Travel from Granada to Seville

We did this segment by train before and in my opinion it really was not that scenic. I am not sure if the trip by bus will give you more things to look at.

This is a trip on which you really get some advantage from either renting a car or using a private driver. There's nothing wrong with the trains or buses, but making a day of it and stopping to see one or more of the smaller places along the way would be a great plan. It will add a lot of travel time; you can use ViaMichelin.com or Google Maps for driving-time estimates to figure out what might be reasonable to accomplish in one day. Don't forget to allow time for lunch.

You can visit some of Ronda, Arcos de la Frontera, Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra via day trips from Seville (or Malaga), but that's not an efficient way to tackle them since transportation options are rather limited, making it hard to see more than one of those places in one day.

Ronda and Arcos are much larger than the others. Ronda's sights are somewhat scattered, and one could spend an entire day there. The historic center of Arcos, on a hill, is considerably smaller although the towns have very similar populations. The other two are comparatively tiny. Except for Ronda, the attraction of these towns is primarily their general atmosphere. I wouldn't feel the need to go to all three; I though Arcos was more interesting than Grazalema, but I'd probably make the decision based on logistics.

Just 2 weeks ago, We rented a car in Sevilla, stayed 3 nights in Grazalema in the "Pueblos Blancos" of Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema's mountains and valleys, then dropped our car at the train station in Granada. Booked through Autoeurope.com which gives all insurance options etc. Car was from Europcar - paid them only the one-way fee (100€ + VAT) and incidentals. Even from our perspective as Colorado residents, the mountains and beauty of that region was impressive. (southeast of Sevilla, not in the Sierra Nevada near Granada) Only way to go to see all this, and a welcome break from the busy cities.

We just did the train from Granada to Sevilla a few days ago! It was not scenic but it was fast and it gave us more time in Sevilla. There is so much to do there! Also, there is no way I’d drive in Sevilla! There are so many one lane cobblestone roads with people walking on them that I would be a nervous wreck in the city itself! By the way, the train tickets for this route did not go on sale till about a month before.

We opted for a private driver through Daytrips from Granada to Sevilla. The young Spanish driver picked us up at our hotel on time and drove us to Ronda for a lunch stop. It was a nice break in the journey. The deep ravine and bridge are worth seeing. Driving time was about 3.5 hours. However, there is not much else to see on the drive across. It is very barren land with a bunch of olive trees and just not that scenic.

You other options are bus from Granada to Sevilla or Train via Cordoba. (there is not much different in the length of time it takes for either). I have taken the bus from Sevilla to Malaga before and it is a fine way to travel, but I really prefer train travel. The only problem with the Granada to Sevilla route is that it is not that frequent.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your perspectives.

Seville was my first City. From there I took the ALSA bus to Granada. It left at 9am and arrived at about noon. The given time for the bus (3 hours) was only 13 minutes less than the given time for the train (2 hours 47 minutes); the bus is much cheaper. The bus goes in a rather direct way on the roads versus the train going out of the way and stopping in Cordoba on the way. I have never rented a car outside the United States. I would only rent a car in another country if public transportation wouldn't be good enough to get me where I want to see. But I only had 14 nights for my trip, 13 nights on the ground; I didn't make time for the "white villages" in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

We took the train 2 days ago.
We are not concerned with prices.
The train has better seats and toilets.

In season, we found the fields of sunflowers and rapeseed/canola to be very attractive from our rental car. We stopped at Arcos, and slept three nights in Ronda, from which we made a daytrip to Gibraltar. (Too far!) We started to visit Zahara, but it was just too far off our route, and on slower roads. Only saw it in the distance.

Alsa Bus, takes about 3 hours. There is a toilet on the bus.