Cordoba to Granada, Spain...driving distance?
 

Planning a Spain intinerary, including flight into Madrid, then driving to Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, and Seville. Not much interest in the coast, so thinking of driving from Cordoba to Granada, then back for flight out of Seville. Back tracking is never my first choice, but is inevitable in this case. Can you help with driving miles? Also, we have 2 weeks total time. How should we divide it? We want to do a daytrip to Avila out of Madrid and don't like one-night stands. Thanks!

http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/

Mileages will be fine, never sure the driving times are wholly accurate (especially, for example, if you hit city traffic in rush hours).

It is not clear - you appear to be skipping Madrid completely, is that so?

You might consider stopping overnight at the Parador de Carmona, at the doorsteps of Seville,it was a 14 th century Moorish Citadel, has an exceptional panaramic view. The little town is very interesting and many civilizations have lived there, i.e. phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, Jews , Christinas.We enjoyed staying there and then moved into Seville leaving our car I recall at the train station, then we took a taxi to our hotel. We were coming from another interesting place called Osuna.
Do not worry about backtracking in this area, there are fascinating places all over. Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba are of course fantastic. Good luck.

Thanks to each of you! We are indeed, staying in Madrid and hoping to do at least one side trip to Avila. We're even interested in a trip to Santiago, if there is a fast train. Since we have 2 full weeks, we're not sure how to divide our time.

Thanks for the idea of visiting Osuna and for staying outside Seville at the Parador de Carmona. Both sound very interesting.

Any thoughts from either of you as to how to divide our time in each spot? Also, if you have moderately priced hotel suggestions, I'd really appreciate your sharing. It's just the hubby and myself, so a double/twin will be fine. Thanks!

Ifyou want to visit Madrid w/a daytrip to Avila, Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba I'd split the days approx like this (minimums - could easily add more):

*Madrid - 4 nights; you may also consider adding a night and viisiting Segovia
*Toledo - 2 nights; it could also be done as a daytrip from Madrid however since you have time it is a worthwhile overnight. You could just spend 1 night but I personally dislike 1-nighters
*Cordoba - same comments as Toledo (except daytrip from Sevilla vs Madrid)
*Sevilla - 4 nights. Sevilla is a great place for a base with several daytrip options (Cadiz, sherry triangle villages, Arcos, Ronda, Carmona, Ecija, Osuna)
*Granada - 2 nights

This gives you an extra 2 nights. You could add time to the current cities or add Malaga, exploring the white villages between Sevilla and Granada or many other choices. Do you need to return to Madrid for your return flight?

You really don't even need a car for the places you've expressed interest in visiting. I'd consider only renting for portions of your trip when you may want it for exploring. Otherwise a car can be a huge burden in the larger cities.

I'd save Santiago for another trip- it's about as far away as you can get from Andalucia and there's so much more to see in the north.

Thanks, CathyM...I really appreciate your breaking down the time for each spot. Madrid will be base #1, and we'll day trip via train to Avila. Thought we would pick a car up somewhere outside of Madrid. Not much fun driving in a major city. Since our departure flight (to Dublin) leaves from Seville, we could drop the car there. I assumed that we would need a car to easily visit the other cities. Are you saying that we won't need a car? Are these spots train friendly?

All destinations in your original post are 'trainable', Toledo and Avila as day trips from Madrid, Cordoba as a day trip from Seville for many. The car will be wasted parked up in Seville, Cordoba and Granada costing extra for parking.
http://www.renfe.com/ and readthis concise guide on use and large discounts probably available -
http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.h..._www.renfe.com

WomBatt...thank you for the information, although I admit to be totally overwhelmed by the thought of booking the trains myself. Do you know of any service that will do it for me, provided of course that I supply the itinerary? Not that age is an excuse, but I'm nearly 65 and can be easily intimidated by computer complexities. Thanks!

When we visited virtually the same cities that you're contemplating, but for a shorter period of time, we rented a car for part of the time, and took the train for the other part.

We arrived into the Madrid airport, and picket up a rental car. We made the quick drive to Toledo, where we parked at the underground garage just outside the city walls. We stayed at the Hotel Hostal del Cardenal, built into the city walls, very easy to get to. One night there (we would have spent 2 nights here if we'd had the time).

Then made the longish but easy drive from Toledo to Granada, where we parked at a parking garage right off the highway, then walked (LONG walk) to our hotel way up in the Albacin. The hotel did have parking, but it looked difficult to get to - after seeing the route and the narrow streets, we knew we'd made the correct decision for us. Two nights in Granada. Of all of our destinations on this trip, other than visiting the amazing Alhambra, this was our least-favorite city.

Drove from Granada to Cordoba, where we dropped the rental car off. Two nights here. This is a charming city, the Mequita entranced me almost as much as the Alhambra, and there's a lot more to see. We love history and culture, and I really wanted the time here, as the former capital of Moorish Spain.

