White Towns & Rugged Mountains

Varied walks in a very beautiful and mostly quiet part of Spain. For many of the walks, we saw almost no-one (Grazelema excepted, where we were at the weekend). The views are stunning. The accommodation was very good and we were impressed by the warm welcome from the hoteliers, especially Andres at La Mejorana in Grazelema. Our meal at El Torreon in Grazelema was very enjoyable - very friendly waiting staff (we have no Spanish at all!), and delicious, hearty regional food. Our favourite walk was to the Pinsappo Reserve - the panoramic views are breathtaking, and it was wonderful to walk into a forest of these rare trees. The walk from Grazelema to Benaojan felt long and tricky, so we decided to take a day off the following day. Instead of doing the walks around Benaojan, we did a short and pretty walk along the river as far as the Cueva del Gato, and took advantage of our lovely balcony, the hotel pool and lunch in the excellent restaurant. The short walk to Ronda the next day gave us time to explore. Ronda is busy with tourists, even in May, but there's almost no-one there before 10am, and we had the cobbled old town almost to ourselves. 

One of the best holidays we've had with Inntravel. The Grazalema Sierra is a wonderful area with extraordinary mountain scenery and we were delighted by the abundance and diversity of wildflowers, butterflies and birds in this surprisingly lush and green corner of Spain. Hearing nightingales sing was a particular highlight. There was a real sense of peacefulness and remoteness on the walk from Grazalema to Benaojan, but in fact we barely saw another soul on any of the longer walks. The hotels were the usual high standard we expect from Inntravel, the food excellent and staff extremely friendly and welcoming. Definitely worth making time to explore Grazalema and Ronda, and adding on an extra day in Ronda meant we could enjoy wandering almost deserted streets and soaking up the atmosphere before the daytrippers arrived.

Another superb self-guided walking holiday organised by Inntravel. I was keen to discover the interior of the Cádiz & Málaga provinces and this 4-centred holday was the perfect way to do it. The accommodation in each centre was up to the usual excellent Inntravel standard with a friendly welcome at each of them. Evening meals were served in 2 of the 4 hotels (in Zahara de la Sierra & Benaoján). As regards Grazalema, I followed Inntravel's suggestions and ate at Simancón & Torreón restaurants before finding another excellent restaurant in the Plaza de España, Cádiz El Chico. The walks were nice and varied and I particularly enjoyed 2 of the walks that required permits: Garganta Verde (from Zahara de la Sierra) & the Pinsapo Reserve (from Grazalema), both with stunning views. I spent an extra night in Grazalema and also in Ronda which was a brilliant way to finish the holiday. Ronda is such an interesting town and certainly worth having a good look around. 

After the frustrations of a myriad of administrative issues before the trip, the trip itself was a joy and thankfully up to Inntravel's usual standards. The amount of wild flowers at this time of year was truly remarkable. The walking notes were very good but we would highly recommend downloading and using the GPS as some of the paths are not very well waymarked as they have been in other countries/trips. We particularly enjoyed the longer option from Grazalema to Benaojan, the views in the second part of this walk were the best of the holiday. I would recommend an extra day in Grazalema as there are so many walks to choose from.  

HIGHLIGHT: Our first hour in the wonderful Llanos de Rabel with nobody there except us and the birds.

We loved the small towns and we were very lucky to be walking through lots of wild flowers. We added an extra night in Grazalema, which allowed us to climb Simancon, we followed Andre's suggested route which allowed us to summit Reloj and complete a circular walk, it was quite long and quite technical between Simancon & Reloj so I can see why Inntravel suggest retracing your steps but we enjoyed it. We had a lovely meal in Cadiz El Chico on our last night in Grazalema. We loved all the accommodation but we definitely chose the best place to add an extra night for the choice of extra walks and being able to relax on the hotel terrace when returning from our walks. We had a breakfast box at El Molino del Santo which allowed us to leave Benaojan at 8am, and with the help of Ricardo from the hotel we shortened the walk to Ronda by starting in Montejaque. We arrived in Ronda around 11am which gave us ample time to fully explore Ronda, the moorish baths and Mondragon palace closed at 3pm on the Sunday so it was important to arrive in time to see both of these.

