Campervan hire in Andalusia

Andalusia's three great cities tell the story of eight centuries of Al-Andalus: the Alcázar and cathedral of Seville, the forest of columns in Cordoba's Mezquita, the Nasrid palaces of the Alhambra in Granada. Between them, the road crosses olive groves as far as the eye can see and stops at Carmona, perched above the Guadalquivir plain.

Returning via Antequera lets you see its dolmens and the karst landscape of El Torcal before reaching Malaga, the other major departure city. Allow a full day per city, more for Seville.

From Malaga, the road climbs to Ronda and its bridge spanning the Tajo gorge, then heads deep into the serranía: houses tucked under the rock in Setenil de las Bodegas, the turquoise lake of Zahara de la Sierra, the whitewashed lanes of Grazalema. Arcos de la Frontera, set on its cliff, ends the circuit before Seville.

The Puerto de las Palomas pass, between Zahara and Grazalema, is a string of tight hairpins and steep gradients: a van or compact motorhome is far more at ease there.

On the Atlantic side, the Costa de la Luz lines up long beaches of fine sand, far from the high-rises of the Costa del Sol: Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, Cadiz almost surrounded by the sea, Conil, Vejer de la Frontera on its hill, then the dunes and Roman ruins of Bolonia.

Tarifa, the southern tip of continental Europe and a kitesurfing hotspot, has no depot of our partner companies: you reach it from Seville and end the trip in Marbella or Malaga.

From Granada, the Berber-style villages of the Alpujarras are stacked along the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada: Lanjarón and its springs, Pampaneira and its flat roofs, Trevélez and its hams cured in the mountain air. The road then descends to Almería, the driest of our Andalusian departure cities.

The Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park keeps unspoilt volcanic coves, and the Tabernas desert, the setting for many westerns, can be visited on the way back to Almería.