Malaga - Seville - Cordoba - Grenada questions
 

Hi all
in early October we are planning to travel from Barcelona to Malaga and stay in that area for 5 or 6 days. Any suggestions on how best to divide the trip - I was thinking maybe 2 hotels in separate cities for 2 or 3 days each? open to any tips on how to best organize, amount of time to allocate for each city, tips for hotels or 'must sees'.
thx

I don't really understand what you are doing. YOu already say you are going from Barcelona to Malaga so it sounds like you've made those plans already, so no one can suggest you go somewhere else first, is that right? Okay, and then you only have 5-6 days total for Malaga, Seville, Cordoba and Granada, is that right? So that is about one day each.

I'd suggest you stay in Malaga a couple days, spend one on Malaga and visit Granada by bus for a day tour. Then take the train to Seville and stay there the rest of the days, visiting Cordoba as a day trip from Seville. That is if you must stay in Malaga. Otherwise you could stay in Cordoba several days and visit Malaga as a day trip on the train, it's easy. Granada is the difficult one to fit in because it's out of the way and not on a direct train line from anything.

IN fact, I may be staying in Malaga several days next Fall so I've been researching Granada, and found out it's just as quick or quicker to take the bus than the train for a day trip (the train involves a transfer). I don't have more time to spend there than one day. It's about 1.5 hours driving. The train takes 3-4 hours, changing in Bobadilla, I think.

I have difficulty thinking that it would be pleasant to fit these 4 cities into 5 or 6 days. Although I haven't been to Malaga yet, I thought Sevilla worth 4 full days, Cordoba 2 full days, and Granada 1.5 to 2 full days.

Stop in Sevilla on your way to Málaga. Seville is the queen of the cities in the south, and until Oct 5 Sevilla celebrates the largest and most prestigious flamenco festival in the world. In theaters all around town every night from Sept 12 to Oct 5. A night at the bienal could be a higlight of the trip and a crash intro to this beautiful and powerful art so important for Sevilla and the region.

I could go for the sole purpose of seeing native sevillana Pastora Galván dance in the majestic Maestranza theater on Oct 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2SBUcrJgeQ

Info and tickets: http://www.labienal.com/en/programa/la-diferencia/

sorry if my previous post was confusing....i was specifically speaking about how to divide our time between Malaga, Seville, Cordoba, Grenada...unfortunately we can't stay on holiday long due to other financial issues so we are trying to make the best of 6 days there..thx

Be careful about how you spell Granada. I read a story yesterday about a couple who wanted to fly from London to Granada, Spain, and ended up in Grenada, which is in the West Indies. Someone at the airlines made a mistake.

haha....yep I saw that ....thats justification for the double and triple-checking that we do....

I figured it wasn't Grenada...

kimhe, your plan sounds good but how does one stop into Sevilla on the way from Barcelona to Malaga? I have been checking transportation issues and the train from Sevilla to Malaga is not that direct nor short (I think it takes 4-5 hours). I could only presume the reason to go from Barcelona to Malaga specifically was some flight? I'm going to Malaga exactly because it is a flight hub for Easyjet, rather than Granada. But Easyjet doesn't fly from Barcelona to Malaga, although other airlines might, of course. Probably Iberia.

yes I am flying vueling airlines from Barcelona to Malaga...then I may just get a car to drive around from seville, cordoba, granada. I hate schlepping around waiting for trains but wondered if renting a car is a bad idea for that area. I have rented cars in Germany and loved driving around city to city.

I rented a car in Granada and drove to Ronda and then to Sevilla. It was stressful *in the town/cities but not undoable for a novice who had not drove stick in 30 years and was traveling alone with a 17 year old :-)

Parking and driving into Seville and Granada is a pip, but good fairly direct highway in between. And pretty landscape?

Hate to say it, but with such a short time, I would cut Cordoba or do it as a very quick day trip by train from Seville.

Can you fly into Seville?

If so, fly to
Seville, day trip to Cordoba
Pick up car and drive to Granada
Drive to Malaga
Return car

<how does one stop into Sevilla on the way from Barcelona to Malaga>

Fly or high speed AVE train from Barcelona to Sevilla.

