Figuring out Andalucia trip over Christmas
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to put together a trip to Andalucia region of Spain over Christmas this year. I'm meeting up with two friends, and we'd like to have a full, but relaxing trip over about a week. We're also hoping for good weather!!

We meet up in Madrid on Dec 20th, since we're coming from different continents, and it was the easiest and lest expensive spot to meet. We were thinking of renting a car and driving down to Seville, and then using the car through the week. It seemed like the most convenient mode of transportation, would give us the most freedom, and since it was split 3 ways, seemed like it could be the most economical as well. However, we do have some reservations about parking, and driving in the cities (although, the idea is to just park it and leave it while we are in one spot). Any thoughts?

Our last day is flexible. One of us lives in Paris, and so we'd like to have a few days there, before we go our own ways. Right now, the thought is to fly from Madrid to Paris on Dec 28th.

Right now, I'm thinking Drive straight down to Seville our first day, do 3 nights there, then drive to another city, still undecided (Cordoba? Ronda? Other suggestions?) for 2 nights, then Granada for 2 nights, and then drive back up to Madrid and catch our flight to Paris.

My questions are:

1) What is the best city between Seville and Granada? Are we spending the right number of nights in each place?

2) Will we be able to do anything on Christmas (none of us observe it, but we could be interested in something Christmasy, if it's somewhere historic and beautiful). Would it be a bad day to travel from one city to another?

3) Thoughts on the car vs other mode of transportation?

4) We are trying to do this fairly low budget. Any suggestions on where to stay? I know it's low season over the winter, but does it spike back up around this time of year?

Thanks!

In any case, take the car, as there is a lot of people travelling those days and you may not find tickets easily. Most hotels have parking facilities or arrangements with parking lots nearby.

I agree - get a car (have GPS and GOOD maps!). The car will stay parked while touring each of the cities but is an excellent way to get between them.

I think you framework looks great for such limited time. I think doing 3 nights in Seville, 2 in Ronda (don't miss it!) and 2 in Granada is perfect.

If you had extra time, I would say 4 nights in Seville, 1 in Cordoba, 2 in Ronda and 3 in Granada.

have you looked at flights to Paris from Malaga? that would cut out the long drive back to Madrid.

also, you could get the train to seville, spend your 3 nights, then pick up the car when you leave. in Granada, if you choose a hotel near the alhambra, you can avoid driving through the centre by floowing the signs for the alhambra and parking in its car park, if your hotel hasn't got one.

in some places, it is a good idea to have a hotel that has a restaurant on christmas day as many independent ones close. perhaps josele or maribel know if Granada [where I think you are likely to be] is like that. the hotel we stayed in in Granada, the Guadelupe, which is right opposite the alhambra, has a restaurant which was quite good. the parador within the alhambra itself is also very nice, but much more expensive.

All the advice is great so far. I would not drive Madrid to Seville, I would take AVE and rent car upon leaving Seville. They are a hassle in Seville and Granada. You'll pay about $20 dollars a night to park. Ronda should be nice that time of year, I'm also a fan of Malaga though. In any case at least 3 nights in Seville and 2 in Granada.

We will also be in Madrid during Christmas and plan on taking the AVE to malaga on sunday. We hopefully will get our tickets from the Renfe website 62 days out, however, if we can't do this (I've read various reports of difficulty) how crowded and popular are these long distance trains? In other words, should we book a rental car as a back up in case we can't get seats on the train? I know there are a few trains leaving for Malaga, but have no idea of the crowds during the holidays and the popularity of this method of travel.

wow! thanks for the replies!

the car situation just got a bit more complex, since i realized that all the quotes for rentals I was looking at were for stick shift, and we can only drive automatic! The car rental is likely going to be well over $600 dollars for the week now that it's automatic (Twice as much!!!). I still think it might be better and not that much more (if it even comes to more) money than all of us riding the train for $115 dollars each way to/from madrid, and then from city to city. The comment about the trains being crowded because of the holidays also still pushes me towards the car. Hmm, i think we will need to really sit down and calculate parking+gas+rental vs cost of trains vs the convenience factor.

