La Donaira

La Donaira occupies a cortijo more than a century old high in the Serranía de Ronda, on an estate dotted with Roman and Arab remains. Today the estate has become an ecological project that combines a small hotel, a working farm and an equestrian centre devoted to the Lusitano horse. The main house and its outbuildings were restored keeping the original beams and frames and using local materials such as adobe, wood and stone. Around it, the farm is run on the principles of polyculture, agroecology and regenerative agriculture: vegetable gardens, fruit trees, olive and almond groves, vineyard, bees and livestock that is fed, in part, on what the kitchen leaves over. The project has steadily gained international recognition. The estate is part of Relais & Châteaux and in 2025 it entered the MICHELIN Guide's selection of Key hotels for the first time, the guide describing it as more than a hotel.

The architecture of La Donaira is that of the Andalusian mountain cortijo, recovered without fuss. The restoration kept the house's original beams and frames and turned to natural, local materials - adobe, wood, stone - to give the building back its texture. Inside, each of the nine rooms and suites has its own design, with rare antiques, bespoke pieces, original artwork and fine textiles that play off weathered stone and reclaimed wood. Large windows frame the mountain landscape, which is the real protagonist. Some rooms break with the cortijo mould, such as the Glass Suite or the deluxe yurt, designed for experiencing the countryside more directly. The spa, of about 110 square metres, brings together a heated indoor pool, a wood-fired sauna and a hammam, and is complemented by an outdoor pool with mountain views.

The estate lies within the municipality of Montecorto, in the Serranía de Ronda, at around 850 metres above sea level and very close to the border with the province of Cádiz. To get there, guests leave their car in El Gastor, one of the white villages of the Cádiz sierra, from where the hotel drives them up a steep track. This is a land of dehesas, holm-oak woods and limestone ranges, with the Sierra de Grazalema and the Zahara-El Gastor reservoir on the horizon. Ronda, with its gorge and its bridge over the Guadalevín, is a short drive away, as are Zahara de la Sierra, Grazalema and Setenil de las Bodegas, all classic stops on the White Villages route. Within the estate itself, some 700 hectares, you can walk or mountain-bike among gardens, woods and meadows. The nearest airport is Jerez, an hour and a half away; Seville is about 100 minutes and Málaga about two hours.