We are 2 adults mid fifties looking to travel to spain for first time this early november. Looks like 8 days (not including travel days). We enjoy hiking, museums and historical places. Hoping to avoid car travel. We are coming from Boston area so easiest to fly into and out of Madrid. Looks like time of year would make sense to focus south. Most interested in Sevilla and Granada. Not sure if enough time to add in Cordoba. The Castle of Almodóvar del Río is enticing as we are big GOT fans but seems difficult without a car and given our time window. Would love thoughts on a rough itinerary to get us started.
TIA
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
8855 posts
There are buses to the castle from Córdoba, but some walking or a taxi would be required from the bus stop to get to the castle. We had a rental car so getting there wasn’t an issue.
With your very limited time, you’d be stretching it to make that visit without shortchanging someplace else.
Posted by
16 posts
Check my itinerary from last year, may be of some help. Only major difference is we arrived and departed from Malaga
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/itinerary-help-one-week-in-andalucia
Posted by
Massachusetts, USA
2438 posts
Are you interested in spending time in Madrid? If not, I think you should check flights in and out of Malaga. Or do open-jaw (multi city) such as fly into Madrid and home from Malaga, or into Seville and home from Malaga.
Do you have 9 nights on the ground? If so, I would do the following:
Seville - 4 nights
Cordoba - 2 nights
Granada - 2 nights
And then 1 night in your departure city the night before you fly home.
Yes, I agree visiting Andalucia is a good idea in November, considering how hot this part of Spain is during the summer months.
Posted by
NC
799 posts
Agree with the excellent suggestions made by @kmkwoo. Even if you are not able to squeeze in a 9th day, the itinerary could still work with one less day in Seville or Cordoba. You won’t regret taking time to visit lovely Cordoba and to see the amazing Mezquita.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks all. Looks like we will fly into and out of Madrid. Not really that interested in Madrid but the flights are non stop for a substantial savings. Right now we have 9 nights. Our flight the first day gets in early in the morning so my thought is to take train to Seville that day. Or would it make more sense to go to Cordoba first?
Posted by
Reston VA
678 posts
We enjoy hiking, museums and historical places.
...
Not really that interested in Madrid but the flights are non stop for a substantial savings.
Our first trip to Spain was a straight-forward Madrid-Cordoba-Seville grouping using the train. I think it was a simple fly into Madrid in the AM, train immediately to Seville for 4 nights, then one day in Cordoba on the way back to Madrid for the final 4 nights. All were worth those short bits we gave them to see, and are also worth more time if folks have it. We visited the Alhambra and Granada on a separate trip, but that's definitely somewhere you will want to see - on this trip or another one.
But I picked the quotes above because Madrid has TWO world class museums - the Prado and the Reina Sofia. We've visited quite a few other museums in Spain, and I'd still rate those two above the rest - especially as "art" museums (vs historical or archaeological ones). IOW, if art museums are something you enjoy, Madrid alone gets two days of an itinerary just to appreciate those museums as part of a full day in a pretty wonderful real, living, and vibrant city.
Maybe Seville is the odd-man-out in your itinerary? Bookend Granada and Madrid with Cordoba in the middle - capturing the must see Mezquita and your GOT Castle of Almodóvar del Río side-trip. Is these something in Seville particularly important to you? It's a great city, but maybe not key for this trip? Food, flamenco, the cathedral & Alcazar were tops for us in Seville, but the Alhambra satisfies (and then some) the Alcazar, and cathedral is lovely, but the Mezquita can cover that (and more), and Spain has great food everywhere. That leaves (mostly) flamenco, and even that is available (to a lesser degree) in other places you visit.
Posted by
345 posts
Madrid is one of the best cities in Europe. Great museums, and sights to visit, world class food, beautiful parks, beaux-arts architecture, lively urban scene with walkable streets and great transit.
I don't understand why people seem to think Madrid isn't worth visiting. It's more modern and larger than Sevilla or Granada, sure. It's not as beautiful as Paris, I get that. But, get out of Plaza Mayor and Sol, get away from Gran Via and Chocolateria San Gines, there's a lot to see and do.
Posted by
7078 posts
I did something similar and started in Cordoba, but I wanted the quickest journey. I would check various iterations of kmkwoo’s itinerary against the train and bus schedules to see what works out best. I like that plan because a night in Cordoba can be so marvelous.
You’ll have a night to check out Madrid and plenty of opportunity to return to see more given it’s the main arrival point. You could use it as a jumping off point for a hiking trip in the future, for which you almost always need a car, though exceptions exist of course.