What is the consensus on Ronda vs Cordoba? Could we do one of them as a day trip from Seville? It's hard to imagine being there and skipping Cordoba! I also think I miscounted on the nights (we have 8 if we got to Paris on the 28th!) Does 3 in Seville, 2 in Ronda, 1 in Cordoba (or vice versa?) and 2 in Ganada sound reasonable? Is that too rushed?

And yes, we checked flights to paris from all of the Andalusian airports. They are all way more expensive than from madrid, and involve stop overs in far-away European cities.

Thanks also for the suggestion about restaurants on Christmas.

Thanks everyone!

Cars will certainly give you flexibility. I just did it flying in and out of Malaga on Air France. Only thing though was arriving at 4 PM and driving straight to Granada, about 90-120 minute drive.

There are trains and buses but probably not as many that late in the day.

Yes, I kept my cars parked in Granada for 2 nights and 3 nights in Sevilla. Stopped at Cordoba on the way between Granada and Sevilla. Parked for 3-4 hours while looking at the Mezquita and the Alcazar and walking around the town.

But arriving in Sevilla with a car was a nightmare. Don't try to drive into the center of the city. Some hotels have arrangements with parking garages. But the garages have very narrow spots. And don't arrive at night, when it's easier to get a sense of directions.

Tricky thing about Madrid would be getting from the airport to the AVE station, to take the train. Otherwise, driving will take a longer. May want to spend a night in Madrid to recharge after a long flight. That's one of the reasons I didn't go through Madrid.

Other option might be to fly from MAD to SVQ or GRX. That way, you don't have to lug your bags into Madrid to the train station.

We were in Spain last year December 18-29. We had fabulous weather in Andalucia (mid to high 60's). The Christmas lights and decorations in the cities are beautiful. We spent time in Madrid, Granada, Seville and Segovia.

If you can make train reservations in advance, I would recommend it. We did not, and for the beginning of our trip not having reservations worked fine. We were able to get to a bus or train station, purchase tickets and be on a bus or train within an hour. UNTIL we wanted to take the train from Seville to Madrid on Dec 26. It was a Friday and I think a lot of Spanish families must have been traveling that day. We arrived at the bus station and the next bus with seats available wasn't until 6 hours later. Bummer. So we took the city bus to the train station. My DH and DD (fluent in Spanish) got in the ticket line. When they came over to where DS and I were waiting, my husband said, "Well, the good news is, we get lunch on the train." I knew exactly what that meant. It meant first class tickets. So instead of paying about $20-30 each for bus tickets we paid about $100 each for first class train tickets. So we made the best of it, enjoying the free meal, wine, spacious seats, etc. Moral of the story is to make reservations if you can for this busy time of year.

I think the only thing "Christmassy" you can do on Christmas Eve is attend mass. It is a wonderful cultural experience. We attended 11 pm mass at the cathedral in Seville. Be prepared for over an hour and in a cold cathedral. For us, it was well worth it.

Yes, public restaurants will close around 2 pm on Christmas Eve and be closed for about 24 hours. From what I could figure out, those that do offer a meal on Christmas Eve require advance reservations and are very expensive (one that our hotel recommended was over $100 per person), since it is a multi-course, multi-wine meal. We simply purchased bread, ham, cheese, fruit and wine that day and had a humble, relaxed meal in our hotel room.

Where to stay? We found these hotels very nice and budget-friendly:
Granada: Hotel Anacapri @ Calle Joaquin Costa 7 (this was our favorite hotel)
Seville: Hotel Alcantara @ Ximenez de Enciso 28 (right next door is a wonderful flamenco venue, Casa de la Memoria. As I recall, they do have performances on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.)

One other recommendation for this time of year: even though the hotels have heated rooms, in our experience they are not kept toasty warm at night. And the beds do not have heavy blankets or comforters. I was very happy that I had packed my silky long underwear to wear to bed.

During the holidays be sure to taste the seasonal Christmas cookies called polvorones. So yummy!

ENJOY!

the cheapest non-stop flight from Malaga to Paris is $555. It's $64 on Easyjet from Madrid. That's hard to beat!

I did some math, and I'm pretty sure, as expensive as the car is, even with parking, that it still is only slight more expensive than all of us taking trains. It's what I would prefer. Even with the difficulties driving around.

thanks so much AJMelheim! Such great info!

