Oh, and if anyone has suggestions for options for car rentals. Is there a place in Granada we can rent on our way out of town and then drop the car off on our way in to Seville? I'd really love to avoid having a car in either city.

You won't need a car until you leave Granada, and it is a liability in the city. There is good bus access to Alhambra.

Given you extremely tight timeline and desire to see the big four hotspots of Andalucia, I will suggest something;

Drive from Granada to Cordoba, and then on to Ronda. skipping the coast. The total drive time is a little more than 5 hours, so if you leave Granada early, you could be in Cordoba by 11:00 and leave by in mid afternoon to arrive in Ronda by 5;30 or so. All in daylight.

Absolutely drop the rental car in Seville - same scenario as Granada.

Thanks Aramis!

I'm not 100% certain I can convince my travel companions to skip the coast. But we will be in Barcelona earlier, so it's not like they won't get to see the Mediterranean.

Is there any good way to avoid having a car at all? Can one easily get from Cordoba to Ronda by bus or train? I'd love to avoid a car for the whole vacation.

We did a similar trip a few years ago although we had 8 days which made it a bit more manageable. We flew into Malaga and took a coastal drive east to Nerja where we spent the night in a lovely inn on a hill overlooking the sea. Then turned north to Granada. We spent 2 nights in Granada, drove to Ronda for one night and then to Sevilla for 3 days and then to Gaucin where we spent two nights overlooking the sea (we could see Africa). Thrn back to Malaga to fly out.

If you fly in to Malaga, go directly to Granada via the coast for 2 nights, to Ronda for one night and to Seville for 2 or 3 nights then return to Malaga for your flight, you will see the Med. and have time for everything else. You could do a day trip to Cordoba from Seville. We planned that but found too much to do in Sevelle and never got to Cordoba.

Granada to Cordoba is about 2;15 by train, so that is doable. Ronda is not easily accessed via rail, however. I don't know much about bus access, but taking the train to Cordoba, for a stop, then switching to a bus to get to Ronda would be a worse prospect than renting in Granada and driving. The drive through the area, especially around Ronda, is spectacular in spots. This, for me, makes the case for a car even if it is only for 2-3 days of your trip.

> we had Cordoba on our list, but I'm thinking we will need to cut it out given our limited time.

Personally, I would find a way to include Cordoba if at all possible. The Mezquita is truly wonderful. Unfortunately, your trip is tight under any circumstances, so you have some difficult choices to make. For what it's worth, I enjoyed my time (a bit less than a day) in Ronda, but would definitely skip it in order to include Cordoba, particularly because it will take a chunk of time to get to and from Ronda.

Hope that helps!

I'd skip Ronda for Cordoba. In Spain , travelers have all raised about Cordoba and the Mosque. Disappointed I'll have to miss it do the the strike.

Driving from Granada to Ronda via the coast is quite a long detour that'll take you most of the day driving.
If you really insist on it you can drive down to Motril from Granada, and then head west, or you can drve the A-92 to the detour to Montefrio/Alhama, and visit Alhama, a quaint and nice town; then continue to Viñuela and Velez Malaga and take the coastal highway direction west, avoid Malaga and continue direction Cartama, Pizarra, Ardales, Ronda. Check a map.

My advice is to not rent a car, don't spend time making the coastal drive to Ronda, you'll get to see the Med in Barcelona. Seville deserves three nights, I would skip a night in Ronda and add to Seville or Cordoba. You could also rent a car on the way out of Granada, spend a night in Malaga, drive through Ronda on your way to Seville, drop off car immediately. Cordoba is a great daytrip from Seville and the Mezquita is worth seeing if you're into amazing architecture, you'll never forget it.

Thank you all for your advice. I'll pass it along to my travel companions and see what they think. Any more advice is appreciated! Thanks!

A couple of notes;

IMHO Cordoba is about 10 times as interesting as Ronda (which is a cute village - but doesn;t hae the completely different culture you will see in Cordoba

The coast is nothing to look at. Unless you are going to spend a couple of days there, realxing by the pool, visiting the casino etc - the coast is a waste.

Is there some reason you have to go back to Barcelona? Can you do open jaws flights and buy yourself another day in the south (We have been twice - one 12 days and once 12 and still have a ton of things to see/do.)

Agreed Cordoba is a must.Ronda overrated.
http://theartichokeadventures.blogspot.com.es/

I went a week in Andalusia in February without renting a car and had to fly in and out of Madrid.

