After visiting the photography museum and a quick lunch, we had a stroll around town and then headed home via the desert.

There was also a temporary exhibition of works by José Manaut. We didn’t know anything about him in advance, but we really liked the selection they had on display.

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Followed by the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Realism, which has an excellent collection, including works by Sorolla, Zuloaga and Antonio Lopez.

It’s housed in part of the old hospital, which makes a beautiful exhibition space.

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Next the guitar museum, which tells the story of guitar-making through the centuries, focusing on local 19th-century guitar maker Antonio de Torres

The museum places the guitar in the context of other, related string instruments. As a curiosity, it turns out Stradivarius made guitars.

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Along the Mediterranean coastline, there’s a relatively narrow coastal strip backed by scenic mountains. This is where you find the Costa del Sol, Costa Tropical and Costa de Almería, which includes the lovely coves and sandy beaches of the Cabo de Gata, a Marine-Terrestrial Natural Park.

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Continuing east and south, you reach the arid mountains of Almería, as well as the Tabernas desert, said to be the only true desert in Europe. You might be familiar with the countryside from the Spaghetti Westerns filmed there, including Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.

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In the east, the climate gets drier. In the north of Granada province you have the Granada Geopark, one of the areas within Europe least altered by humans. The most striking features are the dry and hostile badlands, occasionally punctuated by surprisingly lush river valleys.

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South of the Guadalquivir, a series of mountain ranges separate it from the Mediterranean. These include the Sierra Nevada, where Mulhacén, at 3,479 m above sea level, is the tallest mountain in the Iberian Peninsula. Once snow-covered all year round, but climate change has put paid to that.

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The wetlands around the Guadalquivir’s estuary, in Doñana National Park, are an important stopover for migrating birds. Either side of the estuary, you have the wide, sandy beaches of the Andalucía’s Atlantic coastline, known as Costa de la Luz.

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Below that, the Guadalquivir river valley forms a large, elongated triangle, stretching from its source in the Sierra de Cazorla in the northeast to the Atlantic in the southwest. This is the agricultural heartland of Andalucía, with crops like olives, wheat, oranges, vines and strawberries.

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Andalucía is more mountainous than many people realise. In the north you have the rolling Sierra Morena mountains, which stretch 400 km east from Portugal through the provinces of Huelva, Seville, Córdoba and Jaén. Historically, a natural barrier between Andalucía and the rest of Spain.

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Faralá, located just below the Alhambra, is run by chef Cristina Jiménez. It also has a less formal “little brother” called El Quejío. The other newly-listed Andalucian restaurants are Mare in Cádiz, Palodú in Málaga and ReComiendo in Córdoba.

When the hotel changed hands recently, the new owners decided it would be better for marketing to be in Málaga. So they “moved province”, taking Granada’s only star with them.

In the 2026 list, Granada got its own back. La Finca lost its star, and Faralá in Granada city was awarded one.

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Granada province doesn’t have a great track record in the Michelin guide. A few years ago, we got our first star for La Finca near Loja. It’s part of a big luxury hotel with extensive grounds that stretch across the provincial border into Málaga.

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Vandelvira in the elegant town of Baeza also has a Michelin star, as well as a beautiful setting in a former Renaissance convent, and there are four more Michelin restaurants in nearby Jaén. It’s an overlooked province, but well worth visiting for foodies and culture lovers.

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One of the new listings – Ochando – is in Los Rosales near Seville, which has fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. A great reminder that you can find spectacular cuisine in unexpected places in Andalucía. They tend to be excellent value too – at least by the standards of similar restaurants elsewhere.

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The drive itself takes around 3 hours, but you could easily spend the whole day on the trip if you make a few stops.
Another option is to spend a night in one of the villages along the way. If you do, our Zuheros and Luque day trip has ideas for even more things to do in the area.

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The final leg of our journey to Granada takes you past Moclín, another picturesque village crowned by a romantic castle. There are fantastic views of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and the village is the starting point for the popular Gollizno hiking route down into a dramatic gorge.

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The first thing you see as you approach Alcalá la Real is the Fortaleza de la Mota standing high on a plateau above the town. Originally a Muslim fortress, it developed into an important frontier town, which exchanged hands several times in the 13th century.

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