Don't forget that the Spanish celebrate their main family meal together on Christmas Eve evening so you might want to book a table then if you can find a restaurant open

Great advice on the the trains during holiday. I will keep trying to book on the Renfe website. Since we are staying in Madrid for one night after our flight, we hopefully have some available trains to choose from for our journey to Malaga the next day. We have a car reserved in Malaga at the airport and from what I've read the train station is in or very near the malaga airport, yes? thanks again for the help!

Both Cordoba and Ronda are about two hours one way from Seville.

Cordoba can also be reached from Seville via a one-hour high speed train.

Either way, I would not do Ronda as a day-trip. It deserves much more (like 2 nights).

thanks for all the great advice. Right now, we are strongly considering taking the train back and forth to madrid, and then renting a car for a few days to get around from place to place once in Andalucia.

If you had to decide between 2 nights in Ronda, and 1 night in Cordoba or vice versa, which would you do?

Ideally, we would make a loop: Seville, Ronda, Granada, Cordoba. however, I was looking into car rentals, and it seems like you can't return the car from the cheapest place I've fond on Sunday! would it be bad to reverse the trip and do Seville, with the most days, last, just to accommodate the car rental (and it's cheaper to boot!)?

thanks

I have read on Thorn Tree World that the road between Madrid and Andalusia is boring so the advice is to take the train.
I will also echo the advice about Christmas most things shut from midday the 24th until the morning of the 26th so plan accordingly.
Also plan your car journeys accordingly to sunset times. It can be hard finding your way around in the dark.

2 days cordoba, 1 max in ronda; cordoba is a beautiful good sized city with plenty to see besides the mezquita, lots of top food options too; ronda is a small, pretty town which you can do in a few hours wa;lking around; of course the surrounding area is beautiful but depends if you want to walk in countryside or not; if not, stick with first option (though you might want to visit the isolated but haunting Ronda la Vieja (old Ronda), the Roman settlement of Acinipo about 15kms west of the town
There are plenty of other white villagey options in the area too - check out postings on this vein...

Not a bad idea to wind up in Sevilla. If you arrive there, rent a car from airport then head off towards Cordoba/Gtanada you'll never touch the city and on the way back you just follow the ring road, dump the car and get a taxi into the city (probably around €20) - much the best thing to do

once you decide where exactly you aim to be on 24th & 25th, post & then people can advise you on specific accom...I have some thoughts but will wait to see what you say. suerte

I would spend one night in Ronda (even that is a lot for me, it's very quiet), Cordoba as a daytrip from Seville and spend the extra two nights in Seville. Did I mention Malaga? AVE train is a really good choice. Cars are a real hassle in Madrid, Seville and Granada and can be stressful.

"Does 3 in Seville, 2 in Ronda, 1 in Cordoba (or vice versa?) and 2 in Ganada sound reasonable?"

I spent one night in Ronda, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was ready to leave after 1 day there. I spent 2 nights in Cordoba and found more than enough to keep my happily busy for nearly 2 days. I also found 2 days in Granada about right. I spent 3 days in Sevilla, and would have enjoyed another.

Hope that helps!

"once you decide where exactly you aim to be on 24th & 25th, post & then people can advise you on specific accom...I have some thoughts but will wait to see what you say. suerte"


I think we are going to be in Ronda on xmas eve, and then going from Ronda to Granada on xmas day. I'm curious about suggestions!

I've also noticed that a number of the places I've looked at staying are closed over christmas. I hope we don't have any trouble finding a hotel in our price range!

NYCbutterfly

I think that I would start looking NOW for accommodation. use something like the hotel search engine at Trip Advisor to put in your dates and price-range and see what hotels have space.

that may help you to work out your itinerary - I have had to alter mine in the past when the hotels we were interested in were unavailable for a particular time-slot.

