A walking holiday in the Grazalema Sierra

Could not have enjoyed our walking holiday in Grazalema more. The village is unspoiled by mass tourism (so far) and the walking in the surrounding coutryside and mountains is fabulous. Having the hire car meant we could visit some of the other beatuiful pueblos blancos. La Mejorana is a lovely little hotel. Great breakfasts and packed lunches. After a hard day's walking it was so nice to relax by the pool for a coupe of hours or sit on the attractive terrace. Our host Andres is a lovely chap and very knowledgable about walking routes. Thoroughly recommend both the village and La Mejorana! 

Enjoyed our holiday, remote traditional village centred holiday. Reasonable prices when eating out. The locals were very friendly too. Speaking some words of Spanish can help. Marvellous hotel and excellent service with the owner making us feeling really at home. Andres has perfect English. He lit a fire each night for us! Both restaurants in the voucher scheme were fine but the best meals were either in the gastrobar opp the hotel or Casa las Piedras. We enjoyed the el Simancon and gorge walks best plus the circuit to Benaocaz with the extension to Dornajo was really atmospheric. We didn’t have time to do llanos de ravel or the Montejacque circuit, maybe next time!

Our stay is Grazalema was very enjoyable. Andres was very helpful and very knowledgeable on the walks in the area. The property is in a very scenic position and we were very impressed with the restaurants and facilities in Grazalema.

Well worth visiting when the nature reserve was open and going to El Bosque to get the permits for any day of the week, though still not the weekend even in November. The local TI could only issue them for that day or the next day and didn't open until 10.00.

Our highlights included a walk to the summit of The Simancon on a very fine day, a visit to Ronda enhanced by Inntravel walking notes, a visit to the excellent Pileta caves, and simply staying and eating in Grazalema. We think that a visit to the Pileta caves should be compulsory for all Grazelama Inntravellers! Overall, we had a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable holiday. 

It might be worth noting that we arrived on the weekend of the Festival which changed Grazamela into a very busy, noisy place (including gun-shots) for two days or more. Awareness of this would have been helpful. Parking is a very problematic task during this popular event. 

We loved the area, Grazalema was authentic and very beautiful. The mountain walks are challenging in a 'mainly' good way. The flowers and griffon vultures were spectacular.

Wildlife, magnificent flora & fauna. Very striking location. Beautiful area of Spain, for hospitality and scenery.

Personal highight was organising a nature guide for one day. As a way of learning quickly about a new area we would strongly recommend it. Saw flowers and birds that we otherwise would not have found or indentified.

Grazalema is a charming village. The hotel is quiet, friendly and well-situated. The countryside is varied. The walks are excellent. 

Grazalema was fantastic and our hosts were marvellous and helped in every way. The hiking is spectacular and, in April, there were so many wildflowers and birds in song. The vultures put on a wonderful display.

We would recommend flying to Seville and having the add-on there. The Alcazar in Seville was the highlight and we were glad we booked our tickets online in advance because the queue is long otherwise. The Cathedral is also very interesting. The bus from Seville Airport was good and cheap but the stops were confusing on the trip in and are a long walk from the hotel. You may prefer to get a taxi from the airport. 

Grazalema is very pretty with spectacular mountain scenery and vultures and other birds of prey all around. We had a lovely sunny week and found there were more than enough walks in the pack at the appropriate level to do. We would also recommend the walks in the 2018 Cicerone guide to the Mountains of Ronda and Grazalema. We were impressed with the quality of and interpretation on the footpaths. We particularly enjoyed walking into the reserve to see the ancient pine forest and a day in Ronda. Both restaurants were good and reasonably priced. 

You will have tremendous hosts and get to stay in a lovely part of Spain. Because of poor weather we only managed a limited amount of walking. However, there are clearly some spectacular routes. 

We thought La Mejorana was a splendid base, in large measure because of the excellent welcome and service from Ana and Andres. The two included restaurants provided excellent and tasty meals, and we would also recommend Casa de las Piedras where we enjoyed two memorable meals. As to walks, the ascent of Simancon and the Montejaque circuit were the highlights, though an encounter with two Golden Eagles soaring above us while picnicking at Llanos de Ravel was also very special (and made a change from the ubiquitous Griffons).

