The Pueblos Blancos, the White Towns of Cádiz, are one of the reasons people head to Andaluzia. The houses were painted white in an attempt to keep away the unbearable heat felt on the region during the summer season.
Our road trip number 4 is all about gorgeous villages, right from the start at Vejer de la Frontera and Arcos de la Frontera, with their houses defying gravity on the edge of an abyss. Grazalema, Zahara de la Sierra, Olvera and Setenil de las Bodegas all vie with each other to enchant visitors with their charms. Although not a proper White Town, the trip ends in style in beautiful Ronda.
On day one, we depart from Seville and reach beautiful Vejer de la Frontera. After lunch, we are on the road again to Arcos de la Frontera, where we will spend the night.
A day full of magic ahead of us. Leaving Arcos de la Frontera, we make a stop at El Bosque to visit the interpretation center for the region and also to get acquainted with the wonderful goat cheeses produced locally. After that, we spend lunch time in Grazalema. The most dramatic drive of the route will take us to Olvera and then to Zahara de la Sierra, where we will spend the night.
Finally, on three we visit an impressive Roman settlement, walk through amazing Setenil de las Bodegas and end the drive in style with a night in Ronda.
IN SEARCH FOR INSPIRATION?
Check out the 20 best road trips in Spain and the 5 best road trips in Portugal.
Hello
Please let me know how to get more information on the tour of los Pueblos Blancos
Thank you
Hi, didn’t quite understand your question. The information is on the text above and on the three videos linked there too.
Hi Tony,
Thanks once again for your awesome videos and energetic presentation. Big fan and I’ve now watched almost all your videos and read all the info on your website! My wife will be coming from Australia and will be following your road trip routes for Pueblos Blancos and Aragon in September 2023 for one month. Will also go to heaps of other places you have done videos on. We might even try to make it to Zaragoza!
Just one important thing. What is the best way to give donations for your hard work? I have given some superthanks on Youtube but by the time my goverment takes the 10% GST then Youtube their 30% I’m sure you don’t see much of it. Are you able to take them via paypal or some other source? No problem either way, I just thought I’d ask prior as I can see countless hours of hard effort in putting these together.
Thank you. You have made our trip planning soo much easier!
Hello Nathan! For us the biggest reward are the kind of words you wrote for us. We are thinking of setting up a way of receiving donations from our viewers – probably through a voluntary subscription plan, but so far we only have the Superthanks option enabled (yes, we only get a fraction of what is given to us). All the information we provide is for free and we are happy to do so. Big rewards to Australia. Hope we will meet in the soccer World Cup final 🇦🇺🇪🇸!
Hi Tony,
We love your channel ! We are planning a trip to Andalusia in October and have watched many of your informative videos including the ones on driving in Spain, thanks much for all your guidance.
I had a few questions for you, Is it easy to visit some of the Pueblos Blancos mentioned here using public transport from Granada ? especially Setenil and Olvera. Our itinerary – we arrive in Seville, then Cordoba, then Granada. We hope to spend a couple of nights in a White village before returning to Seville. I am aware of BlaBla car, do you think this would be a reliable way to visit Olvera from Granada ? Lastly, if we hire a car at Granada for a couple of days and drop it off in Seville – the rentals are quite high. In that case I would rather take the car for the whole journey through Andalusia. What do you think ?
Please advise and Thanks in advance :)
Hello Sameer, the Pueblos Blancos can be visited using public transportation, but bear in mind:
a) you would need three times as much time, as the schedules are very limited.
b) public transport won’t take you to some of the most beautiful places along the route.
Bla bla car is used for people wanting to go from A to B, not usually for people wanting to do tourism. I have seen you are an excellent photographer (you take beautiful photos) and I’m quite sure you’ll want to stop an contemplate the landscape at will. If you take a bus, that is out of the question, and roughly the same on a Bla Bla car. Rent a car the moment you leave Seville (it won’t be of any use in Seville) and return it the moment you arrive to Granada.
All the best.
Hi Tony,
We love your channels. Thanks for the info you offered. We will be traveling to Southern Spain in mid-October, including a road trip for White Villages from Malaga to Seville with a rental car after visiting Cordoba and Granada. Question, is the drive challenging from Arcos de la Frontera to El Bosque to Grazalema? From your day-2 video, the road seems very narrow, is it 2-way?
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Ing
Hi Ing. The drive is scenic rather than challenging. The roads are good and you will even see minibuses driving through them. They are all 2 way roads. All the best.
thank you very much, Tony! – Ing
Hi Tony, I’m planning a trip in April to Spain for 2 weeks and stumbled onto your wonderful youtube channel. I’m arriving in Madrid on a Saturday and departing from Barcelona the following Saturday. I play to stay in Madrid for 3-4 days, a week in Andalusia, and ending it with 3-4days in Barcelona. During my week in Andalusia, I plan to visit Seville-Cordoba-some countryside like Ronda-Granada. I have some questions.
