Spain in October
lolo
My wife and I are planning a trip to Spain in late September, mid
October of this year. We are planning on visiting the Andalucia area
primarily as it is supposedly a good time to visit. We would welcome
any input. Our tentative plan is to fly into Madrid, travel by train
to Seville and then points south and east. Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz,
Malaga are tenative stops, but we are wanting to avoid "tourists"
traps as much as possible and actually experience Spain. All
suggestions are welcomed.
John Zumsteg
We originally wanted to stay in Cadiz, but, truth be told, we could not find a hotel that appealed to us. Checking all the ones in the old part of the city, which is where we like to stay, on TripAdvisor and other reviewing sites, turned up more bad stories than we are willing to chance. Seemed strange to us, but we had the fall-back of Vejer, from which we can easily make a day trip into Cádiz.
I don't know where you're flying from, but it's quite possible that for almost no additional cost, you can fly to Malaga, which saves the train trip. (In fact, on British Airways from Seattle, the fare to Malaga is cheaper than the fare to Madrid -- go figure).
Your other choices are great. As you set an itinerary, let the group know and I'm sure you'll receive lots of great advice.
John
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Robert Lata
We took a somewhat similar trip in Spring of 2008; attached is a copy of the trip report. Have a great time!
Bob Lata
The following post is one of a series describing our 17 day trip to Spain during May 2008. The itinerary in summary:
Madrid - four nights
Sevilla – four nights
Arcos de la Frontera – one night
Ronda – two nights
Granada – two nights
Cordoba – two nights
Carmona – one night
Madrid:
The AeroCity shuttle (€21 for two persons; http://www.aerocity.com/) was a convenient way to get from the Airport to our accommodations, Hotel Europa, just off Puerta del Sol. We were very pleased with the modern, clean room and the accommodating staff of the Hotel Europa; the adjacent hotel café was a plus for both breakfasts and people watching at their sidewalk café along the pedestrian zone. From the Hotel Europa it was easy to walk to all of the sights we planned to see.
The only down side to the hotel, in spite of their apparently modern noise-attenuating windows, was the pervasive sound of street musicians in the pedestrian zone - - music played loud and long into the night. Visiting Hotel Europa again we would request a room away from the nightly entertainment (Hotel Europa, Calle del Carmen 4, 28013 Madrid; tel: (34) 915 212 900; www.hoteleuropa.net; €100 for superior double room).
Our primary mission in Madrid was to have adequate time to enjoy three museums: Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen - Bornemisza, and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; we each scheduled for a separate day. The Paseo del Arte Museum Pass (purchase for €14.40 at any one of the three museums) was handy. The Prado Café, located adjacent to the museum shop on the basement floor of the Prado was good and economical.
A recent expansion of the Prado is accessible via an underground passage near the Prado café – museum shop, and then up a couple of flights of escalators. The new construction is in an area that was formerly a cloister - - they took the cloister apart and reconstructed it within the top floors of a modern building, now a home for a sculpture collection. The expansion is particularly impressive when one considers how it was designed; be sure to check out the view from outside the Prado.
Very convenient (about 100 meters away) from the Hotel Europa was a El Corte Ingles department store - - the basement of which houses a full supermarket providing a great selection of meats, cheeses, wine, etc. - - all one needs to supply a delicious hotel room picnic. Their gourmet section was also a source for saffron (the larger portions of which are kept under lock and key).
Nearby Puerta del Sol is a traditional place to try hot chocolate and churros: the San Giles Chocolateria. Only a short walk away was Plaza Santa Ana - - a fine area to wander through, with numerous shops, bars, and lots of outdoor seating. We found Meson Cinco Jota, at the NW corner of the plaza, particularly appealing with its sidewalk café setting. For us, however, the gastronomic high point of our visit in Madrid was a seafood lunch at Sirena Verde (Gran Via 62; http://www.accua.com/sirenaverde/).
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After three museum-filled days in Madrid we enjoyed the fast and smooth AVE train ride from Madrid to Sevilla. Security at the Atocha Rail Station in Madrid was similar to air travel but no inconvenience.
In addition to our first class Eurail Pass we needed to pay a supplemental fee ($93 through RailEurope) for the AVE train trip; seating was reserved and the ticket included a full meal (like airline food, but we thought much better). The only inconvenience with the AVE was that all luggage needed to be stowed on the rack above the seats - - and a heavy full-sized suitcase was a challenge to get up there. One of the perks of traveling first class on the AVE was use of their well equipped and comfortable departure lounge, which we could occupy for up to two hours in advance of our trip - - free coffee, juices, snacks, TV, and a quiet lounge setting.
