Spain - daytrips from Sevile or Granada
 

I will have 9 days/nights in Andalucia in March. I plan to split the time between Seville, Cordoba and Granada but am not sure exactly how to do that. Three days each - more in one city than the others? Is anyplace an easy daytrip via pubic transportation. I'd love to see Ronda or other white towns but don't want to rent a car on this trip and it looks like there isn't enough (frequent) public transportation to make it a reasonable day trip.

Any ideas - and how would you split the time. Thanks

There are already a lot of talks on this so I suggest searching this forum for previous recommendations.

I'd probably spend:
4-5 days Seville
1-2 days Cordoba
2 days Granada.

If you want 1 more locale, then maybe Toledo for 1-2 days. All these places can be reached by train from Seville. If you do a search, you may find buses from Cordoba to Granada so you don't have to back trek to Seville.

We're flying into Seville and out of Granada so I won't have to back track. What you suggested mmyk,with 4-5 nights in Seville was what I was originally thinking of, but several weeks ago there was a thread about the area and I mentioned that split and several people said 5 days in Seville would be too long. We mostly want to see the sights and not feel rushed at all on this trip. But if there were some easily done day trips from any of those places I would definitly want to conisder it. Some recent posts have people doing 1-2 nights in each of those towns plus alot of other places. That's too rushed for me for th is trip, and as I said, I'm not interested in renting a car. So any other suggestions would be welcome.

There are a lot of historical sites in Seville. If you really go through them (not just browse at them from the outside), 4-5 days isn't too much. One can certainly spend say 3 days to get a sense of the city and move on, but that won't be enough time to go into all the interesting sites.

BTW, I am a speed-tourist myself, not a slow-poke. When I was in Seville for 4 days, I left wishing I had a day extra. I think you are on the right track to not plan on going to many towns...just the time for transport between them would eat up a lot of your 9 days.

Perhaps you can plan say 5 days for Seville. Then, if you feel you've run out of things to do for the last day, then do a day trip (by train) to Toledo. Toledo is a great ancient city that I would otherwise recommend an overnight stay.

Thanks mmyk. I think we'll do 4 nights Seville, 2 cordoba and 3 granada. I think you are right about the day trips. And it's nice to hear you are a speed tourist and was not bored. I wouldn't call myself a speed tourist but I know alot of my traveling companions do call me that. I'll keep Toledo in mind in case we get bored, but it doesn't sound like we will. The reason I'm not more psyched about that option is that I'm tentatively planning on returning to Spain in the summer, and would do the more northerly areas which would include Toledo at that time.

I spent about 5-6 days in Seville a couple years ago, and I didn't think it was too long at all. I loved it! I did take a day trip to Cordoba during that time, but since you are moving there for several nights, that wouldn't make sense. You can easily take a daytrip to Jerez de la Frontera from Seville, that's a good idea (city of horses and sherry). Go to the famous equestrian school there, they have a show. They have many comfortable buses that go there and it's not that long a trip. see for info
http://www.jerez.org/portal/realescuela/index_en.php

I don't know that I'd take a day trip to Toledo from Seville, that's an awfully long distance for a day trip. I think it's about 3.5 hrs one way, isn't it? I don't know how exciting it is, but you could go to Huelva in less than 2 hrs by train. YOu could also go to Cadiz, but I'd think Jerez the best.

Your plan sounds good.

I did a daytrip to Cordoba (did not spend the night there). The Mezquita was incredible...I think I spend at least 2-3 hrs just soaking it in. I also loved the garden of the Alcazar and enjoyed a picnic there. However, I didn't find the rest of the city as vibrant as Seville. I went in an off-season, so maybe my view was a bit skewed.

You're right, Christina. Toledo is too far for daytrip for Seville (I must have mixed up memories of my past travels). It's definitely a must-see for someone heading to Madrid.

Isabel - Good luck to you. Have a great time.