1) Is Santa Maria de El Paular (90km. north of Madrid) worth a visit? If so, is it worth an overnight stay?

2) Is it possible to do a day trip to Portugal from Seville? If so, is it recommended?

3) What is Marbella/Malaga like? Is there anything down there besides golf courses and beaches? Is it worth a visit?

Thanks for everyone's patience. Heading to Spain in April...

Random Answers:

Don't know.

Yes, but no.

Yes.

--Marv

Okay, okay, a little more complete:

1. I don't know about your first questions, I am sure somebody else will be able to answer it.

2. Yes it is physically possible to do a day trip to Portugal from Seville. Is it recommended? No, you would have to be out of your ever lovin' mind to do it.

3. The Malaga area (such as Torremolinos as opposed to Malaga itself) is very nice. There are some very interesting whitewashed villages up in the hills, such as Mejas. Seafood along here is fabulous. Not sure about Marbella, since I have only been through it without really spending any time there.

I can't answer except about Malaga/Marbella. Malaga is'nt a vacation destination but we had a nice time there 1 day. There is a beautiful old cathedral and the entire area around it is filled with little shops and restaurants. There is Picassos house and a really nice area down by the harbor or ports (where the water is). Marbella has great shopping, a very nice small historic section with restaurants and shops and across the street a beautiful park with great landscaping and mosaic park benches which are just lovely. And the beaches there are nice. Hope this helps.

I don't know about (1) and (3), but when I was in Seville last year for a week, I was looking for interesting day trips and thought maybe Portugal could be a possibility as it didn't seem too far. From my research, it's a little farther than it may seem on a map, and most importantly, there is no good high-speed train between the two points. I believe you can get by bus or perhaps local slow trains to somewhere in southern Portugal but it takes too long to be a reasonable day trip and where you get is not worth it, even then (Huelva).

Hi DDP,
I'm going to Spain and Portugal too! Anyway, regarding the day trip to Lisbon (presuming u are going Lisbon?), you could consider taking a night coach from Seville reaching Lisbon in the morning, then again take the night coach from Lisbon reaching Seville in the morning.

Extremely crazy thing to do and Portugal is definitely worth a day trip.

Sorry, I've never been to Santa Maria de El Paular; but I've been to Segovia and that's definitely worth a visit.

I'll address your #2 question: There's a limited access expressway between Sevilla & Huelva that some of the buses take (1-hour 20-min) so it depends on whether you're driving. Bus Company is Damas SA.

You coud make it to Faro and back in a day; but there's other stuff in Huelva Province like Palos de la frontera from whence Columbus departed on his first voyage of Discovery, Mazagon and the Parador Cristobal Colon, el Santuario de la Virgen del Rocio near Almonte and Matalascanas on the coast and of course the Donana wildlife refuge largest in Europe. That's where I would go if I were driving ...

Question #3: Malaga has some excellent restaurants; Torremolinos has lots of Bars

"2) Is it possible to do a day trip to Portugal from Seville? If so, is it recommended?"

Anything is possible. Is it advisable? No.

"3) What is Marbella/Malaga like? Is there anything down there besides golf courses and beaches? Is it worth a visit?"

Marbella/Malaga is like Ft. Lauderdale with English restaurants. There ain't nothing there to see other than a beach. Try Nerja.

1) I can't help with this one.

2) There is so much to see in Andalucia that there is no need to go all the way to Portugal even if you could manage it.

3) Malaga and east are great beach areas - we enjoyed Nerja and a small white village north of Nerja - Frigiliana.

Thanks everyone for your quick and insightful responses. Looking forward to the trip...

Hi..I answer you from Málaga.
1) I dont know it
2) By car around 4/5 hours to Lisbon, (from Sevilla, 2 hours more from Málaga)but not worthly for 1 day only.
3) Marbella is a village located in Malaga area, 50 kilometers from the city. The city of course worth a visit, Last year, Picasso´s family donated around 200 pictures from them in order to create in an old small palace what has been called "The family museum" more info at www.museopicassomalaga.org Apart of that is a lovely city to have a walk with good restaurants and nice villages to visit in one day trip. Oficial Andalucia´s web page information at www.andalucia.org