Let's Discover Las Alpujarras - Spain Travel Guide

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Travel guide to Las Alpujarras, Spain with useful information for visitors and local residents alike. Make the most of your time in Las Alpujarras with our information on travel, tours, sightseeing, hotels, and holidays.

Let's Discover The Beautiful Region of Las Alpujarras, Southern Spain

By Phil John Taylor

This wonderful location is a mountain range in Southern Spain. Situated overlooking the Mediterranean Sea it is the second highest mountain range in Europe. Most of it is now protected and is a National Park. The backdrop to La Alpujarra is the magnificent Sierra Nevada with its snow capped peaks, well, from late October through to June anyway. You can ski in the morning and sunbathe in the afternoon on the beaches of Salobrena.

Sheep, Las Alpujarras, Southern Spain

The whole of the Alpujarra is much as it has been for centuries. True there are some obvious modernisations that have taken place. Roads and power cables for example. But the basic infrastructure is much the same as it always was.

The Romans they were the first to build aqueducts in the area to aid irrigation of the land at the lower levels. The Moors developed this system 900 years ago and created an intricate system of water irrigation by following the contours of the land. The irrigation channels are called acequias, many of them are still in their original state. However, because they take a great deal of maintenance the acequias are now being repaired with polythene piping and concrete channels. The acequias, unlike the rivers that have cut huge gorges into the soft rock, flow continuously throughout the year.

The acequias were used for irrigation of the land on the steep slopes of Las Alpujarras. The land was terraced to allow for the mountain people to grow a variety of crops and fruit trees. Today, much of this form of agriculture has unfortunately died away. With only a handful of farmers managing the land as it once was.

Where the rivers have cut through the rock and created these gorges magnificent scenery beholds the visitor around every bend in the road; especially the final hairpin bend on the road into the Poqueira Barranca. Ahead lay the three popular white villages of Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira; which is the second highest village in Spain. Snow covers these villages for much of the winter. These villages are a must visit for anyone staying in a property within a one or two hour drive.

Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Expectacion, Orgiva, Las Alpujarras, Southern Spain

A very good place to stay in La Alpujarra is Orgiva. It is the capital of the region yet is not a huge town. It has everything you need for your stay. Banks, supermarkets, bars etc. The area around Orgiva has a good number of properties available for rent all at very reasonable rates. Many have their own swimming pool too. Orgiva has an attractive twin-spire church which dates from the 16th century, called the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Expectacion. The façade of this church is of Renaissance style of the Greco-Roman type. On the inside the people from Orgiva venerate the statue of their Saint Cristo de la Expiración, a cedar wood carving from the school of Martínez Montañés. The altarpiece of the main altar pertains to the churrigueresque Baroque period.

The region around Orgiva is a walker’s paradise. You can follow predetermined routes, follow the dry river bed up or down, or follow the acequias as they follow the contours.

Walking in Las Alpujarras, Southern Spain

Orgiva is centrally placed for doing lots of things. The spa town of Lanjaron with its relaxing spa baths is a short drive, Trevelez, the highest village in Spain and where some of the very best cured hams are produced is further up the mountains past Pampaneira and Pitres. Torvizcon, is a small village where Saffron is harvested from the crocus fields. It is just a short drive out the other side of Orgiva and East along the bottom of the Sierra de Contraviesa.

You can purchase locally produced wine, goats’ cheese, carpets/rugs and a whole host of artesian products. All available at reasonable prices from the white villages or Orgiva.

Granada is only a one hour drive away. Where you can visit the ‘must see in your life time’ La Alhambra Palace. Granada has a fantastic shopping centre and is also home to the famous Albaicin, the old Arab quarters of the city.

The great thing about this region is that you spend a wonderful peaceful time in the mountains and yet within forty five minutes you can be sun-bathing on the beaches of Salobreña and Almuñecar on the Costa Tropical. The people of the Alpujarra have a saying “We have our head in the clouds but our feet in the sea”.

I have only briefly touched on this wonderful location. All of the towns named in the article are situated in the Western Alpujarra. There is myriad of other beautiful villages if you drive from West to East along the twisting mountain road to the far end of La Alpujarra through Yegan and on to Laujar de Andarax.

The region is excellently accessible from three airports; Granada one hour to the north, Malaga 1 hour forty five minutes to the west and Almeria 1hour 30 minutes to the East.

I have visited La Alpujarra a large number of times. My first visit was as a mature undergraduate student in 1997. I immediately fell in love with the region. My holidays there since then inspired me to start up my own web site property rental business www.RentInSpain.co.uk . I thought it time to start promoting this wonderful region of Spain. In winter you ski in the morning on the Sierra Nevada and sunbathe on the beaches in the afternoon. What a holiday!