Trip to Spain
 

Hello,

I recently posted regarding my trip to Spain and Istanbul. I have changed my mind and will now just travel to Spain in Jan 2014. This is my itenary that I am planning:

Jan1: Fly to Malaga from London and take bus to Granada
Jan 2: Granada
Jan 3: Bus to Cordoba
Jan 4: Cordoba
Jan5: Bus to Seville
Jan 6: Seville
Jan 7: Bus to Madrid
Jan 8 :Madrid
Jan 9: Madrid
Jan 10: Bus to Barcelona
Jan 11: Barcelona
Jan 12: Barcelona
Jan 13: Barcelona
Jan 14: Fly back to London

Please tell me if this order makes sense I am looking forward to going to the main tourist sites. Please tell me if the number of days allocated are good? Also, which bus or train company would you suggest?

Thank you !!

Buses: www.alsa.es/en
Trains: www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros

Schedule looks ok for - as you say - just the highlights.

Granada: Make sure to book for the Alhambra right now. You're alloted a half-hour window to enter the palace which is inside the overall grounds - you can hang around the grounds for as long as you like, but the palace itself is ticket controlled and timed. Take with you the exact same credit card you used online, you need it to print out the ticket from a machine that looks like an ATM - it's for identification, you won't be charged twice.

Cordoba: Get to the Mezquita before ten AM when the buses start to pull up. Give it a couple of hours so you can linger and let the visuals sink in. Then also walk the old town, look up - the balconies are many people's pride, although in Jan. (no flowers) there might no be much to see there.

Malaga - why not fly into Granada instead of Malaga? But if it is Malaga, make sure you have time to at least go up onto the hill with the old fortifications etc., and when you walk down, at the bottom look for the City Hall building (Ayuntamiento), it's quite something!

I would take the AVE from Sevilla to Madrid. And the AVE or regular train from Madrid to Barcelona.

Very much recommend to take the train and save very much time. The high speed AVE train is 50 mins between Córdoba and Sevilla, 2h 30 mins between Sevilla and Madrid and 2h 30 mins between Madrid and Barcelona. The bus will take you more than double the time on each route.

Buy train tickets in advance at renfe.com and save 50% or more.

Fine and updated sites about your cities (incl one tip from the top of my head for each place):

Granada: http://www.lovegranada.com/
Flamenco: http://www.turgranada.es/flamenco/fl...20&id_idioma=2

Córdoba: http://english.turismodecordoba.org/index2.cfm
Tapas bar: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Andalucia.html

Sevilla: http://www.exploreseville.com/
Flamenco: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...Andalucia.html

Madrid: http://www.esmadrid.com/en/portal.do
Jazz: http://www.cafecentralmadrid.com/

Barcelona: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/
Restaurant: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Catalonia.html

If you stay the first night in wonderful Málaga, I recommend a meal at Mesón de Cervantes close to the Teatro Cervantes:
http://www.elmesondecervantes.com/eng/index.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Andalucia.html

I agree with everythng above. Socibus is very cheap, but it will take 7 hrs (a whole day) from Sevilla up to Madrid.
2 days are by far not enough for Madrid
1 1/2 days are too much for Cordoba
2 days at Sevilla are the absolute minimum

Take the fast train instead of the bus and add
days 4 and 5 to Sevilla
days 7 and 10 to Madrid

This plan is MUCH better than trying to include Istanbul in the same time span. But it is still a rushed plan. To know how to advise you better about how to allocate your time, we need to know more about your interests.

Agree not to waste a significant part of your limited time on interminable bus rides.

Also you are really short changing Seville - I would do 3 days - and 2 days in Madrid won;t give you time to get to Toledo.