My fiancé and I are planning to go to Spain for our honeymoon. We would be arriving to Madrid on April 24 th in the morning and departing from Madrid on May 4th. We've already been in Madrid, so there's no need for us to stay there many days.
We would like to visit Granada, Sevilla and Córdoba. Are there any other places that we shouldn't miss?
Is it better to drive or to use the AVE?
Can someone please help us with a realistic itinerary in which we don't have to be on a rush every day?
Thanks a lot! :)
If your main reason for going to Granada is to see the Alhambra, you need to check immediately on the ticket situation. The Alhambra sells out early, at which point you are left to pay considerably more money for a tour or perhaps score a ticket through your hotel. If you are lucky. Check now!
I see April totally sold out and cannot get to the May calendar--which may just be a problem with my browser. If May isn't on sale yet, those tickets could be released very soon. Unless someone comes up with definitive information about that on-sale date, I'd be checking the website first thing every morning, and I'd be prepared to buy my tickets immediately, because those tickets will probably be gone very, very fast. So the first thing you need to do is pin down your plans for Granada. I suspect that your only option for tickets at the official price is May 1 - May 3, and it would need to be early on May 3 so you can get back to Madrid that night. Even that would make be nervous, so I'd be hoping for May 1 or May 2.
Since you’re arriving in the morning, and you have already been to Madrid, here’s my thoughts:
April 24 - arrive and immediately take the train to Sevilla.
Sevilla - 4 nights
Granada - 3 nights
Cordoba - 1 night
Madrid - 2 nights
That order breaks up each train to not be more than a few hours, so you’re settled at each new place by noon.
We also really enjoyed Ronda for the difference in scenery, walking down to the gorge, guitar concert offered in music store, the white buildings, and the historic bullfight ring.
Thanks a lot!
We haven't booked any hotels, so I'm thinking about asking at different hotels to see if they have tickets for the Alhambra. But If we couldn't find any is it worth going to Granada?
Unfortunately Alhambra tickets are all sold out for April, and the first two weeks of May, on the Alhambra’s official website.
Your other option is to buy a Granada Card which seems to still have available entries to the Nasrid Palaces at the end of April.
My mom and I took this route on our last visit to Spain:
- Landed in Madrid then took an AVE train to Córdoba on day of arrival.
- ALSA bus to Granada
- ALSA bus to Sevilla
- AVE to Madrid > train to Toledo > one night in Madrid > home
Enjoy your trip!
If you can't get tickets for the Alhambra, there's little point to going to Granada, BUT there are lots of other great places to see and things to do in Andalucia.
Jerez - horse show at the Royal Equestrian School, sherry bodega tours and tastings
Ronda - bullring and museum, gorge and bridge with scenic views and hiking, several quirky interesting museums
Cadiz - beautiful beaches, lots of history
All are accessible by trains and/or buses.
Let us know what happens with the Alhambra. As soon as you have a date for a visit or decide to skip Granada, we can help you put an itinerary together.
Thanks a lot for your help
We were thinking about:
2 nights in Madrid to recover from the Jet Lag and relax
1 night in Cordoba
3 nights in Sevilla
3 nights in Granada
1 night in Madrid to catch our plane on the next day
Since the Alhambra tickets are sold out, we would buy the Granada Card
How does it sound?
I’d suggest leaving Madrid to the end of your trip. Córdoba is a great place to recover from jet-lag and the journey is not very long.
I’d suggest the following:
- Córdoba 2N
- Granada 2-3N
- Sevilla 3-4N
- Madrid 1-2N
Have a wonderful trip!
The advantage of what Priscilla suggested is that it reduces the number of hotel changes by one. Checking in and out of hotels is not the most exciting part of a trip, and going straight to Cordoba on your first day has the additional advantage of allowing you to deal with jet lag in a more laid-back way. Cordoba is a lot less hectic than Madrid. Many of us are in no condition to do significant sightseeing that first day, anyway.