Train from Seville to Granada - unavailable due to construction?

Yes, that bus connection makes online booking more complicated so I would not book through Rail Europe in this instance. Renfe also may not open tickets for sale as early as normal. (They seem to live in permanent hope of completing the project, but don't expect that by September). Book either through Renfe (preferably using PayPal; see payment discussion at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/renfe-and-credit-cards-for-on-line-purachase) or try trainline.eu, or purchase in a ticket office in Spain. The train/bus route just takes 4 hours, as described on timetables. Of course, a direct bus is also fine but expect 5-6 hours.

Seville to Granada by direct coach is 3 hours. Prices start from around €5. There is also a 'supra economy' service from €23.

The temporary rail-bus arrangement was supposed to be for a few months, but has been a few years already.

Hi Laura,

Thanks for your reply. I checked Trainline.eu (which brought me to Trainline.com), and saw that they only have bus services from Seville to Granada. It showed a 3-hour bus ride on their schedule instead of 6, and not sure if it is correct. I also checked Renfe again, they still posted as 'train unavailable', and to check on a later date.

I just thought about asking, is driving a do-able option for travelers new to the place?

Thanks.

Thanks, Marco for the information your shared, which also confirmed the time duration of the bus ride.

Alsa.com for the coach (there may be others, but this is the one I took).

The Granada bus station is a bit further out from the centre of things than the railway, but it is well connected.

We drove from Granada to Cordoba to Seville where we dropped off our car upon arrival. Nice drive.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback and info. I will do more searching.

Hi Marco, may i ask how you connected to the Granada center district from the bus station on arrival? By local bus? taxi? or something else? -- Thanks.

Three years ago we took the train from Madrid to Granada. This is when they first started doing the bus connection in Antequera. The buses are run by the railway. You get off the train and get on the bus. There is little or no waiting. The bus delivers you to the the train station in Grenada. The change from train to bus is not a big deal.

Hi Marco, may i ask how you connected to the Granada center district from the bus station on arrival? By local bus? taxi? or something else? -- Thanks.

Took the bus outside. The numbers seem to change regularly in Granada, but there are maps & routes posted. I was staying on the Gran Via, so went almost directly to door for me. Plenty of taxis there as well.

Thanks for the train/bus connection and the city transportation in Granada on arriving by bus.
If I chose the train/bus method, the first step is to buy train tickets for Seville-Granada. The current issue is not being able to buy train tickets from any train company now. I am not so sure if I should wait till Renfe opens their ticket sales or just buy bus tickets. I am concerned about availability of seats on either train or bus.

We traveled last September from Cordoba to Granada and also had the switchover to bus in Antequera. As said above, it was super easy, not a problem at all. I didn't see which exact date(s) in September you are looking for, but I checked loco2.com and found tickets available there for a couple random September dates. We used loco2 for our train ticket purchases since I found the Renfe website to be very difficult to use. They are still Renfe tickets, just through a different seller. If there was a markup fee, I didn't notice so either there was not one or it was small. Maybe check them out?
Have fun!

Edit to add: I saw your other question about driving. We drove the opposite direction from Granada to Seville, and it was very easy. Roads are great. We used Google Maps and that worked well. We only drove because we stopped through Ronda and thought it was easier to drive to see the pueblos blancos. Otherwise, I'd pick the train/bus for ease of travel.

Enjoy!

Travelease,

The current issue is not being able to buy train tickets from any train company now. I am not so sure if I should wait till Renfe opens their ticket sales or just buy bus tickets. I am concerned about availability of seats on either train or bus.

It seems that Renfe has not yet released the September timetables for this route.
I'd keep checking the Renfe website and book as soon as the tickets become available.

Another option, and this is what we did, is to take the ALSA Bus from Granada to Sevilla.
The ALSA bus was comfortable and reliable, and offered more time selections than the train.
Since the bus station is on the outskirts of Granada, you can take a city bus into the city, or a taxi. We took a taxi and paid around €8-10 back in October 2015.

If you've not booked your Alhambra Tickets, make sure you do NOW before they sell out! ;-)

BTW, you may be interested in reading my reply on this recent post where I linked several helpful websites about buying Renfe tickets online.

Have a wonderful trip!

Hi MorganMurphy, Priscilla and everyone,

Thanks so much for the information in your responses, you are all helpful. Yes, we have already booked tickets for the Alhambra visit, thank you for reminding. That's also the reason I want to make sure that we will be there a day before. I will check the buses and trains as you've provided me the information.

Hi again,
I found out that the bus company needs us to provide passport numbers during the ticket purchase process. Did anybody experience that? -- Thanks.

Yes. In theory you might be required to show your ID to prove you were the person who brought the ticket, but this doesn't happen in my experience. Nothing unusual.

Hi Marco, thanks for the reply. I went ahead to make the purchase of the tickets, and encountered the problem of completing the payment (by c/c). I tried 4 times, and the payment page just had that circle turning around and around, but never did it complete the process of accepting my payment. Any advise/thoughts from you or other travelers. - Thanks.

If you can't get a payment to go through, try another browser. If that doesn't work, try a different computer/phone/tablet.

For inexplicable reasons, one of these may work when another does not.

Hi Harold,
I changed the browser, and it worked. Thank you very much. (Before that, I used 3 different computers, and it didn't work. What a good tip!).
Again, thank you all.