Travelling from Leon to Seville - Car rental

Driving from Leon to Seville will not be faster than taking the train, even without allowing for any stops, which you will almost certainly want to make if you drive. And between Seville and Cordoba there's no comparison: The train covers the 85 miles in about 45 minutes. ViaMichelin (generally considered optimistic) estimates that driving will take about 2 hours. Since you'll be making a roundtrip, that difference is significant.

I'd suggest taking the train to Seville. I'm not sure there's any advantage to having a car if your only sidetrips are to Cordoba, Cadiz and Ronda. For Cadiz and Ronda the travel times are quite similar. Now, if you want to see some of the small white villages like Arcos de la Frontera and Grazalema, a car would probably be very handy.

Whether you travel by car or train depends on whether you want “see” Spain or explore it. I’ve done two car trips in Spain, one from San Sebastián through the Picos de Europa to Santiago de Compostela, Avila, Segovia and Madrid. My second trip began in Madrid and then went to Toledo, Córdoba, Granada, Ronda, the white towns, Arcos and Seville. I made a lot of stops in smaller towns and went off the beaten track as well. It gave me a feel for the country and its people that riding the rails would not have. I don’t limit myself to cars and have used trains extensively in Italy, France and other countries.

Like many folks on this forum, I highly recommend AutoEurope.com for European rentals. They’re a consolidator in Portland, Maine and have great customer service.

I assume you want to rent the car in Leon. Avis has an office on calle Astorga (sin numero [no number]). It’s across the river from Plaza de Guzman El Bueno and not very far from the parador. If you know which day you plan on picking up, you can reserve it before you go on your trip. Since you seem to want to rent I’ll assume you plan on making some stops en route. To get to Sevilla just get onto the A66 and head south. It will lead you there. Places worth a stop en route (only my opinion) Zamora, Salamanca, Cacares, and Merida. You can also do some research on all the little towns between the larger ones to see if any have sights you might be interested in. Sevilla can be a pain to drive in (narrow, one way, and pedestrian only streets). Since you have a parking place, consider doing what I call a Google street view drive by so you can see what you’ll be seeing when you’re driving it. It saved me some time the last time I drove in Sevilla since I recognized some landmarks and knew I was in the area. If you don’t plan on stopping between Leon and Sevilla, then the train would be the way to go.

Thank you so much. My dilemma is that I'm up in Astorga, not Madrid. So, I'm trying to figure the best way to get to Seville from there. Possibly it makes the most sense to get to Madrid, then train from there. I have heard Seville is difficult to drive in. I can just rent a car in Seville for side trips to the white villages. Thank you!

Avis, Europcar, and Hertz all have locations in Leon, but I couldn’t find anything in Astorga. Astorga is only about 30 miles from Leon and you’d probably need to go through it to get to Madrid no matter what you decide on.