Tyler and I recently took a road trip through Andalucia, stopping by several small towns along the way. Below are our itinerary, favorite foods, and recommendations.

Our Itinerary:
Day 1: Pueblos Blancos:  Grazalema, Ronda, Júzcar
Day 2: Granada
Day 3: Córdoba & Carmona
Day 4 & 5: Sevilla

Day 1: Pueblos Blancos
We began our trip flying into Seville on Ryanair (thanks €20 roundtrip flights!) and rented a car using the United discount on Hertz for 3 days. After retrieving the car, we were off! Our first stop was just outside Zahara de la Sierra. We pulled over just after crossing the bridge over Rio Guadalete for a photo op of the picturesque white washed town with an old castle intact.

When we had our fill of pictures, Tyler started to drive back to the road at which point we misjudged where there was road and ended up getting our car stuck on a curb, two wheels on the ground and two wheels in the air. After a brief moment of panic, I waved down a friendly Spaniard who looked at us like we were crazy, but graciously assisted in pushing our car up off the curbed ramp and got us back on our way. Thanks, Antonio!

After the adrenaline of our first stop, we decided to make one more stop for photos of this cute town and continue on our way.

Next stop, Grazalema! Finally, time for food! We parked in a small parking lot next to the city center and started exploring on foot. Grazalema is small and easily walkable, with a cute plaza where locals and tourists sat for cañas (small glasses of beer) in the sun. The winding streets took us to picturesque white facades contrasted by windows decorated with bright pinks of hanging flowers. We found Restaurante El Torreon on the second floor of a building on one of those winding streets and sat down for our first glass of Rioja. We ordered three tapas which were equally delicious: chorizo, fried sheep’s cheese, and cream cheese with tomato marmalade and honey vinaigrette. After a quick snack we were ready to hit the road once again.

We followed the winding roads leaving Grazalema in order to arrive at our next destination of Ronda. Ronda is a larger, more touristy destination, but also offers more to see and may even be worthy of a full day to fully explore. However, since we intended to spend the night in Granada and wanted to fit in another Pueblo Blanco before sunset, we spent ~3 hours in Ronda to cover the highlights. First, parking. We struggled to find parking in the city and ended up parking on a side street outside of Puerta de Almocábar. On foot once again, we walked through the old city wall and up Calle Armiñán to arrive at the iconic Puente Nuevo (new bridge), seen on most postcards at any souvenir shop. We joined many other tourists on the cliffside near the Department of Tourism to snap photos of the bridge and continued along the path along the cliff until we arrived at Mirador de Ronda providing incredible views of the nearby Sierra Mountains. After some more wandering around the city we decided it was once again time to continue our drive.

For our last pueblo of the day, we decided to explore the town of Júzcar. Júzcar is a 30 minute drive south of Ronda and provides a different, yet colorful experience. In 2011, the town was painted blue to promote the Smurfs movie. Sony España planned to return the town to its original white color, but the town residents voted to maintain the blue color, likely because tourism in Júzcar rose from ~9,000 tourists per year to ~90,000 tourists per year. Ultimately, we were not disappointed. Given that our trip took place in February, low season in Andalucia, we were two of just a few tourists visiting the town. We watched the sun set over this adorable town and stopped for another tapa fix at El Casaron. We followed the local crowd and ordered two Fanta vodkas, along with some manchego and jamón.

Just after sunset, we made our way to Granada for the night. Tired from a long day of transit, we checked into our beautiful hotel, Hotel Palacio De Santa Paula. We arrived around 9:30pm and set out for a small dinner of tapas before catching some shut eye. We started at a nearby tapas bar called Los Arcos, where we seemed to be the only non-locals. We ordered a couple tinto de veranos for €2 each and received two sandwiches fo’ free! Did I mention free food is one of my favorite things? Little did we know, the more drinks you order, the better the tapas get. After a couple rounds, we moved on to El Bar de Fede for another drink and Spanish rice. While the food of Fede was delicious, I personally preferred the more local, dive-y vibe of Los Arcos. After our tapas dinner, we made our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before a full day of touristing in Granada.

Day 2: Granada

We started our day with a walking tour from Feel the City. Our guide Juana was incredible. She shared history combined with interesting facts and stories about Granada and Andalucia. After the 2.5 hour tour, we took a tapas lunch stop at La Gran Taberna. Three beers/tapas later, we visited the famous Alhambra for our 2:30pm booking. Pro tip: reserve tickets well in advance of your booking. There are morning and afternoon time slots which sell out early. We booked about a week before our trip and were lucky to still see any availability. I would recommend booking a reservation as early as possible to make sure you don’t miss out on this incredible piece of history.

