Has anyone driven from Seville to Ronda in Spain? Is it a pretty drive and is it relatively easy? We will have spent a few days in Granada and in Seville and would like to see one of the white hills towns this April. Renting a car for a day is fairly expensive, compared to taking a bus, so I wanted to get some input from others who may have driven in this area... Originally, we were going to drive from Granada to Ronda and then to Seville, but the car rental price is really high because of picking it up in one city and returning it in another... Thank you in advance for any advice or comments.
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Andrew....it's a gorgeous drive, and if anyone ever has the chance to do it, they should. You're on a 4-lane divided 'interstate,' the A-92 when you leave Granada, then the two-lane A-384, which is through mainly flat farming fields. Depending on which routing you takem, the twistiest part starts south of Campilos on the A-357 and subsequent roads, until you get to Ronda. The roads are greatly improved, but they do wind around a bit in spots. However, there's not a lot of truck traffic on that road.
Personally, I like taking the A-92 to Antequera, then heading south on the A-343 and subsequent highways, into Ronda. It's more scenic, with some nice little villages along the way, but it's also a slightly more challenging, and longer, drive.
The road will twist a bit after leaving Ronda, but you will soon be on relatively flat land again for the drive into Sevilla. (As an aside, I find it nicer to do this drive in the other direction, so the mountains are looming ahead of you after you leave Sevilla). If you have time, try to stop in the hilltop village of Zahara de la Sierra, just outside Ronda off the A-384.
Even if you pick the longest drive, driving time shouldn't be more than six hours....so if you leave early, you'll have a nice, if long, day.
And PLEASE drop off the car outside the city....at the airport or train station. Driving in the center of Sevilla is definitely NOT recommended!!
FYI, from carjet.co.uk, I'm getting a one-day rental from Granada airport to Sevilla airport, with CDW down to $0, for 79 Euro.
Also FYI, the bus schedules right now looks like you'd only have about 3 hours in Ronda before heading out for Sevilla. Cost would also be about 30-35 Euro pp for the entire run.....almost as high as the rental car rate I pointed out earlier.
Posted by
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
508 posts
We drove the Granada to Ronda to Sevilla route a couple of years ago with an overnight stop in Ronda. We stayed at the Parador de Ronda which was great although I don't recommend their restaurant. It was a wonderful and scenic drive. I don't remember even using the map as the roads were so clearly marked.
We used Carjet as Norm suggested in the last post and ended up booking the car for 3 days because it was much cheaper than booking for 2 days. We picked the car up at a hotel in Granada and had no problems dropping the car off one day early at the Sevilla airport. I don't remember a 1-way drop fee with them and we chose to pay at the time of rental instead of pre-paying. The car agency did charge for a tank of diesel at the time of the rental, but refunded it once they verified we returned the car full.
Posted by
Algonquin, IL, USA
68 posts
On our trip we used Avis. We picked up the car from the airport in Granada on our way out of town. Drove to Nerja, spent a few days, then drove to Ronda. Easy, pretty drive. Spent 1 night there then drove to Sevilla. Dropped the car at Santa Justa railway station. Prices were not terribly high. I think we were more surprised at the high cost of train tickets on AVE from Sevilla to Madrid with a same day stop in Cordoba. But we had a fantastic trip and wouldn't trade it for nothing.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
We went the other direction: coming across the border from Portugal, we picked up a car (in Huelva, an otherwise uninteresting town but it did have a rental car agency, the closest one to Portugal). Drove to Arcos de la Fronterra (spent the night), then went to Ronda (spent another night), then on to Granada where we dropped off the car. It's a wonderful area.
My advice would be to try to carve another day out of your trip to do both Ronda and Arcos if at all possible. If you can only do one, I'd strongly recommend Arcos (much better than Ronda, which is still quite good and worth seeing IMHO).
You should not get dinged for picking up a rental car in one city and dropping it off in another. In another country, yes, but not another city. I'd try a different agency.
You'll have a great time there.