Andalucia itinerary help please
 

Hello!

Planning our first ever trip to Spain and will focus on Andalucia specifically :) We will have 12 nights/13 full days. (this doesn't include the days we fly in/fly out, since those days barely count). Here is a potential itinerary:

Fly into MALAGA (1st night here) - we don't have much interest in spending time here, it's the closest easy airport to Granada.

Next day (first full day): train to Granada

GRANADA (3 nights)
-one day dedicated to the Alahambra
- two days to fit in: Flamenco show, Arab baths, Arab Quarter, Sacramonte area, enjoy tapas other major highlights.
*would like a mix of relaxing wandering and seeing the big sights.


train to RONDA

RONDA (3 nights) / RENT A CAR.
-Daytrips: Sentinel de las Bodegas, white villages (likely Zahara, Grazelema... maybe Olvera, Ubrique, etc),
Cueva de la Pileta
possibly Mijas Pueblos, or a beach day (any towns recommended?)
- evening: live guitar music, perhaps a wine tasting or tour? (any recommendations?)

CORDOBA (2 or 3 nights?? It will be during the Patios festival)
- Medina Azahara tour
-Mosque/Cathedral
-Palacio de Viana
-walk around the Patios Festival
-Jewish Quarter
- Moorish team room


train to SEVILLE

SEVILLE (2 nights)
- Royal Alcazar
- Seville Cathedral (Saint Mary)
- walk around Triana
-possibly a tapas tour
-Palacio de las Duenas
Evening: Take in another Flamenco show (Casa de la Memoria perhaps? Open to suggestions)
Hammam baths to relax (any recommendations?)


FLY HOME from Seville.

How would you shift this itinerary around?
- I know that this itinerary does not include a lot of time in Seville, but I think that I am ok with that.
-The only thing I don't like about this itinerary, is that we love the ocean and I'd like to mix up the type of places we stay, but one only has so much time :^) I considered scrapping Seville almost entirely, cutting Ronda shorter, and doing something coastal like Cadiz, Nerja, or Estoponia instead, but Cadiz looked like a lot more driving.
-Are there are areas you'd recommend for this trip? Anything obvious that I'm missing?
-Airports: we haven't picked our flights yet, but will ASAP. Can choose different airports at this time.


WHAT WE ENJOY: photography, beautiful landscape, architecture, live music and good food! We like to go at a semi-leisurely pace and take in one or two big attractions in a day, but we do NOT like running from place to place, being on our feet too much, and standing in long lines! Trying to have a good mix of relaxing and active. No interest in being 100% in tourist saturated areas.

Transportation: any tips on trains/bus from one location to another much appreciated.

I think it looks great--you'll get grief about cutting Sevilla short, but you get to choose what you want to see the most, lol. I actually enjoyed Ronda and Cordoba more.
Malaga is a perfect place to shake off jetlag for a night.
Don't worry about missing the sea (I'm a coast lover too)--it's not the main draw here, the cultural heritage is, and for a nature-lover, your plans around Ronda will more than make up for it.
Where are you dropping the car? Aside from around Ronda, you won't need it. You could leave it there or drop in Cordoba.
Be sure to get on booking accommodations soon if you have not, especially for Cordoba.

I'd review Malaga as a possible place to enjoy, this is not Marbella or Torremolinos. Castle, art gallery, cathedral and cute shopping area.

Tapas is all over this area

seat61.com gives a you view on how it all works

rome2rio is a good place to get an idea, but don't trust the front page, click through and find the details

A car in Seville, Cordoba and Grenada is not a good idea. Out in the White villages, fine.

Welcome to Fodors

Thank you so much for the tip on the seat61 website... I'd never heard of that one! Should be a good hep.

Thank you for reinforcing its ok to miss the sea. We actually live near the ocean so are probably ok to skip it (although its cold and not very swimmable here :P ) The photos look so inviting there though!

Malaga is on the Mediterranean so you will have a chance to at least see the water and walk along the beach if you want. We love Malaga! Bilboburger is very accurate in his description.

This is your trip so you should do what interests you. If it were my trip, which it isn't, I would skip Ronda. We didn't visit Ronda on our trip. It was more important to me to spend time in Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. We also visited Madrid and Toledo on this trip, and we had time for one more destination. I went back and forth between Ronda and Malaga, and we chose Malaga because we wanted some coastal ambience, and it turned out to be an excellent decision for us. Malaga is wonderful!

One possibility is to take one night from Ronda or one night from Cordoba (if you are considering 3 nights in Cordoba) and add it to Seville so you have at least 3 nights in Seville.

With the exception of Ronda, you definitely don't need a car for this trip. A car will be a big hindrance and very stressful. You can take trains or the ALSA buses to all your other destinations.

Visiting Cordoba during the patios festival - lucky you! 3 nights is fully justified. We wound up going twice to the mezquita, at different times of day One of those paces that photos cannot capture.

My favorite general food tip is to seek out horchata - it is sold at many heladeria. We had an almond horchata that was astounding, though at a place which isn't there any more, at least not on Google Maps.

Two restaurants:
Bodegas Campos, there is a taberna here as well as a more elegant restaurant. We ate in the taberna, twice.
Casa Mazal - Sephardic cuisine, so a bit different than what you'll find elsewhere in Andalucia. Linked to the Casa Sefarad house-museum, which is an essential stop as well as the Casa Andalusi.

Thank you for the feedback. I have yet to look up options on how to get back and forth from town to Mezquita. What did you find worked best for you?

The Mezquita is in town, so maybe you are thinking of the Medina Azahara? The tourist office runs shuttles, at least when I was there.

I am forever getting those two confused! Thanks for letting me know there is a shuttle. Can those tickets be purchased same day, or is it better to get them ahead?

The Mezquita (Mosque) is the famous one.

Here is the website for the bus to Medina Azahara:

https://www.turismodecordoba.org/dai...zahara-cordoba

Cordoba tourist office has a ton of good info.

Mrs.Flax, following this thread with great interest, as we are planning a similar trip in the Fall. I think we'll probably plan for 16 or 17 nights in Southern Spain, and we too are still trying to decide on best airport options. We may end up flying into Jerez, and flying home from Seville.

Originally we planned to rent a car for the whole trip, which is our usual MO in Europe, but are now hoping to put together an itinerary where we'll use mostly train service and rent a car for the days when we transition from Granada and want to do a bit of hiking.

Happy planning! We have very similar travel styles and interests.

I think Seville is the best of these. I don't understand why you don't like Malaga. But it's your choice. I find it a very loose itinerary, you will have time to rest everywhere. I don't know what you can do in Ronda for 3 days but relax :D If you want a beach, Cadiz is a really good idea and is accessible from Seville (only the highway is really bad... seriously)