Hello,

My fiance and I are traveling to Andalusia Dec 3- 11. We are staying in Seville as our hub the first half of the trip and then moving to Malaga for the rest of the trip ( returning back to Seville to fly out on the 11th). We are open to seeing the best of Andalusia in this short period of time and want to maximize without feeling so rushed.

We love to sight see as well as dining.

For those that know.... how would you recommend we get the most of our trip in this amount of time? Are there any 'must see' places we should see? We are open to not staying in Malaga as the 2nd hub of our trip. That can be changed at this point.

Are there any restaurants we must try? We enjoy both fine dining as well as finding hidden gems that are not 'touristy'.

Thanks!

Any interest in the Alhambra? If so, I would stay in Granada as well. I would stay in Sevilla the majority of the time, and I would try to work it so you do not have to split time in Sevilla for the time out. I'd also look up what might be going on during that time period--festivals or whatever that might make a place stand out for December.

Granada is on our list of places to visit. We were going to do a day trip from Malaga. Would that make sense? Or should we use Granada as our 2nd hub and travel to Malaga from Granada?

How many nights do you actually have on the ground in Spain? Have you made your airline reservations?

I really like Malaga, and I think it's an under-rated city. However, I think you should visit what are considered, historically and culturally, the 3 top cities in Andalucia: Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. And add Malaga if you have the time. I would definitely stay overnight in Granada, and I think you need at least 2 nights to see the Alhambra, especially depending on when you arrive in Granada, and what time your Alhambra Nasrid Palace tickets are for. Have you purchased your tickets yet? If not, you should do so ASAP. Seville is architecturally beautiful and has the amazing Royal Alcazar; Cordoba has the magnificent Mezquita, and of course, Granada has the spectacular Alhambra. If you can, I suggest at least 3 nights in Seville (4 nights is better), 2 nights in Granada, and 2 nights in Cordoba (at least 1 night in Cordoba, if 2 are not possible.) And maybe 1 night in Malaga. You could fly into Seville and home from Malaga. Take the train from Seville to Cordoba, then the bus or train to Granada, and then the bus or train to Malaga. I'm not sure if the train is running yet from Cordoba to Granada and from Granada to Malaga, which is why I suggest the ALSA bus.

Malaga to Granada is an hour and a half drive---that is beyond my day-trip threshold, but mileage varies as they say!
I enjoyed Malaga, but I don't know what it will be like in December, and it would not by my choice for a first trip.

Just seeing the Alhambra can easily take a FULL day. For me, it isn't a good destination for a day trip from anywhere, and if you want to see anything in Granada beyond the Alhambra, you'd like need a second day there.

With the time you have, you need to be very selective. As a rough guide, a visit to Andalusia typically takes about 4 nights for Sevilla, 2 or 3 nights for Granada, and a night or 2 for Cordoba; other destinations, like Malaga, may be very nice, but aren't in the same league as Andalusia's three gems. You don't have that kind of time, so you'll need to think about your priorities and plan accordingly.

You might want to consider plotting things on a calendar: Check opening hours, and be careful with that -- many things in Spain are closed for a very long mid-day break, and many things are closed entirely on Monday. Daylight hours will be very short when you are there, so you'll need to take that into consideration for any outdoor activities or interests. Granada will likely be colder than the other locations you are considering -- you can check climate data on weatherbase.com

The area has a LOT to offer, so you should be able to come up with a plan that gives you some nice experiences.

We did a similar trip in April. I would recommend spending at least one night in Granada. Why? In a word: Rain. We had purchased a number of (relatively inexpensive) tickets to see the sights and had it not been multiple days of rain, those extra visits would have been really helpful.

Other things I loved:

• The smartest thing we did is stay at the parador in the "middle" of Alhambra. It really made the visits very easy, especially in the cool, rainy weather.
• Visiting the Mesquita in Cordoba, tickets required. I don't know if I would stay overnight in Cordoba again. (Although, we did enjoy a night-time viewing of the Mesquita and it was pretty magical...)
• Malaga was a nice and easy visit. We did not do any restaurant research, but had some amazing fish at the beach-side restaurants. I enjoyed Malaga much more than Granada.

I recently read an article about other lesser-known towns in the region and put Ecija on my (other-than-summer) to-visit list.

Have a great trip!

I did Granada as a day trip from malaga and thought the trip was fine, and easy. I don't think 1.5 hrs on the road is long at all for a day trip, I've done many longer than that. I don't consider that long. I had no desire to spend more time there or stay overnight, I was already there for quite a few hours, I don't really enjoy spending an entire day in any particular building, though.

