In addition to Ronda, the mountain range of the Serranía de Ronda is dotted with many hilltop whitewashed villages topped by Moorish castles.
To the north of Ronda are Arriate and Cuevas del Becerro, while south is the attractive Cortes de la Frontera, surrounded by cork groves, and the most famous place in the area, the delightful village of Gaucín. West of Ronda is Montejaque, perched on the mountainside overlooking the fertile olive groves below, and Benaoján, which is close to a famous cave, the Cueva de la Pileta, with some impressive prehistoric cave paintings and rock formations of stalagtites and stalagmites.
Off the well-beaten tourist track in the Genal valley, in the shadow of the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park, is the village of Igualeja along with a string of hamlets, such as Pujerra, Júzcar, Cartajima, Alpandeire and Faraján. On the eastern side of the Sierra de las Nieves, and a gateway into the park, is Tolox, which boasts a well-known spa.
Júzcar is particularly worth a visit since it was transformed in 2011 into a Smurf village. Sony Pictures painted all the buildings in the village blue, as part of a campaign to promote the Smurfs movie. Afterwards Sony offered to repaint the town white, however the inhabitants voted to leave the buildings painted blue, as an estimated 80,000 tourists visited in the six months following the repainting. The town normally had seen just 300 tourists per year.
If you prefer not to travel as far as Ronda or Malaga then there are many other white villages, closer to Nerja, the closest of which, Frigiliana, is just 7km away. More information can be found on our Villages near Nerja page.