Andalusia Itinerary 14 Nights October 2026

Personally, I would not pay for a skip-the-line guided tour of the Alhambra. Go with the "gold" tickets and use the RS guidebook, which has a very good self-guided tour of the Alhambra.

Malaga - There's an underground parking lot in the center of Ronda. From there you can walk to all the sights. A good part of the road from Malaga is scenic, with pullouts for photo ops. I'm unfamiliar with the Caminito del Rey.

Granada - Is the question whether to spend another €8 to have full access to the Alhambra or take a guided tour for €€€? If you can't get Alhambra tickets, I'd choose another location but I wouldn't scrap all the other wonders of Andalucia.

Cordoba/Sevilla - check earlier dates to see if they seem to sell out (though August is low season, so that may not be a true indicator).

Ronda is about a 1.5 hours drive from Málaga Airport while the Caminito is slightly over an hour. Parking at the Caminito shouldn’t be a problem. Look up parking lots in both places and bookmark them to whichever navigation app you use so you can go right to them. In Ronda, the main street through the historic center is vehicle restricted. There are big signs at the beginning of the restricted area letting you know you’re entering it.

When we visited in May of this year out flight arrived about 8:30pm. Rather than go into Málaga we picked up the rental car and stayed at the Parador a couple miles from the airport. The next morning we drove directly to Ronda. If you didn’t mind changing hotels you could stay by the airport, spend one night in Ronda, and walk the Caminito on the return to Málaga. Alternatively, you could spend your time in Málaga, then drive to Ronda, then the Caminito, then on to Granada where I suppose you’d turn in the car. Using either consideration would mean leaving luggage in the vehicle while walking the Caminito. The main part of Málaga is about 25 minutes from the airport.

In Córdoba, while we had already visited the Mezquita on a couple other occasions, we decided at the last minute to visit it again. We walked up to the kiosk (there are no manned booths anymore) bought our tickets at 3:20 for a 3:30 entrance. You might not get as lucky, but you can get ticket without buying them in advance.

If you do change your plans, Buenos Aires is nice to visit as is Santiago de Chile. Plenty to see and do for a week in either place.

I also will be in Andalusia in October. It looks like the tickets are only available for dates through September. I can’t find anything on their website that notes when tickets are available for future dates but seems like you can only buy so far ahead.

Thanks for replies.

We are still waiting for my wife to get approval for the time off before booking airline tickets. I may just buy the Alhambra "gold" tickets to avoid disappointment while we wait for her approval.

I know nothing about South America. I thought Brazil or Argentina might be interesting destinations after watching the World Cup. LOL. But Spain would be more familiar and easier for us to plan. We already visited Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid and Toledo in 2022.

A rental car on skyscanner is less than CAD$30 for 2 days if I pick up and drop off in Malaga. On the other hand, if I pick up in Malaga and drop off in Granada 3 days later, it would cost CAD$260. I am looking at trains or buses to travel between the cities.

I usually don't like switching hotels or 1-night stays. We would arrive in Malaga at about 7:15pm after 16.5 hr flights. One possibility is to drive that evening and stay 2 nights in Ronda, then drive to the Caminito del Rey for the day and then on to Malaga for 2 nights.

Please, do not drive to Ronda upon arrival. You will be tired, the roads have plenty of twists and turns, you’ve probably never driven on those roads, and it would be dark by the time you arrived. Also, unless you know where you’re headed in Ronda, trying to find a hotel that probably doesn’t have a lighted sign would be more than a little frustrating.

If you enjoy driving and would like the ability to be flexible, would recommend renting a car for your travel from Malaga to Seville. You could spend a few days in Malaga, pick up a car, drive to the El Caminito del Rey, visit Ronda if you wish, then go to Granada, on to Cordoba and drop the car on arrival to Seville.

Parking is easy at El Caminito del Rey. Make advance reservations and you will be directed to a small welcome center which has a large parking lot. Check in there to board the shuttle to the start of the trail. After completing the walk, the shuttle will return you to the welcome center. We were there early morning in mid-September and it was cold so you might want to layer up.

We went on to Ronda after the El Caminito. That day, the underground parking was full and parking was a nightmare. Ronda was extremely crowded and touristy. Half a day was plenty for us. We spent the night in the nearby white village of Arriate and had an exceptional meal at a local taberna. It was lovely.

