The most beautiful places in Andalucía (and how to get there from Sevilla)

There are many nice places in Andalucía, but in this list my favorites are listed. So if you ever go to Andalucía, I hope this list can give you some inspiration on where to go!

Sevilla

How can I not start this blog with the place I live in and what I feel is one of the most beautiful places in all of Spain… Sevilla!

If you visit Sevilla you need at least 4 days (I have talked to a lot of tourists as a tour guide, so I can say this ;), because there are so many amazing things to see. The Alcazar, la Setas, Plaza de España are just a few of these amazing spots.

The first few weeks I tried to discover so much in Sevilla and always had my camera ready, around every corner there´s another nice spot. To read more about Sevilla, read the articles under ´Secrets of Sevilla´

Zahara de la Sierra

For nature, Zahara de la Sierra definitely is my favorite place in Andalucía! In December 2019 my boyfriend and I went on a road trip and Zahara was one of the places we visited. I wrote a separate post about that, so if you are interested, click here.

Just look at the photos below! Zahara itself is a nice white town. There is not much to do, but what you definitely have to do is visit the Moorish castle on top of Zahara to have the stunning view of the photo down.

If you want to go here, I recommend you to hire a car, which you can hire through the website Amovens

Carmona

The third town I will discuss is Carmona.

Carmona is only 30 minutes away from Sevilla (San Bernardo station) and it is very pittoresque, small and medieval.

The best way to start your trip in Carmona is to go to the most famous place Alcazar de la Puerta de Sevilla. It´s an old castle and the views from here are stunning. You can see all over this white pueblo (town). My friends and I are photo freaks and it took us a long time before we headed to the exit, just because we were taking lots of photos.

After that, just wander around in the nice streets and slowly go to Alcázar del Rey Don Pedro. This used to be a Moorish fortress but is a state-run hotel right now and the highest point of Carmona.
It´s beautiful from the inside and a bit expensive to eat, so I recommend you to grab lunch before going here. For a slice of cake and tea, I had to pay 8 euros…

As I said, Carmona is not that big and we were done around within a couple of hours, so we decided to take the bus back to Sevilla and go to one of our favorite restaurants ´La Antojeria´ to have delicious (and much cheaper as the cake) patatas bravas.

Ronda

This place is according to many people the most magnificent place in Andalucía and one of the reasons is because of the famous bridge.
You can find many cute and little streets here, but also various points where you can have a stunning view of nature and the bridge.

You can take the bus to Ronda from Prado San Sebastian or hire a car (like I did) again from Amovens.

In this post you can read how to get to Ronda and where to take the most amazing photos!

Arcos de la Frontera

The first of many places that are all called ´blabla … de la Frontera´ and also the most pretty one. It is a bit more than 1 hour of driving from Sevilla.

We used Blablacar to get to Arcos. Blablacar is like carpooling, you share a ride with someone that is already going to that place. I have used it many times in Spain and the experiences were all good.

You have to climb a little bit in Arcos, but then you have a stunning view over the amazing nature. We (or me) were a bit lazy and took the little ´train´ up to the highest point of Arcos, which cost us around 4 euro.
Arcos is a small town, but also here you have the photogenic white streets with a view of nature in the distance.

Just a point to be aware of: on Sunday are most of the churches closed, so if you are interested in these things you better go another day. With all the photos you have to take, you should consider staying here for a couple of hours, it is not that big that you can wander around all day.

A tip for the lunch (or diner) is Meson Patio Andaluz, here you can have a lot of good tapas for just 14 euros.

Cádiz

Did you know that Cádiz is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe? Super cool right?! This city is just 1,5 hours away from Seville and it´s located by the sea. Reaching Cádiz you can also do perfectly by train, see the website of Renfe.

What to do in this old city? Well first you need a view over the whole city and you can do this at Torre Tavira. This is the highest point of the old part of the city and you also have a camera obscura from there, so you can spy on people live from the tower, which is pretty funny to experience.

Done with climbing? Then go-ahead to the cathedral of Cádiz which is really pretty and also from here you can climb to have another great view. But be aware of the church bells… if they ring and you are next to them… you will be deaf for the rest of the day.

