Using a car to day trip around the south of Spain

There aren't that many art museums in those cities. However, they are far apart, and not that close to the coast to start with. If you pick a single base on the coast, 2 of the 3 cities will be over 2 hours away by road, one way. That makes it difficult for day trips.

Conil de la Frontera, near Cádiz, has a great beach and would allow day trips to Seville, Cádiz and the Pueblos Blancos.

For Córdoba and Granada, you need somewhere further east, such as Nerja, and even then, that won't be great for Córdoba which is furthest inland.

Thank you balso for the ideas! Are the roads generally easy to travel? I probably should add that I regularly do day trips with longer distances from where I live. I know for some this may seem unusual. But, for example I travel for over one hour, one way, for dinner and the theater to a large city near me at least monthly. So 1.5 hours one way for a day trip seems very doable. And I am fit enough to walk all day and then drive home. We could certainly do an overnight if there are too many things to do or good nightlife in any of these cities!

The roads are very easy, with excellent signage. Parking is not: your best bet is to aim for a parking garage (well marked both on mapping apps and in the cities). Google maps driving times do not include the time spent finding and navigating parking garages, so add 30 minutes on the way there!

Seville is definitely worth at least an overnight if you can, great nightlife there and more than a day's worth of sights.
Córdoba and Granada are doable as day trips if that's what you'd rather do.

Driving in Spain is really no different than driving in the U.S. All but the most remote roads are in good repair and all are well marked. Driving in cities is a pain especially with all the pedestrian only areas. I suggest looking up parking lots/garages in the cities you plan on visiting and save them to your GPS, navigation app, or Google maps. You can also do a virtual drive by to see what the area around them looks like. By knowing where you plan on parking beforehand, you’ll save a lot of time trying to locate one since the GPS will take you right to it.

With the exception of one trip where we used trains when we walked a portion of the Camino, we always rent a car. There are plenty of speed cameras so stay at or below the posted speed limit. Once you get off the autovías and interstate type roads the roads are generally two lanes with lower speed limits. In areas such as the white towns or driving through the mountains you’ll be lucky if you go more than 70kph (42mph). As an FYI, the more digits there are in a road number, the more rural it tends to be. For example, CO-32 will be a better road than the CO-3408. The two letters indicate the region you’re in. When you enter a different region the letters and number will change too.

Where you base yourself is up to you. On our recent trip to Spain ending in June, although we had day trips an hour or so from the base town, we also had other places to visit. Our day trips may have included stops in six villages, or a couple villages along with a short walk/hike.

All excellent info! I like your idea of finding a parking garage that is convenient and just leaving the car for the day while we explore the city and use local transport of needed. Thanks! Ah, wish I were going tomorrow...

I used google maps to see driving times from Conil de la Frontera. It's 1.5 hours to Sevilla if you miss rush hour traffic (I assume that's mostly into Sevilla in the morning and out in the early evening). It's 2.5 hours to Cordoba. Ronda is over 2 hours. Malaga is at last 2.5 hours. I didn't even bother to check Granada, it's just too far for a day trip from about anywhere except Malaga. I'm merely pointing out that Andalucia is large.

I have been to Costa del Sol, sorry, I wasn't impressed with the beaches there.
Also, look at the travel times to the cities you want to see. You will be wasting a lot of time doing that.
Consider staying in Seville, for sure, it cannot be seen in one day. You need at least 3 days. Granada is quite a hike from where you are looking. Consider staying one night in Granada. Cordoba is even farther from the coast than Seville.

Rethink you plan.

Can you recommend a car rental company?
Would you fly to Barcelona, visit for a few nights and then go back to airport to rent the car? Or rent upon arrival ? Or in Barcelona?
Thanks!

Irene, it might be better to start a new thread with your questions, since they are not linked to the original question about the south of Spain. Thanks!

I agree with geovagriffith:

Also, look at the travel times to the cities you want to see. You will be wasting a lot of time doing that.
Consider staying in Seville, for sure, it cannot be seen in one day. You need at least 3 days. Granada is quite a hike from where you are looking. Consider staying one night in Granada. Cordoba is even farther from the coast than Seville.
Rethink you plan.

I’d definitely suggest you consider staying in Seville, Córdoba, and Granada for a few days to fully explore and experience each city.

Thank you for the input and ideas everyone. We were trying to avoid the "Stay 2 nights, then pack up and ,move on to another city" that we have done in our Europe trips of the past. We have done that many times and feel we missed out on the little townships and countryside in between. And we also did not have enough days of leisure. This time we won't be doing the city excursions every day, maybe 4 city trips during 17 days (the other 16 days of our trip will include Barcelona, Mallorca, and Valencia). Sounds like we should include some overnights to our city excursions.

maybe 4 city trips during 17 days (the other 16 days of our trip will
include Barcelona, Mallorca, and Valencia
I am confused now--do you want to share your itinerary?

I think it's a fine idea to stay in one place and do day trips, but I would not necessarily want to spend so many hours in a car. There are so many places that get skipped over. But I kinda agree with the general drift--if I wanted to see Sevilla, I would stay closer, etc.
is it late May or early May? In late May, no worries, early May it could be a bit chilly/quiet.
One of my possibilities for this May was Vejer de la Frontera, but my day trips were going to be much closer.

There are many nice villages, towns and small cities in Southern Spain, but there are also the three cities deserving of more time than a day trip provides. That's the problem when your time is limited. A lot of the small places (not referring to places like Cadiz or Malaga here) have only a couple hours' worth of sights, so you could easily spend more time driving to them than you'd spend seeing them.