Cahorros de Monachil hike near Granada

By Roberto (Updated Apr 22)

⏱ 3 min

When we did our trip to Granada to visit the Alhambra we also wanted to stretch our legs and explore the surrounding area of the city. We checked (and liked) the Cahorros de Monachil hike, since it’s an easy walk than you can do in one morning.

If you live near Granada or are planning to visit the city for several days, we encourage you to discover the 10 km Cahorros de Monachil hike to disconnect from the city walks. To complement the day there’s another good stop as we’ll tell you below. Keep reading!

About Cahorros de Monachil hike

I like hikes that cover a variety of terrain, and this is why this hike called my attention. If you like crossing suspension bridges, passing by walls and having a pleasant walk along with a river, you’ll like this walk.

The walk is roughly 10 km and we would say it’s… an easy level hike. It can perfectly be done with kids, and I’m pretty sure they’ll like the bridges. We have shared the track from Wikiloc that is a modification from the one we did. In our case, we followed another track that ended up with a very long way back.

Everything starts at Monachil town, only 20 minutes from Granada! The beginning is clearly marked in Google as Sendero Nuevo Acceso A Los Cahorros Por cauce Rio Monachil. After the first 2 km, you’ll follow the path along Monachil River and start to see one, two, three, and more suspension bridges. Some of them are several meters long and add fun to the hike.

Along the way there are good views of the valley with rocky mountains, and there’s an amazing part where people do rock climbing. The river is shallow but it’s nice to feel the cold water on a hot day.

Following the track to the end, you’ll reach an abandoned hydroelectric power station that marks the end of the route. Once ready for the way back, you walk some kilometres through the same path and later you’ll have two options. One possibility is to go all the way back the same way (like an in and out hike) or take a deviation (as the track from Wikiloc indicates) to walk another path. The only problem with this deviation, is that it’s not as nice as the previous path. So… up to you!

What to do in Monachil?

In addition to the Cahorros of Monachil hike, this town has another good reason for a visit. In the middle of the town there’s a 1-star Michelin Restaurant, called La Cantina de Diego that opens from Tuesday to Sundays. Since we went there on a Monday, we couldn’t make it, but the menu had good options.

Monachil is a very small town, and there aren’t other big plans one can do there, and people mainly go there to walk the Cahorros de Monachil hike.

When is it recommended to do the Cahorros de Monachil hike

Similarly to Granada’s weather, Monachil has Mediterranean Continental weather. We would suggest doing the hike from May to October to skip the rain. Bring lots of water and patience if you do the hike in the Summer, when it’s really hot and probably crowded.

We were lucky to do this hike during Covid, and we saw almost nobody during our excursion. This allowed us to enjoy pure nature in Spring.

Don’t miss these other posts in case you’re visiting Granada or planning your tour to the Alhambra! Take care 🤙🏽