extra three days in southern spain (andalusia). where to stay/see?
 

hello all,

i have posted a similar question in a different thread and am still struggling with what to do and where to stay on the third leg of our trip.

we are three brothers (32, 29, 24) and will be traveling to spain this coming september (14-29). we have 14 full days in spain. our current itinerary consists of

4 days in madrid. (including a side trip to Toledo and Segovia)

4 days in Sevilla (including a side trip to Cordoba

3 Free days

2 days in Granda

1 final day in madrid before catching our flight back to the US the next morning

..........

my question is once again where to stay and where to visit on this third leg of our trip. as of now, we have three days with no hotels or 100% plans scheduled. cities of interest (at least right now) are Ronda, Cadiz, Jerez and Arcos. all of these towns are somewhat near each other in southern spain. i should mention we will have a car for JUST this portion of our trip, for these three days. so we can be flexible where we visit and where we make our home base.

we have thought about possibly staying in one town for two nights and another for one night. cadiz seems a little out of the way for our base, although it seems nice to visit.

again, we are just struggling on where to make our base(s) for these three days of our trip.

any advice or personal experiences would be WONDERFUL!!!

thanks in advance

I just had another idea (I was helping you on the other thread):

For your 3 free days how about:

Day 1:
-pick up rental car in Sevilla (early)
-drive to Jerez (drive is a little over an hour; maybe 1.5 hours once you park and have fun finding your way around Jerez - it's a challenge driving)
-spend late morning visiting bodega; lunch; walk around Jerez; drive to Cadiz arriving late afternoon/early evening (drive is about 45 minutes)

Day 2:
Enjoy and relax in Cadiz

Day 3:
-leave Cadiz early morning and drive to Arcos (about an hour drive)
-spend the day in Arcos, lunch then head to Ronda; depending on how much time you spend (and enjoy) Arcos you can stop along the way in some other white villages (ie Zahara is directly on route to Ronda). Drive from Arcos to Ronda is about 1hr 45 minutes.
-spend night in Ronda

Day 4:
-sightsee in a.m. in Ronda; leave in early afternoon (3.5 hour drive); arrive late afternoon; sightsee around Granada in early evening

This is about the only way I can see squeezing all of this in. It does mean either giving up a little of seeing Ronda the morning of day 4 or some of Granada on Day 4. But if your flight to Madrid (from Granada) is later in the day then you may make this time up in Granada as you'd have time then to see more of Granada.


Alternatively, on day 3 if you see Arcos pretty quickly skip lunch and don't veer into any other white villages you could arrive in Ronda later afternoon and good a good feel for the city.

Day 3 is a little more rushed than I prefer but it would work.

I would suggest Jerez for two nights - visiting Cadiz one day - then drive through Arcos and the Pueblos Blancos to Ronda. STay your third night in Ronda, then on to Granada.

Those are good suggestions....we have a similar itinerary for Andalusia for next summer. Thanks.

those are great suggestions!!!

Cadiz seems like it is a decent ways away, at least it is on the tip of the little inlet. but from everything i have heard, it is well worth staying here.

i know there are hundred of little towns we could see, but with only three days, should we refocus on any other small towns in this area?

Have you no interest in some time at the beach? Some of the places - esp Marbella/Puerto Banus - can be charming. If you have a car I would stay there and then do day trips to Ronda and perhaps Cadiz.

we definitely have interest in beaches. it is just so difficult to choose with only 3 days to work with. i know we will have a car and dont want to get stretched too thin doing too much. this is my dilemma. there is SOO much to see in southern andalusia and just not enough time for us to see it. we could potentially use one of our days that we are staying in sevilla and use it as an extra day trip (other than the cordoba day trip). we want to make sure our evenings are spent in sevilla during these four days, since there is so much to do in sevilla.

but like i said, so much to do/see, and so little time. this is y i am reaching out to the fodors community for assistance. if a day of beaches makes the most sense, then by all means, we will fit it in. i am just trying to maximize our three southern andalusia days without wearing us out.

but i agree, the beaches would be wonderful!!

Cádiz is also known for some of the finest beaches in Spain.
http://www.justspain.org/spain/cadiz/cadiz-beaches.asp
http://www.whatcadiz.com/cadiz-beach.html

About Jerez. We visited there over a year ago. While it was a wonderful experience during the Semana Santa I am not sure what it will offer you in terms of tourist attraction. I did not find the city to be at all touristy and maybe you will like that.

There were the bodegas but we did our sherry sipping at the cafes instead since our two young girls were not interested in a bodega tour.

We did prebuy tickets to the famed Real Escuela Andaluza...Horse Ballet and that was worthy of a stopover.

I can recommend a wonderful pension if you intend on stopping in Jerez.

We have the similar dilemna coming up this December. So many places to go. so little time.