White town, Canillas de Aceituno.

A small, whitewashed village at the edge of Andalucia’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, Canillas de Aceituno was settled 3,000 years ago by the Phoenicians. The original settlers brought with them olive and grape cultivation, and today the majority of residents still make a meager living from these crops. It really is a trip back in time—farming is mostly done by hand with mules pulling the plows, locals often have to pause as goats cross the road, and the local Andaluz dialect of Spanish is unintelligible even to many Spaniards. “Though the village is only about a 30-minute drive from the coast, many of the older inhabitants have still never been to the sea,” says Alan Hazel, a local and owner of the Cortijo El Carligto villa. Wander the winding cobblestone streets and hidden alleyways to see Islamic-influenced arches and Moorish motifs from an earlier era. This is one of the villages on the Mudejar Route.