After that, we spent some time at a small park where my Taiwanese friend bought food for pigeons because she loves them. Hundreds of pigeons came to her and she got too excited, so it was a great show to watch hahaha.

After that we had delicious ice cream at the steps of the cathedral, enjoying the sun and a random dude who was performing with his music box.

Lastly, we went to something we were too excited about, something we don´t have in Sevilla, the beach! Here we stayed until we got hungry. Cádiz is a very nice city to explore for a day and enjoy the good vibe.

Málaga

Málaga is amazing. I went twice in 4 months to this place (both by Blablacar), so much I like it.
In Málaga, you can find so much: castles for an amazing view, a great cozy center with lots of shops, a nice beach, street art, a beautiful cathedral and many good places to eat.

Just for the food, I would go back! I want to share the best tips and of course show lots of pics, I will write a bit more about Málaga in another post.
The first time I went to Málaga I spend two days there, so be careful because it is not as small as Arcos de la Frontera.

See these other articles:

Juzcar - the blue smurfs town in Andalucia

Roadtripping in Andalucía (including the most beautiful town of Andalucía!)

9 February 2020

How amazing is it when people can inspire you. Inspire you to go to places you wouldn´t go otherwise. This

Sevilla Andalucía Spain - La setas view. Amazing sunset

Sevilla: 3 days itinerary

31 March 2020

You are planning to go to Sevilla, yay! I promise you that you won´t be disappointed, because I believe that

Juzcar

Juzcar is the town of the´smurfs,´ which means it´s all blue!
It´s very photogenic and you see the ´Smurfs´everywhere. Juzcar is one of the places we could cross off our list during our roadtrip and I talked about that here.

Enjoy and let´s hope you won´t come across Gargamel!

Conil de la Frontera

We went to Conil with the mindset, that we would visit the beach and didn´t have any other expectations.
We also went here by Blablacar and it took us 1,5 hours to reach.
When we arrived in the center, we had a feeling like we were in Portugal again, because of all the cute streets. But after a while, we saw all the white houses which you can see everywhere in Andalucía, and got swung back into reality. A nice reality!

Walking around the center we stumbled upon the Torre de Guzman, which was free to visit.
A view over Conil? This is the best place! You do have to climb many stairs, but after doing this, we had a great view. It was so nice to see the contrast between the white houses and the sea.

After that, it is best to just walk around to see all the cute streets and finally head to the beach to end your trip with an amazing sunset.

Santiponce/ Itálica

Santiponce might be the smallest place I have been to in Spain, with just 8 km², but it is really nice to walk through.

Of course, you don´t go all the way here to just see a small place, no you will go to Itálica. Itálica is an old Roman city, just 10 km from Sevilla. In this small town, scenes of Game of Thrones were shot. Italica has applied for Unesco World Heritage status and it is free to visit for European inhabitants. You can see all the Roman ruins here. If you visit Sevilla, Italica is a nice place to visit for a few hours.

Besides that I have eaten the best Paella in Spain at La Caseta de Antonio, so have your lunch there and if you are in Italica, also visit the monastery (Monasterio de San Isodoro del Campo) of Santiponce. It is one of the only things you can visit there, but definitely worth it and also free to enter.

There are multiple buses going from Sevilla (San Bernardo station) to Italica, which only takes 30 minutes.

Cordoba

The warmest city of Europe… ´mmmh I need to visit´, that is what I hear you thinking (except for the summer!) I am talking about Córdoba. This place is a town two hours north of Sevilla.

It is a nice town known for the famous Mezquita, the cathedral which used to be a mosque. We spend one hour here and it is really interesting to see. You can not leave Córdoba, without having been here.

Besides that, walk over the Puente Romano, an impressive and huge bridge.

The day I went there, it was raining a lot, so we were in a bad mood and didn´t discover as much as we wanted to sadly. It would be wrong to not recommend you to go here, just because we were in a bad mood and didn´t enjoy it that much because of the rain. Córdoba definitely is a place to recommend and where you can take a lot of nice photos.

