Andalusia's most atmospheric white town — Moorish alleyways above the Atlantic
Vejer de la Frontera is widely considered the most beautiful of Andalusia's Pueblos Blancos — a hilltop white town in Cadiz province with an extraordinary Moorish street layout of labyrinthine alleys, archways, and whitewashed walls so narrow that two people can barely pass. The town sits above the straits between the Atlantic and the Strait of Gibraltar, with views to Morocco on clear days. El Palmar and Conil beaches (20 minutes by car) are among Cadiz's finest, and the local food scene — tuna season at Conil, the chicharrones de Cadiz, retinto beef — draws foodies from across Spain.
Vejer sits on a hilltop that has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years — Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors all fortified the summit, and the Moors held the town for over 500 years (longer than most of Andalusia). The name 'de la Frontera' ('of the frontier') was added after the Christian reconquest in 1250 because the town formed part of the military frontier with the remaining Nasrid Kingdom of Granada; the winding alley layout of the old town reflects its Moorish urban planning, never substantially altered. The encobijadas — women dressed entirely in a black cloak in the…