Hiking in hidden Andalucia ~ Alpujarras - Costa Del Sol

Sherpa Expeditions are a tour operator specialising in walking holidays worldwide. This 8 day walking holiday explores the mountains and valleys of the Alpujarras and is a leisurely self-guided walking tour making use of 4 centres, so you don't move on each day; but when you do your luggage is transported so you walk light.

This walking holiday takes you to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and to the range of mountains and valleys known as the Alpujarras. The area is of outstanding natural beauty and ecological diversity, and it is not hard to imagine that seven hundred years ago this was the fabled promised land of the Moors.

When the Moors settled here, they brought their engineering skills with them. 500 years after their departure, we can still admire, and walk along, the elaborate systems of aqueducts. These bring water from the high mountain torrents to irrigate the terraced fields of the Alpujarras. The Moorish heritage is also evident in the narrow winding streets and Moroccan style flat roofs with protruding chimneys, reminiscent of the villages in the High Atlas. Typically Andalucian, are the dazzling whitewashed walls and flower-bedecked balconies, often in autumn festooned with drying red peppers. Tiny villages are linked by a network of ancient Camino Reales, centuries old pathways kept open by royal decree and which are still used to this day by the mules taking farmers to their work. The Mediterranean glistens only 20 miles to the south whilst the magnificent towering and often snow-capped heights of the Sierra Nevada peer down on the astonishingly fertile terraces from almost 8,000 feet above. You will stay in a beautifully restored village house with gardens and pool and in hotels chosen for their atmosphere and views. Whatever your expectations, this tour will enchant anyone who enjoys outdoor life and wishes to holiday in an area still virtually untouched by tourism and to experience the magic of real Spain. The tour begins and ends at Mairena, the ‘Balcony of the Alpujarras’, one of the many typical whitewashed villages, set high up at the eastern end of the Sierra Nevada.