Three friends and I will be going on a tour in the Basque region in late September - early October. We are all over 65 years of age, but active. We will be flying to Madrid after the tour and will have 5 days (Sunday - Saturday) to spend in the southern area of Spain before heading to Rota for a few days before heading back to the U.S. Can someone suggest an itineray for those 5 days before heading to Rota?
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2018 posts
Seville, the capital of Andalusia, tops the list. You could
easily spend all five nights there, adding Cordoba (45 minutes by train) as a daytrip. You also could rent a car for a couple days and see some white hilltowns such as Ronda, Grazalema, Arcos de La Frontera, Zahara de La Sierra and others.
Posted by
Washington DC
28083 posts
The three obvious destinations with the least amount of travel time would be Toledo, Cordoba and Seville. For my viewpoint you only have time for two of them.
Seville is larger and needs the most time. I'd normally say 4 or 5 nights, but in this case you might make do with 3 nights if you shift to Seville early in the day and/or plan to leave for Rota fairly late. See below for some comments on getting to Rota.
Toledo has fast rail service from Madrid but is on a spur railway line. To get from Toledo to Cordoba or Seville, you first have to return to Madrid and change trains. This is not an issue, but it does add travel time.
Cordoba is on the way to Seville, requiring no extra time on the train. Depending on what time you get away from Madrid, it might be best to devote either one or two nights to Cordoba. Many people treat it as a day trip from Seville, which is better than not seeing it at all, but it's not ideal.
Because your time is so limited, I'd go with Cordoba + Seville unless you want to day trip to Cordoba from Seville.
Alternatively, you could spend more time on trains and combine Seville with Granada. Great destinations both, but while you can travel Madrid-Cordoba-Seville in about 2 hr. 40 min., Madrid-Granada-Seville takes about 5 hr. 50 min., and there aren't a lot of good connections either into or out of Granada, which could lead to less-efficient travel days.
You'll want Seville to be your last stop before heading to Rota, because it's the closest of the logical options. Rota has no rail service. On the random date I checked, Comes buses leave Seville at 10 AM, 4:45 PM and 7:15 PM. The bus trip takes 2 hours. If you were willing to spend most of the day getting to Rota, you could break the bus trip in Jerez and change buses for the short trip to Arcos de la Frontera. It appears that both Comes and Damas buses make that trip. You'd then need to return to Jerez to continue to Rota. I wouldn't recommend doing this. Arcos is attractive and a worthwhile stop, but not at the expense of world-class places like Cordoba, Seville, Granada (or Toledo).
Spanish buses are usually quite comfortable, but since there are four of you, it wouldn't be a crazy idea to price out a private transfer. I don't think that would save a great deal of time, but you'd get door-to-door service rather than having to find your way to the correct Seville bus station (the city has two, and your hotel might be a cab ride away). You could check with www.mydaytrip.com if you think you'd like to do a sightseeing stop in Arcos on your way to Rota. That company connects travelers to local transportation providers and seems accustomed to requests for sightseeing stops along the way. Of course, you would be paying for the time the driver sits in Arcos and waits for you to see the town, and it would not be a short stop; Arcos isn't tiny.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7159 posts
Rota is an interesting last stop unless you’re retired military and are going to fly space-A back to the states. If you’re not spending any time in Rota, and haven’t been to Cadiz, consider Cadiz as your last stop before Rota. Assuming it’s still running, you could take the ferry from Cadiz to Rota. Another choice would be Jerez de la Frontera as your last stop before Rota. It’s only a 15 minutes drive to get to Rota; shorter if you’re just going to the base.
Others have mentioned the popular cities to visit. If you wanted to visit Ronda, Grazalema, and Arcos de la Frontera, they’d be easier to see with a rental car.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you for the suggestions. Just FYI, Rota is end destination because I will be attending a birthday party for a Norwegian friend who loves staying in Rota.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7159 posts
@Spain Fall 2022. We love Rota too, and were last there in 2011. We used to live in an apartment on Avenida de la Marina in the mid to late 70s. A restaurant we liked was El Pesebre. It was right at la Costilla apartments by the beach and main square. No idea what it’s like now or if it even survived Covid.