drive idea from Seville to Granada – thumbs up or down?

In early October myself and my boyfriend are going to be doing a little of Spain. We are leaving Madrid on Oct 3rd, catching a Renfe train (2.5 hours) to Seville, and are due in Granada Oct 7th, so it's not a tonne of time, but enough we thought, to visit a few points in the interim.

These were my thoughts, what do you guys think?:

Starting from Seville, arriving in the afternoon of Oct 3, stay that night and the next, then on the morning of Oct 5 hire a car and travel to Granada via Ronda, Marbella, Malaga, and Motril (the direct drive without stopping, according to Google maps takes almost 6 hours). I'm thinking this will show us a little of the coast, some history and landscapes, and some nice spots to stay overnight.

Is there anything wrong with this plan, so you think? Pluses or minuses? Any advice would be great, cheers :)

Seville itself deserves a bit more time than you are allowing.

Buses and trains are pretty good, so if you are going to confine yourself to major destinations then there is not much point hiring a car. If you decide to hire a car, do some research on the "white towns" (actually small villages) that are awkward to visit unless you have transport but well worth seeing.

In any case, research the rail line between Ronda and the coast (it passes through a spectacular gorge with no road access) and so would be a worthwhile experience).

Personally I would give Malaga a miss (I like it, but it is far below the standard of other places in the region) but others would disagree. I have never seen Marbella but have no desire to do so.

Do you plan to visit Granada itself?

With your available time, if you want to visit Granada, I would stick to Sevilla and Granada and I would take a bus or train between them.

Thanks very much everyone. Thinking maybe ditch the car altogether by the sounds of this. I love that Ronda gorge idea - is Ronda itself considered a 'white town'? And yes from Oct 7 we then have 2 to 3 days in Granada, including a visit to The Alhambra, so I've left that out of the equation.

If we just took trains (say from Seville, to Ronda, to Granada) would we be missing a better experience, from driving ourselves and kind of road tripping it? We really like doing this in Australia, and Italy, but I'm sure Spain is different.

Another option is we get a train heading straight south from Madrid (stop in at Toledo for a half day?), maybe to a point like Malaga, have a little look around there (or not, and just use it as a pick up point) grab a car there, and do the drive along the coast around the Cabo de Gata / Sierra Nevada, and just stop at some towns along the way (San Jose was recommended to us too, in Almeria).

We could leave Seville for another trip (we want to do Portugal in the future, and you can get from Faro to Seville quite easily by the looks). Maybe we give Seville 3 or 4 days in the next one instead?

Personally, I think that Sevilla (and Cordoba) is among the most spectacularly beautiful cities on the planet, so I would not recommend leaving it "for next time".

Be aware that there is a very high rate of accidents along the coast road, so beginning a road trip in Malaga is not a good idea. Again, good and affordable public transport is available along the coast so there would not be a great deal of point in getting a car, while I find the coast much less interesting than the interior.

If we just took trains (say from Seville, to Ronda, to Granada) would we be missing a better experience, from driving ourselves and kind of road tripping it?

It really depends on your travel style and on what do you want to make. If you only want to visit Sevilla, Ronda and Granada, it can be easily made by a mix of bus and train. If you want to visit several white towns in a day, a car is your best bet. If you like to stop along a route when going from one town/city to other (e.g.: to take photos), a car would be your best bet.

Another option is we get a train heading straight south from Madrid (stop in at Toledo for a half day?)

Toledo deserves a full daytrip from Madrid as a minimum. In addition, if you want to continue from Toledo to Andalucía by train, you'll have to backtrack till Madrid.

we want to do Portugal in the future, and you can get from Faro to Seville quite easily by the looks

Yes it's easy to make it by bus although it takes some time. I'd forget about making it by rental car due to the fees involved when returning a car in a different country than where it was hired.

If you want to make a road trip, I would skip the coast (except Cabo de Gata if it makes sense in your route); i.e.: I'd go to the interior.
The alternative would be to visit Sevilla in this trip and if you feel you have time, to make a daytrip to Córdoba or to go and visit Ronda before heading to Granada.

Don't take the train from Seville to Ronda. It leaves you in nowhere for an hour to change trains.

Take the bus. I took it through Arcos de la Frontera. Awsome canion road towards Ronda that route. I'm only sorry I didn't go back to Arcos.

