Hello Fodorites,
I was wondering if anyone has taken the ALSA bus from Granada to Seville (or the reverse), and if so, what the experience was like - timeliness, cleanliness, smoothness of ride, etc..
My husband and I (early 60s), daughter and boyfriend (both late 20s) will be traveling to Spain and Portugal over a 3 week period from mid-Sept. to early Oct. It will be our first time in these two countries, although we have traveled elsewhere in Europe. Our itinerary will be Barcelona-Madrid-Granada-Seville-Lisbon.. We plan to take the high speed AVE trains from Barcelona to Madrid, and from Madrid to Granada. Originally, I was thinking we would take a train from Granada to Seville, but based on my research on rome2rio and seat61, it appears that direct trains run only 3 times a day (6:38 AM, 13:18, 17:20) , while there are about 8 bus options daily on ALSA. The bus takes 3 hours while the train is 2.5 hours, so the time difference is negligible, and the bus is generally about half the cost (about $25/person for bus). Since we will have a compressed schedule of just 2 nights each in Granada and Seville, I am thinking that the bus will allow for more flexibiity. I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has taken the bus for some insight. Thank you in advance!

In 2017 we took the ALSA bus from Cordoba to Granada, and from Granada to Malaga. The buses are clean, modern, very comfortable and air-conditioned. We wouldn't hesitate to take the bus again.

Yes, we’ve taken those buses in Spain a couple times and they are very nice. Just make sure you get seats that can recline. I think we got two front seats by the bus driver that weren’t as comfortable.

Yes, agreed. We took that bus a few years ago. It was perfectly fine and comfortable. It reminded me, though, that I far prefer trains, but it had objectively nothing to do with that bus!

Wow, thank you all for your prompt responses! I really do appreciate all the help people give each other on this forum. Based on your feedback, will proceed with the bus. (it appears that in Spain, both trains and buses cannot be reserved more than 2 months in advance).
Gracias again!

I personally would not worry about reserving a bus. I never have had too. Purchase tickets at the desk in the station.
Marks are required on all public transport in Spain at the moment.

Hello, we will be in Spain Sept 14 - 29, and I am also finding that most train /bus reservations can't be made more than 2 months in advance. However, I have a plane reservation on hold for Madrid to Granada, because that connection IS already on Trainline for Sept 17, and says you have to take the Alsa bus for the last hour and 45 minutes. (In the 2022 Fodor Spain book, it says the AVE train for that route is 3 hours and 20 minutes, and on Rome to Rio, its says the train is 4 hours and 20 minutes, but the only option on Trainline is this AVE train/bus combo, that is over 5 hours.) Anyway, I am also glad to see that the bus reviews here are good, as I was concerned about that experience! I plan to wait a bit to see if other options open up.

Thank you for the response. So would it be safe to buy the bus tickets for Sevilla 2 days in advance (as soon as we arrive by train in Granada?) Can we buy the ALSA bus tickets at or very close to the Granada train station? Thanks again.

I’m now remembering we did take the bus from Granada to Sevilla and I’m pretty sure we got our tickets through thetrainline.com (used to be called Capitane I think). There was no train running between those two cities when we went in 2019. The bus was very nice although as I mentioned we seemed to get the only 2 seats that didn’t recline and my husband is 6’4” so it was a tight fit. Also took the bus from San Sebastián to Madrid 4 or 5 years ago and it was great. Clean, air conditioned and Wi-Fi!

We ordered our bus tickets in advance online in 2017 because I like to have everything done in advance. But I do remember a lot of people telling me we didn't need to book in advance. But I still did. I ordered our tickets directly from ALSA bus online. I think we could select our seats.

For that same trip, we ordered our train tickets from Loco2 but I think they have since merged with another company.

Thank you macdogmom and karenwoo! I just checked and it looks like the ALSA website does sell tickets this far in advance - as low as 8 Euros for "minimum" (non-refundable/no changes) ! Even the "fliexble" fares are only 19 Euros. The trainline site is showing higher fares around 28 E probably as it is a travel agency. Will be booking tickets on the ALSA site shortly.

Reading with interest as I am also researching transportation options from Barcelona to Seville to Granada to Madrid.

I used them to book cgv trains and it used to be same price as European sites. Seat61.com is also a great resource. We haven’t been back to Europe since 2019 and we used to go twice a year-my husband had conferences in Paris and London and then we piggybacked travel onto them. I also used to plan ahead for fast train travel but going shorter distances you can probably buy at the station. We went in May and October so going in summer may be different.