I'm not a fan of city breaks but we enjoyed 2 days in Seville at the end of the holiday. Abaceria del Postigo is a fantastic small tapas restaurant 5 minutes walk from the cathedral. Definitely take in a Flamenco show. 

Our favorite walk was from Grazelema to Benaojan. Quite isolated saw only two other hikers. We loved the dinners at Zahara especially and dining al fresco! Meals also excellent at El Molino del Santo. In Ronda we dined at Arrabal which we highly recommend for the great food, magnificent view and friendly staff!  

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined three holidays - the White Towns & Rugged Mountains walk, A Trail of Three Cities journey, and a Taste of the Catalan Coast walk.

First and foremost, please can we thank you for organising such an amazing holiday for us.  This was a special holiday as Charles had just retired and we wanted to celebrate this major event with a special holiday.  This was our ‘retirement honeymoon!’ There was a special surprise waiting for us on our arrival at Al Largo, in Zahara – a particularly nice bottle of wine. 

Right from the beginning you embraced all of our requests. We always travel by train within Europe and your travel team put together the perfect itinerary. 

We actually did 4 holidays back-to-back.  All of the hotels were unique and amazing.  The hoteliers held Inntravel in great respect and had clearly had a long-standing relationship with you. The hotels were all centrally located with regional and historical features.  It’s impossible to single out one individual hotel but we were particularly touched by the view of the Alhambra from our room at the Casa Morisca in Granada; truly a ‘room with a view.’

All of the restaurants that we ate at were brilliant.  The hotel restaurants at Al Largo, Zahara; Molino de Santa, Benaojan and Sant Roc, Calella were wonderful.  We also tried to follow your recommendations wherever possible.  It would be impossible to list every restaurant but here are a few highlights and also some new ones to recommend to future Inntravellers.

Madrid: for great tapas try wandering down the road Calle de Leon, just around the corner from the hotel (Catalonia las Cortes). We would highly recommend ‘Triciclo,’ 28 Calle Santa Maria (www.restaurantetriciclo.com) also a short walk from the hotel, a great fine-dining experience – easy to book online.

Ronda: Carrera Oficial (C. Pedro Romero, www.carreraoficialronda.com ) was wonderful and just around the corner from La Taberna (one of your recommendations and probably some of the best tapas we had but you might need to wait for a table).  The Panoramic bar at the Catalonia Hotel in Ronda overlooks the bullring and has views all the way back El Torreon!  Great for a glass of cava watching the sunset.

Cordoba: The Casa Pepe Tapas bar was better than the Casa Pepe Restaurant in our opinion. We also recommend Taberna No 10 (www.tabernaelnumero10cordoba.com ) just down from the hotel, La Llave de la Juderia. 

Granada: Lunch on the terrace at the Parador in the Alhambra is recommended after the guided tour of the site.  The Huerto de Juan Ranas (one of your recommendations) does not take reservations so you just have to queue. The views over to the Alhambra and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada beyond are stunning but it does get chilly after the sun goes down so it’s worth recommending people bring an extra layer if dining in April. 

Begur: the restaurant at the Sa Tuna Hotel on the beach at Sa Tuna was our last proper meal before heading home and this was probably one of, if not the best meals of the holiday.  We arrived early and booked a table (initially they said they were full but a bit of name dropping by saying we were staying at the Hotel Aiquaclara, and mentioning Suzanne by name, got us a table).  The baked rice with prawns was the specialty of the house (which everyone in the restaurant seemed to be eating) was amazing.  The ceviche starter was probably the best single dish of the whole holiday.

