Ronda
⭐ The classic day out from this coast. Ronda is a city, not a village, built on either side of El Tajo, a gorge more than a hundred meters deep, and joined across it by the Puente Nuevo. The road climbs from the coast through the Serranía de Ronda — about an hour, and a great many bends.
Beyond the bridge are the old quarter, La Ciudad, with the Mondragón Palace; the bullring of 1785; and the 13th-century Arab baths down by the river.
The mountain villages
Istán and Ojén are white villages just inland, in the shadow of the Sierra Blanca — Ojén's hills were mined for the iron that fed Marbella's 19th-century furnaces. Benahavís, up the Guadalmina valley, is small and known for its restaurants.
Mijas Pueblo, above Fuengirola to the east, is the best known of the white villages on this stretch of coast, with a view to match.
Estepona
West along the coast, Estepona has an old town of whitewashed streets hung with flowerpots — smaller and quieter than Marbella's.
Gibraltar
⭐ A British territory at the end of the peninsula, a little over an hour west by road. Most day visitors park on the Spanish side and walk across the border. ⚠️ You need a passport, and the border arrangements have been changing — check the current rules before you go.
Further afield
The great Andalusian cities inland are a long way from here by road. They are better as trips with a night in them than as a day out from the coast — Granada is the closest of them, and the one most people leave the coast for.
Booking a day out
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect what is recommended here, and no sight page on this site carries one.
⭐ This is the one page on the site where a car earns its keep. Ronda, the mountain villages and the dunes at the eastern end of the coast are all far easier with one, and none of them is on a railway.