Took the train from here to Sevilla. Two nights in Sevilla, another place we could easily have spent more - and we will return. We stayed at the wonderful Hotel Amadeus.

From here, we took the high-speed train to Madrid.

Re train tickets, the only tickets that we bought ahead of time was the high-speed train from Sevilla to Madrid. I attempted several times to use the difficult Spanish rail website, then happily gave up when I realized that for the train and time we wanted, for whatever reason, the price for the tickets purchased through RailEurope was only a couple of Euros more, and MUCH easier to purchase (in my experience, RailEurope prices are usually twice as much as booking through the applicable country's rail website).

Buying the train tickets at the Cordoba rail station was very easy and organized; DH and I were impressed with the efficiency of the staff there.

The main reason that we had the rental car was that to get to and from Granada via public transportation took a longer amount of time, and I'm just fine with driving in Europe (DH is an excellent navigator). That being said, I'm very glad we did not drive IN Toledo or Granada. Getting to the car rental place in Cordoba was a comedy of errors, because our GPS and map were both not new enough, as we discovered, to include a new leg of the highway. We easily corrected that, only to spend the next 20 minutes trying to find the car rental dropoff. We knew it was somewhere near the train station, but the address given on the car rental website was wrong, and we couldn't see any signs anywhere; luckily, the roads go in a big loop around the train station; we made that loop a number of times! Finally, I decided to park in the rail station parking lot, go in and ask someone. To our great relief, that's where you park the rental cars. No signs, however, until you're actually IN the parking structure.

Enjoy - we LOVED Spain (we'd only been to Barcelona, in Spain, previously), and will be returning to revisit Madrid and Sevilla, and also explore the Basque country.

I have no experience of using agencies for purchasing train tickets and have in many years not had any problem purchasing tickets direct from RENFE.
Apart from RailEurope as advised above I am aware of - http://petrabax.com/renfe/ (appears to be a toll free number 800 634 1188) and http://www.rumbo.es/

Thanks to both of you for your continued dialog with me. Please feel free to continue helping us get our itinerary firmed up, as we need to decide on all of this soon.

We plan on flying into Madrid and staying there for 4 nights. We will train a daytrip to Avila and return to Madrid for that night's lodging. Thinking that we will train on to Cordoba for a couple of nights and train again to Seville for 4 nights. We definitely want to do Granada for a couple of nights, but our flight out will be from Seville, so should we purchase round trip train tickets to Granada and forget about renting a car at all? We certainly don't mind driving in between the cities, but don't like the idea of driving in the city and don't like the idea of having to park a car outside the city.

Maybe I've just talked myself into forgetting the car rental and going with trains. My husband is 72 and qualifies for the senior discount on train tickets. I'm almost 65, but almost doesn't count when it comes to buying tickets. What's your opinion?

Hi ashcanannie, I do not know exactly if you can get discounted tickets through Spanish travel agencies, but a few times in Spain needing a train ticket I have bought them in a local travel agency for a tiny fee of only a very few euros . This has saved a lot of time and prices were very reasonable. Also sometimes being most distances short ( I mean , I consider Madrid Seville ( 300 plus miles ) a short distance) a regular train can be taken versus the fast trains, which are much more expensive. I recall a very pleasant train trip between Madrid and Jaen, where we rented a car to keep on with our driving in Andalucia .
I think what is really expensive is using Raileurope here in the US for European tickets being the best to use the railway website.

I wish to add that, I would take a train between Madrid and Cordoba, then a bus between Cordoba and Granada,- and a bus or train between Granada and Seville.
Alsina Graells buses run between Granada and Cordoba 8 times daily. .Bus station in Granada is at Ctra. Jaen, phone 902 4222242, www.alsa.es
taxis in Granada can be called at Tele Radio Taxi 958 280654.
Buses are good in Spain and the distance between Cordoba and Seville is only 162 miles ,

While in Spain check the usually fine walking tours offered by the tourist office of each city.
They are inexpensive and very interesting, may be they are only in Spanish but very enjoyable anyway.
One more thing, keep in mind that probably best way to get around Andalucia, if you are not driving is by bus. Buses are faster and frequent than trains. Alsina is the major regional bus company, tickets can be booked through its parent company Alsa.
902 422242, www,aksa,es
Good luck.

Thank you, Graziella5b, for the valuable info! I've written it all down and will definitely refer to it when finalizing our plans!! Might you have hotel recommendations in any or all of our destinations? We don't want or need anything terribly fancy; moderately priced, clean, and quiet are what we're used to. Obviously, without a car, walking distance and/or public transportation is important. Thanks!

