Any tips for a short (1 week) trip to Andalucia in February? We're travelling to and from London and will be using the train to go from Sevilla to Cordoba then Granada. Which places deserve more time? Is it too late to reserve for the Alhambra? This is my first trip to Spain and my first time in Europe in the winter.
Thanks!
It's not too late to buy Alhambra tickets for February; tickets are currently available for every day that month, though availability is somewhat limited for February 22. This is the website: https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/. The basic ticket is the "Alhambra General".
Seville is considerably larger than Cordoba and Granada, with sights scattered around the city. It definitely needs more time than the other two.
How many nights will you be spending in southern Spain? What are your airport options inbound and outbound? That will affect how much actual sightseeing time, if any, you'll have on the days you arrive and depart. If you can fly directly to Seville or Granada, that's obviously better than having to fly into Madrid and then spend several hours on a train. There's also the issue of figuring out what would be a safe train departure time on your arrival day.
If you have seven full days (eight nights), I'd divide the time 4 (Seville) - 2 (Cordoba) - 2 (Granada). I think Seville needs at least 3 full days; you could spend considerably longer there and not run out of things to do, and I wouldn't argue with you if you chose to spend 5 nights there.
If you have only seven nights, you'll have to decide whether to short Cordoba or Granada. If you're down to just one night in Cordoba, you might reasonably consider treating Cordoba as a day trip from Seville (increasing Seville to 5 nights); it's less than an hour away by train. Another alternative would be to head to Cordoba early on the day you leave Seville, check your bags at the bus station near the train station (research backup storage facilities in case all bus station lockers are full), spend the day in Cordoba and then go on to Granada.
Train service into Granada is a lot less frequent than service along the Madrid-Cordoba-Seville line, so I encourage you to check the schedules. Because of the way the fast rail lines are laid out, you can position Cordoba just about anywhere you like in your itinerary: Cordoba-Seville-Granada, Seville-Cordoba-Granada, Cordoba-Granada-Seville, Granada-Cordoba-Seville, Seville-Granada-Cordoba, Granada-Seville-Cordoba. The schedule may work better for you on one or more of those routings than others. Note: If you must fly into Madrid, the obvious place to start your trip is Cordoba, because buying a last-minute train ticket to Cordoba will be much less expensive than a ticket to Seville or Granada. However, it's not odd for trains on that rail line to sell out, so that will be something of a concern if you want to wait until you land in Madrid to buy that first train ticket.
You should also buy your ticket for the Alcazar in Seville in advance, but you don't have to do that particularly early.
Excellent advice, thank you. We will be flying into one of the smaller airports in the south, not Madrid.
