The impressive cathedral with its tower, Giralda is Seville's landmark. The king's palace, the Alcazar in its typical Moorish style is surrounded by high walls. The Archivode Indias, a Renaissance building which serves as an archive of all the documents related to discovery of America. The Archiepiscopal Palais and all those buildings are located at one single large square.

Other monuments worth visiting in this district are the churches Hospicio de los Venerables and Iglesia de Santa Maria la Blanca, the latter located at the edge of the beautiful park Jardines de Murillo. Walking from the Giralda towards the river we will find in Santander Street the Torre de la Plata, a tower which served as silver depot in the times of the Moorish domination. Just to its right there are the Hospital de la Caridad and the church Iglesia de la Caridad.

Cathedral
Seville's cathedral, the largest gothic church in the world, has a long and moving history: over an original Roman foundation base Goths built a temple, of which today is only conserved a small fountain in the Patio de los Naranjos, the "courtyard of the orange trees", which together with the mighty tower, Giralda, are what remain of the Moorish mosque that was built here later on. After the reconquest of the town by the Christians in 11th century the construction of today's cathedral was started work that lasted 5 centuries. Most of it is in late gothic and plateresque styles, though we find important Renaissance elements as well. Especially remarkable are the Flemish glass-works and the treasures in the cathedral's museum.

Giralda
The minaret of the old Moorish mosque, today the tower of the cathedral, is this city's landmark. In the time when it was built it was the highest building in the world. Today, including some additions made by the Christians including a huge bronze statue at its top, the Giralda measures 97,5 meters. You may enjoy a fantastic view over the entire city from here.

Reales Alcazares
This great Arabian design palace was built during various eochs. Its first fortifications probably date from 884 and were made to defend the town of the Normans. Lateron Moorish Caliph Mohammed V. had built here a king's palace design by architects and artists from Granada and Toledo. But the major part of today's palace was constructed after the Christian reconquest of the town in 1248, by King Pedro "The Cruel". Another important part, Casa de la Contratación, was made after the discovery of America. A visit is interesting in particular for the expositions of many objects of the Moorish epoch, including a collection of musical instruments. During the summer season frequently are performed concerts in the great gardens of the palace, which are a truly fantastic experience to listen to. This great Arabian style palace is interesting in particular

Archivo de Indias
Originally a stock-exchange building made in 1572 because Archbishop Sandoval wanted to give a new "home" to the merchants of the town, who until then used to close their deals in the Patio de los Naranjos. In 1785 it became the "Archivo General de Indias", the archive of all documents related to the discovery of America. The Renaissance building itself is a work of architect Juan Herrera.

Torre de Oro
The octagonal Moorish "Gold-Tower" was originally part of the town-walls along the Guadalquivir River. Its name comes from the golden ceramic tiles which originally covered its front. In the Christian epoch the tower served as seat of the marine's administration. Today it is used as Museum of Navigation.

Plaza de España
An impressive work of Seville's best known modernist style architect, Hannibal Gonzalez. It was made for the "Ibero-American Exposition 1929" and is located in the centre of "Maria-Luisa-Park", forming a semi-circle around an artificial lake. The two highly individual towers at its extremes and the great ceramic ornaments which symbolize the provinces of Spain make it one of the most characteristic buildings in town.

Jerez de la Frontera

Located inland, 20 km from Sanlúcar, Jerez holds worldwide acclaim for its sherry and brandy production. Jerez is the Spanish word for sherry, but the city is equally famous for its fine horses as well as Flamenco music and dance.

The town dates back to Moorish times and possesses a charming old town, casco antiguo, with beautiful palm lined squares. The 11th century Moorish fortress, or Alcazaba, has been partially restored. Of special interest is its church, originally built by the Arabs as a mosque. The Sacristy of the Cathedral del Salvador is home to a lovely painting by Zurbarán, The Sleeping Girl. Today the city of Jerez has a remarkably aristocratic air with wide streets, squares and magnificent rows of jacaranda trees during spring.