good luck,

regards, ann

Also try
http://www.booking.com

this thread has recommendations (mine, at least) for ronda and more relevant info...eg i know i'm always plugging al lago in zahara de la sierra but you won't find a nicer, cosier, friendlier, more boutiquey place with excellent food and good prices anywhere in the sierras
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-years-old.cfm
personally i am not sure ronda will be your best bet on christmas eve - it's not the liveliest place. having said that, bars etc will be open until mid-evening at least - it's a working day and peo-ple only get togetherf for the late evening meal.
christmas day will be quioet everywhere and of course no attractions will be open so maybe not a bad day to travel; you may do well to find somewhere to eat between ronda & granada, though roadside ventas (inns/restaurants/bars/a mix of all) will be open for tapas at lunchtime i would think.
in granada you may and may not find anywhere open to eat in the eve but your hotel restaurant may be open.
lots of people have their favourites in the city but for your purposes i think you'll struggle to do better than one of the two NH Hotels in the city. NH is a mid-range chain, modern though often in old buildings, very high standards, good sized rooms, good restaurants, service etc and very reasonably priced. NH and the slightly more expensive AC Hotel chain are the bankers in Spain - I've stayed in plenty and never been less than happy with them.
here's a link to their hotels in granada. i checked Dec 25 in Hotel Inglaterra which is well situated and a room for two adults is €80 plus tax. If it's available I'd bite their hands off!
http://www.nh-hoteles.es/nh/es/hotel...a/granada.html

if you feel like splashing out, the AC Hotel in Granada, (think it's called Dona Paula) is more expensive but really beautiful; again, it's modern but set in an old monastery with the closed in patio surrounded by cloisters; if you don't stay you could think about eating there.

So we just revised the schedule. it's going to be Granada on christmas eve and day.

smart move...and what's mored it meansx you can drive up into the sierra nevada on christmas day if you want to; we did that one year & it was magical. Should be snow even lower down. there's a route which takes about 90 mins going east out of the city then past la calahonda and in to the mtns...it's spectacular and there's a great pass at the top where you can walk along snowy firest trails even if you don't want to ski or sledge. if you need more info i'll try to dig it out; i think that would be a great thing to do. you could also pre-book tickets for the alhambra for the morning of the 26th, which isn't a holiday in spain

firest trails? spelling doesn't get any better does it?

They have had the first falls of snow in the sierra nevada

And I should have added that you may need snow chains if the weather is bad; the Guardia Civil will tell you if you do.

<<I have read on Thorn Tree World that the road between Madrid and Andalusia is boring so the advice is to take the train. >>

HUH? Wow. Don't believe everything you read. Get off the highway and take the two lane road straight south to Andalusia through olives and vineyards. (It's the N401 and the name of it escapes me, but it was first traveled by the Romans and later was a Moorish trade route.) It's one of our favorite drives on Earth.

http://www.karenbrown.com/Travel_Pla...emories/65.php

don't think you'll need chains on that road i was talking about - i've done it a few times in winter & it's always clear; it's the main route n to s (or vice versa) and it's on the eastern side so it's not as high as the ski resort

actually mometc is right about the road into andalucia; it's v pleasant and the desfiladero de despenaperros (dog-chuckers' hangout) is astounding; it's a winding gorge which brings you down off the meseta...you can stop along the way and watch the vultures wheeling overhead. better than looking down jajaja

wow, portuense, that is a wonderful idea!

Just booked 2 of our hotels for the trip. Getting excited!

mom23rugrats
That is a nice route, but seeing the OP is wanting to drive down in a day is this route practicable? I personally would not recommend that one in a day.
portuense
I am glad that that road does not need chains, here along the north coast, even in the slightest bit of snow they stop traffic that does not have chains in the mountains.

madrid to jerez/cadiz takes 6-7hrs plus stops; knock off 3 hrs for that to granada...the trip south to the despanaperros is a breeze, then once you're over the top it's straight down to Granada on another M/way (albeit a bit windy but certainly spectacular); here too the police are pretty active in the snow...i think it's just that this partic route is guaranteed snow so they always keep it clear...NYCb cld check with spanish tourist office in US to get clarification on this issue...

We have done it in a day on two different trips, one in summer and one in spring. However, we did not stop at all of the noted stops. We stopped for lunch and got there in the afternoon.

Take your time in Spain and acclimate to its pace. It is wonderful.

I would recommend that you go to a villancicos (Iberian Christmas carols) concert or public gathering. They will be almost everywhere, and I think especially those with a certain flamenco touch can carry a lot of atmosphere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-YmRs7XtsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ltDBAXXnqI