The Best Villages to Visit Near
Sotogrande During Holy Week
One of the greatest privileges of living in Sotogrande for over 20 years is knowing the villages.
Not the ones on the tourist maps — though those are worth visiting too. The ones you find by following a road you haven’t taken before, by stopping in a square that doesn’t appear in any guide, by accepting the invitation of a local to stay for one more drink while the evening light turns everything gold.
The area around Sotogrande — the Campo de Gibraltar, the hills of the Serranía de Ronda, the coastline of the Costa del Sol — contains some of the most beautiful small towns and villages in Andalusia. And during Holy Week, they become something else entirely.
This is my guide to the villages worth visiting near Sotogrande this Easter.
San Roque — The Town on the Hill
San Roque sits on a hill above Sotogrande with views across the bay to Gibraltar and, on a clear day, to the mountains of Morocco beyond. It is a proper Andalusian town with a genuine history, a real community and a main square that has been the heart of local life for centuries.
During Holy Week, San Roque is transformed. The brotherhoods that have been preparing since the previous year take to the streets with floats of extraordinary quality. The historic centre — compact, walkable and beautifully preserved — fills with families and community members who have been watching these same processions since childhood.
San Roque is also worth visiting during the day during Easter week for its museums, its churches and its restaurants. The views from the mirador at the top of the town, looking out over the bay on a clear April afternoon, are among the finest in the region.
Casares — The Village That Defies Gravity
Casares is one of those villages that makes you question how it was built at all.
Stacked improbably against a near-vertical cliff face above the valley, with a ruined Moorish castle at its crown and a church whose bell tower is visible for miles, Casares looks like something from a dream rather than a real, functioning village. And yet it is exactly that — home to a small, proud community that has been living in these extraordinary circumstances for centuries.
The drive up to Casares from Sotogrande takes around 25 minutes and climbs through countryside that is at its most beautiful in April — green hills, wildflowers, views that open up suddenly and take your breath away.
During Holy Week, Casares holds its own processions on a scale that befits an intimate mountain village. The effect of a candlelit procession moving through the narrow streets — streets so narrow that the float barely fits, with whitewashed walls almost close enough to touch on either side — is extraordinary. There is no grand ceremony here, no large crowd. Just a community and its tradition, in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable.
Gaucín — The Eagle’s Nest
If Casares is dramatic, Gaucín is vertiginous.
Perched at over 600 metres above sea level on a rocky outcrop in the Serranía de Ronda, Gaucín looks out over a view that encompasses Gibraltar, Morocco, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean simultaneously on a clear day. It is, without question, one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the whole of southern Spain.
The village itself is small, beautiful and home to a community that includes a significant number of international artists and creative people who have been drawn here over the years by the extraordinary light and the extraordinary peace. The streets are steep, the houses are immaculate and the whole place has a slightly otherworldly quality that is impossible to describe adequately.
During Holy Week, Gaucín’s processions take place against this extraordinary backdrop. Watching a paso move along a narrow street with Morocco visible on the horizon in the fading light is one of those images that stays with you permanently.
Jimena de la Frontera — The Hidden Gem
Jimena de la Frontera is, in my view, one of the most underappreciated villages in the whole of the Campo de Gibraltar.
Larger than Casares or Gaucín, Jimena has a proper town centre, a beautiful old quarter, a Moorish castle with extraordinary views and a community that feels genuinely connected to its history and its landscape. It sits in a valley surrounded by the Alcornocales Natural Park — one of the largest cork oak forests in Europe — and the countryside around it is spectacular.
The Holy Week celebrations in Jimena are genuine and moving. The processions move through the old quarter with a sincerity and a community involvement that reminds you what Semana Santa is actually about beneath the spectacle.
Jimena is also an excellent base for exploring the natural park — hiking, birdwatching and simply driving through the cork oak forest in April when everything is green and flowering is one of the great undiscovered pleasures of this area.
Manilva and the Old Village — Two Worlds in One
Most people know Manilva as a coastal area — Sabinillas, the port of Duquesa, the seafront apartments and restaurants. But the old village of Manilva, sitting a few kilometres inland on a hillside above the coast, is a completely different and largely undiscovered place.
The old village has a quiet, timeless quality. The streets are narrow and whitewashed, the pace of life is genuinely unhurried and the community that gathers during Holy Week for the processions has a warmth and intimacy that you do not find in larger towns.
After watching the evening procession in old Manilva, walk down to the coast for a late dinner at one of the seafront restaurants in Sabinillas. The combination of the two — ancient village above, relaxed coastal life below — encapsulates something essential about what makes this part of Spain so special.
A note on driving in the hills — The roads connecting these villages are generally good but often narrow, particularly as you climb into the hills. April evenings can bring occasional mist in the higher areas. Drive carefully, allow more time than the map suggests and — especially after dark — reduce your speed on the mountain roads.
The drives themselves, in daylight, are part of the experience. The countryside around Sotogrande in April is at its absolute finest — green, flowering and bathed in that extraordinary Andalusian light.
¡Feliz Semana Santa! 🌿
— Amanda Brooks Valdenebro, Partner at CVP Properties
Living in Sotogrande for nearly 20 years
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