Graziella5b, I forgot to ask...how do we fit a visit/stay in Toledo into our itinerary? Should we day trip it from Sevilla or Madrid via train or bus? Right now I'm planning on 4 nights in Madrid, with a day trip to Avila; then either Toledo from Madrid, or onto Cordoba for 2 nights and Granada for 2 nights, and finally to Sevilla for 4 nights. Would you recommed day tripping to Toledo from Sevilla? Because our flight is out of Sevilla, we'd want to be there on our final night. Hope all of that makes sense! Thanks!!

Ref HOtels last time in Granada stayed at Parador, but I recall long ago a very well located little hotel right on Plaza Nueva , ideal to catch bus up the hill to Alhambra, the name is
Hotel Macia Plaza, Plaza Nueva 4, very simple, inexpensive, amazingly it is ranked 8 among 138
hotels in Trypdvisor. We stayed there when our children were very young. I loved the location, but since times have changed be alert of pickpockets, the little plaza is of course very touristic.
Be aware if you are seated in a cafe of anyone approaching trying to sell something or polish your shoes, they are, I believe, like explorers looking for your valuables. So very politely simply try to leave the place and be sure not so show where is your camera, money etc. http://maciaplazahotel.com/,
in Toledo we stayed in a lovely hostal, which is like a hotel, only less expensive, great location,
big room, everything fine, this hostal is called Hostal Santo TOme, Santo Tome 13,
www.hostalsantotome.com
Note, the elevator is next door in the store. They have a store and a hostal, rooms are big
bathrooms great, fine place. For breakfast ask, there are several cafes across the street.
In seville we stayed the last time in the PetitPalace Marques Santa Ana, Calle Jimios 9.11,
there are many offers for this hotel in the internet, should look, with patience and find the
best, with breakfast is better, because breakfast is very good.But of course if it is not included
you can go to one of the many nearby cafes and have a better deal. It is fine, may be not exactly four stars, but it is very nice and we had a good time.
In cordoba, last time stayed in a hostal we did not like, before we stayed in hotel Eurostars Maimonides, right across from Mesquite, I believe it is a good choice.Not fancy but good.
I Madrid I have stayed in many hotels, do you have one>>?Do you need one?
If you arrive on a week end, the Melia group has great offers in wonderful four stars hotels at a discounted rate, often with breakfast. Check anyway their site www.Melia.com, I do not know if still it is in effect, but if you become a member of Mas their free card for points, you are entitled
to a free breakfast if you buy one., that is 2x1. Great deal...Mas is free.
I am afraid that most hotels require a taxi from bus or train station, however you should check in mappy.com or similar site for distance between hotel and stations.On the other hand the hotels I recommended in general are very good located for sightseeing.
Toledo is very close to Madrid, why not go for the day from Madrid, take bus or train, I always have taken the bus, or take it from there to Cordoba. I am not sure, you should check prices and frequencies. Hope you have a good time. Please be free to ask for anything else I might help. Fodors,, Spain 2012 is a good book.
One last thing the only place I recall that today do not charge entrance fee for Seniors is the Alcazar in Seville, be sure you take your driver license or passport. Amazingly it is free, in all other places you have to be a EU citizen, or may be you are>?

I forgot a like to eat at El Caballo Rojo in Cordoba. Great food. Close to Mezquita.

Wow!Thanks again for all the helpful information! No, I am not a member of the EU...I'm USA. We have traveled several times to Europe but this will be our first trip to Spain. After a couple of weeks there, we are meeting friends in Ireland for 10 days. That's why the flight out of Seville. Ryanair has the best schedule for flying into Dublin.

Thanks again for all your help. Feel free to revisit my questions and add anything else that you think to be helpful.

~Ashcanannie

for 5E you can buy a senior discount card at renfe and have 40% on MOST trains, high speed included even when that online fare is not available to others. So, I think trains is te way to do it. You hotel can help you or the train statin at the airport when you arrive at teh airport Renfe offcie.

It is very simple. Or for the Andalucia trains, there are many between Sevilla and Cordoba, etc, and those from Madrid and Toledo/Segovia, so do not worry too much about the pre-booking if your dates are not clear. Just take photo ID and buy the Card ( Tarjeta Dorada) and use it whenever you book to get the discount.

(If this was already mentioned, excuse me I skimmed the answers nd thought I hadn't seen this tip)

Hello lincasanova, thank you for the information of the Tarjeta Dorada,
so seniors as me, we can buy a Tarjeta Dorada at a Renfe Station, and use it either for buying train tickets at the station booth or internet?

If such is the case, obviously trains should be a much better choice than buses for Seniors, I apologize to ashcaannie for recommending buses.

We are planning to go shortly to Spain, do you think then that the best would be having the Tarjeta Dorada in hand simply to buy tickets in train stations as we need them.?
I like the flexibility of this approach.
May be for long trips, is better to buy ahead in the internet always looking for the Seniors fare.?
I thought that Tarjetas Doradas were restricted to EU citizens or Spanish citizens because some years ago they told me so in the train station. I was trying to book the Tren Hotel between Madrid and Paris. I suppose things change .