cybertraveler

Hello fellow travelers,

I’ve been planning a trip to Spain this summer and have received many great tips on the itinerary on a different thread ( http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-andalucia.cfm), but I have run into a snag finalizing transportation between cities. I have read that the Granada train station is closed, and many are using the buses instead. However, when I have followed the links that have been shared, I can’t begin to decipher the various schedules!

On www.alsa.es/en, when I try to enter Point of Departure: Seville, that shows, but when I enter Destination: Ronda, it defaults to Ondara. Is Ondara where we want to go?

Or if I try to enter Point of Departure: Ronda, it defaults to Barcelona Ronda, and that doesn’t sound at all like what I want.

On www.samar.es, I have tried entering Ronda under Origin and Granada under Destination. Ronda appears, but greyed out and Granada won’t enter.

I have seen links to taqui.sinfe.net, but that doesn’t open anything for me!

I have already booked some trains for the beginning of our trip, and I’d prefer to do rail travel for the rest, but it sounds like that won’t be an option in July. Can anyone help clarify if we really need to go by bus, and how on earth to see the timetable?

Specifically, I need to know the name of the bus stations for Seville, Ronda, Granada and Malaga.

The buses look good, and I know that we could wait until we get there to buy tickets, but I don’t even know how many buses/day there are or what times they run.

Thank you so much to anyone who can help me!

PalenQ

Seville to Ronda IME is best by bus - not because it's quicker - I don't know but the buses go thru the fabled white perched villages en route - services are frequent enough you could easily stop off in one of them - anyway I'm a rail nut but there I took the bus - spanish bus stations can be perplexing as there may be several in the same city at times all serving different destinations.

Anyway Seville to Ronda I recommend the bus because of those iconic perched all-white hot as blazes villages. check www.seat61.com for any updates - maybe has something.

Christina

Roda is a small commune SE of Madrid, it can't be that. I don't think Alsa does the route of Sevilla-Ronda, that's probably the problem. The company Los Amarillos does. The only two bus stations in Sevilla I know are named Prado de San Sebastion and Plaza des Armas. Prado is just a bit north of the Plaza de Espana.

this is for the bus from Sevilla to Ronda
http://www.andalucia.com/ronda/bus-timetables.htm

Maybe that link can help you with your other route, I'm not clear on what you are trying to do other than Sevilla-Ronda.

There is also a stop called Roda de Andalucia which is NW of Malaga. It is possible Alsa doesn't have a bus from Sevilla but only from there. IN fact, I think that's where the RENFE train station is to go to Granada.

Now on here, they do seem to say they are going direct from Sevilla to Granada
https://www.alsa.es/rutas/sevilla-granada.htm

They say it starts at the bus station which isn't very specific <<La experiencia con ALSA comienza en la Estación de Autobuses de Sevilla>> I have no idea, frankly, what they are doing. Maybe you have to take a bus from Sevilla to la Roda (which I think is on their route from Sevilla-Malaga), then transfer to a bus to Granada. The bottom of this page seems to show that route.
http://www.horarios.info/transporte-...a-de-andalucia

alvamo

<Specifically, I need to know the name of the bus stations for Seville, Ronda, Granada and Malaga.>

Name for Bus Station in Malaga is Estación de Autobuses de Málaga.
http://www.estabus.emtsam.es/

Here you have a link for the address of another bus stations
http://www.estabus.emtsam.es/portal/seccion_0003

And here the routes from and to Malaga
http://www.emtsam.org/estabus/consul...bus_tactil.php

EYWandBTV

I have read that the rail line between Cordoba and Granada is under construction for the rest of 2015, but will the train service from Granada to Malaga also be suspended for the rest of 2015? And what about train service from Malaga to Seville? Anyone know? Help. Going in October.

alvamo

what about train service from Malaga to Seville?

Normal service

From Granada to Malaga there is no good conexion by train.

PalenQ

Yes trains go a round about way Granada to Malaga including I think a change of trains - buses go more direct - up and over the mountains not around them.

PalenQ

Trains Granada to Malaga take about 2.5 hours so I would think buses are quicker - anyone know how long the bus would take?

alvamo

Granada train station is under construction, but them you can go to the train station and take a bus to Antequera, them a train to Malaga, so at the moment is about 1 h. 30 mints to go from Granada to Malaga.

cybertraveler

Thank you for those suggestions, which were very helpful in unraveling the various options for trains and buses.

Since others may find themselves confused as I was, I’ll post what we settled on for transportation between cities. I know that many people prefer to buy tickets once they get to the station, but since there will be four of us with luggage, I felt better knowing in advance that we have seats on every train and bus. I used the renfe website to book all trains, following the very helpful advice from the Man in Seat 61 website (www.seat61.com). I also used PayPal to purchase, which seemed to make things easier. Here’s our itinerary:

Madrid to Segovia:
-ALVIA train Turista class, which we were able to book at a promo price of 38.60E for 4 people “with or without a table”. It’s only 30 minutes, so it really didn’t matter to us. I was happy to see that we were able to get assigned seats at that price, though.

Segovia to Toledo (via Madrid):
-AVANT train Turista class to Madrid Chamartin station, arriving at 8:50. From Chamartin, we will need to either take a taxi, or possibly get free transportation on the Cercanias line (still haven’t figured out how to do this, though) to Atocha station, to catch the train to Toledo.
-AVANT train to Toledo, departing at 11:20. I purposely left some extra time here in case we get delayed between stations.

Toledo to Cordoba (via Madrid):
-AVANT train to Madrid Atocha station, arriving at 9:58
-AVE train from Madrid Atocha to Cordoba, departing at 11:00. Since we’re staying in Atocha, it seemed safe to leave just 1 hour between arrival and departure.

Cordoba to Sevilla Santa Justa:
-AV City train, arriving at 9:16. We got a great promo price here: 33.20 Euros for the four of us.

Sevilla to Ronda:
-The bus looks like the best option. After much research, Los Amarillos (https://regular.sinfe.net/venta/horarios/628926) appears to have a bus departing at 10:00, arriving at 11:45. I haven’t been able to book it yet; none of the selections have opened up yet for our dates in late July. A tip for anyone else: be sure to check the duration of the various itineraries offered. The fastest trip is about 1 hr, 45 min.

Ronda to Granada:
-MD train, arriving at 10:55. This caused some angst for me, since there is construction being done on part of the route. The little caution icon showed next to the various trains made me hesitant to book the tickets, but I contacted the extremely helpful people at the “Man in Seat 61” website, who quickly explained that Renfe is “bustituting” for part of the journey. I went ahead and booked the seats, a leap of faith!

Granada to Malaga:
-Alsa bus, departing 12:00 and arriving at 1:45. (https://www.alsa.es/en/home) I bought the tickets even though we probably could have waited, but that’s just easier for us.

PalenQ: our bus from Granada to Malaga is scheduled to take 1 hr, 45 min.

There were other options for travel, but these seemed the best for us. I hope that this is helpful for anyone else trying to sort through the public transportation choices in this area.

PalenQ

cyber - thanks for taking time to answer! I drove between Malaga and Granada and it was so long ago I could not remember how long it took but it was a nice ride thru some mountain passes if I recall correctly - the train of course takes a round-about routing, and with one change of train takes considerably longer and buses I think have a flat cheap fare - just walk up.