12 nights in Andalusia: how to allocate?

Trip sounds great Tracy. In fact I am suffering 'trip envy'. (I bet Chani will do too).

I would lean towards ...
3 nights cordoba
3 nights granada
6 nights seville

Of course from Sevilla you have perhaps more day trip options.
Italica - 20mins by bus
Jerez de la Frontera - 1hr by train
Cadiz - 1hr 40min by train
Arcos de la Frontera - 2hrs by bus

http://www.planetware.com/seville/seville-day-trips-e-and-sevsur.htm

Photography, morning sun is fantastic. If you have one, f 1.8 50mm should be your workhorse. I know the temptation is a longer lens, but the low light challenges make the f 1.8 invaluable.

I would add one more night to Granada at the expense of one night in Seville.

Also, search for a schedule of fesitvals during the dates you are in spain.

David knows me too well -:)

Yes, you can go straight to Cordoba. Buy your tickets at the airport for the next train to Cordoba - they'll figure it out for you and give you the free tickets for the train to Atocha. Cordoba is pretty low-key so it's nice to start your trip there, however take into account these dates, and keep in mind that once you're on the train, Sevilla is only about 45 minutes farther than Cordoba, so you may want to start there:

Jerez Feria del Caballo - May 13-20.
Cordoba Feria - May 21-28 (to be confirmed) not in the heart of the old city
Cordoba Patios Festival - 1st two weeks in May (to be confirmed) in the heart of the old city

Larry from Carmel, CA was in Spain this year for both the Jerez Feria and the Cordoba Patios. He wrote a bit about it afterward - I can never get the search function to work for me but maybe someone else can. There are pluses and minuses to being in the middle of a festival - more crowds, higher room rates, but so interesting, I wouldn't miss it if I could choose. This year I was in Valencia for its biggest festival and in Malaga and Sevilla for Semana Santa - wonderful experiences with memories and photos that I'll treasure forever.

2 nights in Granada is really the minimum. There is enough for 2 full days. I was there for 3 and felt it was one too many. I recommend seeing the Nasrid Palaces on your first evening, then going back for the day visit. When I was there (nearly 4 years ago), there was a long-standing "quirk" in the ticket system. If you bought a morning session with a Nasrid entry of 11.30 am or later, you had entrance to all the other ticketed spots anytime during the day. The grounds are open all day to all. I spent the better part of a day there (I'm a slow traveler) and the gardens were at their poorest (winter) so you'll want more time to enjoy them. I enjoyed wandering the Albaicin and Moroccan market next to the Cathedral.

Cordoba has enough sights to fill 3 full days, especially if you go out to Medina Azahara (the TI has an inexpensive guided tour including shuttle bus).

Sevilla has more sights, though I'm not sure I'd want to spend 6 nights there. I think David's optimistic about day trips - Jerez yes, Cadiz maybe but Arcos would take too long and the buses are infrequent. It seems to me the bus to Italica took a lot longer than 20 minutes, and they run infrequently. The bus station was a 15-20 minute walk from my hotel in the Juderia, and I waited a long time for the bus in each direction (and with all the ancient Roman ruins in Italy and here in Israel, I was not overly impressed). On the other hand, if you spend 3 nights in Jerez, you can easily day-trip to Cadiz by train and to Arcos by bus.

I too was surprised at a 20min journey time to Italica, but it's an express bus listed here ...
http://siu.ctas.ctan.es/es/movil/horarios_lineas_tabla.php?lang=es&linea=288

General info...
http://www.museosdeandalucia.es/cultura/museos/CAI/index.jsp?redirect=S2_1.jsp&lng=en

Chani offers food for thought re Jerez - depending on your plans for day tripping from Sevilla.

first--thank you so much everyone! this is super helpful! thank you!!!

next...

david--thank you so much for the side trip recommendations! we weren't thinking side trips (yet) but i'm pretty sure that with that much time in seville, we will want to do one. we chose to not side trip from madraid or barcelona last time, and i sort of regret it (mainly regret not getting to montserrat--we really did't do ANYTHING outside of the center of each city.) so i suppose at some point we will need to return to barcelona. which is not really a tragedy.

i think at this point, after reviewing the links and doing a bit of googling on the towns you recommended, i'm leaning toward cadiz, as it would be nice to make it to the sea. i didn't know it was so close and accessible by train. and from the bit of research i did, it seems we can buy train tickets on a whim. perfect!

marbleskies--funny, that's the exact lens i asked for for christmas this year. fingers are crossed that santa will come through.