By about 5:30pm we were ready to continue our journey and walked over to Sacromonte to watch the sunset over the Alhambra. Just before we watched the sunset we wandered through the winding streets and popped into La Fragua, a tiny bar with a local vibe and tasty tapas. After a beer, we snapped some photos of the Alhambra at sunset and made our way back to our hotel.

Thanks to our amazing tour guide, Juana, we had a list of tapas bars we were looking forward to touring for the night. First stop, we returned to Los Arcos. Next stop, Bar Soria, which I felt was the most local stop of the night. It was packed and Spanish was the only language heard in the bar. Tapas were on point, with jamon and patatas bravas as our favorites. Last stop of the tapas crawl was Bar Poe, a more spacious spot which lets you choose your free tapa from a menu. Food and drink were both delicious and the bar is frequented by locals and tourists alike. After our tapas crawl, we ended the night on Calle Angel Ganivet. A couple more drinks got us on the dance floor and finally to sleep.

Day 3: Córdoba & Carmona

After a slow morning, we checked out of our hotel and were back on the road to Córdoba. After a ~2 hour drive, we arrive in Córdoba around 12:30pm. We found street parking on the south side of the city near a small park on Calle Libertador Jose Gervasio Artigas. We walked to our first sight of the day: the Roman Bridge.

Once we crossed the picturesque bridge, we purchased tickets to
Córdoba’s famous Mezquita-Catedral. We spent about an hour wandering through the immense building filled with arches in an old Mosque with a Cathedral built in the middle. Andalucia’s history is unique due to the ruling parties who lived there. The Mezquita-Catedral is a great example of this. The foundation was built by the Romans and is maintained to this day. Next, Muslims built a mosque above the roman ruins which they enjoyed for approximately 50 years. Next the Catholics come in with the Reconquista at which point a Cathedral was built in the middle of the mosque. Seeing these three periods of history together in one massive religious building was quite spectacular.

Next, we chose to wander through Cordoba’s streets. On a sunny day, it was quite packed with both tourists and locals, so we tried to find some streets off the beaten path. Eventually, we were hungry so we walked back toward the river to eat along the water. We settled at La Agua Verde and tried a local tapa called Salmorejo, essentially a thicker Gazpacho with bacon and pieces of hard boiled egg on top.

Post lunch, we started back on the road toward Carmona, a small town just outside Sevilla. Reading about Carmona’s old city walls and churches, we were excited to explore one last small town before spending the rest of our trip in Sevilla. We parked at the base of the city in a parking lot where a random man came and asked us for €1 to park. We paid and continued on our way into the walled city. After an hour of wandering around a very quiet city, we started to think we were the only ones in the entire town. Ultimately, we stumbled on a city square and a bar called Cafeteria Forum where I am convinced every person in the city was grabbing a drink at sunset. We took a few more photos of this cute town at sunset and continued to our final destination of Sevilla.

We returned our car in Sevilla at the Hertz at the main train station and took an Uber to our hotel, Hotel Adriano Sevilla. After checking in, we headed out again to grab some food at La Brunilda. We arrived at 9pm and were told we would have to wait for 50 minutes. Since we weren’t in a hurry, we put our names on the waiting list and went around the corner to Bodega El Picadero for a beer. We returned to La Brunilda to find our timing was impeccable and were seated immediately. La Brunilda was my favorite meal of the whole trip. Disclaimer: tapas are unfortunately not free in Sevilla, however they are still cheap and definitely delicious. We ordered Solomillo de buey con patatas al tomillo (tenderloin with potatoes and thyme), Risoto de Idiazabal y setas (mushroom risoto), Spicy chicken croquettes, and the Burata.

All were absolutely amazing. I get the feeling you can’t go wrong at this place. We left happy and continued to the “party” area of the city, Alameda de Hercules. We paid cover for a club called 1987 which included 2 beers each and danced the night away to ’80’s classics, including my personal favorite, Prince.

Day 4: Sevilla
We began our first full day in Sevilla in our preferred way, with a walking tour. Here we chose to join Sandeman’s tour which lasted 3 hours. We covered a lot of ground including the remains of the Roman Temple, Santa Cruz (Jewish quarter), Seville Cathedral, and Plaza España. I think my mouth literally dropped when we entered Plaza España. Its size and detail are extremely impressive and we ended our tour wandering around the Plaza on our own.