Sherry
The sherry production houses are located, surprisingly, in the centre of the town of Jerez and are generally associated with an element of snobbery and aristocratic pride even to this day.
The Spanish word bodega means "cellar", but its generic meaning is "wine manufacturer". Visitors may take guided tours of the many Jerez bodegas, such as Gonzalez Byass, Pedro Domecq and Sandeman. British winemakers have been active here for centuries, which is why many of the names have an Anglo-Saxon ring to them. Tours of the cellars take place on week days, followed by sampling of the various types of wine produced.

Horses
The Royal Andalucian School of Equestrian Art , is famous for its dancing horse shows, typical of Jerez, where the famous Andalucian thoroughbreds are trained to perform high precision ballet "dances" to music.

Horse Fair (Feria del Caballo)
Jerez celebrates its famous annual Horse Fair at the very beginning of May and visitors from all over the world flock to this prestigious event each year, which also doubles up as an agricultural fair. The fair has various shows and competitions with prizes that take place in key picturesque locations throughout the town.

Flamenco
Jerez is famous for its long-standing Flamenco tradition, making it an excellent place to watch this great art. The Flamenco festival of Jerez is one of the most important in the world, with two weeks of phenomenal music and dance from internationally renowned performers.

Ronda

Ronda is one of the oldest towns/Cities of Spain. Its origin, according to archaeological findings in the old city space belongs to the Neolithic age. Despite this, the presence of the human being in this land can be found prior tp this. Proof of this are the sites found at caves, the most important being the one found at Pileta's Cave, which is one of the best cave's paintings examples of all the Paleolithic age in Andalusia.

The Roman Empire Age and middle ages are the times of major importance for Ronda. From the Roman conquest time of the Iberian Peninsula. The gorge is known as "El Tajo" - The Cliff and is spanned by a stone bridge, which once housed a prison. Visitors love to peer down into the gorge, to see the waters of the River Guadalevín.

At that time, Ronda appears to be one of the leading towns, of the Kuras (Provinces) of Al-Andalus (the province of Ronda was named of Takurunna). Ronda even achieved the status as an independent Kingdom (called at that age the Taifas Kingdom) after the fall of the Cordoba Kingdom.

After the conquest of the city by the Catholic Monarchs (1485) deep economic and cultural changes happened, which can still seen in the structure of the city: The opening of squares which had not existed before, streets made broader, etc.

The 18th century, and the arrival of the Modern age, was for Ronda the time when it got its definitive role inside the province of Andalusia.

At that time, the most relevant and best known monuments of the city where built, as signs of the former aristocracy and the present Ronda: The New Bridge and the Bullring.

Since that time and during the 19th century, the romantic image of the city grew, as did the legend of its Serrania (mountains), generating world of bandits and the art of bullfighting that left a deep impression on important travellers both have been converted since then into symbols of our culture and tradition. Despite this, the cultural and traditional richness of Ronda is much wider and diverse that the one offered by this image, clichéd although nice. This diversity is the current attraction of Ronda and its Serrania.

Some of the historic monuments to be seen during our Sightseeing Tours:

The New Bridge
The New Bridge is, together with the bullring of the Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda, symbol and soul of the city. This master building has got a height of 98 metres, built with stone masonry taken from the depth of the Tajo's gorge. It allowed the connection between the modern quarter of the city, called the market's quarter, and the old quarter of the city, which allowed the urban development of Ronda.

This majestic monument has inside it a an Interpretation Centre that tells of this great work of Engineering of the eighteen century and about the different aspects of its environment: fauna, vegetation, geology, urbanism, history, etc. It also to an interesting audiovisual work, which, in only 4 minutes, displays images of the Bridge and shows of the city of Ronda.

The Bullring
Ronda's bullring, due to its history and architecture, to its character and beauty, is recognized as one of the oldest of Spain, and also as one the most monumental existing bullrings.

The Church of Santa Maria la Mayor
According to the archaeological studies developed in the region, the church of the Virgin Mary of the Incarnation was located near the remains of a paleochristian basilica from the 14th century A.D. Some historians also date the church to the age of the Roman Empire, having at that time the function of temple. This supposition has still not been proved by archaeological means.