1) How does the plan look to you ? How would you do it if its not appropriate.
2) would it be better to do day trips from Seville to Ronda, Cordoba, Granada by doing day tours ? Or would it be better to do it with a car.
3) From Granada, I will need to get to Barcelona for the next leg. There isn’t a direct train to Barcelona, would it be better to rent a car and drive up to Barcelona staying somewhere near Valencia for the night ?
Hi Marc, welcome to the site!
1) few days for Madrid and Barcelona, the visit to both cities will feel rushed. In a week in Andalusia, we would stick to Córdoba, Seville and Granada, no time for more.
2) Granada cannot be contemplated as a day trip, we recommend a minimum of three days in the city. Córdoba can, but we encourage people to sleep at least the one night in the city.
3) there is a direct train to Barcelona indeed. Do not rent a car unless you plan to do a road trip along the way with many stops. We recommend a minimum of three nights for Valencia.
All the best.
Hi Tony. Like many, we happened on your channel and are hooked. You and Cecilia are godsends.
My wife and I are planning a trip to Spain in October.
Fly in and out of Madrid (from Boston)
Madrid – 2 days
Seville – 4 days
Granada 3 days
Ronda 2 days including cave and towns
Cordoba 2 days
Madrid – 3 days
1) Would you please comment on the # of days and sequence of cities? Seville and Granada attract us the most. We split Madrid because we couldn’t face a long flght followed by 2:45 on a train. Retired, we have some leeway in the length of our trip. Despite our ages, we are active travellers.
2) We will travel by train with one exception: travelling around Ronda to Cueva de la Pileta and perhaps Grazelma and Zahara de la Sierra. I had planned to rent a car but after reading Lonely Planet’s description of CA9104 as a spectacular + precipitous drive from Grazelma full of white-knuckle switchbacks – and watching your video- we’d prefer to get a driver. Even if I drove with your savoir faire, I would never get a chance to see the lovely scenery. Would you agree with this approach? I see above that you call the driving scenic rather than challenging. Would getting a driver be easy and for what cost?
3) What do you think of our selection of pueblos blancos?
4) At the end of one of your videos, you mentioned what I recall as “trip guides,” sort of apps for the phone. I do not find them on this site. How do I review and purchase these?
Thank you again reading my long comment and for your videos. We would gladly contribute in a way by which you receive the full amount.
Hi Jim, glad we are being of help.
1) The distribution of your time sounds reasonable. But if you want to follow our road trip, we would take out one day from Seville to make it possible.
2) Getting a driver wouldn’t be easy, we wouldn’t know where to start or who to recommend.
3) There are a million combinations possible, but on our road trip we have shown what we consider to be the most interesting.
4) You can check them out here. There is a link on the left sidebar of the website.
You can help us by buying our guides but only if you feel they will be useful to you. All the very best to you.
Hi Tony
been binge watching your channel – thank you!!
I have pulled together a 44 day trip Spain/Portugal. would love your advice on my plan if possible?
or if anyone on the forum has any advice or tips on my itinerary, ,much obliged!
Thank you in advance
DATE FROM TIME DATE TO TIME nights
16-Sep Mel 16-Sep Madrid
16-Sep 22-Sep Madrid 6
17-Sep Madrid 17-Sep Zaragosa 1 hr 15
18-Sep Madrid 18-Sep Segovi/Avila
19-Sep Madrid 19-Sep Salamanca
20-Sep Madrid 20-Sep Toledo 36 mins
21-Sep Madrid 22-Sep Madrid
22-Sep Madrid 22-Sep Cordoba 1hr 47
22-Sep Cordoba 24-Sep Cordoba 2
24-Sep Cordoba 24-Sep Granada 1hr 32
24-Sep Granada 27-Sep Granada 3
27-Sep Granada 27-Sep Nerja 2hr 15
27-Sep Nerja 30-Sep Nerja 3
30-Sep Nerja 30-Sep Malaga 1hr 15
30-Sep Malaga 3-Oct Malaga 3
3-Oct Malaga 3-Oct Seville 2hr 45
3-Oct Seville 6-Oct Seville 3
6-Oct Seville 6-Oct Faro 2hr35
6-Oct Faro 13-Oct Faro 7
13-Oct Faro 13-Oct Lisbon 3hr30
13-Oct Lisbon 18-Oct Lisbon 5
18-Oct Lisbon 20-Oct Porto 3hr 45
20-Oct Porto 29-Oct Porto 9
29-Oct Porto 29-Oct Vigo 2hr 22
29-Oct Vigo 29-Oct Vigo 1
29-Oct Vigo 29-Oct Madrid
29-Oct Madrid 31-Oct Madrid 2
1-Nov Madrid 2-Nov Melbourne
As we stated on our previous reply to you, we intend to create a consultancy service to help with queries like yours, but so far it is at a planning stage. In the meantime, this video is a good starting point for any planning.