Bus or train? Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla

Deb,

My mom & I took the ALSA bus from Córdoba to Granada. The bus was comfortable and we enjoyed the scenery. You'll need to place your luggage in the hold below, but you can take a small backpack in the bus.

When traveling from Córdoba to Sevilla, I'd recommend taking the direct train.

We purchased our bus tickets at the bus station a couple of days in advance, but you can certainly book them in advance on the ALSA website, if you wish. The bus tickets cost the same if you buy in advance or on the day of travel, but as you may already know, you can save money by booking your train tickets 60-90 days in advance on the Renfe website.

Don't forget to book your Alhambra tickets 3 months in advance ;-)

Enjoy your trip!

Edit to add...

Will you be traveling to Madrid after you visit Sevilla? If so, and if you have the time, you may consider changing your route and adding Ronda en-route (from Granada) to Sevilla. So your route would look like this: Granada >> Ronda >> Sevilla >> Córdoba >> Madrid.

Yes, the buses have storage underneath.

Granada to Córdoba could be done either way. The train line has been under construction recently requiring a bus shuttle part of the way. When that is done (it may be now, it's been almost a year since I looked into it last) it will be non stop. But I think the bus has more departures so may fit your schedule better.

Seville to Córdoba is best by train, I think. The train is high speed so gets there faster than the bus. Train and bus stations are across the street from each other so no advantage either way on that front.

Yes, all buses have storage underneath. In fact there is very limited carryon space available on the buses so cannot fit a standard carryon bag on the bus.

Spain probably has the best bus system of all of the European countries in part because the rail system is somewhat limited. Bus can be more direct, sometimes faster, but you have to check the schedules.

I would use the train between Cordoba and Seville.

I don't know about purchasing bus tickets in advance. We have always bought them at the ticket window just prior to boarding. You will receive a seat reservation on the bus but it is not enforced.

Last summer we took the ALSA bus from Cordoba to Granada and Granada to Seville, as others have said, it was a nice trip, clean, pleasant, and easy. At that time, the time in transit was about the same as the train, but for us the determining factor was better options for departure and arrival times. All things being equal, consider booking your Alhambra tickets and rough out your schedule in the various places and see which times with bus or train work best for you.

I haven't been to Andalucia recently, but I found the ALSA ticket-vending machines installed in the larger stations in the rest of Spain to be quite user-friendly. You can easily switch the language to English, and there's an option to print out the schedule, which gives me a nice comfy feeling when I'm planning a trip and not yet ready to buy a ticket. My US chip-and-signature card worked in those machines.

While not of Italian proportions, ticket lines at staffed counters can take some time to get through, and the counters often have a policy of halting ticket sales X minutes before each bus departs, so don't cut it too close. On one occasion I arrived at the bus station a bit late and--just my luck--the computers were down and none of the vending machines were working. Lines were seriously long that day. I was very lucky that the kind person at the counter intended for non-immediate-departure tickets took pity on me.

Thank you all for your advice.
We are opting for the bus from Granada to Cordoba and have purchased train tickets for the trip from Cordoba to Sevilla

I took buses from Malaga to Granada, from Granada to Capileira and back, from Granada to Cordoba, from Cordoba to Ubeda and back. And took train from Cordoba to Seville.

• Buses were clean, comfortable, with good wi-fi and on time. Almost as fast as trains for the routes I took. No luggage security check, and can reach small towns like Capileira and Ubeda. BUT I could not book at the ALSA site with my US credit card, and did not realize that paypal would work. Note that the buses don't have toilets.

• The train I took had no wi-fi. Did not look for toilet, so I don't know.

• An excellent guide to Spain's trains. Note there are less expensive tickets.

http://www.spain-traveller.com/guide-train-travel-spain/

The train and bus stations I mentioned were right next to each other. Ingenious planning.

Regarding Staynsavor's comments:

Note that the buses don't have toilets.

The train I took had no wi-fi. Did not look for toilet, so I don't
know.

The ALSA buses we took from Córdoba to Granada; and from Granada to Sevilla did have toilets.

As far as I know, all the trains have toilets, however, they may not have TP, so always carry some with you.