At the same place was built later, during the Arab domination age, the main mosque of the Medina. From that age there is only left nowadays the arch of Mirhab and part of its wall, with vegetal arab plaster decoration, hidden because it is located behind the retable of the tabernacle's altar.

The Catholic Monarchs, after the conquest of the city, ordered the building of a temple at the place of the mosque, whose works started in 1485 and, after several problems, ended at the end of the17th century. Without doubt, the church of Santa María La Mayor is one of the most important sacred monuments of Ronda.

The Arab Baths
This thermal building of the Arab time is the best conserved of its kind at the Iberian Peninsula. It is located at the old Arab quarter of the city, today called San Miguel Quarter, being formerly the outside quarter of the Arab medina (city) of Ronda.

Cadiz

Cadiz stands on a peninsula jutting out into a bay, and is almost entirely surrounded by water. Named Gadir by the Phoenicians, who founded their trading post in 1100 BC, it was later controlled by the Carthaginians, until it became a thriving Roman port. It sank into oblivion under the Visigoths and Moors, but attained great splendour in the early 16th century as a launching point for the journey to the newly discovered lands of America. Cadiz was later raided by Sir Francis Drake, in the struggle to gain control of trade with the New World. It later managed to withstand a siege by Napoleon's army. In the early 19th century Cadiz became the bastion of Spain's anti-monarchist, liberal movement, as a result of which the country's first Constitution was declared here in 1812.

Some of the city's 18th century walls still stand, such as the Landward Gate. The old, central quarter of Cadiz is famous for its picturesque charm, and many of the buildings reflect the city's overseas links. Worth a visit are the city's Cathedral and churches of Santa Cruz and San Felipe Neri, which is famous throughout Spain as the place where, in defiance of Napoleon's siege, the provisional government was set up with its own liberal Constitution. Other points of interest are La Santa Cueva, home to several paintings by Goya, and stately mansions such as the Casa del Almirante and Casa de las Cadenas.

The old city looks quite Moorish in appearance and is intriguing with narrow cobbled streets opening onto small squares. The golden cupola of the cathedral looms high above long white houses and the whole place has a slightly dilapidated air. It just takes an hour to walk around the headlands where you can visit the entire old town and pass through some lovely parks with sweeping views of the bay.

Unlike most other ports of its size it seems immediately relaxed and easy going, not at all threatening, even at night. Perhaps this is due to its reassuring shape and size, the presence of the sea making it impossible to get lost for more than a few blocks. It also owes much to the town's tradition of liberalism and tolerance which was maintained all through the years of Franco's dictatorship, despite this being one of the first cities to fall to his forces and was the port through which the Republican armies launched their invasion.

Most towns and villages in Andalucia have their Carnival, but none are like the Cadiz Carnival in February each year.

Arcos de la Frontera

One of Andalucia's most dramatically positioned pueblos blancos (white villages), Arcos balances atop a rocky limestone ridge, its whitewashed houses and stone castle walls stopping abruptly as a sheer cliff face plunges down to the fertile valley of the river Guadalete below.

Declared a national historic-artistic monument in 1962 in recognition of its exceptional architecture and impressive location, the old town is a tangled labyrinth of cobbled streets that lead up to a sandstone castle, the Castillo de los Arcos. As you'd expect from such a spectacular vantage point, there are exhilarating views over the town and the rolling plain below.

Although its time under the Moors was one of its most successful, Arcos has had a long history of occupation, as shown by the discovery of numerous archaeological remains from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Tartessian, Phoenician and Roman periods. Plentiful water and its superb defensive hilltop location were the main attractions for settlers.

Arcos's population of 28,000 is divided between the newer town on the lower slopes of the ridge and the old town, which you reach by following Cuesta Belén up the hill. In the heart of the old town is the cobbled Plaza de Cabildo, its picturesque situation somewhat marred by its dual function as a car park. On the southern side of the square there are some stomach-churning views, where the mirador (viewpoint) ends in a steep 150m-high cliff

Among the most memorable of Arcos's pretty and often strikingly narrow streets are the alley-like Calle Cuna and Calle Maldonaldo, lined with elegant palacios built by the town's 18th-century nobility and overhung by wrought-iron rejas of windows.

