Hi,
After spending a couple of weeks in Morocco from mid Oct til about 26th, my partner and I want to head to southern spain until we fly out of Casablanca on the 6th Nov in the early afternoon. We have a vague idea of going to Cordoba, Jerez, Granada. Is this enough time to do all 3 cities?
We are looking to relax a bit rather than spending our time rushing around going from place to place. Food, wine and music are big on our agenda!
Alternatively, would spending the majority of our time in one of these cities and doing the odd day trips be better.
We will be getting around by public transport and getting the ferry to and from Spain - tangier/algeciras
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated as to the above mentioned cities or suggestions as to others.
Cheers, B
So much to see.... It's difficult to recomend just one.
If you are entering Spain through the Straight of Gibraltar, I wouldn't miss Tarifa. You can take the ferry directly from Tanger. http://tarifa.costasur.com/sites/frs/es/index.html<BR>It's a great little town with amazing beaches all around (pity you don't have a car to go to Bolonia, one of the nicest beaches of all Andalucía) From there you can take a public bus to Jerez (most probably you first have to take a bus to Algeciras, 20 kms away from Tarifa) Find here buses timetables: http://www.windtarifa.com/venatarifa/horariobus.htm,
In Jerez you can enjoy some more days just walking around, drinking some sherry and visiting the Bodegas. Great place also to see some flamenco (and even to take a short course if you dare!! you could maybe learn some compas y palmas (clapping) in a couple of days) In Jerez I don't know any schools, but I know one in Sevilla: www.tallerflamenco.com. You can write them, tell them what your needs are and they can arrange a short course for you.
From Jerez you could, either come to Sevilla, just one hour away by bus or train, or go to Cádiz, less than an hour away and very well comunicated. If you don't want to travel a lot and want to take it easy, both cities are wonderful for that: Sevilla is a beautiful city to see, full of art and with wonderful food and lot of flamenco to see. Cadiz is on the sea, which is always nice, and it's a city full of magic, with the funniest and nicest people of all Andalucia. People compare it with La Habana. Also a great place to eat fish!
From Sevilla, you can take the high speed train to Cordoba (45 minutes) Also a great choice. In Sevilla, as well as in Cordoba, you can get free bicicles to ride around town: http://www.sevilla.org/sevillaenbici/<BR>And also from Sevilla, you can easily get by bus to Granada, 3 hours away. Amazing city. I couldn't say which one is the best choice. If you need some more info, do not hesitate to ask.
Salud!
I'm not 100% certain of what you mean. Do you mean that you have from 26 October till 6 November to visit Andalucia but that has to include your travel from somewhere in Morocco to Andalucia, and then from Andalucia to Casablanca? If so, will you be in Tangier on 26 October or do you have to travel from somewhere else in Morocco to Tangier on that day?
This is important stuff given that your 'window' is just 11 days. Also, is there a specific reason why you've omitted Seville from your list? You can get from Algeciras to Granada by direct train (half a day) and from Granada to Cordoba by bus (also half a day). However, I think you have to pass through Seville on your way from Cordoba to Jerez. I ask simply because most visitors to Andalucia include Seville as a destination.
Thanks for all your replies
In response to Tony B
I plan on being in Tangier on around the 26th October coming from maybe Chefchouen ( if that's how you spell it?).... Can't be more specific as I don't have any set plans for Morocco... we are just winging it. The 26th, I figured would be enough to spend a reasonable time in Andalucia(though I realise of course if I didn't have to fly back to Aus I would traverse indefinitely - if only!) No reason as to why I didn't particularly mention Seville - just would like to see Jerez - from other threads and further reading, I can see that perhaps Seville might be a better place as a central point.
In response to alter
Some great information there - I was planning on arriving in Algeciras as this seems to be the route with the most services - Tarifa does sound lovely. Just seemed though that would add on a fair amount of time in travel
As for getting around - I have vaguely thought of car hire, but not sure about driving around in the big cities - also, the public transport system appears to be well serviced.
Cheers, B
So how many days will you have in Andalucia in total? How much time are you allowing for getting back from Andalucia to Casablanca for your flight on 6 November?
Oops I keep missing out details - sorry!
I'm hoping that if we leave Andalucia on the 5th at the latest, that should be sufficient time to get a ferry back to Tangier from either Algeciras or Tarifa. Then on down to Rabat(?) and then catch my plane in Casa at 2.00pm on the 6th (I'm assuming trying to get a ferry on the same day as departure would be next to impossible....) - so I guess in total including time for travel from tangier on the 26th til the time we leave to head back to Casa on the 5th that would be 9 days total (10 nights) to spend relaxing in Spain.
Cheers again, B
Ok, that's much clearer.
The tricky bit is public transport. Basically, you get travel between Jerez, Seville, Granada and Cordoba but eeach journey is going to take up time. Given that you only have 9 days, you'll probably want to keep your travelling time down to a minimum. For example. Cordoba - Granada takes about half a day door-to-door, as does Seville or Jerez to Granada. So you need to choose carefully. Jerez is certainly gorgeous and it's quite different to Seville so don't ask me which is the better place for you to go to!
But you also need to take into account your getting from and to the Spanish ports and the transport links to/from Tarifa are completely different to the ones to/from Algeciras. Algeciras is the better served by buses from Seville and Jerez but, of course, you might fancy staying a night in Tarifa, either on your way into Spain or on your way out. You could enter by one port and leave from the other.
I'll just give you some sample journey times so you can work up some kind of draft itinerary. If I specify bus only, it's because there is no train service or it's poor. Basically, the one place that is out on a limb transport-wise is Granada.
Algeciras - Jerez: bus 1 hr 30 mins (frequent).
Algeciras - Seville: bus 2 hr 30 mins (frequent)
Jerez - Seville: bus, 1 hour (frequent); train 1 hr 10 mins (frequent)
Seville - Cordoba: train 40 mins - 1 hr 30 mins (frequent); bus, 2 hrs (6 daily)
Cordoba - Granada: bus 2 hrs 30 - 3 hrs 30 (frequent)
Seville - Granada: train 3 hrs (4 daily); bus 2 hrs 45 mins - 4 hours (infrequent)
To get from Jerez to either Granada to Cordoba involves going via Seville.
I would say that with your 9 days and an interest in Jerez, you should restrict yourself to Jerez, Seville and Cordoba so that you don't spend loads of time on public transport. What do you think?
It's starting to look as though hanging around Jerez, Seville and Cordoba might be the most logical - tho I'm not going to rule out Granada just yet! I'll do some more reading re the towns....The public transport info you presented certainly puts a better perspective on things. Thanks. Think it might be a pretty tough choice, cos as you say each place will have it's own atmosphere and fantastic qualities..........hmmm.
Cheers again, B
trusted partner
