Andalusia's three great cities sit within 250 kilometres of each other and are joined by fast trains. A week is genuinely enough for all three, which is unusual in European travel, and the main threat to the trip is the temptation to add Málaga, Cádiz and Ronda to the same seven days.
The shape of the week
Three nights Seville, two Córdoba, two or three Granada — or reverse it. Trains between them take under an hour Seville to Córdoba, and around two hours Córdoba to Granada. No car is needed and a car is an active liability, because all three centres are restricted-traffic zones with camera enforcement.
The ticket to book now
The Alhambra. Entry is capped and timed, and tickets — particularly for the Nasrid Palaces, which is the part you are actually going for — sell out weeks and in high season months ahead. The Nasrid entry is for a specific half-hour slot and it is not flexible.
Book this before you book anything else about the trip, including the flights. Everything in Granada arranges itself around that half hour.
Beware resale sites. The Alhambra has an official ticketing site and a great many unofficial ones charging multiples. Buy from the official channel, and be aware that entry requires the ID or passport used at booking — names are checked.
Seville
The largest of the three and the one to base in longest.
- The Alcázar — Mudéjar palace, still a working royal residence, with gardens that are the best part. Also timed entry; book ahead.
- The cathedral and the Giralda. The tower is climbed by ramps rather than steps, which makes it far more accessible than it looks.
- Triana, across the river, for ceramics and a less curated evening.
- Flamenco. Seville is where to see it. Avoid the dinner-show format; look for a peña or a small tablao with no meal attached.
Córdoba
Smaller, and organised around one extraordinary building. The Mezquita — a great mosque with a cathedral built inside it — is a genuinely singular thing and repays going twice.
Go at opening. Early entry, before the coach groups, is a different building: the forest of arches works only when you can see down the aisles. By eleven you are looking at people.
The rest of Córdoba is the old Jewish quarter, the Roman bridge, and — if you are there in early May — the patio festival, when private courtyards open to the public. That fortnight is the best and busiest time to be in the city.
Granada
The Alhambra dominates and deserves to. Two things beyond it:
- The Albaicín, the old Moorish quarter opposite, which is where you look at the Alhambra from. The view from San Nicolás at sunset is the famous one and is correspondingly full; the surrounding streets are better.
- The free tapas. Granada is one of the last Spanish cities where a drink comes with a substantial free tapa. It is a genuine local custom rather than a tourist gimmick, and an evening of it replaces dinner.
When to go
March to May and October to November. Andalusian summer is extreme — Córdoba and Seville regularly exceed 40°C in July and August, and this is not a heat you sightsee in. Winter is mild, cheap and perfectly pleasant, with short days and a real chance of rain.
Two weeks to know about: Semana Santa and Seville's Feria in April. Both are extraordinary and both make the city extremely full and expensive. Go deliberately or avoid deliberately; do not arrive by accident.
The short version
- Three cities, one week, by train. No car.
- Book the Alhambra first, before flights. Nasrid Palace slots sell out months ahead.
- Be at the Mezquita at opening. It is a different building before eleven.
- Seville for flamenco; Granada for free tapas; Córdoba for one perfect hour.
- March–May and October–November. Not July or August.
- Check the dates of Semana Santa and the Feria before booking.