some very nice restaurants along the water. Most of them used to be empty though when we used to go out for dinner, at 7 pm 😊.

The beach and beach restaurants were good too, though not a lot of people were in the water as it was too cold (still around 20 degrees!). When I went in, I found it quite warm actually and good for swimming. I guess people here are quite spoilt with really warm weathers and waters, that they actually give up on swimming when it turns just a tad cold 😉.

Sunsets in Cadiz

We saw some gorgeous red sunsets while walking along the beach everyday. At night, we again saw the sun and moon together at the same time, it was quite a regular occurrence in Spain surprisingly. Also we kept noticing the phase of the moon everyday as it got to a full moon by the end of the trip. It looked lovely with its reflection on the water as we walked at night every day. Overall, I thought Cadiz was a nice resort town to relax, but it was too touristy and modern for my taste. Tarifa though where we went to next had the right balance.


Map



Part 2: Cadiz to Marbella