Andalusia Travels

This is an example of the many tiled murals you see in towns in Spain, in this mural you can see a group of people picking olives from a tree before the fruit is taken to the factory to be converted into virgin olive oil.

I thought I'd share a photo of the countryside around Ronda in summer. As you can see everything is very dry, the grass is golden or brown, except for the olive trees, which retain their green color throughout the year. This is something that is quite common around Andalusia.

Recently I've been helping a couple of friends from the UK organize their trip to Spain, giving them a bit of advice on places to visit, places to avoid, and since they don't speak a word of Spanish, phoning or emailing a couple of hotels to arrange a room for them.

Here in Andalusia there are a lot of English or expat owned hotels, a fair number of top rated restaurants owned by expats, and most of the private houses for short term rent seem to be owned by expats or foreign residents.

My friends wanted to find somewhere authentic, a hotel owned by a Spanish family, somewhere they can see how Spanish people are different or the same as themselves. My friend's wife has a really healthy attitude to experiencing foreign cultures; put yourself in a place where you don't feel at home, but at the same time feel welcome, and in this way you'll to experience something new and exciting on holiday.

Of course staying in English owned hotels isn't necessarily a bad thing, remember that most have Spanish staff, but it does mean you're likely to meet a higher percentage of other guests from outside of Spain, whereas many smaller Spanish owned family run hotels wil have greater numbers of Spanish guests.

If you choose to stay in a private home for a week or two, chances are you'll never see the owners, so picking a property to stay in based on ownership doesn't matter much. Instead, pick a home that is central to where you want to stay so that there is a chance of getting to know the neighbors and experience the culture of Spain first hand.