I don't really understand the desire to spend hours and hours and days on end visiting one building, but obviously that's what some people advocate and like (yes, I know there are some separate buildings there, but it's still one historic site that isn't really that huge). So you will just have to know your own taste in these matters.

I would much rather do a day trip to the Alhambra from Malaga than vice versa. I spent a couple hours outside the Alhambra in Granada, also, it's nice enough but I think I'd rather stay in Malaga. I don't know how easy it is to do a day trip from Granada to Malaga, either. I took a day bus tour company for the one to the Alhambra, there are several I think at reasonable prices, and that makes it real easy, and you can just enjoy the drive/views. They handled the tickets, also. AS I recall, there is a rule that you have to have a guide that the Alhambra provides anyway, so they also arranged that. They gave us several hours on our own in the main part of town to do what we wanted, lunch, etc.

You can do it on your own with a bus, of course.

I'll have to say that I was not there in December though so have no idea how I'd feel about any of this in December, ugh. It's possible being on the coast, Malaga would be a lot cooler/damp and not as appealing, I don't know.

I would not plan this idea of having to both arrive and leave from Seville, what's the point of that. Malaga has an airport with plenty of flights. I think probably more than Granada, but not sure. I usually fly Easyjet within Europe and they have tons of flights to/from Malaga to the UK, Paris, AMS, etc. They have a couple from Granada but not to Paris, only to Bordeaux, LGW, Manchester, Milan, Naples and Berlin.

Thank you all for the insight. I think we will stick to the 3 'gems' and see if we have time should we need to explore another city. Appreciate it!

IMO, they are magnificent!
Be sure to book your tickets for the Alhambra well in advance.

Do you have a recommendation on where to book these tickets? Also, is there a better time or day to go?

Thanks again!

You should book tickets for the Alhambra on its official web site, and rather than search for it myself, I'll let you do that.

For my interests, I wanted a full day at the site, followed by an evening visit (which is not available every night). During the day you can see the full site (or at least, everything that's open) and you see it in good light, if with many others. If things are as they were when I went (you can learn on the official website) you'll pick a specific time for entry to the Nasrid Palace, and you must enter that specific building within the half hour you selected, but you can stay inside as long as you want (until it closes), and you can visit the rest before or after. I believe most people try to pick the earliest time for the Nasrid Palace that they can reasonably make.

In the evening, you can see only the Nasrid Palace (well, during some times of year, you can visit the Generalife in the evening, too, but not in Dec. IIRC), but you see it with relatively few others and with evocative lighting. IMO, the evening visit was magical! I already knew what I was seeing, as I had visited during the day, too, but now could see it in a very different light and few enough people to actually hear the fountains, etc. I still get chills when I think of that evening!

Thanks so much! I will get them booked today.

Well, I should have booked earlier!

The dates we will be in Granada are not available.

Some people join tours when the tickets through the Alhambra itself are no longer available. You might search this forum for the "Alhambra" to see what you can learn.

TinaH22,
If you can fit in two nights at a Granada hotel, most hotels (but not airbnbs) participate in the relatively new "Hotel Granada 2-night Pernocta" program. It went into effect in May of 2018 at a price of 16 euros and gives hotel guests entrance to the Alhambra with timed slot for the Nasrid Palace. The Alhambra makes available 500 of these per day to those staying for 2 nights in a Granada hotel or official tourist apartment.
Those who stay for 2 nights then will not miss visiting the Alhambra even if tickets are sold out on the official Alhambra ticket purchasing page.

This program was started to encourage longer hotel stays in Granada hotels and to bring more tourist money in. The city was seeing many one-day visitors, thus this new incentive to stay longer.
Granada card Pernocta | Turismo de Granada

Alternatively, if you can only stay one night, and you see that all General Admission tickets are sold out on the official ticket page
https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/,
try to purchase a "Dobla de Oro General" for your date.
It costs a bit more and along with the Alhambra ticket, it includes free entrance to a few minor monuments downtown and in the ancient arab quarter of the Albayzín.
The price difference between the General Admission day ticket and "Dobla de Oro General" is only €5.65/p.
This is the back door way of securing a timed entrance to the Nasrid Palace that not everyone notices. I see limited availability "Dobla de Oro General" tickets available for Dec. 4, 5 and 9 but sold out for Dec. 6,7,8.

Or if that fails, you can book space on a large group, multi lingual, 3-hour guided Alhambra tour for €36-51/p (depending on the date) here:
https://www.alhambra.org/en/alhambra-tours.html








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