Walking in Andalucia

This guidebook explores six of Andalucía's most beautiful Natural Parks, the Sierra Nevada regions of Aracena, Grazalema, Los Alcornocales and the Gaucín, La Axarquía, the Alpujarras and Cazorla, along the great belt of the Cordillera Bética mountains. The thirty-six half-day and full-day mostly circular walks are evenly split within these six regions, and range in length from 4 to 21km. Walks are graded and some involve steep ascents and descents, all within the capabilities of a reasonably fit walker.

The vast mountain range of the Cordillera Bética offers some of the finest year-round walking in Europe. Towering above the Mediterranean, the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada rise to almost 3500m, mainland Spain's highest mountains. And wrapped within this mighty belt of mountains are some of Spain's most beautiful villages and mountain trails.

The routes are based in and around the villages of Aracena, Grazalema, Jimena de la Frontera, Cazorla, Bubión and Cómpeta, all of which lie within protected Nature Reserves. They are best enjoyed mid-September through to mid-June, though mid-summer walks can still be comfortably undertaken in the higher Natural Parks of Cazorla and La Alpujarra. Alongside detailed route descriptions and clear mapping, the guidebook includes notes on the history of Andalucía and its plants and wildlife, practical information about travel, food and drink, language and communications and recommendations for the best places to stay.

Guy Hunter-Watts

Guy Hunter-Watts has lived and worked in Andalucía since the 1980s. After studying at the universities of Santiago and Salamanca he taught English in South America before moving to the Ronda mountains where he has been leading guided walks for almost 25 years. His work as a walking guide and freelance journalist has taken him to many corners of the planet including India, Namibia, Tanzania, Latin America and Mongolia.

Guy’s latest adventures include sailing a yacht from Turkey to the Maldives, tracking leopard through the Jawai hills in Rajasthan, shipping a vintage Airstream caravan from the USA to a remote mountainside in the Grazalema mountains and regularly falling off a battered Enfield motorbike on the tracks leading up to his farm.