Andalusia for 13 days
 

Hi,

We are getting very excited about our upcoming trip which includes Andalusia in Spain... and I'm hoping all you seasoned travellers out there can help us out! After a 12 day med cruise which starts in Athens and ends in Istanbul, my husband and I are flying to Madrid on May 5th. We are usually slow travellers who like to wander through smaller towns and villages,but realize that we don't want to miss some of Spain's highlights.Prado in Madrid, the Mezquita in Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada. We will be picking up a rental car in Madrid for the duration of our stay.

We have 5 nights to book before we check into our condo. Tentatively our plan is:

1 night Madrid - Prado
1 night Cordoba - Mezquita
1 night Granada - Alhambra
1 night ??
1 night ??

My question is whether we should be staying in any of these cities more than 1 night. My research indicates that it is not very far to drive from one city to the next. Also are we missing some special towns/villages along the way? Should we also consider adding 1 night in Seville after Granada before we head to our condo?

We have a condo booked May 10 to 17th(Club Bena Vista)which is situated between Estepona and Marbella and we plan on taking day trips from our condo when we are there... Marbella, Malaga, Ronda, Jerez, Gibraltar, Cadiz,.. could do a day trip from there to Seville??? .. would also appreciate any other suggestions for day trips from our condo.

Gracias!

Personally I do not think you have enough time for all that, Think of a day trip tp Segovia perhaps? Granada is too far for your timetable.
Stay in Madrid another day, and yes Sevilla is easy to get to worth at least two more days.

Please take a look at a map of Spain. You will see that Cordoba, Granada, and Sevilla are closer to Marbella than Madrid.

From Madrid there are a number of easy and worthwhile day trips such as Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial, and not as short but very interesting Cuenca. There are other sites to see in Madrid as well.

Thanks for the input... but to clarify. We fly into Madrid on May 5th and then have 5 free nights before we check into our condo on May 19th, which is located between Estepona and Marbella on the Costa del Sol.

As we will be driving from Madrid to our condo, I thought we could make overnight stops at Cordoba, Granada etc... en route.

oops.. checking into our condo on May 10th!!

2 nights in Madrid to get grounded after the flight. There are 3 great museums & the palace etc to fill your day. Very early departure for 5-6 hour drive to Granada. Book ahead & see Alhambra in the late afternoon. 1 night in/near Alhambra in Granada. 3 hr drive to Sevilla. 2 nights in Sevilla. imho

Ian

Oh & btw . . .

My suggested itinerary is just hitting the peaks of the highlights. You'd need double the time to really do them justice.

Ian