Chani--the patios festival is part of why we chose to start out in cordoba. i believe we should be there for the last two days (if i'm wrong, not a big deal, but if i'm right, great!) also, i believe your advice swayed my husband enough to convince him to just head directly to cordoba on the day we land. because really, we are landing at 7am. its not like we will be able to check into a room to sleep anyway, so we may as well be on a train (asleep on a train). i didn't know it was easy to get a ticket on the spot--i will look into that. thank you! and thank you for your thoughts on granada. we shall take your advice and add a third night, giving us two full days. oh and thanks for the tip about the tickets for the Nasrid Palaces--i had no idea it was so complicated, but now i'm doing some research and will be certain to make the best decision. thanks!!!

final thoughts (for now--i continue to welcome input): so since we are now going directly to cordoba, we have ANOTHER night to use somewhere. current thought is:

3 nights cordoba
3 nights granada
6 nights seville (with one side trip)
train to madrid then on to toledo
2 nights toledo
2 nights madrid (where we will just sort of relax before returning home, as we've been there and will likely return.)

is that the best use of the last four days? or am i getting carried away? i often get carried away.

again, thanks everyone!

Tracy,
I will echo Chani's advice in terms of taking the train to Córdoba on day of arrival.
It's easy to get the train tickets at the airport, just follow the signs to "Renfe Ferrocarril" ( Railway)- you can see the sign on the photo here.

You'll take the Cercanias C-1 line (commuter) train (free with the purchase of the AVE ticket) from Terminal 4 to Atocha's train station where you will transfer to the
AVE train that will take you to Córdoba.

Córdoba is a great place to get over jet-lag. You can notify your hotel & request an early check-in, especially if you want to take a "power nap" (borrowed from Ken) after an overnight flight.

Here is what I'd do if it were me:

• Córdoba- 4N
• Granada- 3-4N
• Sevilla- 5-6N
• Toledo- 3N
• Madrid- 1N

Keep in mind that you will need to book your tickets to the Alhambra way in advance (3 months) for best (desired) time.

You may enjoy reading this website about Córdoba's Patios Festival, and this one about what to see & do in Sevilla.

Enjoy!

Edit to add...

David, I'm suffering 'trip envy' too! ;-)

Tracy, if the dates work out, that sounds like a really good itinerary, with time to enjoy.

Some things to check out:

Just about every Spanish city has a very good tourist info service, including lots of information on their websites. Google turismo and the name of the city. They offer their own walking tours and tours with other companies.

Cordoba - The Royal Stables have early evening horse shows several nights a week, excellent. I'd skip the Alcazar there. The Jewish museum - Casa Sefarad - has good guided tours of the museum. I took an evening walking tour booked through the TI that was very good. Binoculars are good for the Mesquita - parts of the ceilings and the Mihrab are very detailed. There's a night visit, but I wasn't very happy with it. Even though it is empty, you're herded around in a group, not allowed to linger or stray, and no photos allowed. The Palacio de Viana has beautiful patios, worth a visit.

Sevilla - The Alcazar is a must-see. The Plaza de España is particularly lovely in the late afternoon and at night. The Palacio de las Dueñas is beautiful - it only opened early this year, so it's not listed in guidebooks or many websites. Go to a couple flamenco performances. One of the best is La Casa del Flamenco in a patio setting. I'd avoid any that include food and drinks as being too tourist-oriented. Many claim that Sevilla has the best tapas in Spain (and by extension . . . in the world).

I'd be envious (even though I was in Sevilla and Cordoba in March, if I weren't headed for Italy soon.

Just returned from my 3+ weeks in Andalucia. My flights were between the East Coast and Seville with one stop, skipping Madrid, etc. My route was Seville (eight nights), Granada (four nights) and Cordoba (three nights). Between the cities, I took buses twice and train once. From the cities, I visited half a dozen nearby villages and towns, staying two nights in a couple. Rented a car for four days, and took buses for the rest.

