jimena de la frontera

jimena de la frontera is a beautiful "white village", situated approximately 35 kilometres inland from sotogrande on the mediterranean coast, on the edge of the alcornocales natural park. it has good road connections to all the main cities of interest in andalucia: málaga (2 hours), jerez (2 hours) seville, (2½ hours) and granada (3½ hours). madrid by motorway takes about 5 to 6 hours. two kilometres away in estacion jimena is the local railway station with good links to algeciras, málaga (via bobadilla) ronda and granada. the route from jimena to ronda (an old roman town sitting at the top of an amazing gorge) is a particulary spectacular one for wild and remote scenery. it is possible to make a day trip to granada by train and visit the fantastic old moorish palace, the alhambra.
the airport used by most visitors is málaga which is 1hr. 45 mins. to 2 hours drive from jimena. car hire is reasonably priced in spain and there are many firms both in the airport and very close by. the ones off airport tend to be cheaper and provide good pickup / drop-off facilities when booked in advance. you can also reach jimena by train (see above) from madrid and barcelona and if you arrive in málaga and are not hiring a car you can take the local train or airport bus to the main station then travel to jimena by train via bobadilla. there is also an airport in gibraltar, which is closer (45 minutes from the spanish side of the frontier) but flight prices tend to be high as there is no charter market to gibraltar and so no real reason for the airlines to keep their prices down.