Wanted to fit in Ronda but was just too inconvenient so I skipped it in favor of Cordoba, which I'd visited before.

There are direct buses and trains between the 3 cities as well as to Madrid. But it would have taken two separate buses from Sevilla to Ronda -- Sevilla to Cadiz first and then to Ronda IIRC.

Buses are fine for transport. But also the AVE is available between Sevilla/Cordoba and Madrid, which is faster than car or bus. Not sure if there's AVE to Barcelona from Andalusia.

Ronda is one of the most spectacularly situated towns anywhere. Getting to it, if driving, is a good part of the attraction. The Sierra de Ronda is beautiful. It might not fit if you don't want to drive any part of the trip, but since it offers something entirely different than Cordoba, a straight up comparison of it's "worthiness" is somewhat presumptuous.

Aramis,you're right Ronda and the Sierra de Ronda are indeed lovely but Ronda's fame is really because it is the nearest picturesque town to the costa and has been the classic day trip for beachgoers for 50 years and so is little touristy!I agree it is diffuclt to compare with Cordoba and I wasnt trying to be presumptious(sorry!) just giving an opinion.If you like Ronda then you probably like Cuenca,Albarracin,Cazorla which in my opinion are just as nice or better and are a bit more off the tourist route.
http://theartichokeadventures.blogspot.com.es/

I went on a trip to Andalucia in February this year and I visited all the places you mention. We rented a car from Granada and drove to Cordoba, Seville, Cadiz, Gibraltar and Ronda. You dont need a car in any of the cities and it also limits you for you need to find a hotel with a parking spot or public parking nearby. Still, I am glad we drove because the route is very scenic. My suggestion, like some of the others above, would be to skip Ronda. I would spend 2 nights in Granada and pick up the car on the way out, drive to Cordoba and stay just one night and then on to Seville for 3 nights (if it is 6 nights you are after). You can give up the car on reaching Seville. If, like me, you prefer only automatic cars, make sure you book in advance as most on offer seem to be manual. They charge about 60 Euros to drop off in another place. You can read about my trip if you want at http://sujaa.wordpress.com/

If we were to skip Ronda, can you recommend a couple of smaller towns that might be worth an overnight stop? We are trying to avoid all cities. I know Cordoba & Grenada are smaller than Seville or Barcelona, but we'd like at least one town to visit. Any ideas.

Thanks for all your input.

nytraveler, yes we had considered open jaw but we do need to go back in Barcelona for one the members of our party to attend a conference. We've already purchased our tickets.

gardengrl, we did that trip September 2010. Truly, we found the whole of southern Spain to be very touristy. We did not make it to Cordoba, but I believe it is a short AVE ride from Sevilla, which seems to make sense if you want to go there. We also had more time than you, but our best memories of Andalucia are La Alhambra, the drive from Grenada to Ronda with a stop in Nerja to see just how spectaculaarly turquoise the Med Sea is along the coast.
We like to alternate our time between cities and country side. We thought that the drive to Ronda is quite beautiful, a little scary driving when it was pouring rain, and the locals drive like maniacs up that highway. (At least I thought so, hubby was okay with it).
We spent 3 nights in Ronda and used it as a base for exploring the countryside, and the Pueblos Blancos. Loved it. Came home every night to our room hanging over the cliff at Hotel Don Miguel.
I had planned that we were going to take the train to Cordoba from Seville, but we never did get there, too much to do in Seville.
Don't even try to go to Ronda without a car. But if you like city, city, city, then enjoy. But driving the country gives one a feel for the geography of the place.

By the way, you will find no problem driving on the highways, they are great. Just avoid driving in the cities, Grenada is difficult to get into and out of. But sounds like you will hve a few navigators with you!

If we were to do Cordoba over Ronda are there any nice towns to stop in during the drive between Grenada & Cordoba or Grenada & Seville?

Driving in the cities is not difficult - you just need t make sur eyour hotel has a garage or parking lot (we didn;t have truoble findng any. With a decent map you can navigate any of the cities - but assume you need to be able to parallel park in a spot only a tiny bit larger than the car (usual for NYCers) and always fold in the side mirrors when you park (also the same as in NYC).

I'm not worried about driving in the cities as much as cars just being a bother. If we fly into Grenada though, does it make sense to get the car at the airport when we arrive, or wait two days and go back to the airport to get the car to head out? Or, has anyone picked up a car somewhere else in the city. The thought was we'd only have the car for a couple of days and get rid of it when we arrive in Seville.

