We're visiting Spain for 27 days this April/May, and I was wondering if anyone has advice for a relaxing itinerary starting in Seville and ending in Barcelona. I would like to know which towns would be nice for longer stays to see the sights with relaxing days for strolling around little streets, enjoying sights and cafes. And which towns for shorter trips or even just a daytrip. I'm thinking Granada for a longer stay and also Barcelona. I'm considering Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Barcelona. I also want to head over to Ronda area, White villages, etc. but not sure of the best route to take. Any ideas for an itinerary/route that makes sense would be appreciated. We could rent a car where it makes sense, but we'll also take trains or busses. Thanks!
Posted by
Duluth 🛶
8001 posts
I really loved Granada and highly recommend it, along with Ronda. I also enjoyed Seville as well. I have not been to Malaga or Barcelona.
What you might want to do is use something like Google Maps to plot out an itinerary with all the places you've listed. For example, in this map that I just routed, you can see that you are spending all your time along the coast. This could be fine but you will be farther away from other unique places like Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid and so on. It really depends on what you want to see. If you stick with a route like the one I put here, I would probably omit Cordoba. I enjoyed it but compared with the others, it's not worth a large detour in my opinion.
Posted by
4971 posts
You have 27 days worth of destinations already. I agree with first post, plug them into a map, suss out the transport, and see what works. You might want a car for the Ronda area, otherwise train and bus.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
7167 posts
We will be there in April and have some of the same locations in our itinerary. The hardest part was figuring out the transportation-- bus vs train, order of cities, etc.
Here is my post that might help you get started:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/bus-info-and-help-andalusia
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7157 posts
Other than Ronda and the white towns that are beat seen using a rental car, the remainder are large cities. All of the places you mentioned are major tourist magnets. You can take a train to them. If you wanted to see smaller, out of the way places that are less often visited by tourists, then I suggest a rental car. As for order, Sevilla, Córdoba, Ronda, Malaga, Granada, Barcelona. I can’t help with public transportation since I almost always get a rental car.
Posted by
8246 posts
Seville is amazing, I highly recommend at least 4 nights there. Cordoba 2, Granada 2-3, Malaga 2 and Barcelona 4.
Malaga is near Costa Del Sol, a beach area, that I thought was disappointing. The beaches in Florida and California are better.
Still, there are great places to see nearby like Rhonda.
You miss Madrid, Toledo and Segovia, but you can always do that on another trip.
Trains a good in Spain. You don't want a car in a major city.