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Southern Spain

Hi,

We will have a week (Fri-Fri) in Spain in July. All that is set so far is fly into Seville and fly out of Madrid. I'm trying to figure out the best use of our time. Here is what I'm thinking so far, please let me know your thoughts?

Friday - land in Seville, late in the day
Saturday - tour around Seville
Sunday - Head to Granada and see some sights
Monday - Alhombra
Tuesday - Head to Madrid
Wed-Fri - stay in Madrid and then depart Friday

My concern is the length travel from Seville to Granada, would we be better off going to Cordoba then taking a day trip to Alhombra?

Thanks!

Posted by
6382 posts

How you are traveling would elicit better responses. Granada from Sevilla or Cordoba as a day trip is not advisable. It’s really too far away. For the little time you have, you’re trying to do too much. Sevilla merits 4 nights by itself while Granada is worth 2 or 3 nights.

Posted by
3 posts

Hi - yeah, sorry about that. I assume we will travel via train, but I haven't bought any tickets yet except the flight into Seville and the flight out of Madrid.

Posted by
6732 posts

Two questions...

  1. Where are you coming from/going to before/after this? Are you just making a short hop from someplace nearby (maybe part of a longer trip to Europe) or are you flying to Spain from the other side of the world for a short visit?

  2. Do you tolerate heat well? July in southern Spain...gonna be hot...

Posted by
26829 posts

Although you might get lucky, you should assume the temperature will be up in the 90s while you're in Andalucía; it could be worse. Madrid is hot in the summer, too, just not quite that bad.

Weather aside, I'd encourage you to spend the maximum amount of time in Andalucía given that you're flying into Seville. It will be easier to return to Madrid on a later trip and see that city, Toledo, Segovia, etc.

Is your flight home on Friday? If so, I'd do something like this:

Friday: Fly into Seville (4 nights);
Sat-Sun-Mon: Seville with day-trip to Cordoba
Tue: Travel to Granada (2 nights)
Thu: Travel to Madrid (1 night)

As it happens, all the fast trains from Seville to Granada go through Cordoba; sometimes you even have to change trains there. That means you have two additional options that would somewhat reduce the amount of time you spend on trains:

  • See Cordoba in transit to Granada, checking your luggage at the Cordoba bus station.
  • Spend 3 nights rather than 4 in Seville, then spend 1 night in Cordoba before you go to Granada. The advantage of this strategy is that you get to spend a night in Cordoba. On the other hand, you have to go through the hotel check-in/check-out process one extra time.
Posted by
3 posts

Thanks for the replies. To answer an earlier question, this is the last part of a longer European trip - so the flight into Seville is a short hop from London.