My friends and I are visiting Seville this coming July, and are hoping to make a day trip out to see Granada, and another day trip down to Gibraltar. I'm looking for any advice on the best way to do this.
I have found a few bus websites, but I'm not sure if some are better than others. Also, would you recommend buying tickets ahead of time or once we get to Seville?
For Granada, the best way is to simply hop on the bus. It's as fast as the train and a lot cheaper. But I'm not sure if you'll be happy with just a day trip to Granada, since the journey between the two cities takes about 3 hours (165 miles). Check out http://www.movelia.es for schedules...but it appears the maximum time you'd have in Granada would be 9 hours. You'd leave from the Prado de San Sebastien bus station in south-east Sevilla, a grubby little place. In July, the buses will be busy, and seating is assigned, so maybe buy in advance over the internet to make sure you're on the buses you want. For Gib, it's even worse. Buses from Sevilla take about 4 hours to get to La Linea, bordering Gib, and the first one doesn't leave Sevilla until 9 am, altho there may be a slightly earlier one in the summer. An option is to spend o/nite in Granada (recommended) and in La Linea (not recommended). Or you could rent a car and leave really early (continued)
A car would allow you to maximize your day, and cut your travel time to Gib to about 2 1/2 hours. If you do take a car, simply follow the signs entering Granada to the Alhambra...parking's expensive but convenient. For La Linea, there's a great big underground garage about 200 meters from the Gib border...park there and walk across, then folo Rick's instructions for the cheap bus tour of Gib. See maps.google.com and copy and paste these geographic coordinates to find the garage. 36.158256, -5.348711 . Switch to satellite view to get an aerial shot of it. For car rentals, try carjet.co.uk....cheap prices that include CDW.
Thanks for the advice, I will look in to a car but we're all under 26 so I'm not sure how difficult that will be. Both Granada and Gibraltar are stops that I insisted on, so I'm not sure how much time I can get my friends to spend there. I'm hoping for more than just day trips, although I might have to settle for that :)
