This area – the Sierra De Los Filabres – is a hidden gem in southern Spain. It’s a quiet rural corner with beautiful, but ‘friendly’ scenery. While the Alpujarras in Granada are spectacularly rugged, and the Sierra Nevada sweepingly grand, the Sierra De Los Filabres is softer, more rounded and comfortable. You can walk for miles on the rolling working tracks through the olives and almonds, often without seeing a single person outside the key harvesting times. The hills provide outstanding views and unexpected vantage points, especially from the Hermitage above Uleila Del Campo (1400m) and the Observatory above Gergal (at 2000m).
Walking in the Tabernas Desert (below)
The area is dotted with small white mountain villages clustered on the hillsides, accessed by some incredibly beautiful winding roads (single track of course!). Villages like Alcudia de Monteagud, Chercos, Cobdar, Castro de Filabres, Senes, Laroya, Benizalon and closest to where we live – Uleila del Campo. Most of these villages have at least a bar where you can sit outside and enjoy a coffee, tapas or glass of wine. Nearby (just half an hour away) is the Tabernas Desert which was used as a film location for many of the great ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ – the fact they were filmed in Spain does mean that they’re more ‘Paella Westerns’, but we won’t hold that against anyone! Tabernas is still used as a film location today – top movies like Indiana Jones, Exodus Gods and Kings and the series White Lines all used this corner of Almeria.
The weather here is amazing. Almeria is apparently the sunniest area of Spain, so if you like the outdoor life, it’s definitely the place to be. Winters on the coast are warmer than inland – here we can occasionally get frost, and snow above 800m, but most of the time winter is dry, quite windy at times but often sunny. Imagine harvesting olives in a T shirt in November in temperatures of 20c. or a Christmas Day walk in 15c and blazing sunshine. One advantage of inland locations like ours is the low humidity, which makes even hot days tolerable.
Uleila itself is a fabulous village of about 800 people – the reason it’s fabulous is the range of day-to-day services it offers for its size, and the people who live here. Uleila offers 2 general stores, a tabac, a fishmonger, butcher, bakery, bank, several bars/cafes, insurance agency, a well stocked ferreteria (hardware store), a hairdresser and a stationery shop. It services a large ‘hinterland’, which is why it’s such a great hub for it’s size. One of the main village centre cafes is up for sale at the moment – Hostal Escapada. Its not just a bar, it’s got big property with it which are hotel/letting rooms. The owner is retiring and the place has so much scope for expansion of the business – so if you fancy a brand new career as a village hub this could be it!
People who live here are proud of their well-kept village and the town hall puts on various events during the year in and around the town square. At the top of the village there’s a relatively new viewpoint which is worth going to – and covered benches to relax on.
Further afield you have Tabernas with its wider range of shops, and Almeria City for big stores is just 55 minutes. In the other direction is Sorbas – smaller than Tabernas but it has an excellent vet for anyone with pets. The coast at Mojacar is 1hr 10 minutes if you like your beach vibes, complete with a huge array of bars, cafes and restaurants to suit all budgets.
The area is still very traditionally Spanish, with a smattering of other nationalities who appreciate it’s rural charms. We found this place entirely by accident and after initially saying “it might not be big enough” (meaning Uleila village), nowhere else we saw grabbed us anywhere near as much!
Why not come and see it for yourself.
Casa roja almeria 