I'm planning a 10-day trip to Andalucia in April. Since it's such a short time, I want to keep it simple and spend half the time in Seville and half in a hill town (I was thinking of Arcos de la Frontera), doing day trips from both.

The places I want to see as day trips are: Cordoba, Cadiz, Ronda, and maybe a beach somewhere on the Costa de la Luz (the Costa del Sol sounds a bit too built-up for my taste).

Is it doable to do all of these as day trips from either Seville or Arcos by bus/train? (I do not want to rent a car.) Also, any suggestions for quiet, easy to get to beaches on the Atlantic coast would be great!

anyone???

I'm assuming that you just want to relax rather than to see sights, sights and more sights. Three days in Seville is about it. The hilltowns, except for Ronda, are worth no more than a quick stop. And most not even this. Ronda might be full day.

Incidentally, I agree with you on Costa del Sol. I've never understood why anyone would want to fly all the way to Europe just to be at place that is indistinguishable from Ft. Lauderdale, except that it has even worse sprawl and development. Must be the British food.

Mark - platzer is new to this board and for some reason down on Andalucia, so I'd take what he/she says with a grain of salt (he/she has 3 posts, total). Maribel and other Spain experts have provided a wealth of information about the wonderful towns of Andalucia. I am staying overnight in Ronda for 2 nights and touring the pueblos blancos from there. The scenery and towns are supposed to be wonderful. However, I am renting a car for a few days to do this.

I do think, from what I've read, that 5 days in a hilltown would be too long - they are small. Cordoba is an easy train ride from Sevilla.

I believe buses go between towns, but I don't know the schedules since I'll have a car there. Sorry.

Search on the board for other Spain threads or for Maribel by name.

Karen

Check out www.renfe.es/ingles Here are approximate times by train...
Cordoba: 40 Minutes; Granada: 3 hrs, 20 Min; Jerez a little over an hour; Cadiz: 1 hr 50 Min; Malaga 2 Hrs 20 Min

Hey kaudrey, you have a lot of nerve. At least I've been there. Sounds like you haven't.

With the amount of time you have and the restriction of not having a car, you have to concentrate in easy reachable towns, while from seville your transport options are good, I think Arcos without a car needs a lot of effort to move around and you may find that to go to a nearby village you have to commute in Cadiz or Seville.
A quiet and beatiful beach in the area is the one in "Zahara de los atunes"
but I don't really know how to go there without a car. Another option could be "chiclana", a big village, by the sea with a nice beach and a couple of good seafood restaurants fronting the ocean.

Thanks for the responses. My plan is to just base myself in a hilltown, and take day trips from there, and Arcos seemed like one of the better connected ones along the bus routes (in addition to Ronda). From Seville, it seems like it will be easy enough to get to Cordoba.