Jerez has direct flights from the UK, Vejer de la Frontera is 50 minutes from the airport and from that base you can cover the coast and the Sierra in two days. Here is the shape of the trip, with the real drive times, because the distances in this corner of Andalucía are longer than the map suggests.

Getting there and settling in

Jet2 flies direct to Jerez from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted; Seville is the fallback, about an hour and a quarter further from Vejer by car. Land at lunchtime and you can be on a terrace in Vejer by mid-afternoon. Spend what is left of the first day inside the walled old town: it is small enough to learn in an hour and the streets are too narrow to drive, so book a hotel that has its parking arranged and follow their instructions exactly.

Day one: the coast

Bolonia is about 40 minutes south, a fishing beach with a Roman town at one end and a large sand dune at the other, with a row of chiringuitos between them. The Roman town is Baelo Claudia and it is the real thing: forum, temples, the fish-salting factory that paid for it all. NB. Entry is €1.50 and free for EU citizens with ID; check opening days before you go, as Andalusian monuments commonly close on Mondays. For lunch, Las Rejas grills whatever landed that morning; ask what came in and take the recommendation.

Driving back, the stretch of coast before Tarifa is the kite-surfing shore and there is always somewhere to pull over and watch. Dinner the first night should be at the hotel: 2 hours, one bottle, then bed.

Day two: the Sierra

Grazalema, the centre of the Sierra proper, is about 1 hour 45 from Vejer, so treat it as the full day rather than an afternoon. The road empties once you turn inland. Park outside the village and walk in; the square has bars on two sides and the standard order is a beer and a plate of chicharrones. On the way back, Ubrique is the leather town and the workshops are real rather than staged for visitors: a wallet bought on Calle Solís costs a third of the same thing in Seville.

Grazalema is about 1 hour 45 from Vejer, so treat the Sierra as the full day rather than an afternoon.

For the last evening, ask your hotel about the ventas outside town: family-run roadside restaurants, often signposted only by a hand-painted board, where you eat whatever is on that day. The owners will know which one is cooking well that month and will draw you a map.