Andalucia Highlights 2023

Welcome to the Andalucia Highlights 2023!

Andalucia.com is dedicated to southern Spain, where visitors and locals enjoy lots of sunshine each year, life is lived outdoors, and fiestas are celebrated merrily with local food and wine, all the year round, in every village, town and city, to celebrate everything from food harvests to religious pilgrimages. Andalucia is one of the most varied regions in Spain, with every type of scenery from wetlands to deserts, mountains to beaches.

Most of the 10.000 pages on Andalucia.com are read by searching for information on a specific subject or by navigating from the main menu above.

The Andalucia.com highlights are an opportunity to read the website like you would a magazine, simply scroll down this page and click on an article that interests you. We are adding several new articles at the top of the list each week. The page features a mix of articles timed to coincide with an event or news story and timeless classics.

When you reach the bottom of the page, which is the beginning of this year, explore another year.

Welcome to the Andalucia.com highlights of 2023.

Tapas tours in Malaga City

Andalucia is justifiably famous for its excellent gastronomic scene. Using first-class ingredients grown throughout the region's lands and caught along its extensive coastline, cutting-edge dishes are prepared and presented with the flair and innovation for which Spain's chefs are so famous - although the simple, traditional tapas of cheese, prawns and of course jamon are just as recommendable.

Grazalema

Located in a high valley over 800m in the Sierra del Endrinal and dominated by the magnificent rocky outcrop known as Peñon Grande, the pretty mountain village of Grazalema is most popular base for visitors to the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park. The park is a vast protected area of rugged limestone mountains, which are famous for being the rainiest place in Spain.

Los Escullos

If Bond movies, quirky bars, fossils and remote Mediterranean beaches appeal to you, take a trip to Los Escullos. Los Escullos is a small cluster of houses overlooking the jagged Almeria coastline, a few km north of San Jose. Sitting under the extinct volcano Cerro del Fraile (at 493m, El Fraile peak is the highest of the Sierra del Cabo de Gata), it has a certain charm.

Car Rental Groups in Andalucia

When you hire a car online you are actually reserving a car in a 'rental group' and not a specific make or model of car. Note that adjacent to the name of the car in the listing it will say 'or similar'. The headline car in the listings tends to be an 'expensive' model.  The groups and their composition of car makes and models are not published by any of the car hire companies.  

New year, New life

It's the new year, time for new starts and new resolutions. Many of us swear we will get fit when January arrives, to rid ourselves of all the excesses from Christmas over-indulgence, but it can be hard to keep the motivation going. If you join a gym, try to do it with a friend so you can convince each other to keep up your attendance, and check out the classes on offer.

Mantecados de Estepa

The crumbly Christmas cookies collectively known as mantecados, which you will see in the months leading up to Christmas, individually wrapped and sold either by weight, or in a box, are made in a town located in the eastern part in Seville province, Estepa.

New Year's Eve

Possibly you thought the Christmas season was over on New Year’s Eve, but in Spain this is just the mid-point of all the celebrating. In this country, the tradition is to have a rather late dinner with your family – just one more rich, elaborate dinner, of course, complete with all the pastries, dried fruits and nuts and mountains of turrón that finish every meal at this time of year.

The Verdiales Music Festival

December 28th, right smack in the middle of the Spanish Christmas season, we have the annual Verdiales competitions taking place right outside Málaga City. The festival will bring together competing “pandas” as they are known. These are groups that practice one of three different forms of Verdiales singing accompanied by their traditional folk dance and unforgettable costumes.

Christmas Pastries

Traditional Spanish Christmas pastries (of the non-"turrón" type) add a special touch to the holidays with their own distinct flavours - and textures! Here is a look at some of the most popular specialities. Once upon a time they were only available in December and January, but that is changing. Nevertheless, it's only during the holiday season that you'll see them in such large amounts. In fact, in most supermarkets you can even buy them in bulk.

Andalucia Highlights