Málaga is 1h 30mins -2h with train or a 2h 30 with bus from Sevilla. Alsa bus or renfe.com.

I thought Malaga was longer than that from Seville, so that's good to know. In any case, suspected the OP wasn't taking the train from Barcelona to Seville, so that won't work in this case, unfortunately.

Barcelona to Sevilla with low cost Vueling in 1h 35 mins (vueling.com).

Sevilla to Málaga with the Avant train in 1h 55 min (renfe.com).

ok here is our latest plan - feel free to comment and critique
leave phl on Sept 30 -
arrive barcelona oct 1 8:45am stay 1 night at hotel torre Catalunya (next to sants train station..we stayed here before)
take underground or bus to main attractions for 1 night.

Oct 2 - fly Vueling Barcelona to Seville about 5pm arrive 7pm
stay in Seville for 3 nights - tour, relax, attend some flamenco dancing, chill, etc

Oct 5 - get a car - drive to Cordoba stay 2 nights - stop at Granada on the way? not sure if you would recommend

Oct 7 - drive back to Seville - fly to Barcelona in the evening and stay near the airport or at the hotel torre Catalunya again

Oct 8 - fly from Barcelona to Phl 10:45am and say adios for now.

while in Seville and Cordoba I will have tours or tickets prepurchased.
anything you guys would change?

You don't need a car. Just stop off at Córdoba and then continue by train or bus to Granada (2h30m) and stay two nights, which gives you one whole day for sightseeing. Instead of retracing your steps to Seville, just fly from Granada to Barcelona or take a night train (it's gruelling 13-hr drive by bus).

Granada is not a stop on the way from Seville to Cordoba.
You could possibly stop in Cordoba on the way to Granada, but it is not the direct driving route from Seville to Granada.
If you are going to Granada, do not drive back to Seville. Catch a flight from Granada to Barcelona. You could also catch a flight from Marbella to Barcelona.

I would take a train from Seville to Cordoba, then on to Granada for two nights, fly to Barcelona.

firming up things, feel free to add suggestions, thanks in advance

Seville - 3 nights Oct 2-3-4 - staying in an apt highly rated on Tripadvisor.
- any opinions on tours? hopefully won't get responses from only tour companies
- any other recommendations for food or flamenco, or anything to make reservations for?
- we plan to take a day trip to Cordoba maybe on Oct 4 - no need to prebook trains I assume? should we pre-buy our tickets to the Mesquita or anything else in Cordoba (maybe a tour?)

Granada - 2 nights Oct 5 - 6
- we will try to pre-purchase Alhambra tix for night and day tours (per advise)
- best way to get from Seville to Granada? bus vs. train?

That is looking much better.

Others will know the likelihood of sold out trains, but I would probably not book to Cordoba, but play it by ear so once in Seville, decide if I wanted to stay in Seville or do the day trip to Cordoba.

You could also depart Seville very early on the 5th, stop in Cordoba for a few hours and continue on to Granada for your two nights. That is actually what I would probably do, giving more time for Seville, and saving the travel to/from Cordoba to Seville.

In that case, I would definitely train to Cordoba. Not sure about bus or train from Cordoba to Granada. Depends also on luggage and location of stations, and I am not familiar with bus stations in Cordoba. If I decided to stop in Cordoba on the way to Granada, I would book ahead and have everything pinned down as much as possible.

I would also grab a taxi to save time in Cordoba. Even if you use taxis a few times, they save time and money in the end, with no time wasted picking up and returning a car, looking for parking, etc. Been there, done that too many times. With your short trip, you want to make things as painless as possible and have as much sightseeing as you can.

Use bus to travel from Córdoba to Granada, 2h45m, hourly. Trains take just as long and need a transfer.

You can't book entrance ticket for Mezquita/Cathedral in advance, but the line is usually short and there is a ticket machine you can use. You can book a private tour, but for soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the geometric arches, all you need is time and a good guidebook. Allow about 2 hours.