My Spain trip is just about nailed down but I have a question about renting a car. I will be in Granada staying at the Alhambra Palace Hotel and I want to pick up a rental car in Granada to drive to Ronda (staying at the Parador in Ronda) and see the sites near there for a few days. We are then headed for Seville where we won't need the car so my questions are: where is the best place to pick up a rental car in Granada (airport, downtown ????) and where should I drop it off to catch a train to Seville? I am pretty sure I do not want to drive in to Seville even to just drop the car off. Any suggestions?

There are several Car Rental Agencies at Sevilla's Estación Santa Justa: Avis, for example. Of course you can also drop it off at Sevilla's airport.

My rule of thumb is, where you're not sure on locations of rental car agencies, its always easier to pick up (and certainly drop off) rental cars at airports. Especially with big cities like Seville. Airports are always well signposted, before you hit too much confusing traffic, and there is always good transport from the airport to your hotel in the city.

if you can get yourself from granada to ronda, you certainly can get yourself to the largest train station in andalucia.

don't fret. sevilla is an easy city to drop off at...and the ride out to the airport would be unnecessary in my opinion.

worse comes to worse, you hire a taxi to lead you the last bit.( very common smart way not to do extra unnecessary miles nor worry about getting lost) which might cost 3 euros.

I agree with lincasanova, it is very easy to find the railway station in Seville ( Sata Justa),roads are well marked, and a taxi to your hotel will cost not much ,some 8 euros I guess, or even less.
All car drop out locations are in a large area I believe to the side of the station.
What I do when I do not know the area is to look into mappy.com, and then if I find it necessary I call the
car rental agency and ask for more information.
(Phones are in the web sites)They always give gladly all the information I might
need. Like for instance in smaller cities, like Jaen, the opening time of the agency is important. Always be sure you are going to pick up or drop a car at the right time.

SANTA JUSTA is the name of the railway station.

Forget about picking/leaving in airports,as both Granada and Seville airports are outside the cities, whilst the RRWW stations are very central. Besides, everything is very well indicated.

A short walk from the Alhambra Palace you can visit the Fundacion Rodriguez Acosta, with a beautiful collection of paintings by Granada artists of late 19 and early 20 centuries.

I suppose the majority of you are right. If I could find the car drop off locations by the train stations in Florence and Naples Italy, I can probably find my way out of Granada and in to Seville. Thank you for your replies. I will definitely use mappy.com to find the locations. Also, thanks to josele for the museum tip.

i think so many people get panicked about driving into some big cities.. but they sometimes put themselves into HORRIFIC highway traffic, going MILES out of their way, plus adding usually a huge taxi fare to boot.( madrid's M30/M40 are my least favorite roads in spain. i would much rather drive into madrid than go around switching lanes on that highway if i didn´t need to).

if your route takes you past the airport anyway it is very logical, but this is not often the case.

i just think it is easier to pay a CITY taxi the last bit once into the city if you really do get lost.
spaniards do it all the time.

but with the wonderful internet mapping programs.. it is really a bit difficult to get lost anymore..at least not to an extreme.( i will exclude the hills of piemonte, italy on this comment)

happy travelling.

We are back from our fantastic trip to Spain so I thought I would just give a quick update of how the car rental worked out. We picked up the car from Avis at the Granada train station (took a taxi there fom the hotel)and had absolutely no trouble getting out of Granada. We drove around for a few days and had decided to drop it off at the train station in Sevilla. I was worried about this but it could not have been easier. We followed the signs around the SE 30 (a sort of perimeter highway) to the train station exit on Ave de Kansas City. We then drove right to the Avis place with no problems at all. Thanks again for all the advice. My advice would be to pick up and drop off at the train stations in these 2 cities - it was very easy.

Hi Joah it is great to know that it turn out fine.
I wish to add that usually cars picked up at airports have an extra fee.