Recommended day trips for 10 days in Southern Spain

Will you have a car? Sevilla to Ronda is about 3 hours by train. I believe there are buses that do that route, but I haven't used a bus in Spain. Since we drove Sevilla to Granada spending two nights in the white villages, my impression would be by car or bus, I would have to think it would be at least 2 hours to go Sevilla to Ronda. I think people that do Ronda as a day trip go from Malaga. My own personal opinion is that I like to stay overnight in Cordoba. If you want to do a day trip, I would eat dinner in Cordoba and take a latish train back to Sevilla. COrdoba is even more amazing in the late afternoon/evening when the day trippers leave. Car or bus from Malaga to Granada would be about 2 hours while train, I believe is about 3. We spent an entire day at the Alhambra in Granada. About 10am to 4 or 5pm. I have not been to Cadiz, Jerez, Malaga, Gibralter or Marbella, just as a "full disclosure". I've heard mixed opinions about Gibralter, research whether you really want to go there. There is a website which is good for looking at transportation called Rome2Rio. I didn't use it for Spain, but I'm looking at it as I plan for further trips. Incidentally, I wouldn't think you'd want a car for any of this with the exception of traveling into the white villages/Ronda.

I am not a fan of long day trips. I don't know what is in Marbella, but can you do a day tour combo with Gibraltar? I think Granada needs an overnight. Are you willing to do one day rental car? If so, overnight in Granada and drive to Seville visiting Ronda or similar enroute. Either way, I woild give Seville more time 5 nights.

Although Rome2Rio is usually accurate about whether rail service is available, I've found it wildly off-base about travel times, frequencies and costs. Therefore, I recommend it only for high-level research, then I suggest digging down until it displays a link to the website of the train or bus company providing service. That's where you need to go to see how long it will actually take to get where you want to go, and whether the schedule will work for you. Don't forget to add in time to get from your lodgings to the train station or bus station, and vice versa.

If you're planning to drive, use ViaMichelin for driving-time estimates. Don't forget to pad those times to allow for any stops you anticipate making, getting lost, looking for parking, and walking from your parking place to the part of town you actually want to see. Compare driving times to train times. In several cases (including Seville-Cordoba) I think you'll find the train times are faster. I suspect a lot of your day-trips are going to involve 4 hours of travel back and forth. I'd do that only in exceptional circumstances, and not for destinations like Granada which have more than one day's worth of key sights.

I am currently planning my first extensive trip to southern Spain (and have never driven there), so I'm not positive, but I suspect you are trying to cram too much in. You say you are planning five days in each of your base cities and have ten days altogether. That does not compute, because it's going to take a good bit of time to relocate from Malaga to Seville (including packing up, hotel check-out and hotel check-in, etc.). In addition, if you're arriving in Malaga after a transatlantic flight, I wouldn't count your arrival day due to the likelihood of sleep-deprivation and jetlag. How many nights will you be on the ground in Spain? Nine? If so, I'd count your planned itinerary as 4 days in Malaga and 4-1/2 days in Seville.

I forgot to add we will NOT be driving a car.
Thanks for your replies.
Tony

In that case you really need to dig into the logistics of those planned day-trips. I suspect Gibraltar will be really ugly.

If you take the 8 AM train from Malaga to Granada, you will not arrive until 10:50 AM. You'll probably need to take the 5:03 PM train back, arriving at 7:50 PM. (That's the current weekday schedule.) That gives you only 6 hours to see the Alhambra, the Albaicin, anything else you want to see in the city, and have lunch. And you must allow time to travel between the train station and the sights you want to see. That doesn't sound like enough time for me. I suggest dropping Malaga (skipping Marbella and Gibraltar) and staying in Granada instead.

I agree with acraven. Bear in mind that Ronda on a day trip from Granada is about as difficult from Granada as it is from Sevilla. One possibility might be to see Ronda on your way to Sevilla from Granada (or the other way around). That still is about a 3 hour train ride at the beginning of the day and another 3 hour train at the end. In my opinion, you either need to rent a car to get between Granada and Sevilla with a stop at Ronda or stay in Malaga for the day trip to Ronda, or I guess, via train, stay one night in Ronda between Granada and Sevilla.

You can take the ALSA bus from Malaga to Granada and back, and it is a much shorter trip than the train/bus combo. We did the opposite. We took the ALSA bus from Granada to Malaga, and it's only 1.5 hours one way. So that would be 3 hours roundtrip.

However, if it were me, I would stay overnight in Granada to see the Alhambra. The Alhambra is magnificent! Please don't rush through it. Take your time, enjoy it, and savor every moment. We were there all day (including stops for lunch, taking photos, and then a break for drinks and snacks. We returned later that night for the night tour, which is magical. The lighting makes the lacy carvings stand out even more, and you can hear the gentle sounds of the water. It is less crowded at night and quieter.

It looks like you don't want to do a lot of unpacking and moving around. But long day trips can be tiring, too. Would you consider staying at least one night in Granada (2 would be better), and 3 or 4 nights in Malaga?

I would take a night from Malaga and overnight or 2) in Granada, then continue to Sevilla. Ronda is too far for a day trip from anywhere. Look for guided day tours from Malaga and see what works for you. Personally, I wouldn't bother with Gibraltar or Marbella when there's so much more to see and do that is typical Andalucia.

From Sevilla:
Cordoba by train, less than an hour
Jerez by train, an hour
Cadiz by train, 1.5 hours (via Jerez)
Arcos by train to Jerez + bus to Arcos, about 2 hours depending on the bus schedule.

I think you are planning too many day-trips and, at least in the case of Granada should make that an overnight stop (or more nights, ideally).

Do you really want to go to Marbella? It's full of crass, rich people stuck up their own arses. But getting there is easy enough; there is regular bus service from Malaga, takes about one hour and run by Avanza.

For Granada from Malaga, forget the train as it's much quicker to go by coach, this one run by Alsa. But keep in mind that Granada coach station is some distance from the centre and even further from the Alhambra so you will also need to use a local bus or taxi. Eating into more of your available time.

Gibraltar is a must-see and easy to visit for a day from Malaga. However don't use rail or the public bus service, both of which take too long. Instead join a "shopping tour" which will take you there faster, dropping/collecting in La Linea from where you walk across the border. You don't need to go shopping, by the way, they're called that because people go to Gibraltar to get cheap booze and stock up on decent tea from Morrisons. You on the other hand can spend the day at the great sights. Unmissable.

Hi all,

I’d like to thank you all very much for your advice !
So kind of you !
Looks like the itinerary is changing upon further research.
3 days Marbella
3 days Grenada
4 days Seville.

There should be plenty to see and do in those
3 locations and maybe add in a day trip if feasible/needed.

Thanks so much,
Tony