It’s over ten years since we lasted visited Ronda, and that was a flying visit, as we were en route to Seville for Semana Santa. But it imprinted such a memory that we always said we’d return for a longer visit, and in August we did just that. The summer of 2024 has been one of getting to know Andalucia, which we hope, very soon, we will call our new permanent home. We’d driven around Ronda a few times, in order to get to places we were staying, but when we pitched up in a rented apartment in Algodonales for a month, this seemed the perfect opportunity to revisit the city we had very fond memories of. Especially it was only just over half an hour away.

We booked two nights in Hotel Catalonia Ronda, part of the Catalonia Hotel group, which we found out afterwards. The location could not have been better – almost directly opposite the famous bullring, on the corner of Carrera Espinel, which is a beautiful boulevard, packed full of fabulous bars, restaurants and shops, and less than two minutes walk from the Puento Nuevo and Ronda gorge. The hotel also has private parking (right next to the bullring) – always a bonus in a historical city centre – but the biggest bonus is that hotel will take they keys and park for it for you. The reason this is great, is that often these car parks can be quite a squeeze, and with a roofbox and a large(ish) car, we’d rather leave the parking to someone familiar with the layout. Anyway, great to have car safely stowed away for two days.

Our room was large and more than adequate for a two night stay. Not exceptional, but this wasn’t an issue, as the view over the Ronda rooftops was beautiful – and the facilities in the hotel were pretty exceptional. Most notably being the wrap around roof terrace, with a view directly into the bullring, as well across to the gorge and the town, campo and mountains beyond, and the pool on a level above this terrace.

We arrived in Ronda over a very, very hot and stifling weekend, so exploring in the intense heat of the day was pretty much ruled out. However, we did feel, that with a very comfy roof terrace, and umbrellas to keep us in the shade, we could sit back and explore with our eyes, and indulge in a couple of G&Ts. Which we did. Although we kept it to a couple, as we’d have quickly run out of money otherwise. Pricey, to say the least…

Sunday was as hot as Saturday, so whilst we did get out and about, we punctuated it with a stop at the Parador restaurant and a fabulous spread of tapas, overlooking the gorge. It definitely didn’t seem like ten years since our last visit, as pretty much everything was unchanged. Which I loved as it showed that they city hasn’t needed to introduce new show-stoppers to encourage tourists – it just seems to tick along very nicely with what’s always been there and its natural crowd pullers. The terrace of the Parador hotel gives a great view of the Puente Nuevo and the stomach churning drop down into the gorge, because it is slightly raised – meaning that you can good photos, without fighting through selfie sticks. (I hadn’t realised these were still a thing, but apparently they seem to be).

We had expected our meal to be exorbitant, but were just glad of the shade and so decided that whatever it cost, at least we’d have had a view. But, we were very pleasantly surprised – as with many places in Spain, rip-off culture just doesn’t exist – and we had a fabulous meal, costing round about the same as the bar bill on the hotel roof terrace.

After a much needed siesta, we ventured out again, to explore, although not getting much further than the area around the bullring and the Puente Nuevo. This tiny part of Ronda – which is much, much bigger than we realised – is so pretty and with limited time, it’s probably where you’d want to focus your sight-seeing. Early evening, for obvious reasons in mid-August, is also a much more pleasant time to be out and about. If you have a head for heights, walk past the bullring, and through a blossom lined avenue, and you’ll get to see the gorge from the other side, as well as the cave house settlements, which now look largely abandoned, far below. It’s a breathtaking spot to catch the sunset, too.

In Spain, as in Italy, food plays a huge part in our travels, and Ronda was no exception. As well as the Parador, we read about a restaurant, just around the corner from our hotel on Carerra Espinel, called Toro Tapas, which had excellent online reviews. It was super busy when we arrived and we were lucky to be able to get an outdoor table – although the restaurants indoors, is air-conditioned and looked to have a fabulous roof terrace. The thing about the food here, was that it just didn’t look the best, and so I think my photos don’t really tell the full story. It was excellent – and although most tapas dishes, here in Andalucia, seem to be served with a portion of fries, the actual tapa dish is usually always very tasty.

We’re definitely getting our quota of tapas now that we are finally in Spain, so for our second night, we decided to investigate Restaurant Jerez, located opposite the Bullring of the Royal Cavalry of Ronda, to give it its full name. The restaurant’s website says that it “…combines authentic Rondenian traditions with generations of experience in high quality service in an ideal location to savor the gastronomy of our land…Our menu fuses traditional Andalusian cusine with modern innovation…” so we were keen to investigate, and we enjoyed another delicious meal of croquettes, stuffed mushrooms, cheeses, filled pasta and pistachio sauce and sea bass on a bed of vegetables, followed by a shared dessert, to round off our Ronda food journey.

The house we are in the process of buying is located in the white town of Jimena de la Frontera, only 65kms from Ronda, so we are very excited that weekend trips away like this, will become the norm, to this beautiful city and that we’ll be able to get to know it a whole lot better. Our two days this summer was just lovely, and enough to once again make us realise just how lucky we are going be, when we call this part of Spain, home…