Spain(Andalucia) Honeymoon Itineray (Draft) - Please Comment
 

Very excited - booked our flights to Madrid yesterday so our honeymoon in Spain will be from 7/26 - 8/8. Thanks to all I've read and been advised of from this site we're going to focus on Andalcuia's costal areas to try and escape some of the heat (if we can). This is a rough outline of what we're planning - please let me know your thoughts and reccomendations - Thank You!

7/26-7/30 - Costa del Sol (Marbella?) - Looking for a plush resort to treat ourselves with a little pampering
7/30-8/1 - Seville - Hotel Casas de la Juderia (our first choice for accomodations)
8/1-8/3 - Granada - Trying to get into the Del SanFrancisco
8/3-8/6 - Nerja - Trying to get into the Paraiso del Mar
8/7 - Madrid - looking for a hotel convenient to the airport

Veninda:I love this area of Spain and have been there 5 times. Stayed at Las Casas de la Juderia in Seville once; it was lovely, very atmospheric, and great location for walking the historic barrio. Don't know anything about the two other hotels you mentioned.
I am wondering how you plan to get from Nerja to Madrid for your flight home. It's a VERY long drive. We drove once from Madrid airport to just south of Granada and I think it took us more than 7 hours (Granada is about 1 1/2 hours north of Nerja, and therefore closer to Madrid). It was tough finding places to eat during the drive since so many are closed for hours at mid-day. If you're planning to drive it, bring a picnic or food to eat in the car.
Speaking of Nerja, the caves are a very worthwhile visit and quite close to town (by car). I've heard they have concerts there in the summer and I think the acoustics would be quite spectacular and the coolness of the caves at that time of year would be particularly welcome.
I hope you enjoy southern Spain as much as I have; was very disapptd that I couldn't go this spring due to new job. Hope to be able to resume annual visits starting next year.
Buen viaje!

Is it possible to avoid returning to Madrid -- can you change your return ticket to depart from an Andalucia airport? Saving a day's drive and car rental fee could make it worthwhile to fly an additional segment for your homeward trip.

Hurray for your trip!!! You have selected some wonderful places and you will love your trip.

Some random thoughts:

Consider moving your dates/places around a bit so you AVE (fast train - 2.5 hours Madrid to Sevilla) to Sevilla at the beginning of your trip and ?? -- someone help me out here -- train from Granada? fly from Malaga? on the way back. Remember to factor in high gas prices when making the cost/time comparison of driving vs. other transportation.

Also consider that your current dates for end of Sevilla segment/beginning of Granada put you there on Sunday/Monday (if I interpret correctly). We made the mistake last year of arriving in Barcelona on a Sunday and leaving on a Tuesday morning. Half of everything was closed on Sunday and the other half on Monday. Hard to plan site-seeing and even dining in some cases.

Assuming as the others have that you are driving from Madrid to Andalucia and back, remember that the trip will be hot and arid and probably not an efficient use of your time unless you want to see some "off the beaten track" towns in La Mancha and south on your way down/back. (an earlier posting within the last month or so about the drive south mentions some cool places in between if you are interested)

As a big fan of Madrid, I would normally encourage you to spend more than one day there (at least get in for a Saturday night) and stay in the heart of the city (airport area is pretty bleak) but the city does empty out quite a bit in August.

Even for one night, consider staying in the city. Check www.maribelsguides.com for excellent advice on transportation from the center of Madrid to the airport. We only have one night in Madrid on our way back from Sevilla this May. A hotel by the airport sounded appealling to us too in terms of convenience, but we opted to get into the thick of things for our last night in Spain. In our case it is a Saturday night, not Sunday, so different traffic considerations on the way to the airport and, well, it's Saturday night in Madrid! ;-)

If you want a lovely end to your trip and you are using Bancotel coupons at any point or can get your hands on less than an entire booklet, you can book into the 5* Westin Palace on the night of the 7th (I just checked for you) for only 3 Bancotel coupons (150E). That would give you a lux. room within walking distance of the Prado and Retiro park for your Sunday paseo.

Good luck with your trip planning!

Madrid has two wonderful art museums, the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Otherwise, it's not much as a tourist destination. Toledo is about an hour away by train, and is worth the trip.

In Seville, the Hotel Casas de la Juderia is a great place. Our room was excellent and the buffet breakfast was sensational. Expect to get lost in the Juderia unless one of you has a really good sense of direction. I suggest a compass.

In Granada, you'll want to go to the Alhambra. My wife and I thought it was the most romantic place we'd ever seen, and we've been married for forty years. YOU NEED TO RESERVE A TIME FOR YOUR VISIT IN ADVANCE. It's not too early to do this now.

