Thanks for everyone's help. You convinced me to skip Madrid except for flying in and out.
How about this:
Day 1 - arrive in Madrid and take train to Seville Day 2 - Seville Day 3 - Seville Day 4 - Seville to Granada Day 5 - Granada Day 6 - Granada (or local trips, Nerja, etc) Day 7 - Granada Day 8 - Granada to Cordoba Day 9 - Cordoba Day 10 - Cordoba to Madrid Day 11 - Fly out of Madrid
I was thinking about renting a car when I left Seville and dropping it in Cordoba. Is this a good idea?
Any suggestions for day trips or other things that I might miss that you would recommend please let me know.
Your itinerary looks fine. If you do decide to take the train to Seville then I would suggest that you purchase your tickets on-line. Renfe offers on-line discounts.
Web fare - 60% discount if booked 15 or more days before your trip.
Estrella fare - 40% discount if booked 7 to 15 days before your trip.
The fares are only available 62 days in advance of travel and I understand that Renfe only offers some tickets at the discounted rate.
Renfe's website is not easy to use, but they do have an English version. Once the tickets are purchased they may be downloaded as a PDF and printed. With the printed ticket in hand, one can supposedly walk directly onto the train. The coach number and reserved seats appear on the ticket.
Depending upon where you live and how rushed you feel, you might also want to investigate Malaga as an alternative airport to Granada. From San Francisco, I would have had to connect twice to fly into Granada. Because every connection increases the chance of problems, I decided I'd rather fly Lufthansa to Malaga with only one connection (via Frankfurt). It was cheaper than flying the 3 segments to Granada, too. Malaga is well served by flights because it's kind of the gateway airport to the Costa del Sol. Will arrive in Malaga in the late afternoon, wasted from the long trip, take a nice walk, and get a good night's sleep there before taking the bus to Granada the next morning. Buses to Granada are very frequent and take about 1 1/2 hours.
Posts: 680 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 28 June 2006
I have to confess I'm a fan of the train. You can take the AVE (high speed train) from Madrid (Chamartin, unless that's changed) to Sevilla. It's slick and easy and very...European, I guess. Alternately, flying into Sevilla, then taking the train from Sevilla to Cordoba and Cordoba to Madrid is a good way to go, too. I think you'll love having more time in that area. Good call on rearranging the trip. We'll talk about your Madrid trip later...
You 've chosen to visit the nicest cities of Andalusia and you 've allowed enough time in each place to get a real feel.
My comments would be :
- From Sevilla, it takes only 40 mn by train to get to Cordoba. So I would go there first after Sevilla.
- Then from Cordoba there is a direct bus to Granada and you could leave from Granada back to Madrid (fast train... passing throught Cordoba actually...)
Renting a car is a great idea, but only in Granada as there are plenty of interesting things around :
Once you will be in Granada, Nerja should be the last place on your list (one of the top bad taste place in Andalusia) ... think about visiting "Monachil gorges" or "Calahorra castle" (have a look at the youtube document : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG8AzLp3prE&NR=1 )
