Drive from Granada to Seville
 

Dear dear fodoriites,

It has been a lot of support receiving from you guys on my planning exercise for the Spain trip. A part of our (me, wife and 2 kids, 12 & 6) tour leg would be to drive from Granada to Sevilla. I'v booked a VW Golf thru' carrentals.com and will be starting from Granada train station at 9am. The car will be dropped at Sevilla Santa Justa at 8pm the same day. So we've 11 hours to enjoy the andalusian countryside.
Based on other postings, my plan is as below.

- Drive from Granada to Bubion and Capileira thru' Lanjaron (around 75km)
- Then to Antequera
- Then Osuna
- Sevilla

A stretch of drive from the Bubion/ Capileira villages will be along the coast thru' Nerja and Torre del Mar.

I would love to include Jerez de La frontier (wineries) but it'll be driving too far to west and then going to Sevilla.

It is greatly appreciated if someone could advise me if it's doable.

Thanks

In a word, No!

Going to Nerja from (via Mootril) adds two hours to what is already a 2.5 hour trip. Try doing this itinerary on Mappy.com or any of the other mapping websites and you will find you are unlikely to be able to stop in both Nerja and Antequerra.

On the other hand, going to Antequerra is very little out of the way, and would be a far better use of your time. It also might be possible to avoid Seville's evening rush hour, beginning about 7:00 p.m. if you choose either Antequerra or Osuna.

Lot of driving, bit I think it's very doable. You'll go a little into the Alpujarras, but in general Granada to Nerja is nothing more than 1h 30 mins. From Nerja to Antequera is another hour and a little, and Antequera to Sevilla is another 60-70 mins on the highway.

Recommend to stop for lunch in either La Marina in Nerja or La Cueva in Torre del Mar. As good as you get a seafood freiduria in all of Andalucia and very popular with locals.

La Marina in Nerja: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Andalucia.html

La Cueva in Torre del Mar: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Andalucia.html

And you have of course Ayo's famous restaurant right on the Beach in Nerja. Great paella, he has made it almost every day year around some 40 years now: http://www.ayonerja.com/chiringuito_en.html

"Drive from Granada to Bubion and Capileira"

Bless your hearts! I took that road while on a bus and have never been more terrified. When I was there (2004), there were innumerable blind switchback turns, extremely steep drop-offs, and no guardrails. It was beautiful, but there is NO WAY I would want to drive that road. Maybe the conditions have improved?

Good luck!

Many thanks for the tips. guys. I think I'll just drop my plan to see the Alpujarras and drive to Ronda and then to Sevilla by stopping at some of the Peublos Blancos villages on the way.
The reason why I thought of going to Bubion was that I'm a serious amateur photographer and so would like to get some landscape shots of the villages with the Sierra Nevada backdrop. But safety first :)

The road to Bubion isn't all that bad esp with a small car. Kja's tour bus would be something else ! BTW, the roads to Ronda are also twisty. I would go to Bubion, back to Granada and on to Cordoba before hitting Seville.

Small problems driving in most of the Alpujarras, and Bubion and Capileira are some of the most visited villages here.
http://www.lasalpujarras.co.uk/conte...egory/6/24/43/
http://conjamonspain.com/2013/02/27/...as-alpujarras/

Many thanks to Bedar and kimhe for motivating me again to visit the Alpujarras. My revised plan is to drive to the Alpujarras from Granada, from there to Nerja and hitting the Costa dele Sol road till Rincon de la Victoria. From there to Sevilla direct. The route is as below.

8:30 Pickup car from Granada Train Station
9:00 10:00 Lanjaron 45.2 km
10:00 10:30 Pampaneira 22.4 km
10:30 10:45 Bubion 6.0 km
11:30 Capileira 2.0 km
13:00 14:30 Nerja 79.3 km
14:30 15:00 Rincon de la Victoria 42.1 km
16:00 19:00 Sevilla Santa Justa 220.0 km
TOTAL 417.0 km

The total journey is around 10hrs with 5.5hrs of drive time

I hope it works. Btw, I'm very fond of driving and has drove through Black Forest in Germany and off-the highway stuff in Swiss Alps.

Cheers

So glad to hear you're going to the Alpujarra. Those villages are way more interesting than those along the so-called white villages route. From Rincon you'll have to look for the ring road around Malaga, on to Antequera and Seville. It's really too bad that you won't have the car for more time, but you gotta do what you gotta do !

Enjoy! Just remember that even a small car has to deal with the buses that are also on the roads -- and there are a number! Not just tour buses, but regular intercity buses, like the one I was on. And use your ears -- one some of the worst curves, my bus drivers honked before reaching the turn.

Las Alpujarras are beautiful, though -- well worth seeing if you have the nerves to go!