Sierra de las Nieves loop from Marbella

Marbella → Ojén → Tolox → Coín loop

Take the A-355 north out of Marbella and within ten minutes you reach Ojén, a white village stacked above a gorge, with a small plaza that makes a good first coffee stop. Just beyond it, a narrow signed side road winds up through pine forest to the Refugio de Juanar, an old hunting lodge among olive groves; from the car park an easy, mostly flat 2.5 km trail leads to the Mirador del Macho Montés, a rock balcony with a huge view over Marbella and the Mediterranean far below. Back on the A-355, continue to Monda, crowned by a hilltop castle-hotel, then follow quiet country roads west through olive and citrus terraces to Tolox, a spa village pressed against the eastern edge of the Sierra de las Nieves — declared a national park in 2021 and one of the last homes of the rare Spanish pinsapo fir. If you would rather see water than peaks, swap Tolox for Istán, reached from Marbella by a dead-end mountain road above the turquoise Embalse de la Concepción reservoir. Loop back east through Coín, the market town of the Guadalhorce valley, and rejoin the A-355 south over the Puerto de Ojén to Marbella in time for dinner on the coast.

Driving note: The Juanar access road and the country lanes around Tolox are narrow with blind bends — take them slowly and give way at pinch points; a compact car is the easiest fit.