Spain-- Andalusia and Morocco
 

Hello everyone,
I had a few basic questions I was hoping y'all could please help me with. I am just beginning to plan a 12d trip to Andalusia and Morocco in June 2010. I'm still at a very early stage, so my questions are rather basic.

1) Any highly recommended guidebooks for Andalusia?? The inclusion of a small section on short Morocco trips would be a welcome bonus, but is not expected. The Fodor's book appears to be a bit outdated by now.

2) Is the weather in mid-June likely to be tolerable for my wife and I (late 20's, early 30's)? Are there any cities/towns or sights we should avoid in June?

3) I realize many might recommend simplifying our trip and only focusing on Andalusia, but assuming we eventually decide to spend 2-3 days in Morocco, any recommendations of noteworthy cities to considedr that are easily accesible from Southern Spain and the most convenient means to connect.

Many thanks in advance and happy new year to all,
K

1. Anything you can obtain for free, if they have libraries where you are. If you want to spend - 'The Rough Guide to Andalucia' and if a library see if they can get 'Andalucia' by Michael Jacobs. I would counsel against two countries, you can hardly make a mark on Andalucia in such a short time.

2. Tolerable? Seville is likely the hottest encounter at anything between daytime 22c. and 38c. Plenty of websites out there for historical weather.

3. Noteworthy cities yes, easily accessible not without a flight there and back which will take some time out of twelve days.

Best wishes.

Any chance you can switch trip to Nov when weather will in The 70'sF (a d airfares 1/2)??

It'll be hot but not as much as in July; but you'll have the sunlight and clear skies for many hours. I would not switch to November.
Morocco is interesting but my idea of visiting it is taking a plane to Casablanca or Fez and start travelling from there.

With only 12 nights I'd focus solely on Andalucia for this trip and do a separate trip to Morocco. For a first time visitor to Andalucia my personal must-sees would be:

Seville-min 4 nights with a daytrip to Cordoba
Granada - 2 nights
White villages - 2 nights

With the remaining 4 nights you could do a variety of things: 1-2 nights in Cordoba (vs a daytrip from Seville), additional time in Seville for daytrips (Jerez, Camona, Osuna, Sanlucar, etc... - or do overnights in these cities), Cadiz, Malaga, Ubeda, etc...

I think the best thing to do at this point is invest in a good guide specific to Andalucia and see what best suits your interests. Wombatt mentions Rough Guide - it's good. Lonely Planet and Cardogan also have good Andalucia specific guides.

June is likely to be VERY hot. We have been twice - in late April - and it was definitely beach weather - with highs well into the 80s. In June you will want hotels with good AC and nice pools and a car with strong AC. And even so - may want to limit activity in the middle of the day. (We had reached our temp tolerabiity in Aprl.)

May 18-21 2010 in Seville was quite warm; v.crowded w/Americans. The suggestions of Cathy M are good ones, altho I would drive thru one white town and stay in Ronda. We followed tour suggestions in Rich Steves' book and it worked for us; esp liked restaurant suggestion.

Thank you for the wonderful feedback, will keep this all in mind as we start to plan our itinerary.
all the best,
k

you could always travel south of Malaga down to Tarifa & take the tarifajet over to tangier
http://www.frs.es/en/home-area/home.html
Tarifa is a cool little sporty beach (nice beach) town & tangier, although not the prettiest city, is an experience of Morocco. Tarifa would be a nice break in the warm weather after all your exploring & you can even just got to Morocco for the day

IMHO, Tangiers really isn't a Moroccan experience. It's a cheap knock-off and can be an unpleasant one at that. I would hold off on Morocco until you have time for Marrakech, Fez, Agadir, the Atlas Mountains, and Essouira, just to name a few of my favorite places.

Another vote for Michael Jacobs' excellent book Andalucía. Going before or after having read this introduction to the region would most probably be two different worlds.

From the presentation:
"In this masterly book, now in a revised and updated fourth edition, Michael Jacobs looks with fresh eyes at all the traditional delights of Andalucia while doing full justice to the lesser-known aspects of the region. He examines the underrated local food and drink, the extraordinarily varied natural scenery, the composers and writers who created the romantic myths and legends of the nineteenth century, the strange legacy of Lorca and the Spanish Civil War. Andalucia's Moorish remains, its outstanding prehistoric and classical heritage and its exuberant Renaissance and Baroque monuments make it one of the richest regions of Europe for the visitor. Nearly a hundred Andalucian villages and towns are described in the gazetteer, some of which - Seville, Granada, Cordoba and Cadiz - are as lovely and as haunting as anywhere in the world."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andalucia-Pa.../dp/1873429789

From some of the reviews:
* Enjoyable and erudite: must be core stock (Bookseller) * The best one volume guide to Andalucia (Rough Guide) * No other book can compare (Cosmopolitan) * One of the best current writers on Spain (Time Out) * Jacobs is an engaging, wonderfully informative and eversurprising companion (Jan Morris) * It is a joy to discover a writer who knows Spain so intimately and is so clearly at ease with its people (The Oldie) * Funny, learned and beautifully written (New Statesman) * Extremely penetrating (Wanderlust) * He is the ideal companion we all dream of but rarely find: patient, lively and endlessly generous with his encyclopaedic, cultivated mind (Irish Independent) * The George Borrow of the High-Speed Train Era (ABC Madrid).

A little information for download. www.maribelsguides.com In Seville, we found this lovely, inexpensive restaurant. We spent 110euros for four people. While the menu is only in Spanish, the owner speaks very good english. www.vineriasantelmo.com Richard

I would take Cathy's advice and I would skip Morroco. If you absolutely must go then flying into Marrakesh and maybe a day or two in Essouira. Secondly, a night in Fez will give you a snapshot of Morroco. Tangier and Casablancas and towns near the border aren't that nice. Having been there three times I would not take away time in Andalucia for Morroco. Plan it as a future trip.

I took the ferry from Tarifa to Tangier and arranged with our hotel in Fez (Palais Jamai) to havea driver pick us up to drive us to Fez. I am glad I got to see Fez, but probably would not do it again this way as the drive was almost 4 hours in each direction and there was not much to see. I agree with comments above that flying would be a better way to do it.