One of the main reasons for choosing these particular holidays was to do walks in the Grazalema National Park, around the historical cities and along unspoilt stretches of the Costa Brava. 

The walks in the Grazalema region were all amazing despite the rain on our first two days.  We got completely soaked doing the Llanos de Ravel walk and the walk from Zahara to Grazalema. What were described as dry stream beds in the walking notes were raging torrents.  At one point along the Arroyo de Gaidovar valley we came across a ford that was completely impassable. Fortunately, I had downloaded all of the GPX files from your website and using the ‘Outdooractive’ app it was easy to retrace our way back to the road and continue along the road to re-join our route. This was not the only time that the GPX files and the Outdooractive app helped.  On the route from Calella to Begur there were changes to the route that didn’t fit with the written notes.  The app gave us the confidence to continue knowing our exact location relative to the route (although the map would also have helped).

It would be impossible to single out any individual walk but we certainly would recommend that people do the linear walk from Grazalema through the Pinsapos reserve to reach Benamahoma even though this necessitates a taxi ride home (easily booked by Andreas at La Mejorana). By doing the linear walk you come out from the reserve to a picnic area with stunning views of El Torreon. We would also recommend the longer walk from Grazalema to Benaojan as this gives stunning views towards Ronda on the final descent. 

Of the recommended city walks, the walk in Granada through the Albaicin to Sacromonte is very special. Starting at the Moorish Baths also gives access to other interesting buildings along the route.  The Casa del Chapiz along the way is worth adding to the notes.  Here there are gardens of orange trees looking across to the Alhambra. 

This brings me to another highlight of the holiday: the smell of orange blossom.  This was truly amazing in the gardens particularly in Cordoba and Granada.  Away from the cities, the wildflowers across the country routes were wonderful.  This is clearly the best time of the year to see such masses of wildflowers.  The wildlife was special with such diverse species from the griffin vultures around Grazalema to bats flying around the trees by the coast at Calella to frogs croaking in the recently filled pools in the meadows by the ‘rock gardens’ to dung beetles rolling balls of dung uphill to braying donkeys in the distance (heard but not seen). 

Culturally, the Alhambra was the highlight.  We had an amazing tour guide (Sabina) who was entertaining as well as informative. Other things that deserve a special mention are the Sorolla museum in Madrid and the Mooring baths in Ronda.  

All in all, this was an amazing holiday that Inntravel had perfectly choregraphed.  All the of travel arrangements were perfect with all trains running on time and all of the tickets spot on.  The walks were amazing through stunning regions.  The hotels were all unique and each one had its own character and charm.  The food at the hotels was always wonderful and the outside restaurants that you recommended were also of excellent quality.  We did find a few outside of your recommendations and are happy to allow you to inform other Inntravellers about our finds.  Thank you for all of your attention to detail that makes your holidays so special: we would never go with any other company for this type of holiday. 

The remote and beautiful mountains, and the contrasting pristine white villages created a wonderful combination. We really enjoyed the variety of walks, were rewarded with terrific views and were surrounded by spring flowers and birdsong. Each day, after enjoying the stunning and varied scenery, we were greeted with a very warm welcome on our return to our hotel.  

The meals we had at the Hotel al Lago and the Molino del Santo were superb. A real treat. We enjoyed the wonderful wild flowers, especially the orchid. The receptionist at al Lago persuaded us to go to the Garganta Verde, rather than doing one of the other routes provided. She was quite right, it was a spectacular day and a really good start to the holiday. We were lucky with the dry weather, although Sahara dust in the air somewhat restricted the views. It was quite a shock to wake up on our last morning in Ronda to see the hills we had walked through covered in snow. We were glad we stayed a second night in Ronda, which gave us the chance to explore at leisure. I would also highly recommend the Mesón El Sacristán restaurant in Ronda, where we had dinner on our last evening. Probably the best meal of the entire holiday.