My original itinerary was six nights in Seville after arrival. I ended up adding two more nights before departure. It was my favorite city, and I wish I could stay longer. In addition to the touristy sites, there were many interesting neighborhoods for exploration. I found the food to be outstanding, with better variety and value than in Granada and Cordoba.

Bring your fastest lens, and learn to live with high ISO. You will need both shooting inside the Alhambra, etc. If you shoot raw, bring extra memory cards and batteries. I did, and now have to edit from ~6,000 shots.

Have a great trip.

ITA is showing mid May round trip fares of ~$520 between JFK and SVQ with one stop.

Priscilla--thanks for the links! and you now have us thinking about three nights in toledo. hmm. that would kind of make sense--we'd then just have the night before we fly out somewhere in madrid. is there enough to do in toledo to fill two full days?

Chani--aaaaahhhhhh! so many good suggestions!!! thank you!!! now i wish i had even MORE time! (i know i know i'm greedy) i was actually sad i wasn't going to make it to jerez because i assumed that's where one goes for horse culture (for lack of a better term) so the royal stables is a great suggestion! and i just looked up the Palacio de Viana and the Palacio de las Dueñas. i love gardens to a ridiculous degree, so those are both on my list, as is La Casa del Flamenco. that's much more our style than a dinner and a show kind of thing (those dinners are always sub par, as are the shows sometimes.) thanks!!!

staynsavor--thanks for sharing your trip! it sounds like staying in seville for a little longer is a good idea. glad to hear it! also thanks for the heads up on the flights, but i'm using miles. for the two of us, we are looking at just under $100 total round trip (plus miles) so it's worth it for us to fly into and out of madrid. but thanks for the tip. also wow that's a steal of a flight deal!

I felt there was enough in Toledo to fill two days, but I do enjoy a lot of wandering-around time in each city's historic district (and Toledo's is very large), and I tend to take my time at all the indoor sites I visit. I tried, and failed, to cover every street in the medieval part of the city during my 2+ days there.

The tourist office sells a variety of site-entry packages. Rick's pretty negative about at least the most all-encompassing one, but I bought the wrist-band that covers entry to 6 or 7 of the less-major sites. It turned out that it included short guided tours of 4 or 5 of them. During the summer, at least some of the tours ran twice a day. They were bilingual English/Spanish. I found them very worthwhile and the sites themselves were lovely. You'll almost certainly need an electronic map of some sort to navigate between the tour sites, because they are scheduled in pairs, back-to-back. Toledo's a bit like Venice in the way the streets wander.

Other sights include the cathedral and two important museums (Santa Cruz and El Greco). I'm not a big El Greco fan, so I skipped the El Greco Museum and still felt glad I was spending three nights in Toledo.

Edited to add: The city is fairly hilly, which does tend to slow one down.

I would add 2 nights in Ronda,a very breathtaking experience if you get a hotel overlooking the gorge and day trips to Nerja and Cadiz.
Mike

thank you so much, everyone! i now have a list of must-dos, and a much better understanding of how to best allocate my time.

and tonight we booked our flights. so this is a go. thanks so much!

my next questions surround lodging, as i've booked most of it already though it is cancel-able. i've done a bunch of research using typical travel review sites, and came up with the following. please note: it is ALL cancelable, so i'm totally open to other suggestions. thanks!

things that are important to me with regards to lodging:

-location. long story short, i have some health issues which make it difficult for me to eat if i am far from 'home'. goal #1 is to be near good food options.

-en suite bath. this is fully non-negotiable.

-an outdoor space of some kind, particularly for our longer stay in seville. this is a bonus, not a requirement.

-air conditioning. we don't need standard american central air, but some kind of air flow would likely be good in this part of spain in late may. i'm open to places with large windows and fans.

what i booked so far and why (subject to change):

cordoba:
cordoba carpe diem
-the best combination of price and location i could find. hotels in cordoba are more expensive than i'd like this weekend.

granada:
hotel navas
-insanely cheap with good reviews, located on a street full of tapas bars (so i can eat).

seville:
not booked yet. looking at apartment rentals. open to recommendations.

toledo:
casa de cisneros
-super cheap and historic yet remodeled.

madrid:
not booked yet. likely staying at a marriott near the train station but also open to suggestions of better located budget options.

