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-   -   September Honeymoon in Spain (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/september-honeymoon-in-spain-169469/)

jnfr Jan 2nd, 2007 11:12 AM

September Honeymoon in Spain
 
Hello! Looking for advice on a honeymoon in Spain, mid-September for 1 week. Budget is approximately $3000 (USD). Would like to stay somewhere close to a beach to relax some, but also have access to other cities for day trips in order to take in culture/art/architecture, etc. Any recommendations on a "base", possibly with waterfront views? Is it possible to travel day trips between Seville, Cadiz, Cordoba, and Grenada? Is it better to fly to Madrid from US, and take a train south, or fly directly to Seville or Grenada, for example? Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

Carolina Jan 2nd, 2007 12:42 PM

Mid September is a lovely time to visit Spain. What does your budget include? Is that for flights, accomodtaion and other transportation, or does it include meals etc.?
You will be pushed to fit in Seville, Granada and Cordoba in a week unless you do a tour with a couple of nights in each. I suggest you stay in Marbella and visit Granada and the village of Mijas, and possibly Ronda on day trips. You would fly to Malaga, possibly changing planes in Maqdrid. Other alternatives include flying to the UK and taking a charter flight from there but to do that you would really need nine nights.
Malaga is about a 4o minute taxi drive from Marbella. If Marbella is a bit too expensive, there are very nice hotels in Fuengirola - a tourist resort6 about 20 minutesw from Malaga airport. I am going there myself in March and staying in the Confortel.
Good luck, e mail me if you want any more info on this or other suggestions. [email protected]

whethergirl Jan 3rd, 2007 07:35 PM

Hey there! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Spain is a lovely place to visit, and you'll have some great weather in mid-September.

Since you only have a week, I would recommend picking one part of the country and staying there, and tailoring your flights to that area. However, if it's cheaper to fly into Madrid, the AVE train can take you where you need to go for a pretty decent price.

For Andalucia, I would probably recommend staying for a day or two in Seville and taking in the city atmosphere, and then heading to a coastal town. We stayed in both Cadiz and Nerja, and as far as a beach vacation is concerned I would recommend Nerja. There aren't a whole lot of actual public beaches in Cadiz, it's more of a harbor town, but it's also less touristy and very charming, in my opinion.

Nerja escapes the urban sprawl of the Marbella area and we absolutely loved it here - stayed for two nights and wished we had spent most of our week there.

I've also heard the Fuengirola and Torremolinos are nice beach areas.

Day trips are do-able, but slightly taxing as you'll be doing a lot of driving through mountains. You could start out in Seville and maybe do a day trip to Jerez or Cadiz, and then head through the mountains to Nerja, possibly stopping at some of the hill towns along the way.

I would spend 2 days in Seville, then maybe three in Nerja and perhaps one in Cordoba, if you're so inclined.

You could also head west toward Barcelona, track down to Valencia and check out some of the beaches on the Western side of the country, like Xabea. or Alicante.

When we went, we stayed at a few of the paradors, the hotels run by the Spanish government. We really enjoyed our stay in all of these (we stayed at the parador in Cadiz, Nerja and Cordoba), although they are a bit impersonal and lack that small-town Spanish charm, the rooms are generally very nicely appointed and the one we had in Nerja had a fantastic balcony overlooking the beach. They often run specials - we bought a five night card that we could use in any participating parador, and it ended up being only around 100 euro per night at each one. Something good to check out to make sure you stay within your budget. Eating in Spain is generally cheap and good - you can head to almost anyplace and order a selection of tapas and split them. In fact, we ate out at a really nice place one night and spent way too much money, and thought the food was much better at the little cheap tapas bars.

Have a great time on your honeymoon and good luck planning!

Kate


artlover Jan 3rd, 2007 08:14 PM

Congratulations, and yes, I agree with the other posters, Spain is so romantic and will be a great place for a honeymoon.

I think Kate's idea of staying in the paradors is a good one--check them out at www.parador.es. We love to stay in them and although I haven't stayed in the ones around Seville, I understand that some are great near there. I also think Nerja is lovely, but would avoid
Torremolinos and didn't think much of Fuengirola, but the white villages in the area are delightful. Nerja would be a good base for some day trips such as Granada, Ronda, and the white villages, but Seville would be too far for a day trip (3 1/2 hours each way).

Read some guidebooks at bookstores, check out websites, and read trip reports here and I'm sure you'll come up with a great plan.

Also, if you want to go to Adaluscia (Seville, Cordoba, etc. area), you probably would be best off flying into Malaga and renting a car.

We're going to Barcelona and the surrounding countryside in April and staying in Paradors, so I'll certainly be reporting back, but you might want to make your plans sooner than later.

jnfr Jan 9th, 2007 04:53 AM

Thanks to everyone for their replies! We are still debating whether to stay on the coast and day trip or break the trip up into 2-3 day segments to different cities. I will probably be back for advice especially re: driving conditions between cities (should we avoid driving through the mountains - is it a difficult drive?) and what are the best modes of transport between cities (can we take a train from Nerja to Seville?).


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