Tapas bars in the old town are concentrated on or near the central Callejón de las Monjas. Try the Mesón El Patio, an atmospheric cave-like bar near the Santa María church that serves good-value tapas. If you want something more formal, one of the most upmarket restaurants in town is El Convento on Marques de Torresoto, which is in a 17th-century palace and has plenty of game dishes on the menu. The terrace at the luxurious Parador on Plaza del Cabildo is the place to go for a leisurely drink in style and enjoy the best views in Arcos.

Down below the town is the Guadalete river lined with olive and orange groves. There is also a reservoir (embalse), the Lago de Arcos, which is good for a swim in summer.

Grazalema

Located in a high valley over 800m in the Sierra del Endrinal and dominated by the magnificent rocky outcrop known as Peñon Grande, the pretty mountain village of Grazalema is most popular base for visitors to the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park.

This is the park where we do most of our Hiking and Mountain Biking Tours. The park is a vast protected area of rugged limestone mountains, which are famous for being the rainiest place in Spain. These high levels of precipitation account for the verdant vegetation in the surrounding countryside.

The limestone peaks of 1,500m around Grazalema are the first barriers that clouds from the Atlantic meet, causing plentiful rainfall. A unique microclimate has developed where a wide range of flora flourishes, such as the rare Spanish fir (pinsapo) that grows in the Sierra de Pinar close to Grazalema.

Grazalema is a lively village whose population of 2,250 swells hugely with the influx of visitors to the park. Its steep, cobbled streets are immaculately kept and are lined by whitewashed houses with windows covered by wrought-iron rejas and plant pots spilling over with colourful flowers. It was famously described in the 1950s by the British anthroplogist Julian Pitt-Rivers in his study, People of the Sierra.

In the heart of the village is an attractive main square, the Plaza de España, lined with bars and restaurants. On this square is Grazalema´s central sight, the 18th-century church of La Aurora. Also here is the village hall (ayuntamiento) and the parish church, the Iglesia de la Encarnación. Up Calle Mateos Gago from the square is the 17th-century Iglesia de San José, a former Carmelite convent with paintings by a disciple of Murillo. Close to the church is a viewpoint that looks out over the village

The village was established in Moorish times by Berber settlers who discovered a striking similarity with the mountains of their homeland and those of the Sierra de Grazalema. They introduced sheep to graze the lush mountain pastures and produced wool for ponchos and blankets to guard against the wet climate. In 1485 the Duke of Arcos conquered the Moors in Grazalema but the cottage industry of producing woollen blankets - the renowned mantas de Grazalema - continued, reaching its peak in the 17th and 19th centuries, when wealth from textile manufacturing helped to fund the construction of the village's churches.

Grazalema still has vestiges of this industry today, with one workshop still in operation making woollen blankets, rugs, ponchos and scarves, which are exported all over the world. We mayl visit the Artesanía-Textil de Grazalema, a workshop on the Ronda road where you can see looms and carding machines and buy blankets and other textiles in the shop. Other locally produced handicrafts include baskets and leatherwork.

Virgen del Carmen fiesta day of 16 July, the village holds its annual fiesta, with flamenco music, fireworks and a procession, culminating in an exciting mini-Pamplona, where a bull is released to charge through the streets.

Zahara de la Sierra

Zahara is an idyllic setting with views that can only be fully appreciated by standing at one of the look-out balconies - miradores, or by climbing up to the old Moorish castle keep, passing the old mosque on your right-hand side. The locals call it 'divina' evoking some of the love one feels for this place.

There are two central plazas where two old churches stand - each one of a differing architecture with beautiful colours and ceramic roofing tiles. Enter one and you may hear a Peruvian priest - El Cura - giving a sermon with Old World grace and qualities, enter the other and you will find the float of the Virgin Mary sadly and vacantly casting her wilted head and eyes downwards. She is carried through the streets during religious festivals.

