Rent a car in Marbella, drive all of Andalusia.

Small airport, fast pickup. Cabo de Gata is 35 minutes east. The Tabernas desert road is paved but lonely — refuel before you go…

Benalmádena is three towns stacked on a hillside — beachfront, Arroyo de la Miel and the old pueblo at the top. A car ties the…

Estepona is the easy-going base at the western end of the Costa del Sol — the prettiest old town on this stretch and a quick run…

Fuengirola sits midway between Málaga and Marbella — a flat, family-friendly resort with a 7 km promenade and genuinely easy…

Three towns in one — a pretty pueblo, a busy beachfront and the playful Puerto Marina — plus a mountain cable car and a fairy-tale castle. A varied, family-friendly stop close to Málaga airport.

Volcanic headlands, empty coves and whitewashed fishing villages in Spain's driest corner. Public transport barely exists inside the park — Cabo de Gata is the definition of a road-trip destination.

The Mosque-Cathedral, a maze-like Jewish quarter and Andalucía's most famous patios — under two hours from Málaga on the A-45, and far more rewarding when you control your own arrival time.

The famous cliff-hung walkway through the Gaitanes gorge is a one-way, two-entrance affair in the middle of nowhere — which makes a car by far the easiest way to do it, and turns the trip into a full lake-and-mountain day out.