In Toledo I stayed at La Posada de Manolo, which appears to be just a few meters from your hotel. Excellent location, but I don't remember any nearby tapas bars (restaurants, yes), still it's only a 10 minute walk to the Zocodover with lots of options any time.

In Cordoba I stay (3 times, so far) at Don Paula, it's close to the hotel you've chosen, probably a little less expensive, but they don't do breakfast. The rooms have small fridges and they offer complimentary juices and water.

In Granada, I stayed at Hostal Rodri. For 3 nights in mid-May (weekend), they show a double room for €165, no breakfast though, also very close to your hotel, just the other side of the cathedral. It's on a quiet side street.

In Madrid, I've stayed at Hotel Europa, modern, comfortable, reasonably priced and excellent location. It's on the Plaza del Sol, very easy to get to the train station or the airport by Cercanias train and walking distance to the Prado, Thyssen, and the San Miguel Market (tapas, tapas, tapas).

I don't think I was in any town in Spain that was more than a 10 minute walk to a cafe or tapas bar.

Tracy -
On a four week trip to Spain during Fall 2016 I spent 16 nights in Andalucia, allocated this way:
- Cordoba 3 nights
- Sevilla 4
- Cadiz 2
- Jerez 2
- Malaga 3 with a day trip to Marbella (45 minutes by bus)
- Ronda 2
All of my travel was by public transit. The times were about right. If I had it to plan again I would probably reduce Ronda to one night, although like with many popular small towns in Spain (Toledo for example) the evenings were the most enjoyable part of the stay, after the hordes of day-trippers were back on their buses and out of town.

Jack

Chani--thank you! that hotel in Madrid is EXACTLY what i was looking for. it is booked. thanks!!!!

Jack--i see you did two days in Cadiz. would you say it would be worth it for just a day trip, or no? my husband is set on spending a full week in seville, as we do want to be a bit stationary for at least part of this trip. i was hoping to do a day trip by train. yes or no to this, in your experience? thanks!

Tracy,

I see you're still considering your accommodations. Here are the places my mom & I stayed in:

• In Toledo... Hotel Santa Isabel near the cathedral.
• In Córdoba... Hotel Hesperia Córdoba, across from the Roman Bridge... many restaurants across the bridge.
• In Granada... Hotel Anacapri, near Plaza Nueva & the cathedral with many restaurants close by.
• In Sevilla... We stayed in 2 different hotels; Hotel Fernando III, and Hotel Amadeus--both near many restaurants in Barrio Santa Cruz, near the cathedral & the Royal Alcázar.

Tracy, to go to/from Plaza del Sol, use the Cercanias, not the metro (same station, different levels). The station itself is just called Sol or Vodafon Sol. From the Cercanias platform there is an elevator to street level. If you take the metro (which is also slower because of more stops and more crowded), you have to walk up a flight of stairs with your luggage.

With a full week in Sevilla, you could day trip to Jerez on a day when there's a show at the Royal Equestrian School - buy tickets in advance and get there early so you can see the horses in the paddock before the show starts. I enjoyed the shows in both Jerez and Cordoba, similar but different. Then tour a couple of sherry bodegas (Tio Pepe is the most fun), and visit the cathedral. You could also day trip to Cadiz. It's about an hour by train to Jerez, another .75 hour to Cadiz, just on the upper edge of what I'd consider doable for a day trip. The good thing is that the station in Cadiz is only a 5 minute walk from the old town center. Cadiz gets a lot of mixed reviews, but no one's sorry they went for a day (just some who wish they'd stayed longer and some who said a day was enough). You could also visit Arcos as a day trip (again right around 2 hours travel time) - take the train to Jerez, then the bus to Arcos (bus and train stations are in the same place in Jerez). There is also direct bus service from Sevilla but there are only a couple buses a day.

Tracy,

I really liked Cadiz. It had a feel about it that is difficult to explain, but it was joyful to walk the streets and observe all that was taking place, and to just be there. I do not know if they are still in place, but when I visited in October there was a display of about 6 or 8 Henry Moore sculptures on the plaza in front of the cathedral. Terrific! It took about 90 minutes to get there from Sevilla Santa Justa on the train. I believe it would make a very relaxed daytrip for you.