Hiking is an activity which is easy to combine with learning Spanish and it is fun for everybody. You do not need much equipment or much experience and during the hikes, you can practice Spanish as the guide gives a lot of interesting explanations in Spanish about the fascinating nature around us, with translations to English if necessary. Additionally, you can practice Spanish in informal conversations with other language students while you are walking.
We recommend you to bring hiking or sports shoes and a small backpack.
Every Monday, the first day of the new students who join us in the Spanish course, we usually go on a hiking tour in the surroundings of Prado del Rey. There are several alternative routes, so that if you stay a month or longer you can observe the stunning landscape from different perspectives every week. The guide explains the most interesting points about the natural parks and its plants and animals as well as the history and the economic activities of Prado del Rey in an interesting and interactive way.
In the afternoons after the Spanish course or on the weekends, you can book even more spectacular hiking tours in our natural park Sierra de Grazalema where the highest peaks are over 1600 m high. There are hikes in different lengths and degrees of difficulty, each of them of singular beauty. You will have the wonderful opportunity to get to know the flora and fauna of this region with its rich variety of species.
If you are lucky, you can see deer, roes, mountain goats, and many predators such as civets, otters, foxes and the endemic griffon vultures which form one of the biggest colonies of Europe in this region. For watching them it is worthwhile to bring a binocular.
Our guided hiking tours are always a great experience as they bring enchanting sights, healthy outdoor exercise and a lot of fun within the group of language students.
Some of our hikes:
- Rio Majaceite (El Bosque). Short hike along the river Rio Majaceite in El Bosque (3 h, easy). In the shade of abundant vegetation and the possibility to have a bath in the cool water in summer.
- Hike to the summit of the Torreón, the highest mountain in the Cadiz province (1654 m). 6 hours, medium-high difficulty. A continuous ascent, first on a small path, then over rugged rocks to the peak where we can enjoy the stunning view over the great parts of the Cadiz and Malaga province and if we are lucky we can see the coast in a more than 100 km distance and even on very bright days Gibraltar and the Rif, the first mountain relief of Marrocco.
- Hike to the peak of the Simancón. (6 h, medium difficulty). Through a Mediterranean forest and then over ruggy rocks we ascend to the peak of the Simancón, the highest point of the Sierra del Endrinal opposite Grazalema.
- Hike through the Pinsapar, the famous Spanish Fir Forest of Grazalema, a relict species of the last Ice Ages. The Spanish Firs find ideal cool and relatively humid conditions on the northern slopes of the Sierra del Pinar, where a small wood of Pinsapos covers some 400 hectares, in the reserve area of the natural park, especially protected against fire. On the hike, for which we need a special permit you can explore this fascinating wood and enjoy the dazzling views from 1200 meters altitude.