Private tours from Marbella with a driver all day

Where we pick up around Marbella, and at what time

Most of our Marbella guests stay in villas and resort hotels, so the first thing we ask for is a location pin and, where there is one, the entry code for the gate or the urbanisation. The driver comes up to the house itself. In the old town, where the lanes around Plaza de los Naranjos are pedestrian, we agree a nearby corner on the streets that cars can use.

For Ronda, the wineries and Gibraltar a 09:00 start is plenty. The white villages are better from 08:30. Granada, Seville and Córdoba mean leaving at about 07:30 or 08:00, and for Granada the Nasrid Palaces slot on your tickets decides. We settle the exact minute when we confirm the booking.

• Marbella town, the old quarter and the seafront promenade
• The Golden Mile
• Puerto Banús and Nueva Andalucía
• San Pedro de Alcántara and Guadalmina
• Elviria, Las Chapas and Cabopino, on the eastern side
• Estepona, Benahavís and Sotogrande: on request, with a quote

The days that play to Marbella's position

Ronda first. An hour by the mountain road, against 1 h 25 from Málaga, and the drive itself is part of the pleasure: cork oaks, bare limestone and the coast shrinking in the mirror. The same road serves the Ronda wineries and tapas day, on which nobody in the party has to stay sober for the bends. Gibraltar is about 55 minutes; you walk over the frontier while the car waits on the Spanish side, and a Gibraltar-licensed operator takes you up the Rock.

The white villages circuit is about 1 h 30 to the first stop and strings together Setenil's streets beneath the rock overhang, Zahara above its reservoir and Grazalema in the greenest corner of the sierra. From Marbella it fills eight hours without feeling rushed.

Now the honest part. Granada is about 2 hours each way, so a tour of roughly nine and a half hours spends four of them on the road; people do it every week and rarely regret it, but take the earliest pick-up you can bear. Seville is about 2 h 30. Córdoba, also around 2 h 30, is the hardest to recommend from here: five hours of motorway inside a nine-hour day. If the Mezquita is your priority, go; if you simply want one great city, Seville or Granada give more back for the mileage. Nerja and Frigiliana and the Caminito del Rey, each about 1 h 15 away, both mean crossing to the far side of Málaga, which is fine as long as you expect it.

Picking a trip for the season and for your group

In high summer the coast is hot and the interior hotter. Ronda, at altitude, is the comfortable choice in July and August, and the wineries around it receive visitors indoors. Leave Seville and Córdoba for April, May, October or the winter months, when a jacket is all you need. Gibraltar works all year, although when the levanter cloud settles on the Rock the upper viewpoints show nothing but grey; ask us the day before and we will tell you how it looks.

Families should know that the Ronda road is curves for most of the hour. If anyone suffers in the back seat, tell the driver: he will take it gently and stop for air at one of the lay-bys with a view. The Caminito bars children under eight. Gibraltar's macaques delight youngsters, so long as food stays out of sight, and every traveller, children included, needs a passport or an EU identity card to cross.

For a group of friends, the winery day is the sociable one: the visit and the tasting are run and charged by the estate itself, and we make the reservation. For guests with limited mobility, mention it when you write: in Ronda the route can keep to the level streets near the bridge, and a folding wheelchair travels in the boot.

How the day unfolds and the journey back

Your chauffeur arrives a little early and waits; there is no need to be standing outside. Water is in the car. On the runs of two hours or more we break the journey once, usually at a roadside venta with decent coffee. On arrival the driver sets you down close to the first monument, or hands you over to the guide when one has been booked, and then disappears with the car until you need him.

The return is flexible inside the tour's hours. Many guests leave Ronda at around 16:30 or 17:00 to come down the mountain in daylight, especially in winter. From the cities it is motorway nearly all the way and most people sleep. Time beyond the planned length is charged at the hourly chauffeur rate, so have a word with the driver if you are tempted to stay on. You pay at your own gate once the day is over, by card or cash.