After a long tour, we were ready for our next snack. We took a suggestion from our tour guide and stopped at Realcazar Restaurante for some fried chicken in a curry sauce. I’m not sure how authentic is was, but it was definitely delicious. After a quick snack, we crossed the river to explore Triana, a neighborhood with a strong history tied to Flamenco on the other side of the river. First stop was of course another lunch snack at Bar Santa Ana where we tried the local specialty Espinacas con garbanzos (spinach and beans). We then continued to wander the streets until we arrived at Triana Market. It was mostly closed during our Sunday visit, but there were a few places still open, including Manu Jara, an incredible pastry shop, where we sampled a small cream pastry. We continued to wander around Triana until our feet gave out and we returned to our hotel for a short nap.

Hoping to avoid a large crowd, we made our way to EME Rooftop Bar slightly after sunset for an impressive view of the Cathedral lit up at night.

We continued on to Bar Carmela for dinner tapas, which had decent food at reasonable prices, but I wouldn’t return as I think there are many better options in the city. We ended the night with Flamenco, which was the highlight of my stay in Sevilla. Per the recommendation of Tyler’s cousin, we went to La Carboneria. They put on free 30 minutes Flamenco shows every hour beginning at 9:30pm, with the final show at 11:30pm. Wanting to attend the 10:30pm show, we arrived at 10:00pm and were able to grab excellent seats at the front as viewers from the 9:30pm show got up to leave. There is a bar which offers both drinks and food, but we only tried the drinks which were reasonably priced. The show was incredible. If you do only one thing in Sevilla, I highly recommend seeing one of their shows. The energy and passion of the performers is palpable and it left me speechless.

After Flamenco, we stopped at one more bar, Bodega Santa Cruz Las Columnas for a nightcap where I finally tried some Andalucian sherry. Dry sherry is not for the faint of heart. It was delicious, but had a very strong taste, and served as a great way to end the night.

Day 5: Sevilla
Our final day in Sevilla we hit the famous attractions. In order to skip the line at the Cathedral, we started at the Church of El Salvador and purchased a combination ticket for the two churches for €9 each. I found the Church of El Salvador to be impressive in its own right, let alone the fact that we skipped a line into the Cathedral that was wrapped around the block. Once you purchase the combined ticket, you enter the Cathedral at the group entrance which we found to have no line. We started by climbing the 37 floors of the bell tower for impressive views of the city. Next we wandered the church and the garden of orange trees before leaving for our next destination. As a side note, we learned on our walking tour that one reason Andalucia is covered in orange trees is because oranges contain phosphorous which is used for the production of gunpowder.

Next, we got in line to buy tickets for Real Alcázar. We went around 1pm, though we were told the line dies down around 3pm. You can also buy tickets online to avoid the line. We had trouble on the website, so we queued the old fashioned way for about 20 minutes. Fun fact: Dorne from Game of Thrones was filmed at Real Alcázar, which is easy to understand after walking through the immense gardens. You can’t help but feel transported back in time when exploring this beautiful palace and impressive gardens.

After a lovely afternoon visiting two of the main attractions of Sevilla, we continued to the Metropol Parasol, a large wavy wooden structure that the locals refer to as Las Setas or the mushrooms, due to its resemblance of the fungi. Apparently, the city planned to build an underground parking lot and found Roman and Moorish ruins which halted the project. Instead the ruins are on display and this massive wooden structure was constructed above. Visiting Las Setas was probably the best value purchase of the day. We spent an hour exploring the structure, and the ticket included a free postcard as well as a free drink at La Sureña which is located below the structure.

After sunset, we returned to Alameda de Hercules for a drink at BuleBar. This place was buzzing with locals with high energy, especially for a Monday night! We stayed until Mano de Santo opened at 8:30pm and enjoyed some authentic Mexican as our last meal in Sevilla. I felt no shame as I devoured some delicious tacos and margaritas, even if it was my last chance for Spanish food. Living in Germany, I have to take advantage of great Mexican food where I can find it!

Since it was our last night, I could think of no better way to close our trip than to return to La Carboneria for another powerful Flamenco performance. We were once again blown away by the talent of the dancer and musicians, this time with a different singer, but equally as powerful as the singer from the previous night. We closed the night with a sherry at Las Teresas and grabbed some shut eye before flying out of the Seville airport the next day.