Andalusia Oct 2024 Itinerary
 

Hello everyone,

We finally booked our tickets to Andalusia. We are a family of two adults and two children (12 & 6 Year).

We'll be staying there for 11 nights / 12 days, we'll be landing in Malaga in the morning and we are planning to spend the days as following:

• Landing in Malaga, getting train to Granada and spending 3 nights there.
• Getting train to Cordoba and spending 2 nights.
• Then train to Seville and staying there for 2 nights.
• Renting a car in Seville and visiting Cadiz (1 night), then Ronda and Malaga for 3 nights, return the car and fly back home.

Would love to hear your thoughts if we have to modify our nights or any other suggestions?

Is it better to rent a car for 12 days instead of using the train, specially with the kids?

Thanks

It's better to take the train. Driving and parking in these cities will be very stressful with many pedestrianized areas and very narrow lanes.
IMO, 2 nights is not enough for Seville. Seville is a larger city (larger than Cordoba and Granada), and it has many, many very important historical and cultural sites. It's a gorgeous city with beautiful architecture, plazas, fountains and parks, so it's wonderful for aimless wandering and exploring. Take a carriage ride. See a flamenco show.

I am happy to see that you are spending 2 nights in Cordoba. I think you will appreciate the city much more than if you were visiting as a daytrip.

I like Malaga a lot. I think it's an underrated city. We spent 2 nights there and I wish we had a 3rd night. However, you need to take at least one night from somewhere to add it to Seville so you can have at least 3 nights in Seville. So you could take a night from Malaga or Granada. We spent 2 nights in Granada. While an extra night would have been nice, I don't think it's crucial.

Thanks for the feedback, in this case I think I'll take one night from Granada and add it to Seville making it 3 nights.
Do you think it's a good idea renting a car from Seville to visit Cadiz, Ronda and going to Malaga?

I honestly don't know. Possibly. I hope Maribel sees this and responds. She is our Spain expert. We didn't visit Cadiz or Ronda. Our itinerary was Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, and Seville. We took trains and the ALSA buses for the entire trip. I think it's easier to visit Ronda with a car. There might be bus transportation but it might be sporadic. And you should check to see if there is a bus and/or train, and how many stops does it make along the way. So how long will it take you to get from Seville to Cadiz, then Cadiz to Ronda, and then Ronda to Malaga.

Think about taking the train for most of the trip.
Spend as much time in Sevilla as possible, then take train to Jerez and stay there, rather than Ronda.
Then train to Cadiz and after that, rent car.....tour one or two white towns in Cadiz province before heading to Malaga to drop car and go home.
Granted this is just off the top of my head, so to speak.
Cars in cities are a pain, but you ought to see some countryside which is much better with a car.....
Jerez is a wonderful and underrated small city, with an airport.

Ronda, Cadiz, and Malaga is easy driving from Seville (once you get out of Seville). Have done it several times. Allows you a lot of freedom for stops along the way. Once you get south of Cadiz heading to Malaga, public transportation is challenging.

• Landing in Malaga, getting train to Granada and spending 3 nights there.
• Getting train to Cordoba and spending 2 nights.
• Then train to Seville and staying there for 2 nights.
• Renting a car in Seville and visiting Cadiz (1 night), then Ronda and Malaga for 3 nights, return the car and fly back home.

Check the train schedules from Málaga`s María Zambrano train station to Granada to see first how the train departure times fit with your flight arrival. You may have better departure times if you choose to go by Alsa bus (safe, comfortable, clean, inexpensive, reliable).
www.alsa.es

Definitely take the train from Granada to Córdoba.

Ditto to the train from Córdoba to Sevilla.

About the renting a car, 2 nights is really very little time for Sevilla which for many Fodorites is their favorite Andalusian city, which fits the postcard image of Andalucía. There is simply so much to do and see, and it has charm galore. And the weather should be far nicer in October, although it could still be quite warm.
I think you will need a bare minimum of 3 nights in Sevilla.
I personally would skip Cádiz, as it simply doesn't fit as well in a Sevilla to Málaga drive, as does Ronda, which is "on the way" directly southeast from Sevilla to Málaga.

While Sevilla to Jerez is easy by MD train, and a car would be a MAJOR handicap in Jerez (I know from experience), and continuing from Jerez to Málaga for your flight home by public transportation is more time consuming because it requires one or sometimes two changes by train or a bus change. Not fun.

Thanks all for your comments, it was really helpful.
I'll take your suggestions and add two more nights to Seville, one from Granada and one from Cadiz (after skipping it).
I'll also try to use public transport as much as I can.

Do rent a car for the last part of your trip (Sevilla - (Cádiz) - Ronda - Málaga).
Cádiz is very different from the other cities you will be visiting and well worth a day.

I'm winter resident of Sevilla, had lived in Malaga & Cordoba. Alsa bus & train links Sevilla/Malaga/Cordoba/Granada, Damas bus runs Malaga-Ronda / Sevilla-Ronda (bus is better than train for visiting Ronda because bus station is right outside old town), TG Comes bus&train run Sevilla-Cadiz. Since all the towns you want to visit are easily accessible by train&bus, renting a car is not necessary. Parking is a problem, BTW.

I like the idea of a car from Sevilla to Malaga. We went from Sevilla to Marbella, where we spent a couple of nights before dropping our car in Granada. Visiting the pueblos blanco by car is the way to go, and you can see a couple between Seville and Ronda. We were just in Ronda for the day and found a space in the central garage, but if you are staying overnight, hopefully your hotel will have a plan for that.