HIGHLIGHTS: We feel that it was the welcome, service and assistance offered by Andrés, at La Mejorana, that made this holiday, alongside the landscape – and the unusually excellent weather! We went with a walking and wildlife focus – brill, with Ring Ouzel and Common Crossbill seen from the breakfast table…and three snake species on the walks! Breakfast at sunrise, walking until sunset in the quiet of the evening – we made best use of the days at this time of year.

 TIPS: Have a torch to hand to check the hire car at Malaga airport, as the garage is internal and poorly lit. The lane up to the hotel is very steep. It is possible to park at the laneside at times – or drive on through the double bend, and there is a signed rough parking area on the right-hand side. Andrés has a pack with some additional walks details, particularly including several shorter circuits from Grazalema. These are largely from about 2001, and have not been updated – but Andrés may be able to provide you with guidance. We managed to obtain permits directly from the tourist office in Grazalema – they phoned El Bosque to check availability, and issued the paper permits there and then. Access to the protected area re-opened on Monday, 16th October this year, after an extremely dry summer. If you can’t get access to the walks in the permit-only area of the Natural Park, consider doing the Zahara de la Sierra – Puerto de la Breña circuit in Guy Hunter-Watts’ ‘Walking in Andalucía’ (2017). This walk stays outside of the protected area, but gives excellent views in towards the gorges and pinsapo forest. The El Bosque river walk and the Smugglers’ Trail can both be busy at weekends. Consider doing the Smugglers’ Trail in reverse, i.e. starting at Jimera del Libar – walking with the sun somewhere behind you, and catching the late afternoon or evening train back. We found route issues with some of the Inntravel walks. We have reported these to Inntravel, and trust that they will act upon them accordingly. If visiting Sevilla from Grazalema, consider getting the Metro in from the outskirts. Drive to Montequinto (Dos Hermanas), just off of the main road into the city. Parking is easy and free – then pick up the Metro from one of the four stations in the area. See the Metro Sevilla website for a map of the route overlaid on a street plan. Pileta Caves – worth visiting for the prehistoric artwork. The guided tour can be a bit hit-or-miss – we booked a tour with a helpful English-speaking guide, who advised us to stay close to him, and gave us a translation of the main points; however, amongst a large group of Spaniards, we inevitably missed out on much of the communication. Electric lamps are now used on the tour, shared one between two people. If you need to fill up with petrol before returning the car, there is a petrol station on the airport access road.

The Grazalema Sierra are very beautiful - a beacon on the horizon visible from many parts of Andalucia. We first walked there over 35 years ago and the walking is still stunning, peaceful and varied. The views are magical and those griffon vultures accompany you from dawn to dusk. Check the dates to make sure all the walks are accessible - parts of the reserve are closed in the summer/autumn months due to fire risk. We would highly recommend the climb up to the top of Simancon; we also followed a well marked path from Los Terrajos north east along the river through wonderful cork oak forest. The village of Grazalema is a gem which does bring tourists but the bars and restaurants are full of charming local families. Included meals in Restaurant Simancon and Torreón were excellent. We would also recommend the Gastrobar in the tiny square above the hotel - really good tapas especially the aubergines with honey! The hosts at La Mejorana could not have been more welcoming and helpful. The hotel has wonderful views and provides fridge, cutlery, corkscrew etc so you can 'self cater' and sit on the lovely terrace. 

We really enjoyed our stay at La Mejorana, a lovely old house in a very unspoilt white village surrounded by amazing mountains and walks. The hosts Ana and Andrés were extremely helpful and hospitable.

The combination of an excellent and very friendly family run hotel, in a “lived in” village with the right facilities (including some good restaurants), with just being able to walk out of the front door into fantastic walking country, is pretty unbeatable. To cap it all, our east facing room provided views of fantastic sunrises every morning, which had me up early on our little balcony. 

Hotel Mejorana and its owner are an absolute delight. The town of Grazelema has good restaurants, especially the two that we had vouchers for. We are keen hill walkers so the area suited us and we chose some of the more difficult walks some days. There are also easier walks to suit most people of average fitness. The views from the walks are amazing. The shops and restaurants are not expensive but that is not reflected in the quality of the food. Prepare to put on a few pounds even if you are walking most days. Can't recommend this holiday enough.