Excellent holiday with varied walks. The Peublo Blancos are just beautiful with little bars/restaurants in the squares where you can sit and watch the world go by. The Green Gorge walk in Zahara was amazing, almost other worldly. All we could hear was the sound of the birds echoing around us. We would recommend an extra day in Grazalema as there were so many walks to choose from - paticularly enjoyed the 2 Valleys walk. The hotels in Grazalema and Benaojan were our favourites. Breakfast on the terrace overlooking the pool and village in Grazalema was such a lovely start to the day and the owners, Andres and Anna couldn't have been more welcoming. The hotel in Benaojan had the most wonderful food - for dessert, try their homemade pistachio cheesecake with cherry and vanilla icecream. We are still talking about it!  

Thank you to the staff at Inntravel who set this holiday up for us at very short notice. We had a wonderful time in Andalucia. We loved all the cities but Cordoba was definitely our favourite - Llave de la Juderia was a brilliant hotel and the staff there made some excellent suggestions of restaurants and places to explore. The Alhambra was just amazing, an unforgettable experience with an excellent tour guide. We also saw some excellent flamenco at the Plaza D'Espana.

We loved walking in the Sierra de Grazelema - highlights included La gargante Verde, Dornajo Loop, Pinsapo Forest and the walk between Grazelema and Benaojan. Lots of birdlife and flowers including loads of different orchids and the amazing griffon vultures. Our favourite hotel was La Mejorana in Grazelema. We had an extra night there and could have stayed longer as there are plenty of walks. An excellent restaurant was La Cocina di Gaidovar - wonderful food at reasonable prices and much better than the two included restaurants. We also had a chance to see one of the Semana Santo parades in Ronda - a real spectacle.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined our A Trail of Three Cities journey with the White Towns and Rugged Mountains walk.

Overall this was a fantastic holiday. The walking was just as described, beautiful white villages and the wonderful rugged mountains. The accommodation was very good, outstandingly so, the Molino del Santo in Benaojan. Inntravel provided all the information needed to help you navigate through this wonderful countryside. It was great to have different options for walks, though some were not possible due to national park closures from June to October because of fire risk. (For us this was probably a blessing, otherwise we'd still be trying to decide which of the many options to take!) Getting in touch with Inntravel was very easy and the staff were very friendly and helpful. I'd recommend the add on stay in Malaga, my first visit and thoroughly enjoyed it. There's lots to see in Malaga and Inntravel supply information for this, but a visit to the Caminito del Rey is a must. My partner had been with Inntravel before and I understand now why she spoke so highly of them as a great travel company.

The highlights were the walks between the white towns & definitely we would recommend the longer walk between Grazalema & Benojaen, the goats track down was a beautiful path & a real highlight. Having 2 nights in Ronda & then 3 in Cordoba & Seville worked really well for us as we like to take our time & soak up the atmosphere of a place. 2 nights would not have been enough.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined our walk White Towns and Rugged Mountains with a tailored version of our discovery journey by rail A Trail of Three Cities 

This White Villages was one of our top four (which just speaks to the excellence of the other 10 or so walks we've done) despite several rainy days. The food at Al Lago and Molino del Santo was particularly good. Our favourite walks incuded the Grazalema to Benaojan one, especially the Rock Garden (despite the rain) and the walk to Ronda from Benaojan - don't take the train to Ronda, take the walk! Ronda was stunning, although a bit crowded during the day. We're glad we added an extra day here. We ate on the terrace at Hotel Montelirio and were treated to a beautiful sunset over the gorge. Also in Ronda, right behind the San Gabriel are the Museo Peinado and the Casa del Gigante, worth a visit.

The Green Gorge was impressive, and we saw many griffon vultures but descending into the gorge was somewhat claustrophobic. The gorge was fairly crowded. We enjoyed the walk back to Grazalema from the gorge. The wildflowers throughout were stunning.  