In Seville go to the Artes (arts) and Custumres Museum. It shows how things were done in homes farms factories and festivals.

Plaza de España takes a lot of climbing. So go there after the museo. Archeology museum is near the other museum. But an hour is a gawd's plenty at one museum cluster.
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Its near the Plaza de España, in Maria Louisa Park.

I recommend renting a car. You can get pretty good rates if you reserve ahead of time on line. There are many car rental offices near the train station. Make sure you know how to drive a stick. There are NO automatics for rent in Europe. We really liked renting Renaults.

A great little white village on the way to Ronda, is Zahara de la Sierra. I'd recommend spending a night there, then driving into Ronda for the day. Zahara de la Sierra is incredibly beautiful, on a hillside overlooking a lake. It has an old castle (?) lookout tower that sits above the city that you can walk up to. I can't personally recommend another charming town between Ronda and Granada, but there probably is one.

Granada is nice too. Definitely skip Malaga, it's a tourist town.

My family & I lived in Spain twice, for 6 months. We lived in a suburb of Sevilla. So I'm partial to it. Don't miss the Santa Cruz neighborhood near the Cathedral. Visit the Cathedral and walk to the top. Wander the pedestrian streets off Plaza Nueva. Eat lots of olives (in all of Spain). Enjoy cafe con leche (the best coffee I've ever had) in any bar (which in Spain more means cafe). Tostada (toast) with olive oil drizzled on it in Andalusia (not as good in Madrid). See if you can develop a taste for the jamon serrano.

I came to this website to ask a question about Asturias, but couldn't resist answering yours.

Edited by: robjoyrad

I think its fynny, how folks go to Starbux and pay twice the price for a lesser product.

Café con Leche IS the elixor of life.

Wow, so many great ideas, so little time. Here is our altered plan of attack:

1. train from Madrid to Seville (2.5 hours)
2. Seville 2 days
3. hire car and travel to Jerez de la Frontera white town
4. drive on to Cadiz
5. head along Costa de Luz and to Vejer de la Frontera white town
6. keep heading along Costa de Luz to Tarifa, then up to Marbella (maybe stop at Gibraltar)
7. from Marbella head north to Ronda - spend some decent time here, stay overnight
8. from Ronda, see how we feel and either go via the coast some more, through Malaga, Motril, then head north to Granada, OR stay inland and head to Granada just by quickest route (probably inland, via Antequera).

Were pretty happy with this as it covers a little coast, a little country, white towns - unfortunately Cordoba is just cramming too much in - but 2 outta 3 ain't bad (Seville and Granada).

NEXT time - Portugal, Cordoba, Arcos, Zahara :)

Also totally agree on the Starbucks and jamon Serrano comments - we're reeeeally lucky and have an awesome Spanish deli near us that sells both, but of course, to get it at the source would be awesome!

#7

Not true about no automatics for rent in Europe. They are available - they just cost more:-))

11 means cars for the shiftless.
All the places you're going to are served cheaply by train.

Don't you drive all the time back home? Do you know what drivers are like in Spain?

Do you know the labyrinth of Seville's streets?
Taxis are cheap there.

They ask which way you'd like to go, because there are no direct routes.

I won't go into (in many ways) parking + cost there-of. Or trying to get car from tiny medieval street, down tiny parking ramp.

And trains don't charge od prices for gas.

Gawkabout is right.

Since your itinerary consists only of major centres that are well-served by public transport, hiring a car does not make any sense.

Gawkabout - yes we drive at home, and have driven in Italy, but no I don't know what Spanish drivers are like having never been to Spain before - feel free to enlighten me ;)

I don't think the white towns are accessible by trains are they?

If we rented a car, we'd be going manual / stick - does look heaps cheaper than auto by the quotes we've had, cheers for the heads up everyone :)

Sorry i probably didn't explain this well, but we wouldn't actually be driving IN Seville at all, we'd hire a car on our way out of Seville after being there for two days, to have a bit of a road trip journey over a couple of days getting to Granada. The idea is the freedom and the opportunity to stop overnight at any white towns or coastal villages we might love on the way. I mention bigger towns such as Marbella, Malaga, Motril more as map points indicating our route plan, and not as actual places to drive in and really stay around. If we got to any small villages too, and wanted to explore them, I don't know for sure, but is it like Italy where you park just outside and walk in?

Thanks for all the invaluable feedback everyone, excellent food for thought!