As the name al-Zahar implies the streets are lined with orange trees. With late summer/autumn comes the blossom, in winter the ripened fruit.

The river that once flowed through the valley, that was once crossed by a roman bridge - puente romano - was dammed. The valley took six years to flood and now a huge dam - el embalse - dominates the easterly view. This controversial construction provides much needed water for irrigation and livestock. The water is from High Mountain springs and therefore clean and a beautiful turquoise colour.

El Embalse de Zahara is excellent for swimming and the water is warm to the point that you can splash around easily for an hour before feeling a mild chill. It is clean enough not to feel the need to shower down later on.

The lower mountainsides are used for cultivating olives. Olive trees - Olivares - seem to run away like stitches in an old leather belt.

Zahara is one of the famed white villages of Andalucia - Los Pueblos Blancos. Strolling the irregular, narrow streets is intriguing and permits you to catch glimpses of old Spanish doorways and porches.

There are many festivals throughout the year and the dates change slightly depending on the calendar. The Centro de Visitantes de Zahara de La Sierra is the best place to contact for a more precise update.

A personal favourite is the festival of Corpus Cristi falling usually in June. It is the one time when the village is radically transformed from white to green. Branches - las ramas - are brought in from the mountains and fixed across the façades of the houses and the roads are lined with leaves. Street musicians, Flamenco guitarists and dancers, food and drink stalls, religious floats and thousands of people parade the streets for 2 days.

It is worth noting that the locals earn their living from the land, construction work, restoration work, archaeology, carpentry, bakery, tourism, catering, hardware, teaching, market trading, environmental protection groups. It is a fairly self sufficient.

Setenil de las Bodegas

Named after its once flourishing wineries - bodegas - Setenil is probably unique among the pueblos blancos, white villages, of Andalucia. Where most pueblos blancos were built on protective bluffs and pinnacles, this town grew out of a network of caves in the cliffs above the rio Trejo north-west of Ronda. Its blinding white houses seem to emerge from the rocks, and some have rock roofs and even olive groves on their roofs.

There has been a human settlement here since at least the Arabic Almohad period in the twelfth century. Given the evidence of other nearby cave-dwelling societies, such as those at the Cueva de la Pileta west of Ronda, where habitation has been tracked back more than 25,000 years, it is possible that Setenil was occupied much much earlier. Most evidence of this would have been erased in its continued habitation. It was certainly occupied during the Roman invasion of the region in the first century AD.

Modern Setenil began in 1484, relatively late in the Christian Reconquest, when the Christian armies expelled its Moorish, Granada-led Nasrid rulers. It took the Christians fifteen days to expel the Moors from the (nowadays ruined) castillo, castle, at the top of the town. The town name is believed to have been taken from the Roman Latin phrase "septem nihil", "seven times no", a phrase possibly linked to earlier invasions or skirmishes. The full moniker Setenil de las Bodegas dates from the 15th century, when its new, Christian, rulers developed an agricultural base of olives, almonds and vineyards. The first two still flourish on the hills and rooftops of Setenil, but it's wine trade was wiped out by the phylloxera insect infestation of the 1860s, which effectively destroyed most European vine stocks.

Over the intervening centuries, Setenil also gained a reputation for its meat products, particularly chorizo, sausage, and cerdo, pork, from pigs bred in the surrounding hills. As well as meat, it is has a reputation for producing fine pasteles, pastries, and its bars and restaurants are among the best in the region. Its outlying farms also provide Ronda and other local towns with much of their fruit and veg.

As well as the ruined Moorish castle - in theory, you can climb the vestigial tower, if you're careful - there is also the nearby church of the Encarnación, and the multi-tiered warren of steep, narrow streets in this compact, cliff-enclosed town (motorists beware).

Setenil's major festival is the festival of its patron saint, Sebastian, on 20 January. It celebrates Carnival with every other village in February, prior to Lent. Its annual feria takes place in the first week of August.