16/07/2026
Just back from Carmona, and honestly, what a couple of days.
We'd actually been before, four years ago, on our way back from Cordoba. We only stopped for a night, but we splashed out and stayed in the parador, and it left a real mark on both of us.
The town is one of those places you leave promising yourself you'll come back to properly one day. So when we knew Jules was flying out of Seville today, we thought right, this is the moment. Let's go and dig a bit deeper, get under the surface of it, and see what we missed the first time.
This time we stayed at the Alcázar de la Reina instead of the parador. It's a beautiful old place right in the heart of the town, and it gave us a completely different feel of Carmona.
For anyone who hasn't come across Carmona, it's a small hilltop town about twenty minutes from Seville airport, and only ninety minutes up the road from home.
Which is one of the things I keep coming back to when I think about the life we've built here. We can just get in the car, drive up in the afternoon, and be somewhere completely different by the evening. No planes, no planning, no big production.
The town itself is something else...
You walk in through a gate the Romans actually built over two thousand years ago, still standing there like it's the most normal thing in the world, and then the whole old quarter opens up in front of you.
Whitewashed walls, cobbled streets, orange trees everywhere. The parador sits up at the top in what used to be a Moorish fortress, and the views across the Andalusian plain from up there genuinely stop you talking for a minute.
And I have to mention the food because it really is tremendous, and I don't use that word lightly.
We ate our way through some proper local places, and every single meal was better than the last.
Jules and I sat there looking at each other, going, "How is this actually our life?" Which is really the point of this post, I suppose.
Six years ago something like this would have been the holiday of the year. Weeks of planning and a day and a half to get here.
Now it's just what we do on a Tuesday because Jules needs to get to the airport.
And every so often we stop and actually notice that, because it's easy to let it become normal and forget how much work went into making it possible.
If you're ever flying in or out of Seville with a bit of time either side, do yourself a favour and stop in Carmona for a night.
Stay somewhere in the old town, wander the cobbles, eat everything, and let the place work its magic on you. You'll thank me for it.
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Places we stayed:
🏨 Parador de Carmona
🏨 Alcázar de la Reina
Where we ate (almost everywhere ;)
🍽️ Bar Goya - look for the Duck Tapa
🍽️ Bodega José María - Cod & Prawns + Octopus
🍽️ Castaño Vinos y Tapas Carmona - Pork
Drink with a view:
🍷 Restaurante Molino de la Romera
