A Four Day Andalusian Road Trip

There’s nothing quite like cruising down the highway with your friends in the hills of Andalusia, singing your favorite songs, staring out the window at the cows and olive trees flying by, knowing you’re on your way to fill your bellies with tapas and wine for the weekend. That’s exactly how I spent Thanksgiving weekend this year while visiting my friends in Spain, and I can confirm: it’s as fun as it sounds.

If you’re new to the blog, my two friends Liv and Nijal currently live and teach English in Spain in a tiny town called Pozoblanco. I stayed with them for almost a month this past fall, and since they had some time off of school for Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to take a road trip through southern Spain, visiting the cities of Granada, Setenil de las Bodegas, and Ronda. It was a pretty perfect four-day road trip, filled with incredible sights, lovely people, lots of exploring, and the best tapas I think I’ve ever had. I hadn't even heard of ⅔ of the destinations on our trip before planning it, but now I can’t imagine not having experienced them–this is your sign to follow in our footsteps and treat yourself to a carefree, fun-and-food-filled Spanish road trip this year!

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THE ITINERARY

Our Thursday to Sunday road trip itinerary looked like this:

Thursday afternoon: drive from Pozoblanco to Granada
Thursday night - Saturday morning: stay in Granada
Saturday morning: drive to Setenil de las Bodegas
Saturday afternoon: drive to Ronda
Saturday night: stay in Ronda
Sunday morning: drive to Córdoba
Sunday afternoon: bus to Pozoblanco

We knew we wanted more time in Granada because it was the biggest city on the trip, and we also knew Setenil de las Bodegas could be a shorter pitstop since it’s a very small town that’s more of a tourist attraction. Those points made it easy to decide that we’d spend two nights in Granada, then make a stop in Setenil on our way to Ronda for our last night.

In total, we spent about 8-9 hours driving over the span of the long weekend. We rented our car from Córdoba, and each destination was under 3 hours away from us in Pozoblanco - though if you want to take the same road trip from another city like Málaga or Seville, the drive times are even shorter!

GRANADA SIGHTSEEING

Granada is an absolutely beautiful, charming, historic city that really stole my heart from the moment we started exploring. Our Airbnb was in the heart of the city, making it extremely walkable no matter where we went - though do keep in mind, Granada is an extremely hilly city, and if you do a lot of walking here, it’ll be more like hiking! The hills are most definitely worth it to get to the views of the city, though.

If you do nothing else besides wandering and eating here, you’ll still have a wonderful time–however, there are definitely some sights worth seeing while you’re in the city of Granada, and I’m sharing all the ones we did below!

THE ALHAMBRA

One absolute must-see when you’re in Granada is the Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex in the center of the city and one of the most famous and well-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. The Alhambra has multiple sections to explore, including the Nasrid Palaces (ticket and entry time is required), the Alcazaba, and the Generalife gardens.

NASRID PALACES

The main highlight is without a doubt the Nasrid Palaces: the complex of palaces, baths, gardens, and courts belonging to the rulers of the Nasrid era. It’s an incredible preservation of Moorish architecture and Islamic history, and was one of the most interesting landmarks I’ve ever seen. The intricate details carved into almost every surface are incredibly impressive to look at, and the vibrant colors are so beautiful to see everywhere you turn! I was truly in awe throughout my entire walkthrough–the Mexuar, the Court of the Myrtles, and the Court of the Lions were all particularly breathtaking, and the Garden of Dar Aisha was a gorgeous, serene area just before the exit.

Court of the Myrtles

Court of the Lions

Hall of the Mexuar

Garden of Dar Aisha

THE ALCAZABA

The Alcazaba is the military fortress next to the palaces, dating back to the 9th century. It was originally used as a royal residence and a military fortress, but once the Nasrid palaces were constructed, the royals moved their residences to the palaces and kept the Alcazaba as their fortress. While much of the Alcazaba is barren, the views here are absolutely stunning, overlooking the entirety of Granada and beyond!

GENERALIFE GARDENS

The Generalife gardens are another beautiful and peaceful area of the Alhambra, containing orchards, buildings, and courtyards blooming with trees and flowers. It was originally built in the 13th century, though it’s been reconstructed and redecorated many times since. You can easily walk between the Nasrid Palaces and the Generalife in about 15 minutes, and it’s a great relaxing activity to enjoy after walking through the crowded palaces.

From personal experience, you’ll need to book a ticket at least a week in advance, or even farther in peak tourist seasons. You will have an entry time for the Nasrid Palaces when you buy an entrance ticket, and this is strict–be sure to get in line before your time slot so you don’t miss it. You can visit the Alcazaba and Generalife at your own pace at any time before or after your Nasrid Palace time slot. There are also guided tour options, but they are substantially more expensive than just getting GA tickets from the official site. Since general tickets were sold out for us, I opted to get the Granada Card instead of booking a guided tour - it cost about the same as a tour, but it let me choose whatever entry time I wanted for the Nasrid Palaces (with no tour group to adhere to), plus access to tons of other landmarks and transportation around the city. If you’re not a guided tour kind of person, try to get your tickets ahead of time first, but the Granada Card is a great Plan B.