A short taxi ride from the train station in Sevilla was the Hotel Amadeus (Calle Faresio 6; http://www.hotelamadeussevilla.com/index.htm; €103 for superior double). The Amadeus is located in the historic Santa Cruz neighborhood, a short walk from the city center. We had requested an upper floor room and were very pleased - - the hotel was very clean, quiet, and quaint - - with a nice roof-top terrace, seating areas, and an excellent continental breakfast (extra). Rooms were relatively small but totally adequate. Laundry service was also available (€15 per load, nicely folded). We would highly recommend the Amadeus.
We had arranged a walking tour for each of our three days in Sevilla through Concepcion Delgado (http://www.sevillawalkingtours.com/): a general city tour, plus one each of the cathedral and alcazar. The cost for all three excellent tours was a total of €22 per person (plus the cost of entry to the cathedral and alcazar).
The climb to the top of the Giralda (a former minaret that had been converted to a bell tower for the cathedral) was well worth the effort. The way up is all a series of ramps that make for an easy climb - - the view of Sevilla from above was excellent.
As we had in Madrid, we found the El Corte Ingles and took advantage of their basement supermarket for picnic dinners. For us the Spanish dinner time is too late at night; we chose instead to have a good breakfast, a mid-afternoon lunch, and a picnic dinner in the early evening.
Sevilla has a particularly great place for lunch: Taberna del Albardero (http://www.jpmoser.com/tabernadelalabardero-r.html). The Taberna is a hotel – restaurant that also functions as a cooking school. The more formal full price restaurant is upstairs, but there is a great bargain on the ground floor at lunch time (from 1300 to 1630). A special three-course menu, offering various choices for each course, is served by students for €15 per person - - plus the cost of beverages. We came back a second day to enjoy the outstanding meal!
After considering the various options to see flamenco performances, we chose “La casa de la memoria de Al Andalus” (http://sefarad.rediris.es/textos/0casamemoria.htm) which offers a program of about one hour in a small courtyard venue. No food or beverage sales - - just exciting music and dance. The program varies from night to night; the cast on the evening we attended consisted of two dancers, a singer and a guitar player. It was a high-energy performance that we thoroughly enjoyed. We purchased tickets (€15) a day in advance and were glad we did - - seating is limited and we noted that people seeking tickets for the same day performance were being turned away.
We thoroughly enjoyed Sevilla and wished that we could have stayed longer - - three days were not enough for us!
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The plan for continuing our tour of Andalucia called for us to pick up a rental car when we were ready to leave Sevilla, so we took a taxi to the Sevilla Airport (about €35) where we had reserved a rental through Hertz. We chose a “B” class Mercedes diesel, which was adequate for our luggage yet small in exterior format - - which turned out to be our salvation when we tried to reach our next goal: our hotel in historic district of Arcos de la Frontera. The rental car cost us €370 for an eight days; we did not opt for the extra insurance because we had coverage purchased through our American Express card.
In Arcos we had reservations at El Convento (http://www.hotelelconvento.es/), which is located directly adjacent (and has the same views as) the Parador. Getting to the closest public parking area, Plaza del Cabildo (which is located in front of the Parador and subject to a €3.50 daily fee, paid at the hotel) was exciting; the road is uphill and very narrow (at the tightest, inches off the rear-view mirrors on each side of our rental car) - - needless to say, there were no Hummers or other full-sized American cars to be found in that the parking lot! For persons driving larger cars or those who are not comfortable navigating small spaces, the El Convento has a sister hotel outside of the historic district where one can park a car and then take a bus or taxi to El Convento (Hotel Los Olivos is the sister hotel; see the El Convento web site for more information).
We were very pleased with El Convento - - our room was very clean, comfortable and had a fantastic view off of a spacious terrace; the price for our room (the “Rick Steves Room”) was €85. Unfortunately, the El Convento restaurant was closed for the season; instead we had a very good lunch at the adjacent Parador. After lunch and during a pleasant walk around in the historic district of Arcos, we purchased some cookies from an unseen nun in a convent near our hotel - - we put €5 in a turnstile, rang a bell, and received a box of delicious cookies without seeing a human face.
Arcos was a great place to wander and relax - - our visit was on a Sunday, and perhaps for that reason is was particularly quiet. As much as we enjoyed Arcos, we thought the one afternoon we spent there was sufficient.
