We are planning a trip to southern Spain in January flying in and out of Madrid. Our plan is to train from Madrid to Seville and then to rent a car in Seville to do the White towns, Cadiz and other areas south of Seville.
My question is we want to get to Granada and I had originally thought to drive, but I am wondering if we should get a round trip train to Granada from Seville because we may run into bad weather in the mountains between the two cities. Our plan is to stay in Granada for 2 nights.
I realize that every year is different with weather, but any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Also would it be better to train from Madrid to Granada by train and rent a car for a week in Granada for seeing some of the area such as Rhonda, Jerez and Gibraltar and then dropping the care off in Seville.
I'm so confused and would appreciate any help or itinerary ideas for the Costa del Sol area.
Thank you so much
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
Firstly, you may be a bit confused because none of the places you list are actually on the Costa del Sol, not even close :) - take a look - Google.Maps-CostaDelSol
Not sure how much time you have, but backtracking from the white hill towns to Sevilla just to drop off the car and then taking the train all the way to Granada is going to take up a lot of extra hours. I would just continue from White hill towns to Granada and drop off the car there.
Posted by
Washington DC
28085 posts
Renfe is struggling at the moment to get train schedules into and out of Granada posted, but with luck it will get through this rough patch soon and you'll be able to see what your options are. With the opening of the AVE line into Granada, there's fast train service between Madrid and Granada (via Cordoba and Antequera--possibly with one change). That service is currently rather infrequent.
There's more frequent service between from Madrid and Seville, again via Cordoba but non-stop. Some of the Seville trains go on to Jerez and Cadiz; in other cases you change trains in Seville. You don't need or want a car to get to Jerez and Cadiz.
A car is extremely useful if you want to visit Ronda, the white villages or Gibraltar. It will be helpful if you want to cross southern Spain from Seville to Granada and stop at any of those smaller places. If you don't have time for those extra stops, the train will whisk you between Seville and Granada in as little as 2-1/2 hours (with possibly just one change) and is obviously preferable.
It sounds as if you may have a bit of extra time, but I wouldn't cut my time in Granada to just 2 nights in order to see Ronda, white villages or Gibraltar. In my view, the key destinations in southern Spain are Granada, Seville and Cordoba, and I'd want to allow sufficient time to see their highlights before branching out to secondary destinations.
Posted by
8248 posts
Granada is great, especially the Alhambra.
Seville is a must visit place in Spain, it is wonderful.
Never been to Spain in January, suggest checking out typical weather on internet.
As for Costa del Sol, we were not so impressed with it. It is largely a beach vacation are and the beaches are not as nice as in much of Florida.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thanks so much for all of your input, you really have all been amazing. I did not mention that we will be spending 18 day in Southern Spain and we are active 60 yr olds. with a lot of travel experience.
This is what I have come up with so far:
Arrive Madrid January 1
Day 1-3: Madrid with a day trip to Toledo
Day 4-7: Fly to Fez and back. I realize we should do Morocco separately, but we really want to see Fez and get a brief feel for Morocco
Day 7: Back to Madrid at 2:30 (the only return flight within that time frame) and catch the high speed train to Cordoba Day 8: Cordoba and train to Seville in late afternoon
Day 9-10: Seville
Day 11-15: Pick up car and drive and see as much of the southwestern part of Spain including a day trip to Gibraltar. I'm thinking of an overnight or 2 in Ronda, drive to the white towns, and a stop in Jerez.
Day 16: Drive to Granada
Day 17: Granada
Day 18: Hopefully take the high speed train from Granada to Madrid.
I realize it is packing a lot in, but that is the way we like to travel. We love the different cultures, experiences and sites of each country we visit.
Not sure of what towns/cities to stay at when we are driving around the white towns. Also with a day trip to Gibraltar, the best place to stay for that.
Again thanks for any additional help.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15788 posts
Day 11-15: Pick up car and drive and see as much of the southwestern part of Spain including a day trip to Gibraltar. I'm thinking of an overnight or 2 in Ronda, drive to the white towns, and a stop in Jerez.
Day 16: Drive to Granada
Day 17: Granada
Day 18: Hopefully take the high speed train from Granada to Madrid.
You have 5 nights between Sevilla and Granada.
Days 11-12 Jerez, Cadiz, Arcos. Sleep in Jerez or Cadiz.
Day 13 Gibraltar, sleep in Ronda - or Gibraltar - read on. It's about a 2 hour drive and sunset's around 6.15 so you'll want to leave Gibraltar by 3.30 so you're driving through the hills in day light. Note that driving times to/from Gibraltar are from the parking lot on the Spanish side. You'll need time to leave Gibraltar and cross the causeway. DRiving time to Gibraltar is about the same from Jerez or Cadiz, close to 2 hours. Only you can decide if Gibraltar is a high priority. If it is, consider staying overnight there. Otherwise you will have about as much driving time as sightseeing time on a day trip.
Days 14-15. Stay in Ronda. Allow 1/2 day for its sights.
Also check the Alsa buses from Granada to Madrid. They are comfortable and the schedule may be more convenient for you than the train.