Southern Spain Itinerary
 

Greetings!

I need some help with my Spain itinerary.

Here's the quick rundown:

My boyfriend and I going to Spain from March 30-April 13.

We will be in Sevilla from Wed April 4-Sat April 7.
We have hotel reservations in Ronda on Mon April 9.

Our original plan was to go to Tarifa on Sat April 7-Mon, April 9. We also wanted to take a day trip to Morocco on Easter Sunday (April 8). We are seriously rethinking this plan b/c of a poor lack of response from Moroccan tour guides. Rick Steves suggests Aziz but he has not emailed me back. We are also concerned that a Moroccan day trip might not be much more than a day being hustled in a border town.

So we are thinking about deleting Tarifa and Morocco from the trip altogether. We are concerned that the travel time from Sevilla to tarifa (so far south) is not worth the day trip to Tangier. Thoughts?

Could you please suggest alternate cities? We are thinking about adding another white hill town to the agenda? Arcos de la Frontera perhaps? Also, remember that we will be potentially traveling from Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. We want to make sure transportation will be available over these holidays.

So I suppose I am looking for a myriad of advice. Thoughts on Tangier? Alternatives to the Tarifa/Tangier combo?

Thoughts on Cadiz perhaps? Or another not-too-out-of-the-way coastal city?

As this is my first trip to Spain, I would appreciate experienced advice.

Thanks for your time.

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Alicia
Are you going to have a rental car? This will change things and get this back about driving versus trains, etc.

Cadiz is a good choice. Right across the Bay of Cadiz is El Puerto de Santa Maria. This is a very old city too. Both Cadiz and Puerto are over 3,000 years old.

My choice would spend a evening at Puerto, for tapas and drinks, and more tapas. This is a great city. Of course I used to live there.

Get back about driving.

Blackduff

Thanks for the thoughts, Blackduff.

We will not have a rental car.

I'm going to look into El Puerto de Santa Maria.

Anymore hints would be great.

Depending on your interests, you might consider Cordoba and/or Granada. Enjoy!

kja--

We are going to hit Granada after Ronda on the last few nights of the trip.

Advice on what to do/where to stay in Cordoba?

Since you're not driving, you could take the train to Puerto and then jump onto the small steam boat across the bay to Cadiz. It drops you downtown the old part of Cadiz. It's cheap for the trip and it's fun, although the guy who was the skipper was about 80 years old.

You stay in Puerto (La Monestario - sp?) abd day trip to Cadiz across the bay.

In Puerto, check out Romerijos. It's a big shell fish restaurant. Good, big, and fresh but fairly cheap. Check this out on the internet.
http://www.afuegolento.com/noticias/67/reportajes/
The terrace is around the corner. Chose which shellfish you want and they're going to bag this and you can walk nextdoor and order a beer. Miamm!

Blackduff

Andalucia is the most fabulous area in Europe. I would suggest that Cadiz is unmissable for the old town atmosphere. Seville is packed with ancient monuments and is a must. Cordoba was suggested - another lovely town, albeit manic for driving. The mezquita is exquisite. Arcos is amazing - stay at El Convento hotel. Amazing views down vertical cliff face. Ronda has the oldest bull ring in spain and amazing 'new' bridge (find the steps leading down to the river). All well worth a stay. Not sure about Granada, except Alhambra Palaces, very popular and justifiably. Not sure how you will get on without a car though.
Tarifa has nothing, except Atlantic coast. Tangiers is well worth the experience if you have not seen it before. Try WWW.FRS.ES for ferries and inclusive guided day or over night trips. Excellent value...
We are planning to return to Cadiz and Jerez some time soon.

My wife, daughter & I were thinking the same thing about heading over to Morocco, but the closer we got - the more of a distraction it turned out to be. The handing-over of passports didn't thrill my wife (Canadian with U.S. resident status), and we got the impression that the one-day trips are guided tourist-trap-o-rama's. So, we stayed in Cadiz instead for an extra day & thoroughly enjoyed it! I highly recommend La Cava in the old town - http://www.flamencolacava.com/

It was recommended by the manager of a little bodega after we messed-up an order due to our faulty Castillian Spanish. Turns out the guy spoke perfect English - he should, he used to live just south of us in our hometown! Strange, small, world...

t

Things to see in Cordoba: Certainly the Mezquita, and depending on your time and interests, the gardens of the Alcázar, the Juderia, peeking into various lovely courtyards, maybe the Viana courtyards and/or the archeological museum.

In Granada: Certainly the Alhambra and Generalife, and depending on your time and interests, the Cathedral and Capilla Real, wandering around the Albaicin, maybe the Baños Arabes and/or Monasterio de la Cartuja.

I was able to visit Sevilla, Ronda, Granada, and Cordoba without a car, using trains and buses, but I don't know what the schedules will be like around the holidays.

I'd skip the Morocco trip for an extra day in Arcos, as you say. North of Morocco is very touristy oriented, but moroccan style. It is much better just going a little south, but that takes more time.
BTW, why don't you post this thread in the Spain forum? I'm reading it in the General Interest.