In Granada, there was a lot of roadwork going on and closed roads (2023) which made getting to our accommodation a challenge but if your accommodation has parking included you should be okay. We took a taxi up to the Alhambra and walked back down.

Cordoba was easy as, again, our accommodation provided parking.

In Seville, we drove directly to a public parking structure near our hotel and left the car until we were ready to circle back to Malaga.

For us, the highlights of Andalucia were: El Caminito del Rey; the Mezquita; the rooftop tour of the Seville Cathedral.

Whatever you decide, have a great trip!

PS — Chile and Peru are fabulous!

For Granada, I purchased the Dobla de Oro tickets because we were there for 3 nights and I wanted to see the other sites. We spent one day at the Alhambra on our own, which was great. Make sure you download the audio guide before you get there. The next day, we took a bus to the Sacramonto Abbey, which we enjoyed a lot. Then we took our time walking back to town. We enjoyed the Cave Museum. We stopped at the Dobla de Oro sites and most were just okay. We liked the baths best. It was a fun day. Just get the Dobla de Oro tickets and go to Spain! We spent 3 nights in Cordoba. We loved the night tour of the Mezquita and also toured on our own the next day with the audio guide. We spent 5 nights in Seville and enjoyed the Rooftop tour and went back the next day to tour the cathedral with audio guide. It's huge--I think we spent 3 hours there! We also enjoyed a flamenco show at Casa Memoria. On some days, you can get free tickets to places. I think we did that for a Monday at Casa de Las Duenas. As you noted, some of the tickets might not be available yet.

Cindyeb

Thanks for your insight. Do you think 2 nights in Cordoba will be sufficient?

I would love to add a 15th night and increase Cordoba to 3 nights, but that is not possible. And I prefer not to reduce the nights in the other cities.

We arrive pretty late in Malaga so we only have 3 days there. I really want to relax and enjoy Malaga for at least a day and to get over jet lag. And we need 2 day trips for Ronda and the Caminito del Rey. And I assume that reducing Seville to 4 nights is probably not advisable.

Two nights in Córdoba will allow you to see the main sites (Mezquita, Roman bridge, Alcázar). In four trips there I’ve never gone into Córdoba’s Alcázar., mostly because it didn’t interest me.

In May we spent three nights in the city and revisited the Mezquita, but spent a full day visiting patios since the patio festival was going on when we were there. We also walked around parts of the city we hadn’t previously walked.

Two nights in Cordoba would be fine. It's very small. Your trip sounds great!

I think that 2 nights for Cordoba is fine, too. That's what we did, and we were able to see a lot. We visited the Mezquita, of course, along with the Alcazar. The Alcazar gardens are beautiful and well worth seeing. Also visited the Palacio de Viana with its 12 patios. Walked across the Roman Bridge and explored the Juderia. We love to visit markets so one day we wandered through the Victoria Mercado and had dinner there. A 3rd night would have been nice but it's not necessary. I agree with your decision not to take nights away from your other destinations.

Thanks, everybody. This forum is so great to discuss travel in Europe.

P.S. We booked our flights and bought a pair of Dobla de Oro tickets for Alhambra earlier tonight. The latter was very stressful. The Alhambra tickets were disappearing from my screen as I was shopping on the official website. At one point, there were only single tickets available for the remaining timed admissions, which would have meant my wife would enter Nasrid Palace first and I would enter 30 minutes later. I repeatedly refreshed and when a pair with matching times appeared, I snapped them up. Whew!

P.P.S. Another couple is considering joining us for all or part of our trip.

I will say that Jaime didn't miss much by skipping the Alcazar in Cordoba. I went on my first visit to Cordoba, in February. The buildings weren't memorable. The gardens are apparently the main attraction, and they were laid out very nicely, but all the greenery had recently been severely pruned, so not very attractive at all.

Update: I have booked accommodations for Malaga, Granada and Cordoba.

I am a bit stuck looking for a 2 bedroom for 2 couples for 5 nights in Seville. I am not sure if there is a preferred area. Seville is so large and there are so many choices.

Should we book a place near the Seville Cathedral? Is there a particular Metro stop which will make it easier to go to major attraction, including going to the Airport to fly home on our last day.

Thanks.

I have a long list of 2 bedroom apartments that I've stayed in over many years.

I've stayed in most areas in Seville. El Arenal, Santa Cruz, Alfalfa, and others, all are an easy walk to the main attractions.

We taxi to the airport, taxis are well priced.