Hi
We wanted to visit Cordoba for the day from Granada.
For 2 of us trains seem to be about $200 euro on Renfe
Organised day tours are about the same, although in & out quickly & very little time to wander
Would the day be value for money?
Does anyone have any suggestions that might be a little less expensive.
Thanks
Linda
lindaallen.anne
It’s been many years since my trip to Cordoba. Instead of a day trip from Granada, I went from Seville to Cordoba in one day basically to tour the Mezquita and check out the vintage horse carriages. HOWEVER, I didn’t quite plan the day trip well, because I arrived in Cordoba between tour hours of the Mezquita and ended up sort of killing time in town before the late afternoon tour time. The Mezquita was fabulous and I highly recommend a visit. Just double check that your timing won’t be off. Here is the website.
Cordoba is considerably closer to Seville than to Granada, so it would be better to do a Cordoba day trip from Seville (adjusting the number of nights there) than from Granada. The fast trains from Seville take less than an hour. The slower Media Distancia trains take only about 1-1/2 hours and would save you a lot of money (fare is fixed at 11.20 euros one way); you'd need to decide whether the financial savings are worth the loss of time in Cordoba, a city with a lot of sights. Perhaps take one of the faster trains to Cordoba and one of the slower ones on the way back?
A significant extra advantage of doing the side trip from Seville rather than Granada is that there are more trains between Cordoba and Seville. Service between Cordoba and Granada is somewhat more sporadic, with some big gaps in the schedule that might affect your flexibility.
Another possibility: Where are you going to be before and after your stay in Granada? Most (maybe all) trains between Madrid and Granada go through Cordoba. Most trains between Seville and Granada go through Cordoba. In some cases you'd be changing trains in Cordoba anyway. You might be able to visit Cordoba in transit--ideally spending one night there. Even if you can't spend a night in Cordoba, you'd at least save on train time, and probably on train fares.
Be aware that unlike most other countries in Europe, the express trains in Spain quite often do sell out. You'd always be able to get on a Media Distancia train from Seville, though finding a place to sit wouldn't be guaranteed. For the trip from Granada to Cordoba, you could run into multiple sold-out trains on your preferred day of travel if you didn't buy the tickets in advance. Keep in mind, though, that the cheapest tickets will not be refundable or changeable without at least a signficant fee.
I spent 2 nights in Cordoba. I might have arrived before noon, the rest of that day, the next day, and left the next morning. Do you have a written day-by- day itinerary for your whole trip? Check the guidebooks. Maybe you will want to see what is beyond the mezquita, the Alcazar, the Roman Bridge, the ancient room that was a synagogue before 1492, the small archaeology museum, and so on.
Alsa bus line also runs every couple hours between the two cities for under 20 bucks in about 2.5 hours. The train doesn’t run as frequently so this might be an option for one of the legs between the two towns.
How does one book the media distancia trains between Seville and Cordoba? I've looked online and only found the faster trains listed on the Renfe website.
I'm seeing MD trains for near-future dates, so I imagine they just don't load those trains into the schedule very early. The fares don't vary and I don't think there are assigned seats so the MD trains can't sell out. Therefore, there's no reason to buy the tickets early; just get them from a vending machine once you get to Spain.