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Following a short but pleasant stay in Arcos de la Frontera, we drove on to Ronda. Since the weather was unsettled and threatening rain, we drove the main highway route and did not choose to travel the more direct route through Grazalema.
Our plan in Ronda was to stay at the Hotel San Gabriel (Calle Marqués de Moctezuma 19; http://www.hotelsangabriel.com/; €113 per night for a junior suite), in the older part of town. We were extremely pleased with the hotel and would be happy to stay there again. The location was quiet and very convenient for walking around in Ronda. There is no on-site parking but there is space in front of the hotel to load luggage; the recommended parking area was in a public lot located near City Hall, about 400 meters away from the hotel - - since we were not planning to use our car during our stay, this was not at all a problem for us. As their website accurately indicates, the hotel is very well furnished / decorated. Among other features, there is a nice breakfast room; the staff was particularly helpful, especially in terms of restaurant recommendations.
Ronda was full of tourists during the day and relatively quiet in the evening. The level of activity was quite a contrast to sedate Arcos de la Frontera, but still fun. As with Arcos, the views from a hilltop town were great - - with an impressive 18th century bridge separating the old town from the new, the gorge provided great scenery. The Mondragon Palace is an interesting structure containing Municipal Historical Museum; there are great views from garden of the palace.
We enjoyed great meals at Restaurant Santa Pola (http://www.casasantapola.com/) and Restaurant del Escudero (http://www.delescudero.com/; Paseo de Blás Infante, 1; Tel: 952 871 367); Escudero had a particularly attractive outdoor seating area and delicious fixed price lunch.
Ronda was good for a two-day relaxing stay, but we found two days to be sufficient.
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From Ronda we drove to Granada and, seeking to avoid driving through the city center, we made our way around the city to the Alhambra. Our reservations were at the Parador within the walls of the Alhambra (http://www.parador.es/). We had made our reservations about a year before our trip, and per the Parador policies had to make a deposit equal to the cost of our first night’s stay. In retrospect, that was a relative bargain, since it was paid in 2007 dollars. The cost per night, €310, was, in my opinion, worth the great comfort and convenience. We were in a recently renovated room that had all of the modern conveniences one could wish for, and still within the 11th century Alhambra.
If one has reservations at the Parador (or the adjacent Hotel America), it is necessary to show proof of the reservation to a guard before one is permitted to drive (among the many pedestrians) up the walkway into the Alhambra. Once there, the Parador staff parked our car and we were happy not to use it for the next two days.
We ventured out of the Alhambra only once - - to go to lunch in downtown Granada. There is a mini-bus with service from a stop outside the Alhambra to and from the downtown area. We had a great meal (perhaps our best in Spain, although there were a lot of contenders): Zarzuela at Restaurant Cunini (Pescadería 14, Granada, (34 958 25 07 77). While in the downtown area we also saw the Royal Chapel where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. Aside from enjoying the great lunch and touring the chapel we were not impressed with the city of Granada; as a result, we canceled the walking tour we had booked for the following day - - instead choosing to relax in the grounds of the Alhambra.
We had booked tickets for our visit to the Alhambra palaces and gardens via the internet (http://www.alhambradegranada.org/guias/alhambraEntradas_en.asp). The website did not confirm our ticket purchase on the first try, but persisting we did get a confirmation the second time. With our confirmation in place, things went smoothly. On the day before our scheduled tour we were able to pick up our tickets from one of the computer terminals that were located just north of the ticket office. By inserting the same credit card with which we had made the on-line ticket purchase, we were able to print our tickets there on the spot - - very nice!
As has been pointed out by other visitors to the Alhambra, it is important to get into the secured areas of the Alhambra as soon as your ticket permits. For example, for a PM visit to the palaces (ours was the bracket of 1600-1630), one can access both the Generalife (summer palace and gardens) and the fortress area at the SW end of the Alhambra from 1400 (2 PM) onwards - - not earlier. One should take advantage of that opportunity to see those two areas before lining up for access to the palaces, since both the Generalife and fortress areas present interesting parts of the Alhambra. Note, however, that access to the Carlos V palace and the church are not constrained by ticket times.
