isabel

Just finished editing my photos of my recent (mid March) trip to Andalucia - Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada. They are at: www.pbase.com/annforcier Warning - there's a LOT of them.

I do photos better than I do trip reports, so the report is kind of a summary, rather than a real blow by blow report. But since I find other people's reports so valuable to me I do try to write something. Here goes:

I went on the trip with my sister-in-law Allison who lives in South Carolina. She flew up to Massachusetts the day before so we could do the whole trip together. We left New England/New York in 5 degree snowy weather. We landed in New York at the tail end of a Nor’easter – a foot of yucky icy crap in NYC and 2 feet of snow in Conway. But in between we had 9 glorious days of sunny 75 degree ecstasy.

The Flights: We flew Iberia JFK to Sevilla, changing in Madrid, and Granada back to JFK, changing in Madrid – for $639. Iberia is in no way as bad as everyone says it is. It’s at least as good as any other airline. They did change the time of the outbound flight by almost 4 hours, but they did it over a month ahead of time, contacted us by email and gave a phone number to talk to a customer service rep and were very agreeable about changing the connecting flight from Madrid to Sevilla (so we wouldn’t have to wait around the airport as long). Three of the four flights left right on time, the last leg (Madrid back to JFK) was delayed one hour – and we even landed on time – we then had to sit in the damn plane for an hour waiting for a gate, but that wasn’t Iberia’s fault – perhaps JFK hadn’t plowed us a parking space yet). The planes were all new, everything worked except for a problem with water on the last flight meaning no coffee/tea. The food was probably the best airline food I’ve ever had. Flight attendants were perfectly friendly on all flights, as were check in people. All announcements were made in English as well as Spanish. I would definitely fly them again, and in fact I was all set to book my summer tickets (back to Spain) for an amazing $665 price they had available from Boston to Madrid in July – but now I can’t find it so I guess it was a promotion of some sort for the new route and it only lasted a few weeks.

Gotta run, I'll post the rest in a little while.

isabel

OK just realized this got posted to the US board - I don't why it does that, for some reason when I log on it always go the US board. So sorry, I'm reposting it where it belongs.

Chico

Thank you Isabel for your beautiful photographs. My husband and I are visiting Spain and Portugal for the first time this October and the locations you visited are where we are planning to visit. Your photographs make our trip seem so very real. Tell me, if you had one extra week and had to make a choice, would you spend it in the Lisbon area or Seville area.
Again, many thanks for the lovely photos.

isabel

Chico - Glad you liked the photos. If you click on my name you'll find the post on the Europe forum (this one on the US Forum was a mistake). That's where I'll continue the rest of the trip report if you are interested.

But to answer your question. I'd be sure to have at least a week to see Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada, but then if I had an additional week I'd spend it in Lisbon. I loved Lisbon, in fact all the areas in Portugal that I visited. My husband and I spent 12 days there last July. I did a trip report if you want to search for it.

sharyn1

Hi Isabel
Your photos are terrific! I have a question; for someone without a lot of time, would you recommend Cordoba? I just have 5 days and don't know if I should squeeze all 3 cities in or drop Cordoba.
thanks!

nsalerno

We are planning a trip to southern Spain in one year and Isabels photos are absolutely beautiful! What kind of camera does everyone have to take such great pictures?

isabel

sharyn1 - Hi, just saw this as I was in Spain (yes, again!) when you posted. I was in central Spain this time. To answer your Cordoba question, with only five days, yes I'd skip Cordoba. I enjoyed Sevilla and Granada much more. In fact with only 5 days you'll be pressed to really see those two but I'd still do both of them. How are you getting from one to the other? Is this your entire trip or part of a longer trip to include other places?

nsalerno - thanks for the comment on the photos. Actually, on that trip I used my digital SLR, a Canon Rebel xti. But due to it's size and weight, and the fact that I actually was not all that impressed with the results (I've only had that camera a few months) I used a much less expensive, smaller and lighter camera - a Panasonic Lumix FZ8 - and LOVED it. I've just downloaded the images and am so happy (I'll post them, but it will be a while). Anyway, I think I'm selling the Canon, just not worth it when you can get results like this with a non SLR. (It's not a tiny pocket size, it's a "SLR like" style, with a 12x zoom and all manual options). Wanna buy my canon.

nsalerno

Isabel: Actually my husband wants a smaller camera with some additional features-I'm going to check out the Panasonic. We loved your trip report--going Sept. 2008 and are now reading and studying the area. I'm sure we'll have questions about itinerary-We'll read your entire trip report soon.

Thanks

cristine27

Isabel your photos are beautiful!!
(Not just of Spain..i've seen them all)

cristine27

Which camera have you used in your New York photos? They have a good light and even at night the colours are very nice.
I have a sony with a lens that rotates 360 but apart from that, i'm not happy at all with the quality. I'm considering bying a new one. Any ideas?

gatogenico

Hi, Isabel.I'm Jaime, from Brazil. Awesome pictures!!
I'm going to Andalusia next september and I'm trying to find nice and cheap hotels in Seville and Granada. Would you have any tip to give? Where did you stay in those cities? Thanks a lot. You're a great photografer.

isabel

cristine - the NYC photos were taken with a number of different cameras over the years, - a Nikon 5700, a Canon SD 700, and a Canon Rebel xTi mostly. But my newest camera, the Panasonic Lumix FZ8 is really impressing me. I'm just looking at the photos I took on my most recent trip and they need much less editing (fixing contrast,color, etc) than any of those other cameras. I'd really look into it, I'm very happy with it. IT's also light and much less expensive than the Nikon or the Canon.

Jaime - if you want to read my whole trip report about my Andalucia trip, including hotel recommendation, I posted it on the Europe forum (being on the US one was a mistake when I initially posted). Try this link - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34977031