ludocdoc

I'm doing a fairly last minute trip to Spain. fly into Madrid on a Wednesday morning getting off the TATL, leave the following Wednesday. I plan to spend 1-2 nights in Granada to see Alhambra, and am thinking about a triangle trip -- Mardrid-Granada-Sevilla (or the reverse). while based in Madrid I might day trip to Toledo, Segovia. Would stop in Cordoba for a half day or a few days to see the Mosque/Cathedral and other sites.

I know there is a fast train to Sevilla, and a slow train to Granada from Madrid, and a train connects Granada and Sevilla or Cordoba too. So it seems a triangle makes sense. I'll be jet lagged arriving, so thought about just trudging to Granada on day 1, resting on the train. Downside is Alhambra is sort of the climax of the trip, and burning my jet lag day on the train means I do that first. Doing it last means I waste half a useful day on the train.

Ideas? Advice?

jerseyfinn

Spain is a fantastic destination no matter where you visit. I can offer insights based upon our own twice-yearly visits to Spain where we do timeshare visits the past 8 years in the region around Malaga/Marbella which sort of sits at the heart of the Andalucían region you say you want to visit.

It sounds as if MAD is more of an ingress/egress point for you as you want to head south & take in the sights of Andalucía which is indeed a great destination for travel, relaxation, and history. I'm trying to sort out your priorities & travel vitality since you speak of travel fatigue etc.

• Since Andalucía is your area of interest, it makes a lot of sense to situate yourself there sooner rather than later. So by all means arrive at MAD ( I assume in the early AM hours ) & get yourself on the way south ASAP.
• Although 7 days sounds like a lot of time, you've really got 5 days since you'll be dedicating the other two days to travel to/from MAD. Granada/Cordoba/Sevilla is by itself pretty ambitious for a 7 day trip with a car let alone trying this itinerary by train.
• Practically speaking, fast, direct train service from to MAD to Granada does not exist. Also consider that fast trains from Granada to Sevilla/Cordoba are not really possible either. Do you want to spend your hours riding trains, or do you want to be out and about walking the streets and experiencing Andalucía?
• I would suggest refocusing your itinerary to begin in a place like Malaga ( which has "fast" & regular direct 2 1/2 hour train service from MAD or 55min connecting flights MAD-AGP) and would not "beat you up" so much.
• This still places you within reasonable reach of Granada & gives you new options staying in Malaga ( BTW it's Picasso's home town complete w/ museum ).
• If you base yourself in Malaga you have lots of local sightseeing alternatives ( such as the caves at Nerja ). Since Alhambra is your main Granada objective and can be seen in one half day, you might consider stayng in Malaga & venturing to/from Granada from here ( figure 90 plus minutes driving or by bus ).
• Either Cordoba or Sevilla are 4 hour plus drives from Granada ( 3 to 3 1/2 hrs from Malaga ). You of course are talking about trains, so this will likely take more time.
• Truthfully, given the limited number of days you have sans rental car, I do not think you could do both Cordoba and Sevilla.
• Sevilla is more cosmopolitan and would have the advantage of better rail connections back to MAD than Cordoba. It still offer interestings things to see and do.
• If you real interest to see the breadth of history in the region ( Romans thru medieval etc. ) then Cordoba would be the place to priortize, but once again, it is a tricky journey from Granada and only less tricky from Malaga.

Once again, I'm just thinking out loud here from our own experiences in the region ( near Marbella at the Marriott resorts ), but we do have a feel for getting around the region. I see that you are US Plat, so if you fly PHL-MAD, you would arrive @ 8AM give or take. It's a tricky proposition finding connections to AGP flying US due to arrival times ( and Spanair going BK, thus eliminating *A options ). Iberia does codeshares out of BOS so you might want to look at them if you decide to try a connecting flight to AGP. DL also has a direct JFK-AGP flight which would place you directly in the region you want to visit.

Have fun planning your Spain itineray. Andalucía and the south is a great region with very friendly people.

Barry

ludocdoc

Thanks for the detailed reply. The plan was something like..

Arrive in MAD, fast train to Cordoba for 1-2 nights, seeing Sevilla as a day trip, and then taking slow train to Granada, or possibly seeing Sevilla faster leaving luggage at train station on train journey from Cordoba to Granada. Seems there is no luggage storage at Cordoba train station. I figure between the Cathedrals at Toledo, Sevilla, Madrid, Cordoba, I might be Cathedral'd out, and skip one...

Then Overnight in Granada 2 nights to see Alhambra and the city for one full day, and the morning slow train to Madrid.

Then a few days in Madrid to see the 3 big museums (maybe skip one), parks, day trips to Toledo and/or Segovia.

I want to see the parks in the south - el Torcal, Sierra Nevada, cave art sites, but figure that might be better done with a car on a country tour, so thats for the next trip.

ludocdoc

Spain Gurus help me out...

So I bought (preordered) the Granada tourism card, which I have to pick up at one of their locations. It comes with an Alhambra time, which I set up. however, I see other Alhambra entrance packages on the Alhambra ticket site (which was sold out of entrances the whole time I was visiting, so the card was the way to go).

Question: Do I need a separate entrance ticket for anything in the Alhambra complex? What should I see?

The answer: The card got me into the Alcazaba and the Generalife as well. Alcazaba posts one entry only, I was able to exit and reenter the Generalife as I popped in and out while getting lunch at the Parador. A little disappointed as I like the usually richly designed entry tickets to main sites -- I have a collection. This was just the card-- no nice richly printed ticket to exchange it for.