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Southern Spain mid February 2025 for a month+

My wife and I ( seniors) plan to visit Southern Spain mid February 2025 for a month+. We would like

recommendations of cities or villages to stay about a week in each and make a few day trips from.

Thinking of Malaga, Granada, Seville, Cordoba, ????

We plan to use public transportation only. Want to travel between cities by train. No long bus rides

Should we fly into or end in Malaga or? Or should we fly into a larger city and jump on a train? Open jaw flying preferred.

Any suggestions on planning this trip e.g. number of days in different locations, a logical order to arrange

our stays, best part of the city to stay and must see sites, would be helpful. Any advice is welcome.

We are slow travelers. Hoping to escape the cold and rain in Oregon.

( In this area we have been to Madrid, Segovia, Toledo and Barcelona as well as Portugal on a previous trip.)

Posted by
442 posts

I am envious.
We are visiting those 4 cities this October and spending 17 days in them.
7 days in each sounds great to me.

Posted by
15651 posts

Andalucia is the warmest and driest part of Europe. My experience is that there's little rain, lots of sun, and temps mostly in the 60s. Granada is at higher elevation so it may be colder. I was only there once and had great weather in February.

None of those 4 are villages. Andalucia is a very large area and cities, towns and villages are spread out. Without a car, it will be hard to do more than a handful of day trips. It's less than an hour by train between Sevilla and Cordoba. From Sevilla, it's about an hour to Jerez, at least 1.5 hrs to Cadiz. Similarly Malaga and Granada are somewhat close, trains take about 1.25-1.5 hours. Ronda is about 2 hrs by train from Malaga. The southern coast is pretty deserted at that time of year, so I'm not sure what places along the coast from Malaga may be interesting. If you are content to kick back in each place and not expect day trips, those aren't bad choices. In my three multi-day visits to Sevilla and Cordoba I've only revisited two sights, the Alcazar in Sevilla and the Mezquita. I'm sure there's a lot more to enjoy in Granada than what I did in my 4N stay. I'm less sure that I'd enjoy a full week in Malaga, though. Maybe add more time to Sevilla and take those longish day trips.

As for flights . . . Sevilla and Granada have small airports. Malaga's is larger. AFAIK there are no transatlantic flights to any of them. If you can't fly non-stop to Madrid, it might make sense to fly in or out of any of them - just depends on connections and prices. If you end up with round-trip Madrid, maybe start in Sevilla and end in Cordoba.

I'm curious where else you are thinking of, since 4 weeks is less than a month+.

Posted by
27369 posts

Here are a few side-trips I took during my April 2019 trip to Andalucia (all by bus):

From Seville: Arcos de la Frontera (longish trip) and Carmona. Seville has two bus stations, so be sure you go to the right one.

From Granada: Priego de Cordoba. Also the Alpujarras, but I'm not sure the weather would be suitable in February up in those hills.

From Cadiz (I wouldn't stay for a week): Vejer de la Frontera.

From Ronda (where I definitely wouldn't stay for a week): Grazalema,

I'd make the stay in Seville a little longer than the others. It's larger and has more to see.

I haven't been to any of the coastal towns around Malaga.

Posted by
43 posts

I wouldn’t rule out taking the bus on some of your trips. It is much easier to toss/retrieve luggage from the curb level bus cargo holds than schlepping the bags and cramming them in the tiny baggage shelves.

Some of the cities that we visited were only served by bus. Was pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the buses.

Also if you are going to Sevilla, the Plaza de España was worth a quick visit.

Posted by
46 posts

Thank you to everyone for all the replies so far! We do have RS snapshot guidebook. As we are leaving soon for 6 weeks to N Ireland and other parts of England and Scotland, we will do a little pondering and start the serious planning when we return.

Posted by
273 posts

Having just spent several weeks using trains throughout Spain, Bilbao to San Sebastián was really only available by bus. We were so pleasantly surprised by how nice the buses and stations were. Not at all how the bus experience is in the US. Just a FYI.

Posted by
550 posts

I stayed the entirety of February 2023 in Spain, two weeks of which were in Torremolinos. It's certainly a place with many expats, mostly Dutch and British, but I found it relaxing and low-key. Temperatures typically reached the low to mid 60s F, and the transit opportunities to visit other Spanish cities were wonderful; you can ride the Málaga light rail into Málaga proper or farther west along the coast. I also spent a week in Valencia, my favorite city in Spain, and rented a car to visit Córdoba (not my favorite). Finally, I spent a few days each in Madrid and Granada. Aside from the one rental car day, all travel within Spain was by train using the excellent Renfe high-speed trains.

February is a great time to visit Spain. BTW, I flew in and out of Málaga, with the easy light rail journey on to Torremolinos. The light rail station is right across the street from the airport terminal.