In December, I wrote about my plans to go on a road trip for my New Year’s holiday. The reality did not disappoint as I drove, drank and ate my way across the Iberian peninsula for New Year!

After a day of travelling through Germany’s Cologne airport, I flew out to Portugal but barely spent any time in Faro as I picked up a car on the next day and drove straight to Cadiz.

From there I was a little limited. I wanted to spend New Year’s Eve in Seville but that means that I would drive around the south of Spain and then double-back on my tracks to go to Seville. While it made logical sense to see Seville first, I still stuck to this plan.

After Cadiz, I went to picturesque Ronda, birthplace of bull fighting and which still boasts a functioning ring that is the oldest in the world.

I spent the next two days in moorish Seville. It is a magnificent city with lots to see and do. I certainly will be back to continue exploring the bits I wasn’t able to see.

On New Year’s day, I drove down to Gibraltar. Everything was closed because of the holiday but walking around the place is eye-opening in its own right. I then drove to my hotel in Algeciras as I had planned to take the ferry to Africa the next day from there.

I originally planned to go to Tangiers but between a heightened security risk and the eye-wateringly expensive last-minute tickets, I chose not to. Ceuta is a Spanish enclave in northern Africa that is half-Arabic and half-Spanish which gave me the chance to cross the straits of Gibraltar.

From there, I drove up to Granada and the magnificence that is the Alhambra. I had originally thought that I would have time to visit Cordoba too but by this point I was already 9 days into the trip and I hadn’t left Andalusia yet!

I stopped in Murcia on my way to Valencia along the Mediterranean coast. Valencia treated me to the ‘Los Tres Reyes’ festivity which is a big thing in Spain.

Using Barcelona as my base, I then drove to France for lunch, looped through Andorra on the way back and roamed around the beautiful city for my last day of the trip.

This is a thoroughly recommendable trip to do if you’re looking for something of the sort. I would suggest that you stick to Andalusia if you want to really get the taste of that part of Spain; I’m sure there is much I still have to explore there!

And now for the trip in figures:

• 2,501 km – total distance I drove.
• 157.37 km – total distance I walked
• 760 km – total distance the Fiat Punto I rented could go on a single tank of fuel.
• 6 – number of times I had to drive round Cadiz looking for a parking spot.
• 4 – number of tourists I almost ran over trying to navigate the narrow streets of Ronda.
• 3 – number of times I was asked if I would smuggle contraband cigarettes into mainland Spain from Ceuta
• 2 – number of times I queued to get tickets to the Alhambra in Granada before getting in.
• 1 – number of all-American diners in the middle of Murcia town centre.

Now I need to start thinking about what to do for the next New Year’s holiday …