Baja_Baton_Rouge

I will be making my first trip to Spain in January, and I'd like some advice. We will fly into Madrid and want to spend some time at Malaga on the Costa del Sol. Any advice on transportation, specifically trains or rental cars, plus things to do on the Costa del Sol would be appreciated.

rachel_s

We recently returned from a first time trip to Spain. My suggestions (depending on your interests, of course) would be: plan to spend a couple of nights in Madrid before traveling on. It's a lovely city. The Prado and the Sofia Reina are awesome, and we also enjoyed the Botanical Gardens and the Palacio Real (among other things.)

We rented a car and stopped in Cordoba on our way south. (The Mezquita in Cordoba should not be missed.)

Driving is not difficult (except in the narrow streets of the old sections of the cities, perhaps) and with a rental car, you can easily take day trips from the Costa del Sol: Grenada, Gibraltar, Rondo, Mijas, to name a few.

Baja_Baton_Rouge

Rachel, Thanks for your reply. Rental car would be my preference, as well. You can see more and stop when you want. If you were driving straight through from Madrid to Malaga, are you talking about 5-6 hours?

Wildfire

Hi Baja-in addition to Rachel's suggestions.

arriving in Madrid. what i did
1. take the train to Cordoba (1 hour)
stay there at least one or two days. the Mezquita (mosque) is fabulous, but Cordoba was the center of Moorish spain and a very advanced city in its own time.

2. Seville- on the high speed train from Cordoba about an hour or a bit more.
Seville was the commercial center of relations with the new world when spain was busy as a colonial power. You will at the very least want to see the Alcazar (which is still an active palace,and is closed when the royal family is in town) as well as the Cathedral of Seville.

From Seville you can rent a car.
I disagree with Rachel on some things,,,Granada should not be a day trip. The Alhambra is one of the most beautiful places you will see and Granada itself is a lovely city in the mountains, at the very least spend 2 nights there if you go.

However, if you want to stay closer to Malaga you could explore the white villages :Arcos de la Frontera, Jerez and drive through the mountains to Grazalema on the way to Ronda. the scenery is spectacular in that part of the country.

unless you have any great interest in it i wouldnt bother with Gibraltar..there just isnt much there.

Before you leave, assuming you are leaving from Madrid, you will definitely want to stay 3 nights in Madrid at least..if possible a bit more so you can see Segovia and/or Toledo. While in Madrid you of course want to see the main art museums (Reina Sofia, Prado, Thyssen) but an excellent museum that is often overlooked is the Museum of the Americas, which has an outstanding collection of artifacts from Mexico/Peru and the native societies of the Americas. They also have one of the very few surviving Mayan codices.

I hope this helps. You will love Spain.

turista

Do check the weather in these places in January. We were in Segovia in June and it was in the 60's because of the high altitude. They have skiing there so I imagine it will be cold and you may be doing some winter driving and some of these drives are into the mountains! It is beautiful though. I do agree with some of the other great cities fellow travelers have mentioned. Two nights in Granada for sure, one just to recover after visiting La Alhambra all day! We got a car and traveled everywhere but took 16 days. Driving is tough in the tiny ancient streets, especially in Arcos! Jerez has the horse shows (Tues/Thurs) and when you step out of the car you can smell the sherry in the air, so do take a sherry tour if time allows! We loved Nerja just to relax and have some down time between must see palaces and museums! Toledo is very nice and a short trip from Madrid!

Dariac

I am also planning a similar trip in January. I found that the bus runs from Madrid to Malagar for about 13 Euro and takes about 5 hours. There are several buses in the day and at night. We plan to also go to the islands. If you would like to email me, we can share information. My address is [email protected]

artlover

Seems there are good rail fares at railsaver.com. Also, sometimes can even beat the airfares with spanair.com flights. I've heard the drive between Madrid and Seville is not very scenic, but I think it's best to have a car in Costa del Sol area so you can see the white villages and do several day trips from a base.

Wildfire

Daria- the AVE goes from Madrid to Malaga in about 4 hours. are you certain the bus is that fast?