You can easily visit this town in one day and the best thing to do is to take the train (Renfe) from Sevilla, which takes you there in 1,5 hours.

Setenil de las Bodegas

Setenil de las Bodegas is another white town, but a special one, as it is built into rocks. It is absolutely stunning to witness and very photogenic!
It is close to Ronda and we spend around 4 hours there as it is a small town.

We went here by car during our roadtrip in December 2019, so if you are interested in more information about Setenil de las Bodegas… see this blog.

Granada

Astonishing! I just wanted to say that Granada is also one of my favorite places in Andalucía, but I keep saying that about every place, every place is stunning and so different from each other. Granada too…

You need at least 2 days to visit everything and of course, you need to start with the beautiful Alhambra. For this alone, you need a whole day.

Then the second day there are many more things to see and do in Granada. Because there is too much to say about this beautiful city, I wrote a blog about what you can do in Granada in just 2 days, which you can read here.

We went there by Blablarcar as it was the cheapest option. It is 3 hours from Sevilla.

See these other articles:

Granada in 2 days

9 September 2019

Granada is like the beautiful, delicate land of our dreams; all those who see her, dream of visiting her again” – Chateaubriand. It´s been a year since I visited Granada

Olvera, beautiful white town in Andalucia Spain

The best photo spots in Olvera (Spain)

11 May 2021

What are the best photo spots in Olvera (Andalucía, Spain)? Olvera is a town in the middle of Andalucía, south of Spain. It’s 100 km from Sevilla, very close to

Jerez de la Frontera

If you like Sherry, Jerez is the place to go to, because here they make it! But if you are not that much of a fan like me, then you can start your day in Jerez at the cathedral.

This cathedral is like the miniature version of the cathedral in Sevilla… stunning! Besides that you have to climb the tower of the cathedral, from there you have an incredible view over Jerez de la Frontera.

Besides that, also go to the San Miguel church. The day we went, we couldn´t enter because there was a wedding going on. It was nice to sit outside the church and watch all the dressed-up people.
So I do not know if it´s nice from the inside, but from the outside it is.

After that, you can easily wander around the center of Jerez, which is not that big. You can eat some tapas, as there are enough tapas restaurants.

Jerez is very easy to reach by train and only 1 hour away from Sevilla.

Olvera

During one of my tours as a tour guide, I was guiding a lady that was born in Olvera and she told me the most beautiful things about it.
After that tour, I was so hyped that I tried to convince my boyfriend to go as soon as possible. A month later we did!

Olvera was the reason for our road trip in December 2019, which I talked about before. It hasn´t disappointed us. It´s a white town with on top of the town a huge cathedral and a Moorish castle from which you both have a stunning view!

As it was part of the road trip I will tell more about Olvera in the blog about our road trip which I have mentioned before.

Huelva & Punta Umbria

Huelva isn´t the biggest town, so when we went there, we combined it with Punta Umbria, a smaller place.

But what is most important, is that both towns have a beach. A beach we don´t have in Sevilla, did I not already mention that? 😉

But let´s start with Huelva, the town with the statue of Christopher Columbus. We started our trip at the museum of Huelva, which is a museum about Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Ethnography. It is free to visit.

Then we walked to the English quarter of Huelva (Barrio Reino Victoria) where we even found a red telephone cell! We walked around and imagined we were in England for a few minutes.

Time for lunch! I know a girl that lived in Huelva for a few months, so I asked her for suggestions of course. She told us to go to La Teja and that was a good suggestion! Their tapas are pretty good.

Next up was to walk around the center, see the Iglesia de La Purísima Concepción and we wanted to visit the Cathedral, but it was closed sadly. We did see the Huelva sign, which was also cool!

After that, we had a feeling we had seen it all and we wanted to visit a beach, so we went to Punta Umbria by boat. It had the perfect beach 🙂
But it was already late, so after an hour, we had to head back to Huelva, because our driver from Blablacar was waiting there. But not before we visited the Muelle del Tinto (which is a bridge) during the sunset. Well, that was stunning!

Huelva is just one hour away from Sevilla.