MacsTravel Blog

The wonderful Robin MacPherson turned 60 (!) on this vacation, and we wanted to find a special spot to celebrate. Our original thought was to stay somewhere near the seaside town of Nerja, a place that friends Darren and Truus had recommended and which is often featured in guidebooks for this area of Spain. Nerja is famous for its caves, its beaches and its scenic promenade. We also wanted to find accommodations that matched the occasion! As we searched on Booking.com for places to stay near Nerja, one property really stood out: a charming BnB named Casa Jardin, opened just last summer, with nothing but 5 star reviews. The only problem was it wasn’t in Nerja, but in the White Hill Town of Cómpeta, located between Malaga and Nerja, a 30 minute drive up a typically twisty-turning Andalusian road from the coast.

Note: White Hill Towns (Pueblos Blancos) are so named for the colour of the houses: they are painted uniformly white to help reflect the heat in the summer season.

After doing a little reading about Cómpeta and about the BnB we were sold. So we abandoned our plans of staying in Nerja and booked two nights at Casa Jardin.

According to Google Maps, Cómpeta was under two hours from our spot in Mijas. The app shows the route as a series of smooth blue lines gently tracing the coast followed by what appears to be a drawing of the lower intestine in an anatomy textbook heading north.

Sure enough, as we left the coast and started climbing we found ourselves in an all too familiar scenario from previous ventures into hill towns, hugging the cliffside and navigating the blind turns and hairpin curves on our way up.

In our earlier communication, proprietors Ian and Anthony had given us clear and specific instructions of how to find the free car park at the bottom of the town so that we could have a stress free arrival. Unfortunately, directions are only as good as the people who are following them, so in typical fashion we found ourself zooming by the road which promised easy access to parking, climbing up and up and entering instead through the warren of tiny streets above the town, streets that were originally designed for the easy movement of particularly skinny donkeys.

As we wove our way down through Cómpeta towards our destination, we found ourselves moving through increasingly narrow and claustrophobic alleys, to the point where the Google Maps gave up (the screen literally went black) and the collision sensors on our rental car all began flashing and beeping in unison. Reaching a literal fork in the “road”, lost, and facing an open revolt from our vehicle, I decided to follow a van that was slightly bigger than ours down the route to the left, theorizing that if the van could pass through then so could we.

Remarkably, this turned out to be a good decision and we soon found ourselves in an open piazza in front of the promised “free parking” structure.

Like most of the White Hill Towns, Cómpeta is a blaze of white buildings layered along the hillside and loosely organized around a central square which is conveniently marked by the steeple of the village church.

Casa Jardin is tucked just below the square, about a 100 m walk straight uphill (of course) from the parking lot. Arriving early, we rang the bell. A head (Ian’s it turned out) popped out of a window on the third floor, and we soon found ourselves installed in our wonderfully appointed suite. Ian took us on a tour of their home, showed us the charming terrace where we would gather for breakfast and the incredible roof-top bar (self-serve) with expansive views of the town and countryside. We had the run of the place as the only guests on day one, and were joined by a lovely Dutch couple on day two who were looking for their own vacation property in the area.

Over our time here, Ian and his partner Anthony were both generous with advice on where to eat and where to hike, and shared lots of details when asked about how they found and developed this property. Breakfast was included, and started with croissants warm from the oven, fresh brewed coffee and orange juice freshly squeezed from their trees in the back garden. This was followed by the “main breakfast” of fruit and yoghurt or eggs and toast. It was all very lovely. The cost for two days of this luxurious treatment was incredibly reasonable.

So what does one do in Cómpeta? In theory, you could zip back down the road to the coast to visit the many beaches along the way to Nerja. This was not happening as Robin was only going back down the road when our stay was finished. That left wandering the streets, enjoying drinks and tapas at some of the wonderful restaurants, and setting aside a few hours for a hike through the surrounding hills.

Over breakfast on Robin’s birthday, Ian went to the trouble of sorting out directions to a parking area near the trailhead to the Lost Village of El Acebuchal hike, one which we’d read about and were keen to try. However I’d been fighting some achilles tendonitis, we had some driving trepidation, and so we decided to take one of the many routes that began right in the town of Cómpeta.

From the teva and lycra clad look of the other visitors in town, it’s evident that Cómpeta is a popular destination for both cycling and hiking. We set out on the 6km out and back hike from Cómpeta to Canillas de Albaida, another little hill town located to the north west of Cómpeta.

This trail was well marked and relatively linear, so when we got to Canillas de Albaida we decided to extend our hike by taking the route to Archez before heading back to Cómpeta.

This involved considerably more elevation as we dipped down to the valley floor and the riverbed before climbing up to Archez and looping through a series of roads and some poorly maintained and overgrown trails back to Cómpeta.

The scenery is beautiful: groves of olive and avocado trees peppered with vineyards, and a long view down the valley to the Mediterranean.

If any blog readers are thinking of doing this hike, our recommendation would be to stick to the roads once you reach Archez back to Cómpeta. Or, do the whole thing as an “out and back” from Cómpeta, through Canillas de Albaida to Archez.

After our hike we returned to our car to drop off the hiking gear and noticed dozens of caterpillars along a walkway, many of whom seemed to be joined together in a conga line of sorts. The man on the walkway ahead of us seemed to do a little “hot coals” dance as he darted through the warren of caterpillars, but we didn’t really think much of it. Not until that evening, on the rooftop of Casa Jardin, when after being asked about dangerous critters by Robin (a favourite theme of hers) Anthony mentioned not only the venemous snakes in the area (!) but the Pine Processionary Caterpillars of southern Spain, creatures which are variously described as “poisonous”, “dangerous” and “deadly”. Apparently these delightful little creatures are covered in thousands of toxic bristles. They are particularly dangerous for pets, but are not to be trifled with by humans.

Despite this horrifying knowledge, we will definitely return here again to explore not only the Lost Village of El Acebuchal hike but a number of other hikes up into the mountains behind Cómpeta in the Sierras de Tejeda. This time we will wear higher socks and hiking pants rather than shorts!

The rest of our visit essentially featured food and drink: lovely breakfasts, lingering afternoons on various terraces, lovely dinners (Casa Pico and El Pilon were terrific spots), fancy drinks at the new cocktail establishment, Adrianos… all in all a marvelous way to celebrate Robin’s birthday.

Cómpeta doesn’t spring to mind when you think about the famous White Hill Towns of Spain, but it should. It is a thoroughly charming spot to spend a few days, and we would highly recommend spending that stay with Ian and Anthony at the Casa Jardin.

Our route back down to the coast was still twisty and turny, but much less stressful than our route on arrival. We were going for a short visit in Nerja before heading back to our apartment in Mijas.

Nerja has a busy, touristy centre, so it’s best to park on the perimeter and wander down (about a ten minute walk). It is a pleasant town, but the mainfeature is definitely its famous Balcón de Europa, a expansive public square that looks out over the Mediterranean sea and back to the coastline with its backdrop of imposing mountains and marvelous little beaches.

It was busy, but we still found a seaside restaurant with an outdoor patio and great views of the coast and the Balcón de Europa.

We spent a couple of hours wandering around the town, before heading back to Mijas. We would definitely plan to spend a little more time in Nerja on a future visit, but we are so glad that we made the decision to spend the time we had in Cómpeta.