We had picked Ronda because it looked so pretty and one of my travel mates would like at least one night outside of a big city.

Cehegin, I see you mentioned Cazorla. I looked on the map and that seems well within our pathway between Grenada & Cordoba. Would that really be a better stop than Ronda? I can definitely see the advantage of it being more on our pathway. But we are open to other smaller town suggestions.

Thank you all!

Just another opinion for you.
I would not rent the car until leaving Granada. Just land and grab a taxi into the city to your hotel and then to whatever car rental place you choose when you are leaving. Too much time and trouble to pick up the car when you arrive, drive into the city, park the car, etc. Also, if you don't have a car, you don't have to choose a hotel based on the need for parking. You can choose for best location and quality.

The coast is very pretty, but IMHO not any prettier or more spectacular than many other coast lines, and it takes a lot of time. I would do it only if visiting some place on the way that I really wanted to see or if I actually had time to walk on the beach. Everything is relative though. You know what one person will travel great distances to see, another wouldn't walk across the street for.

With your short time, it would be much easier to just base in Seville and make Cordoba a day trip. You can do a late afternoon visit by train - no car needed. Don't remember off hand which post, but there is a recent one asking about doing that. You might look for it.

BTW, while not small town (village), Seville doesn't have a big city feel either. You can pretty much walk anyplace you will want to go.

With only 6 nights for Andalucia I'd probably just spend 2 nights in Granada and 4 in Sevilla. This will give you time for a daytrip to Cordoba from Sevilla. You can bus or train between Granada and Sevilla. I wouldn't try to squeeze in anything else - you just don't have time.

Perhaps experience flamenco at Casa de la Mamoria in the midts of the famous Santa Cruz district in Sevilla. Popular with tourists, but real deal and dead serious artists that at least should give you a glimpse of how wonderful this art can be. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187443-d539294-Reviews-Casa_de_la_Memoria_de_Al_Andalus-Seville_Province_of_Seville_Andalucia.html

Relax at the close by Arab bath house Aire de Sevilla:
http://www.airedesevilla.com/

Thank you all for your replies. I think we are going to take CathyM's advice and do two nights in Granada and four in Seville, with the option of a day trip out to Cordoba or some small towns.

But here's my next question (I'm full of them!).... We arrive on a Monday. Do you think we are better off flying to Granada first for two nights, then taking the train on Wednesday to Seville for four nights, flying to Barcelona on Sunday. Or would it be better to fly to Seville for the four days first, then be in Grenada over the weekend? Is the Alhambra more crowded on a Saturday, or does it not really matter the day of the week given it's tourist season?

Thanks!

The Alhambra is the number one tourist attraction in Spain - even for the Spanish. You have to plan accordingly.

I believe that Granada is quite a popular weekend destination, too. If you presume that longer distance tourists are pretty much day of the week independent for their time in Granada, the weekends would probably be busier from the local Spanish tourists visiting.

If I were doing the planning I would make the ordering based on the most convenient transport options to Barcelona (from which city) and also on whether there were any savings to be had in hotel rates based on the dates in each city.

The relative "business' of the Alhambra should probably not be the deciding factor.

Having just returned last week from all the above, IMHO, do not skip Ronda; if you can, leave Granada after touring the Alhambra. Driving in Granada was a nightmare, there is active construction on the main access from SW roads, and many hotels are located in pedestrian zones which are inaccessible by car anyway. GPS goes crazy trying to find your destination. Perhaps after Ronda you can stay in Arcos before arriving in Seville. You can drop off the rental at train station in Seville. Cordoba was also worthwhile and hopefully you can include this from Sevilla, it is just a short train ride. Taking the trains whenever possible was much more relaxing than driving. We drove the main A-4 and did not take the coastal route Granada-Ronda.

I guess i would start in Granada. You really don't have enough time to stop in small villages, and taking Cathy's advice is usually the right thing to do.

Heading out on Sunday!! Can't wait. As I'm pulling together all my itinerary pieces I realized I never received an email receipt for my Alhambra tickets. I did purchase them online (through the ticketmaster.es site) and printed out the page that appeared on the screen at the end of the transaction. I thought it said an email would arrive. Should I be concerned?

I'm also wondering if I should be buying tickets for any other attraction in advance, in Seville or Barcelona. I hadn't planned on it, since I don't really like to be too locked into a schedule.

Make sure to bring the credit card you used to purchase alhambra tickets. No to the second question unless you want to see a performance at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona.