The Region

Gaucin is well placed as a touring base for Andalucia. It is thirty kilometres from Ronda on the El Tajo gorge. Ronda is home to the first bullring in Spain, many museums, good shops and decent places to eat. It is a great source of antiques and pottery.

The region now has a good network of European-funded motorways so Seville, Granada and Cordoba are within reach and there are trains from Estaçion Gaucin which connect to all the main cities.

Gaucin has three national parks around it – Sierras de las Nieves, los Alcornocales and Grazalema – so it makes an excellent base for walking. Its sits directly beneath the migration flight path of birds between Europe and North Africa so Spring and Autumn are particularly interesting for the bird life and a local ornithologist arranges half and full day guided tours of the best viewing spots.

The coast is half an hour's drive away and Estepona is the nearest coastal town. We agree with the Rough Guide that Estepona is where the Costa stops and the real Spain begins. You can drive one and a half hours west to Tarifa, a town more North African than Spanish. the ferry goes from here across to Tangiers or you can join windsurfers from around the world on the ten kilometre white sandy – and windy – beach. Continuing west brings you to Europe’s largest marshland wildlife sanctuary at Cota Donana, then on to Cadiz and Portugal.

This area of Andalucia is full of interesting, even wonderful, sights – Moorish villages barely changed since the Christian conquest, brilliant ever changing mountain landscapes, fascinating birds, animals, plants and people both proud and courteous.

And in all this, Gaucin is a special place in singularly beautiful countryside. We love it here and hope that you will too.