When you are renting a Casares Apartment you might like to visit the attractive mountain villages running between the Rio Guardiaro and the its tributary the Genal. The Ronda to Algecciras road is well worth the trip for the white town addicts. Although the route boasts 15 pubelos blancos (white villages), most are in fact quite small, with places like Alpandeire shrinking over the last few years to just 200 or so inhabitants. The small towns such as Atajate and Benarraba speak of their Berber past. Chesnut farming is where all of these little villages derive their living.

The larger towns such as Montejaque and Benajan are most famous for their tinned pork products.

Worthy perhaps of a half or full day visit in its own right is one of Andalucia’s most dramatically positioned pueblos blancos, Arcos de la Frontera. Balanced on a rocky ridge, its whitewashed houses and stone castle walls ending abruptly as a vertical cliff face plunges down to the fertile valley of the river Guadalete below.

The town enjoyed settlement in Neolithic, Bronze Age, Tartessian, Phoenician and Roman periods although its time under the Moors is reputed to have been one of the most successful. A plentiful supply of fresh water and teh pueblo’s defensive position were the main attractions for the settlers.

The pueblo was declared a historic-artistic monument in 1962 due to its exceptional architecture and impressive location. The original town is a maze of cobbled streets that lead up to the castle, the Castillo de los Arcos. From there one can see fantastic views over the town and the rolling plain below.

Today Arcos’s population of about 28,000 is divided between the old town and the newer town. For the old town follow Cuesta Bel

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