Top Ten Spain Off-the-Beaten-Path Adventures

You can hike them, you can bike them. Las Alpujarras, a 45-mile east-west tumble of steep valleys and ravines, lie deep in Andalusia, nudging up to the Sierra Nevada. The last bastion of the Muslims in Spain, their tiny whitewashed villages could have been transplanted from Morocco to the Mediterranean. For a day of sturdy, varied cycling, follow the lightly trafficked GR421 minor road. From Capileira and Trivelez, highest of the villages, trails head off to the high sierras. Head for the high one and bag 11,400-foot Mulhacin, mainland Spain's tallest peak. Or attack some of the eight marked trails that thread from the Barranco de Poqueira valley.