Good luck on your visit, and congratulations on your marriage.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far (and the well wishes), especially about driving to/from Madrid. I'm now looking into flights into Malaga, then we can always taxi or drive a rental to whatever Costa del Sol Resort we choose. We really do want to start off at a resort as I'm sure we're going to be quited wiped out (we're leaving 2 days after the ceremony). I understand that things may shut down on Sunday - Will that be the case for Monday too? Perhaps I should switch my dates for Seville and Granada.

Where can I get bancotel coupons?

if you arrive on a work day, you can get bancotel coupons in spain once you arrive, from an agency. remember there are agencies now in all the "hypermarkets" that stay open til 10 pm on saturdays, too.

or some people buy them here from petrabx (sp?).

you will defintely get some good offers to use them in madrid in summer, not sure about other destinations south in high season.

I am not sure whether you can get it for this summer but Bancotel sometimes offers Hotel Fuerte Miramar in Marbella for 3 coupons. It is a great hotel close to everything in Marbella. Also, I am not sure whether you are flying from the States but there are non-stops flights to Malaga from JFK by AirComet Plus. From Malaga airport, there is a cheap bus that goes directly to the bus station in Marbella from which you can take a taxi to your resort.
You can do Granada as a day trip from Marbella (no need to stay there overnight). Then you can either take a bus to Seville or take a plain to Madrid. Westin Palace is a great hotel, we have stayed there in 2001 for our honeymoon. Their lobby is amazing.

www.bancotel.com. You can select English or Spanish.

Here's a recent thread on the topic:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34579006

You will see on that thread that you can order your booklets via the website and pick up in the first hotel you use them in, but the thread also has good advice about getting single tickets (as opposed to booklets of five).

I would suggest you stay close to the Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid - even on a Sun. nite in Aug it will be abuzz with Spaniards until the wee hours of the morning. Wonderful place to sit, drink Sangria, eat tapas and people watch. It should be an excellent last nite in Spain. Downtown Madrid is not as far from the airport as other European destinations. I think there is a bus that goes - the metro connections are not so convenient. We took a taxi, don't remember that it was too pricey. Out at the coast I would suggest you look for a menu selection - fish baked in salt. It was a deleicious meal and I've never found anything like it back here in the US. Have a great trip!

You can also get bancotel coupons here in the US from petrabax.com--they have an 800 number (list it on their website) and I've used them in the past and have been very pleased. The coupons cost a bit more this way, but you have them before you leave and you don't have to purchase them in groups of 5. Luis (who's from Spain) has helped me in the past--he may have other helpful suggestions as well.

Considering your plans, unless you plan to spend some time in Madrid, I think you'd be better off flying in and out of Malaga, but if not that, then at least fly into Madrid and out of Malaga.

Also, you can get some good hotel deals from solmelia.com. We're staying at one of their hotels on our trip in May that's near the airport in Madrid--will report on it when we come home.

Another consideration would be to stay in a parador, but I don't know how that fits in your plans, but you can get that information at paradors.es (I think--or goggle paradors).

We stayed at the Fuerte Miramar in Marbella (with bancotel coupons) on our last trip, and the room was nothing special, but the view was fantastic--we were on the 7th floor and it's right on the beach (infact we missed out plane out 'cause I couldn't get my husband to stop taking pictures of the sunrise, but that's another story.)

An absolutely spectacular resort that's also on the beach where we've stayed 2 times is the Marriott Marbella Beach Resort, but I'm not sure it would be advisable to stay there without a car. (I think you can just go into marriott.com and check them out.)

We've gone to Alhambra both as a daytrip and overnight and I much perferred doing it overnight, especially if you could go a night when it's open--it's fabulous to see it both ways and much less crowded at night. And yes, think about getting tickets ASAP.

And the caves in Nerja are fabulous, and if you're going to be there when there's a concert, it would really be great. Just google Nerja and I bet you can find out.

Hope this helps.

To Igor Vodov:
Can you tell me any more about the New York-Malaga flights? I tried to use the AirComet Plus website but don't see any Malaga flights, just NY to Madrid. Have you used them? Are they relatively on time, safe, and priced comparable to other airlines? I live in NH and there are NO direct flights from Logan Airport to anywhere in Spain, but we can get flights from Manchester to NY easily, so this would be a boon to know about. Thanks in advance.

the air france connections from logan to spain have worked well for us, time wise and price -wise.

Prebook your alhambra tickets on www.alhambratickets.com