We didn't do the Pinsapo Reserve walk because a thunderstorm was predicted. We did the Two Valleys hike instead and it was very pretty. Got home just before a colossal thunderstorm.

Although these walks were graded 2 and 3, they seemed mostly 2s to us (perhaps the walks we didn't do were the 3s). No need for walking poles.

The hotels were all very good and, where included, meals were top class. The scenery was varied, but always stunning and each walk was very different from the last. The staff in all the hotels were, without exception, helpful and friendly. Glad we booked an extra night in Grazelema to take advantage of an extra walk.

Quite an unusual walk. All day on goat tracks and small trails travelling through dramatic limestone country. Sometimes, quite challenging especially if it is hot. Then at the end of the day, one finds oneself in the lap of luxury eating gourmet meals ! The white washed villages were like 'oases'.  A beacon to walk towards each day. Very pretty with their Moorish influences. 

A real sense of achievement arriving at these ravishing small towns after making your way across rugged countryside. Beautifully organised by Inntravel who were super helpful with an out of hours emergency. lovely hotels, several with much-appreciated pools and warm welcomes. A very happy holiday.

This ranks as one of the best Inntravel hiking trips we've done. We went mid April and had glorious sunny walking weather (although the locals are desperately in need of rain), with wonderful wild life (keep an eye out for the colurful Abejaruco (Bee-Eater) bird at the Zahara resevoir and at the Campobuches stream) plus the springs flowers very much starting to appear. All the walks were excellent and well chosen. We loved the Vultures and Choughs of the dramatic Gerganta Verde on our opening day and had it to ourselves having arranged a taxi to get us there for 09:30 and then pick us up again at 13:45 (with plenty of time to get us to the gorge bottom etc). The Pinsapo Reserve (the 'there and back' option) was an unexpected delight with such a lovely walk up to come out of the trees along a spectacular ridge path with far reaching views back towards Zahara. Simancon was a classic & satisfying walk to a peak which you could then look back across to, and admire, during the remainder of the holiday. The beautiful 'Rock Gardens' on the transfer day to Benaojan were another unexpected very special treat too. Then how could you not visit the Pileta caves with their Palaeolithic paintings with them being so near - and they certainly didn't disappoint (taxi there, downhill walk back worked well). Each of the accomodation was special in their own way and each provided such a warm welcome and very comfortable stays. It was even warm enough to swim in the lovely swimming pools. Andres at Le Mejorana was exceptional and secured us both a permit for the Pinsapo Reserve and also kindly booked us a time slot at the Pileta caves.

Some tips

- the GPS co-ordinates were very useful to have had downloaded onto the Gaia App on our phones.

- A very authentic (and so reasonable!) tapas and wine meal sat at the buzzing bar at LeChuguita in Ronda was a perfect end to a wonderful weeks hiking (it opens at 20:00 too and any queue moved quickly).

 Thank you again Inntravel.

Wonderful remote walking 

HIGHLIGHTS: Almost too many to mention. Grazalema was wonderful we loved it there and if we were repeating would add in extra nights there. There are so many walks in the area and the guest house so wonderful that we could have spent 3-5 days there. The wildlife was amazing, Cuckoos, Vultures, Choughs, Deer, Swallowtail and other wonderful butterflies.

The heat so early in the season was difficult on occasions. We needed a minimum of two litres of water a day. A couple of the hotels don't start breakfast until 8:30 in Zahara de La sierra and Benouajan. Given the heat, we'd have liked an earlier breakfast and the chance to leave earlier to start our walk.

We have very much enjoyed, yet another, Inntravel holiday appreciating the extra insights to the places visited, from landscapes, buildings, flora, fauna and historical sites. Mondragon Palace: Parts of garden terraces looked as if they had been closed for years, the rest of the really small garden was unimpressive. We were not expecting the Alhambra but this was really disappointing.

