It looks like southern Spain, i.e. Andalucia in particular, is on my radar travel map again.

In starting to look for hotels and places to visit, and in re-reading some of my older topics and answers people gave at the time, it seems like only in Seville do the hotels almost double their prices during Holy Week. Is this correct? Or am I missing something?

We will probably not have a choice but to end up spending some of our time there during this very expensive week. Aside from choking on the hotel prices though :

1) is this really just in Seville, so if we manage to work around this we can have decent prices?

2) if anyone has been there during this week can you tell me whether it is really an exciting, interesting, worthwhile week to visit. Or is it so totally overrun with people that it makes it impossible to enjoy?

Thanks in advance!!

They celebrate Holy Week all over Andalucia. We saw processions in Cordoba and Granada as well as Sevilla.

Prices were definitely higher for us in Sevilla that week - but not in Cordoba or Granada.

It gets really crowded in Sevilla but we still had a great time. There were times and areas when it was super crowded, but other parts of the city were fine.

If you type "holy week" in the seach box you'll pull up some past threads and more info.

Thanks Shannon. Now isn't that interesting/strange that the only place where the hotel is more expensive would be Seville? That is what I found when starting to look through several hotel sites.

I wonder whether anyone else can give us some insight into this phenomenon?

This basically means, for me, that I probably will be able to go during this time since I can work around being in Seville not during this Holy Week and in other places while Holy Week is on.

I did do the search you suggested and found good info and am going to re-read some of the trip reports.

Thanks again.

Sevilla is where the BIG celebration is - people come from all over the world to experience it. I think in the other towns, it is mostly people from the region that experience it.

Our apartment in Sevilla went from 90 Euro to 150 Euro when the official week kicked in. So not quite double. We still considered it quite reasonable considering the circumstances.

Thanks for your further input and information Shannon!!

I am now wondering whether it would be a good idea to rent a car for our trip or just try doing trains and busses.

We are thinking of flying into Madrid, and then seeing the following cities (not necessarily in this order) : Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo.
I hope we will have about 2 weeks, not the best amount of time but not too bad.

I remember from Doru's trip report that they managed well without a car. And from reading many reviews of hotels that I am thinking about for our visit, a lot of them write that it is not easy (or even possible sometimes!!) to get there with a car, or car parking is ridiculously priced at 10-20 Euros per day, etc. etc.

Obviously this means we will HAVE to travel really lightly (which is not a problem for me). The "problem" is when I find things I want to buy and then have to shlep them on trains and busses......

So if anyone can enlighten me about this aspect, I would appreciate it.

I spent a week---the week prior to Easter---in Segovia, Avila , and Salamanca and timed my days for some awesome processions in those cities. I ended up taking 8 rolls of slides only to get my camera and film swiped in Madrid on Easter morning. I suspect I had some wonderful images but will never know now.

You might want to think about flying into madrid and out of Seville....I don't know about holy week but we were just in spain for about 15 days and we took the train everywhere which really was great...with a little planning we bought all the tickets the earliest we could 62 days before and got a very good web fare only discount. We did a day trip to Segovia and one to Toledo from Madrid. We then went Sevilla and did a day trip to Cordoba from there...We then went to Granada and over nighted there before going back to Madrid to leave again. had I known about flights fro Sevilla before I booked everything I would have gone fro Madrid to Granada then on to Sevilla and then home...We also bought our tickets to the Alhambra the earliest we could on line so we could get a time that worked with the train schedule.....We loved Sevilla...

Oh Bob, what an unfortunate turn of events, having your camera stolen!! So sorry. It seems lots of people have had incidents of this kind in Spain.....

JilM - thanks for the info. We cannot fly home from Seville, only Madrid, so we will have to make a circle beginning and ending in Madrid. We also are not of the type that can buy unrefundable tickets (or book hotels for that matter) inadvance since I never know until pretty much a few weeks before if I will really be able to take a trip (family matters, etc.). But I definitely think that traveling by train and/or bus might be the right way for us too.

Holy Week should not be missed - it is a very special and moving experience whatever your religious beliefs. Seville prices are huge due to supply and demand, similarly Malaga also has this as "peak" season, although prices are much lower than Seville. As with Seville people arrive from all over the world for the Malaga processions.

Malaga is my choice after Seville for truly spectacular parades. Be warned they go on all day and night.

Cordoba and Granada processions are smaller, but still fantastic.

A photo of a Malaga Procession:-

Dorit,
I have been in Spain for Holy Week in a varaity towns and cities, just two years ago in towns in Catalunya, while lacking the exhuberance of Andalucia they were exciting and allowed me to actually get very close to the pasos and the faithful who carried them and not get pressed to death either.
Many years ago I was in Caceres, province of Extremadura, where I witnessed the most thrilling, on a purely religious level - I still get shivers when I recall hearing a sponteneous "Saeta" sung from a window while the entire procession stopped and the entire crowd was silent. I'm saying that Holy Week in - almost- any town/city in Spain is going to be an experience, never the same twice.
That said, even I, the most feverent avoider of crowds, plan to attend the processions in Sevilla some day,and now, thanks to Amazing Hotel, I have added Malaga to the list also.
kathyk

Hi Dorit!
I am answering here to your message for the benefit of all.
We spent our last Christmas holidays in Seville and Barcelona. In Seville we stayed at the Alcantara. This is probabaly one of the best located small hotel I have ever stayed. Very quiet, clean, friendly staff, great value.

Within Spain we used low cost flights and within towns we used public transport which is very good. Seville is small so it is possible to walk everywhere. Barcellona has a great subway plus bus system. In Barcellona we stayed at Hostal Goya which was lovely and, for lack of availability, we had to spend a few nights at Hostal Girona which was terrible. We did not have breakfast in the hotels, so I can't tell you about that.
As prices are high in Barcelona, make sure you book early because the best places go fast.

Hi Letizia!! Thanks so much for your reply. We will not be in Barcelona this visit. We are only visiting the Andalucia region this time (and Madrid).

I think that I will make the choice to book the Alcantara, based on your glowing report and many others I have seen also on tripadvisor. It seems the best place considering that we do not want to spend much more.

Were you in other places also or just Barcelona and Seville? Can you recommend other hotels in Cordoba, Granada, Madrid?

Does anyone else have suggestions also for these other cities in terms of hotels?

Another question regarding Santa Semana (Holy Week) - we have decided NOT to be in Seville during this time so my question is - if we leave on the first day of the beginning of their festivities will it be a problem with crowds, trains running, taxis, etc.?

Muchas Gracias!!

Dorit, have you checked out the reviews on slowtrav yet?

Hotel reviews

I had "shiver moments" during the processions in Cordoba. When one of those pasos (such as the one in Michael's photo) passes 2 inches from your face, it is pretty amazing.

Have you thought about renting apartments at all? We had a really nice place in Granada, and it was quite inexpensive.

There are a lot of really cool videos on youtube that can give you an idea of what to expect - just type in "Semana Santa Sevilla" or Semana Santa Cordoba" and a bunch come up.

Hi Dorit, no we did nto stay in any other hotel or town. One week approx. in Barcelona, 5 days in Seville. That was more than enough to see everything.