We have recently spent three days at Salinas. This small country hotel is a superb base for touring the surrounding rural area. Paco and his wife are wonderful hosts and very helpful and informative. They can offer stacks of advice about where to visit and explore. While it is an old building it has been tastefully modernised with splendid bedrooms and amenities and maintaining most of the original parts such as the chapel and bull ring which make it so attractive. Very good traditional Spanish food with excellent service. In sum a delightful holiday setting and we hope to return.
David McNamara.

This is a wonderful hotel. Superbly furnished clean and neat with excellent bedrooms. The perfect hotel and location to holiday relax and explore Malaga. The food is superb. We are vegetarians but not a problem as the staff asked us what we would like for dinner and they provided it. Above all the staff were excellent so friendly polite and helpful. Once again to the staff a thank you for making our holiday so special.

My husband and I recently spent two weeks in Spain. The first week was very hectic Rick Steves kind of tour through Madrid, Segovia, Toledo and Seville. What an amazing surprise to come to the Andalucian White Hill Towns and to the Cortijo de Salinas. From the moment we drove up the driveway we knew we had found a gem. Everything was beautiful from the spectacular view, to the driveway, to the hotel common areas, to our rooms and the pool. We were hot and tired when we go there. We immediately took a dip in the pool and it felt wonderful. Paco brought us two beers which made it even better. Paco was great! If you visit you should ask about his artwork. He's an artist and art teacher too. Key things we loved:
1. The View - the hotel is set up on a hillside overlooking Zahara Reservoir. The hill town of Zahara is in the far distance. The sunsets were amazing!
2. The Food - every meal we had there was excellent. We ate breakfast there - not included in the price - but you can get toast, cafe con leche and juice (in a bottle) for 3 euros so super reasonable. The Toast was thick and good. The jam was fresh and yummy. Splurge on the fresh squeezed orange juice. We ate dinner there all three nights as we were exhausted after driving around and visiting the various sites of the region. The first night we had lamb shoulder that was to die for. The second night we had Sea Bream (Dorada) which is one of the best fishes I've ever eaten. Served whole.
3. Our Room - we chose to get a room with a terrace. Well worth the extra money as you can enjoy the view that much more. One of the cute things I liked about our room is that there was a window over the toilet so for my husband it was a real treat to be able to enjoy the view while doing his thing.
4. Paco - Paco was really great. As I mentioned before he is an artist and art teacher. My husband is an artist. We hit it off with him and he invited us to see a painting he had recently painted and which won second place in a local content. We also got the opportunity to visit his studio/classroom. Very socialable and easy to talk with. Also took good care of us at the hotel.
5. Location - We purposefully chose a place in the country vs. staying in Ronda. We visited Ronda on our last day and were glad we stayed where we did. Cortijo de Salinas was a great base to visit Ronda, Grazalema, Zahara and Setenil. Setenil was an unexpected surprise and our favorite white hill town. Grazalema was cool but had a certain commercial and touristy feel to it. Zahara is very pretty with a nice castle to hike up to but it seemed kind of sleepy. Setenil wasn't particularly touristy but was very cool as it was built into and/or under cliffs. You descend down into town vs. drive up which was often the case with the other towns.

Overall, I couldn't say enough good things about Cortijo Salinas. There weren't many other people staying there. I'm not sure why that is. We largely had the place to ourselves the whole time. I think they deserve to have more guests.

You can travel quite a bit in your life without ever coming across something like this, and when you do, you stand back and marvel at it. The place is stunning. A secluded old but thoroughly modernised building, it reeks of Spanish design and architecture in every room and every outdoor area. It even comes with its own bullring (!) and church as well as a pool. Then the view hits you like a bullet. Truely jaw dropping. The hues of the sky change from one dramatic variation to another as the day goes on. Then you get to know the staff - always curteous and professional, but its when you make the effort to start chatting to them that they become warm, friendly and fun. A unique and rare combination of good things at Cortijos Salinas.

Overview:
Bathroom - very high spec. Large. 5 star design. Bath with shower attachment.
Balcony - huge, spectaular views. 2 loungers and 2 chairs and a table, all high spec. Drenched in sun in the morning!
Room - designs change but all are quaint Spanish style. Bed is spot on: not too firm not too soft. Aircon is effective. Tall ceilings. Black-out curtains.
Food - best to ask waiter what is on, you'll get the best dish then of freshest ingredients. Food was always high quality. Take breakfast out the front if its spring/summer/autumn.
Drinks - great selection of wines at highly reasonable prices. I know my wines and extraordinarily enough the house wine blew out of the water some expensive wines I've been served in other hotels & restaurants.


This place is so out of the way its actually difficult to find, but thats to its benefit. True peace & quiet here.

To find it: drive on main road past montecorto (which'll be on right) then you head down a long straight hill. At the bottom turn off left across the bridge, round 2 corners then go left again. If its daytime you'll see it standing proud on the hill, if not just carry on 2 mins and you'll turn left into the driveway.

The pros are great, but beware of the cons - location means you obviously need a car, and its 20-odd mins from Ronda. Location in hills also means weather can change quite quickly. Rain and cloud can come fairly quickly. However if its cloudy you just head to the coast where the 5 miles from sea to land is always sunny.

Good base to see Ronda & cave paintings and to stay at for 3-4 days. Its about 1.5 hrs to the coast though. Btw a little tip: don't dare miss driving 5 mins down the road to explore a classic pueblo blanco (white town) called Zahara - a true hidden gem.

Wouldn't hesitate to return.