SACROMONTE CAVE MUSEUMS

One of the most unique aspects of Granada is the neighborhood of Sacromonte and its history of the Roma people and their cave dwellings. If you venture up the steep hills to the cave museums, you’ll see 11 different preserved caves that have been turned into museum exhibits for visitors to experience the history and culture of Sacromonte. Each cave showcases a different aspect of the Roma community and their lifestyle; there’s a basket weaving cave, one with handmade ceramics, and even a whole network of rooms that share information about cave dwelling culture around the world. You’ll also learn about Flamenco culture and its important history in the Andalusia region, and there’s a lookout point with a view of the entire Darro River Valley, which is incredibly impressive! Tickets are only 5€ and it’s an incredible opportunity to have an immersive learning experience in this unique and historic part of Granada.

(Pro tip: if you’ve been walking around Granada all day and don’t think you can make it up the hills, you can Uber almost the whole way to the museum like we did.)

GRANADA FOOD

The food in Spain is some of the best food I’ve had throughout all of my travels (as expected). Everything is so fresh and vibrant, and you can tell that the food in Spain is made with so much care and pride, from expensive meals down to tiny plates of tapas. Being in the Iberian Peninsula, Iberian ham is a delicacy pretty much everywhere you go in Spain, and they’ll pretty much force feed it to you every time you order a drink somewhere–and I’m not complaining one bit.

Which brings me to my favorite thing about Spain (and especially Granada): tapas culture. It’s simple–you go to a bar, you order a drink, and you get free tapas. It’s pretty much customary in Granada, and it’s always delicious! Just look at the photos below–all of that food came free with our drinks! It also helps that drinks are only around 3€ (and ordering larger portions of food isn’t much more, either), so you can end up have a pretty substantial meal for super cheap just by going out drinking at the bars. I move for free tapas culture to be embraced everywhere!

We were going to book a wine and tapas tour while we were in Granada, but we ended up just each choosing a bar and doing our own little tapas crawl instead, and honestly, it was probably more fun (and much cheaper) than the tour would have been. I talk some more about the specific places we went in my latest Spain food guide, but as a tip for now: go to Bar Poë and you won’t be disappointed.

SETENIL DE LAS BODEGAS

Setenil de las Bodegas is a small town north of Ronda that’s famous for its buildings built into the overhanging cliffs in the area. We stopped here for lunch before heading to Ronda, and it was a great little side trip to see a really cool town we might not have gotten to see otherwise! Calle Cuevas del Sol is the main road in town, and it’s home to some really beautiful shops and restaurants that we enjoyed popping into. We didn’t go up to the Nazari Castle, but if you do, you’ll see the remains of the Arab fortress that once overlooked the town.

Like most towns we visited in Spain, Setenil is extremely hilly and finding parking wasn’t the easiest task, but we made it to the center of town and spent a couple hours exploring the whitewashed streets, eating a delicious meal at La Telera overlooking the gorge, and watching locals play music, sing, and dance throughout the city. The food here was absolutely amazing–definitely one of the best meals I’ve had in Spain! I’m telling you, no matter where you go in Spain, you can just taste the pride in the food that’s made, and it makes the dining experience even more impressive. Not to mention the sense of community everywhere you go as well! It was so refreshing to walk down the street, especially in a smaller town like Setenil de las Bodegas, and see huge tables of people dining together, singing songs, dancing for the crowds, and just having fun without a care in the world. It really was an unforgettable place, and I can’t imagine this sweet little town not being a part of our Andalusian adventure!

RONDA

Though we only spent one night in Ronda, it felt like such a necessary and special end to our road trip. Seriously, walking up to the bridge and seeing that view (and that drop)? Just unbeatable. The Puente Nuevo is Ronda’s largest bridge, stretching over the Guadalevín River and El Tajo gorge. It took 34 years to build starting in 1759–and it’s the newest of Ronda’s three bridges! Pictures truly don’t do it justice, especially showing just how high the bridge is above the gorge. If you’re afraid of heights, this bridge might not be your cup of tea (even I got a bit dizzy looking over the edge), but it’s truly such an amazing sight to see.

We were also lucky enough to find an Airbnb that was only a 5 minute walk to the bridge, and let me just say… if all the houses in this city are similar to the Airbnb we booked, the people of Ronda are living lavish. We had just enough time in town to grab a drink overlooking the bridge, take a self-guided walking tour, and go out to dinner at Tropicana, where we had a lovely (albeit expensive) meal! Ronda was definitely a highlight of my time in Spain, and if you’re exploring Andalusia, you absolutely need to visit this city, even if you just pass through.