Dining in the Granada Parador was excellent. There was a varied breakfast buffet for €15 which was quite satisfying (particularly if one avoided the typical American breakfast items - - the bacon and eggs looked gruesome and out-of-place in the context of an otherwise attractive presentation). They also offered a fine lunch menu. (One should, however, plan on making reservations for lunch or dinner to insure seating.) FYI: a perk of staying at the Parador is that the management has a limited number of AM tickets to access the Alhambra for Parador guests.
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After a great two-day visit in Granada we made our way around the city again, and drove north on the Auto Via A-44. We decided to take the longer Auto Via route through Linares instead of the more direct N-432 highway connection to Cordoba; our intent was to avoid the danger of getting stuck behind some trucks if the highway was only two lanes over the mountains from Granada into the Guadalquivir River Valley. Although the Auto Via distance was greater, it was a very comfortable drive.
When we sought to make reservations for a hotel in Cordoba - - some months ahead of our trip - - we had difficulty finding a suitable hotel in the downtown area, and ended up taking a hotel located on a main road the other side of the river from the downtown: Ciudad de Cordoba, (http://www.eurostarshotels.com/EN/hotels-in-spain-cordoba-eurostars-ciudad-de-cordoba.html). Upon arrival in Cordoba, it became clear as to why we had difficulty finding a hotel: the Cordoba Patio Festival was still underway.
We were pleased with the hotel, but not the neighborhood / setting; thankfully it was easy to get a taxi to and from the downtown area. The average cost per night at the Ciudad de Cordoba was €138. On the plus side, the hotel was easy to find and secure off-street parking was available.
As the Lonely Planet guide book on Spain states, “It’s hard to exaggerate the beauty of the Cordoba mosque” or Mezquita. We thoroughly agreed! Our visit to Andalucia would not have been complete without taking time to explore the Mezquita.
The streets of Cordoba were very crowded, which we suspect was a direct result of the Patio Festival. It appeared that many Spaniards were on holiday! The mood was very cheerful, and the patios we visited were lavishly landscaped. At one of the patios we struck up a conversation with the owners and they broke out a bottle of sherry. A very warm reception!
On the hunt for an additional supply of saffron, we sought out the Cordoba market hall, which was located on a square reminiscent of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. There was a compact market hall with the typical offering of a wide selection of seafood and other treats. As we had hoped, one of the stalls had saffron at a reasonable price.
Meson Bodega de Basilio (Calle San Basilio 19; tel: 957-297-007), was offering a buffet in response to the many Patio Festival visitors. A great spread! Afterwards we enjoyed watching folks dancing in the nearby street!
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Carmona was our last overnight stay for this trip to Spain for two reasons: we had heard from friends who stayed there how much they like the Parador, and Carmona was an easy half-hour drive to the Sevilla airport for our flight out of Spain.
The Carmona Parador (http://www.parador.es/en/tratarFichaParador.do?parador=025) has a spectacular view. A former fortress and palace, the Parador is perched on the edge of a steep cliff. Rooms were not as modern as Granada, but then they were also not as expensive (€159 per night in Carmona).
Aside from views, the Parador has a nice swimming pool and great public spaces, including a beautiful dining room. We had lunch and breakfast there; both were excellent meals. All in all, Carmona suited us quite well.
In summary, our 17 day trip to Spain was thoroughly enjoyable. Accommodations were all very nice to excellent, and we had many memorable meals (mostly seafood), accompanied by some crisp Albarinos and fine Riojas. Having fresh orange juice with each breakfast was a real treat, and I enjoyed the strength and taste of Spanish coffee. We also, unfortunately, acquired a taste for Montilla Moriles sherry and Spanish olives - - now we have the challenge of finding good sources here in the USA!
The selection of fresh seafood in markets was for us amazing (on the west coast of the USA we do not see a fraction what is offered in Spain). Rolls and bocadillos were consistently good, and pastries were very attractive. The cost of meals (plus tips) was relatively high compared to the USA, but we did not let that get in the way of us enjoying ourselves. Supplementing our lunches with picnic dinners helped keep expenses down.
From a number of sources we had read of security concerns, particularly in parts of Madrid and other tourist-impacted locations. We tried to avoid being easy targets for pickpockets by not carrying a handbag, and putting all wallets and other valuables in zipper pockets; we had, perhaps as a result, no bad experiences.
Highway and traffic control signage was clear and easy to follow; a frequent lack of street signs within cities was an inconvenience but not a real problem. ATM / cash machines were numerous and conveniently located. We were pleased to find internet terminals available in public areas of all of our accommodations, and only two out of seven charged a nominal fee for internet use.
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