Help with trip to Andalucia
 

Planning a trip to andalucia this summer. Arriving to cordoba via train where we pick up cars. from there lies the problem -- 4 nights before we have 4 nights in Seville. many options and opinions. origianlly we were going to stay all 4 nights in Ubeda and use it as a central point for a series of day trips. now wondering if it wouldn't be more rewarding to go from city to city. perhaps 1 night in ubeda, 1 in grenada and 1 in rhonda with 1 left somewhere. if anyone has any suggestions i would love to hear from you. our only desire is to stay somewhere with a pool - travelling with teenagers who are going to need it (i think we will too!).<BR>Thanks for the help....

Stay in Marbella all four days and do day trips to White Towns, Granada, Ronda, Gibraltar from there. Marbella is a fun town, your teenagers will love Puerto Banus in the summer. However, in order to do this, you need to make hotel reservations way in advance. I stayed at a hotel in Torremolinos by the ocean called Costa Lago, it was actually an apartment, gorgeous pool. Torremolinos is nothing to brag about, though. If you can get a reasonable good price in a good hotel in Marbella, that where I would stay. (I am not sure I want to spend four days driving with teenagers :-D).<BR><BR>Have a great time!!

thanks for the idea, but i guess i should have mentioned that we are planning on doing the coast at all. really lloking at staying inland. any ideas about places mostly inland would be appreciated! by the way, we have two cars so hopefully the kids mother will deal with them - since i am luckily the uncle!

let me clarify that - we are NOT going to the coast at all. thanks

An evening in Granada can be wonderful, so I'd suggest one night there (at the Alhambra Palace, if possible).

You might want to reconsider and stay at the coast for 4 nights. I'm not sure you realize it but inland Spain is absolutely brutally hot in the dead of summer, Seville most particularly so. There is no breeze whatsoever. Staying on the coast will offer relief in the late afternoons and evenings when you return from your day trips. You can spend your days visiting Ronda, Granada, Mijas, Gibralter, Jerez--all from your home base in Esteponia or Marbella.

would appreciate anyone's great insight!

I would encourage you to find some different places to stay - one night in Ubeda would be fine - we tried to stay there but the Parador was booked so we stayed at the Parador in Cazorla - which was in the middle of a national park as I remember - very beautiful. We also stayed one night in Granada (in Parador), one night in Nerja (however this is on the coast) and then one night in Ronda (in Parador) before heading to Seville.

<BR>I would spend the day visiting Cordoba and then head for Granada for 2 nights, there are several hotels in the center with pool, like the Hotel Carmen, which has a small rooftop pool, but the partial view of the Alhambra Hill and full view of Sierra Nevada mountains by the pool with the cute bar makes up for it. I hear the Hotel Saray is nice, too.<BR><BR>Then I would start heading west towards Seville and stay at one of the beautiful hotels in the Ronda or Antequera area for the other 2 nights.<BR>I´d pick a great country hotel for a nice change from the city hotels you will be staying at. You can tour the White Villages during the day and return to the relaxing pool in the afternoons, finishing the day with perfect alfresco dining in the hotel.<BR><BR>Some good websites for a search for this type of hotel:<BR><BR>http://www.travel-in-spain.com<BR>http://www.innsofspain.com/<BR>http://www.secretplaces.com/<BR><BR>A lot of this places look grogeous and very affordable.<BR><BR>Enjoy the browsing!<BR><BR>

I too encourage you to visit the coast - they don't call Spain the frying pan of Europe for nothing... we were there in August 2001 for 2 weeks - the heat really exhausted us and we ended up spending a lot of time at the beach.