The scenery in the area of Grazalema was beautiful. After having missed out on walking with Inntravel through the pandemic, this holiday reminded me why we keep coming back. I loved the guidance and accuracy of routes provided by the gpx files.... this was the first Inntravel holiday where I used them and they were a real boon to my sense of confidence in the walks. Thank you for that very helpful addition to your guides. 

The highlight of our trip was the ascent of Simancon at Grazalema which felt remote and with beautiful landscape.  We also climbed the short, rocky Sierra de Gaidovar above the town, from where we could hear atmospheric Spanish guitar music played at a town festival. 

We did the White Towns and Rugged Mountains walking week, between staying in Seville and then Cordoba and Granada.  It was great to have the contrast between city breaks and the mountains.  The scenery was beyond our expectations - it felt as if we were miles from anywhere.  The hotels were all different, but very good in their own ways. It was still hot in September, so something to be aware of. Definitely reccomend.

This is an excellent holiday but hard work when the temperatures are well into the 30s (39°C when we arrived at Ronda). We hope to return to the area to do the walks we couldn't do this time but it will probably be late April or early May rather than June.

It was a very enjoyable trip, the hotels and their locations are all excellent and are something to be looked forward to at the end of a good day of walking. The restaurants in the hotels were good and the two in Grazalema town also good. 

The spring flowers were amazing, as was the gorge. We had unseasonably hot weather and the advice on fluid, sun screen and hats was essential. So in addition an early start would help. The food and wine was fabulous everywhere and the pools were very welcome.

A wonderful holiday.  The temperature was unseasonably warm which made the walking a little more challenging.  The scenery was stunning and we really enjoyed seeing the wild flowers in Spring.  The view from Simancon was amazing and cave at Pileta was one of the best we have visited. All the hotels were great and we enjoyed meeting some fellow inntravel guests, who were one day ahead of us on the walk. Thank you for a lovely first holiday in 3 years following Covid.

The wild flowers were spectacular, and included orchids. No chance of bathing in the Zahara lake as suggested because of the freshwater mussel. The Garganta Verde was fantastic. Mount Simancon was a really good mountain day. By sitting quietly on the plateau you have a hope of seeing Ibex. We regretted not spending 3 nights in Grazalema so that we could have gone to the Pinsapo reserve as well.

This was a holiday we have been wanting to do for a while and we were not disappointed. Beautiful scenery and a nice variety of walking options all offering something a bit different. The abundant wild flowers provided spectacular colour and we had fun identifying them all courtesy of a new app. The vultures in the Garganta Verde were amazing. We did find the walking pretty strenuous (it was very hot) and I would recommend building in one or two extra days if you can to give you more options. The Pileta caves are well worth seeing.

HIGHLIGHTS: We enjoyed the whole trip and the highlight day was watching several ibex on the climb of Simancon summitting in clear weather. Arriving back in Grazalema just before an enormous thunderstorm.

We really enjoyed this trip, and will 100% use Inntravel again.

We love walking and active holidays, but dislike the hassle of lugging your suitcases around and finding beautiful boutique hotels and B&B in small towns, so having someone do it all for you is great.
The walk itself was really well planned, and especially appreciated the step-by-step instructions for the walks, as they were clearly done by someone who had actually walked them, and not picked off a website.
Inntravel was also really helpful sorting out minor details promptly, such as adding an extra hotel night or tracking down a package.

Thank you, and see you again soon!
M & P

This is our third trip with Inntravel. All the details were accurate and on time. They tailored the trip to our timeline. The hotels and meals were wonderful choices. The hiking is varied and feels remote. I would recommend Inntravel without hesitation. 

What a lovely trip! Wildlife and mountains were beautiful in the Spring - the vultures and flowers a particular delight. The routes were very peaceful and a well set out. The white towns were very attractive and interesting to wander round. As ever with Inntravel the accomodation was friendly and the food excellent.

The central part of the Grazalema to Benaojan walk was my favourite area, as was the Garganta Verde near Zahara, and the walk up to the summit of Mt Simancon.