A thoroughly relaxing and interesting holiday. Seville is a beautiful city, spend as much time just pottering and sitting in cafes/bars watching the world go by as visiting the sights. The countryside around Grazalema is stunning and provides lots of varied walking opportunities. My favourite walk was the Montejaque circuit (we started it in Montejaque, although a longer drive to the start it was worth it to do the long climb in the cool and shade of the morning).

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined our Seville City add-on with the walking holiday The Grazalema Sierra

The hotel and its owners are wonderful. Don't dismiss the bar opposite the hotel. The food is good, quick and cheap. We especially liked broken eggs and sausage after a long hard walk. Take a day off to go to Cape Trafalgar for a super beach and views of Africa and Gibraltar. Take plenty of water for the Zahara walk. On a hot day you will need 3 litres.

Walks in glorious scenery almost everywhere we went.  Simancon climb was a highlight.

The landscape around Grazalema is stunning, an unusual mix of impressive limestone mountains and outcrops and cereal fields - almost ready for harvest in May! Wonderful meadows and a profusion of flowers. There is a little hill, Coros, on the Zahara road, near the mirador. It is well worth a climb as it goes from the pass and is only about 500ft of ascent, but it is a fantastic viewpoint all round and not far from the vulture gorge so lots of birds to see, including a short-toed eagle. A highlight in the Alpujarras was seeing a golden oriole for the first time.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer combined two discovery walking holidays - Life in an Alpujarran Village and The Grazalema Sierra

The circular walk including the ascent of Simancon, traverse to Reboj and then return to Grazalema was outstanding. This is a challenging route with some scrambling on the traverse between the two peaks but is well worth it. Andres provided walking notes for this route

A perfect centre to do a wide range of walks. To be up high in the mountains with views for miles around, no other walkers in sight whilst Griffin Vultures circled overhead and beneath us in the valley was such a privilege. We couldn't have attempted the walks without Inntravel's notes which were clear and helpful. The hotel was lovely and perfectly situated in the middle of Grazelema. 

The highlight of the trip was fantastic viewing of the Griffon Vultures at the Gorge, don't forget your binoculars! You can apply for permits for the Natural Park at the local tourist office in advance of the day that you need them. We couldn't get a permit for the Saturday as they had all been issued in advance.

We had a great vacation in this stunning setting! The walks were beautiful and varied, with enough challenge to make them interesting.  Although it was off-season, and some restaurants had limited hours or were closed, we enjoyed good food and friendly people throughout our stay.  We enjoyed the side trip to the big city of Ronda, and were happy to come "home" to smaller, quieter Grazalema and our refuge at La Mejorana.

The Sierra Grazalema is a wonderful landscape in Andalucia, characterized by white limestone rocks rising up to 1550m and Mediterranean vegetation. The accommodation for this trip was in a small, nice and quiet hotel. The owner of the Hotel was always very friendly and always supported us in preparing our walks.

Inntravel not only organized the rental car and the accommodation for us, but provided us with a travel guide containing 10 well described walks in the area and giving all organizational and cultural background you might want to have when you walk there. So we could, depending on the weather and our personal preferences, choose the perfect walk for each day.

Walking in the Grazalema Sierra is very impressive, you always have the contrast between white rocks and green vegetation, and everywhere you get wonderful outlooks deep into Andalucia or into deep Spain. Most impressive: every day you see somewhere one, two or sometimes even dozens of the large griffon vultures circling in the sky. The paths in the Grazalema Sierra are mostly small and unmarked and often not easy to be found. So walking there is often kind of adventurous, but with Inntravel's walk descriptions you cannot get lost. The most impressive walks for us was climbing the highest point of the Sierra - the Simancon, walking through the rocks from Grazalema to Villaluenga, being pathfinders in the rocks around Montejaque, visiting the vultures in the Garganta Verde and walking in an open landscape from the ancient white village of Zahara to Grazalema.

This trip can be highly recommended to everyone who wants to explore Andalucia, see an impressive landscape and be active on not too easy walks with some degree of adventure.