Heading north from Porto Cristo, it’s about 20km to ARTÀ , an ancient hill town of sun-bleached roofs clustered beneath a castellated chapel-shrine, with the bunching peaks of the Serres de Llevant providing a dramatic backdrop. It’s a delightful scene, though at close quarters the town is something of an anticlimax - the cobweb of [...]
The pretty streets of ARONA ’s tiny centre are good for a short stroll and the modest, typically Canarian, seventeenth-century Iglesia San Antonio Abad at its heart is also worth a peek, but the town is primarily of use as a good base from which to make the hike (4hr return) to the thousand-metre high [...]
ARENAS DE SAN PEDRO is a sizeable town with a somewhat prettified fifteenth-century castle and a good range of accommodation : pleasant options include the Hostería Los Galayos (tel & fax 920 371 379, losgalayos.com ; ¬36-48), which also has a reliable restaurant, the roomy Posada de la Triste Condesa (tel 920 372 567; ¬36-48), [...]
Of more substantial interest than Zahara de la Sierra, and a better place to break the journey, is ARCOS DE LA FRONTERA . This was taken from the Moors in 1264, over two centuries before Zahara fell - an impressive feat, for it stands high above the Río Guadalete on a double crag and must [...]
The beauty of ARANJUEZ is its greenery - it’s easy to forget just how dry and dusty most of central Spain is until you come upon this town, with its lavish palaces and luxuriant gardens. In summer, Aranjuez functions principally as a weekend escape from Madrid and most people come out for the day, or [...]
The highest town in the Sierra Morena - guarded to its south by a small offshoot of the range - ARACENA has sharp, clear air, all the more noticeable after Sevilla. Capital of the western end of the sierra with 10,000 inhabitants, it’s a substantial but pretty town, rambling up the side of a hill [...]
ANTEQUERA , on the main rail line to Granada, is an ordinary, modern town, but it does have peripheral attractions in a Baroque church, El Carmen (Mon 11.30am-2pm, Tues-Sun 10am-2pm, Sat also 4-7pm; ¬1.20), which houses one of the finest retablos in AndalucÃa, and a group of three prehistoric dolmen caves . The most impressive [...]
Inland from Palma bay, you could certainly find worse ways to spend an afternoon than hopping on a bus to ANDRATX , a small, undeveloped town huddled among the hills to the west. From here, it’s another short bus ride through a pretty, orchard-covered landscape to the dishevelled, low-key resort of SANT ELM . There [...]
Beyond Nerja the road climbs inland, running high above the coast until it surfaces at LA HERRADURA , a fishing village-resort suburb of Almuñécar, which is a good place to stop off and swim, and which also has three seafront summer campsites , the best of which is La Herradura (tel 958 640 056), the [...]
ALMERÃA is a pleasant, modern city, spread at the foot of a stark grey mountain. At the summit is a tremendous Alcazaba (daily 9am-8.30pm; Oct-Mar closes 6pm; ¬1.50, free for EU citizens), probably the best surviving example of Moorish military fortification, with three huge walled enclosures, in the second of which are the remains of [...]