Pegontheroad

I want to go to Alcoy, Spain, for the Moros y Cristianos festival from April 22 till April 24. After that, I want to go to Nerja to a Spanish language school, but I'm not sure of the most convenient way to go from Alcoy to Nerja. A bus trip would take 12 hours, more or less. I could take a plane from nearby Alicante to Málaga, but the plane goes by way of Madrid. I doubt that I can rent a car, as the last time I was in Spain, the agency I checked with wouldn't rent to me on account of my age (82 at the time) and my white hair.

I was thinking that uber or a driver might be the best way to go. Any suggestions?

janisj

Just off the top of my head -- what about flying from Alicante to Seville? RyanAir does that route nonstop. Then you'd have a much more reasonable car service than all the way from either Alcoy or Madrid.

Odin

Flight from Valencia to Malaga perhaps?

Maribel

From Alicante you can take a train to Málaga, but it takes 6 hours, 18 min. because you need to change trains at Madrid's Atocha station.
There's a train from Alicante at 3:45 pm, arriving at Málaga Maráa Zambrano at 10:03 pm
Then take the easy bus to Nerja after spending a night or two in vibrant, beautiful Málaga, a highly underrated and lovely city, filled with museums.

From Valencia to Málaga there is a direct train, the AV City, without the train change in Madrid, but it only runs on Fridays, Sundays and Mondays, departing Valencia at 5:15 and arriving Málaga at 9.57 pm.
(We took it in reverse last spring.)

jpie

I am with Janis-Ryanair to Seville would be my choice-they have a direct flight Alicante to Seville at 8:40AM but only on the 23rd or 25th if that would work for you.

From there here is car service that might be worth looking into:

https://mydaytrip.com/landing/sevill...SAAEgIEoPD_BwE

cdnyul

https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/moto...t-for-car-hire

Maribel

Private car services can be very expensive, Peg, especially for just 1 passenger, in my experience from having arranged them.

There's a daily Alsa bus departure from Sevilla to Nerja at 6 pm, but the ride takes 4 hours, 15 minutes, if you want to spend a night or two in Sevilla after a Ryan air flight. The cost: 24 euros.

Maribel

Another option,
a very early non-stop Iberia flight from Valencia to Málaga on April 25, departing at 7 am and arriving at 8:40 am. $50 USD if booked now.

Then Alsa bus from the Málaga airport at 9:45 am to Nerja. Cost: 4.65 euros

cdnyul

Perhaps consider taking classes in Salamanca.

Pegontheroad

cdnyul: Oh, oh, too late. I've already paid for Nerja.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

jpie

BTW we spent a month in Nerja and took Spanish classes for 2 weeks of that-it was a really fun experience! Your trip sounds really fun.

Also, one other thing you may want to check out is blablacar.es. It is a ride sharing site for people to pick up rides from town to town. My nieces and nephews use it all the time in France. It is safe and the rates are just meant to help the driver cover the cost of gas and have a positive ecological effect by not driving alone. I hesitated to mention it for 2 reasons, one because really all the logistics and communication of organizing and meeting the driver is pretty dependent on having a local cell phone so they can contact you. And also, there generally aren't rides offered until kind of the last minute-which you may not be comfortable doing. You can also request a ride for a certain time and place but it is always kind of a toss up whether you will be able to actually make it work. But since you are facing kind of a touch travel scenario for transport I thought I might mention it.

Christina

I'd fly to Malaga from either Valencia or Alicante and then take the bus from there. The bus from Malaga to Nerja isn't that long a trip. So I guess I'd go for that 7 am nonstop flight. There is an 8:30 nonstop flight from Valencia to Granada on Sunday, though. The bus from Granada to Nerja is longer than from Malaga, but not that much that I'd decide on that point, since 1.5 hrs from 2.25 isn't much difference.

So I guess I'd do whichever fit my schedule better, the 7 am flight on St or 8:30 on Sunday. If you have some free time before classes start, just go to whichever one you'd rather spend a couple days in, that's what I'd do. The bus from Granada isn't from the airport, so you'd have to get to it, anyway, it's about 10 miles away (the bus station). Of course, a taxi wouldn't be a problem for that distance, but you'd probably have a couple hours downtime in there, due to schedules.