Recap: A Return Visit to Ronda, Spain

We were fortunate to have my sister and brother-in-law with us for a week recently, so we did our best to take them around Seville and the surrounding area. One day trip we were sure to take was to the great town of Ronda, Spain.

Angela and I visited Ronda a few years ago when my parents came to visit us, and wrote about it in this blog post. Since we already covered those bases, we thought we’d give you an updated post with new photos and all that.

Ronda is just under two hours southeast of Seville. It’s an easy day trip if you have a car – which is the only way we’ve ever gone there – but there’s bus and train service as well. Or, you can take a tour with one of the local companies if you’re based in Seville or any other larger city in the region.

Ronda is known for the huge gorge that runs directly through the middle of town, and breathtaking scenery that overlooks the valley below.

It’s also home of the oldest official bullring in the world. We didn’t visit it during our first trip to Ronda, so we made sure to check it out this time.

Even though we had been here before and sort of knew the lay of the land, we had a different experience as we popped into previously unvisited (by us) places, or walked down different streets. It’s always nice how something you’ve “seen” before can have a different experience if you look at it just a slight bit differently.

Have a look at more pictures below, and and enjoy!

More pictures from the bullring, which is quite a site as it’s so old. It had recently rained, so we had to watch our feet walking through the sand on the arena floor. The plaza de toros is still in action, but it’s the off-season right now. We really dug how you can wind your way through the stables – there’s also an equine school there – as well as the pens where the bulls are held and all the spectator areas.

And here’s a little panorama for you, but you’ll have to click on it to see it in full.

After that, we headed down to the center of town to check out the bridge and gorge pictured up in this post. The light wasn’t all that great though, and we’re no professional photographers.

There are a few restaurants that hang on the side of this gorge, and we just had to sit outside for lunch in order to enjoy the scenery and have a few drinks. It doesn’t really matter how touristy these places are…they’re the ones with the views. ¡Olé!

And, to be frank, the food here was pretty darn good, despite the touristy vibe.

After lunch, we strolled in and out of Ronda’s streets, heading past an endless array of history, and we also checked out the older bridges that once led to the town’s entrance, before the big bridge was built.

As we left Ronda after walking around all morning and afternoon, we put our next destination into the GPS and let it guide us out of town. Problem is, it was guiding us to places we knew were incorrect. Instead of using proper roads, the GPS decided to have us head down old dirt ones. We made our way under a viaduct and ended up at an old farm.

I don’t think we’re supposed to be here!

Once the GPS asked us to go up that hill and onto the highway, we knew that this wasn’t going to work. Fortunately, all four of us love a good laugh, so we made the most of it and reversed our way a few hundred meters back out onto a normal road. So it goes!

Sometimes, you really should follow your gut. But if you do, you might not get a laugh out of a situation like we did.

All in all, a great repeat visit to Ronda. Thanks to Ben and Heidi for joining us here in Spain! Be sure to check out our previous post about Ronda right here for more stories and pictures.

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Have you ever been to Ronda? If so, what’d you think? If not, what say ye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!