Andalusia in 8 days: Seville, Córdoba, Granada and Ronda

Day 2 — The Alcázar and the Giralda

• 09:30 — Real Alcázar at opening, booked. Mudéjar courtyards built by Muslim craftsmen for Christian kings, gardens full of peacocks, and a thousand years of palace laid over itself. Two hours minimum, and the ticket includes the upper royal apartments only if you add them.
• 12:30 — The Cathedral and the Giralda. The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, Columbus’s tomb carried by four kings, and a minaret turned bell tower that you climb by ramps rather than stairs — they were built for horses.
• 14:30 — A long lunch in a Santa Cruz courtyard, out of the sun.
• 17:30 — Cross the river to Triana: the ceramic workshops, the market on the far side of the bridge, and the streets where flamenco families still live.
• 20:30 — Flamenco, properly. A small tablao or a peña rather than a dinner show. An hour of it is enough and it rearranges you.

Day 3 — Seville slowly, or Itálica

• The slow option: the Hospital de los Venerables, the Archivo de Indias, a hammam in the afternoon, and the Alameda for the evening. Seville is a city that repays doing less.
• The out-of-town option: Itálica, twenty minutes north — a Roman city with a near-complete amphitheatre and mosaic floors still in place, birthplace of two emperors.
• Evening — Last Seville dinner. Pack; the train is early.

Day 4 — Córdoba and the Mezquita

• 09:00 — Train to Córdoba, about 45 minutes. Drop bags.
• 10:30 — The Mezquita. Eight hundred and fifty columns of red-and-white striped arches, with a cathedral dropped into the middle of it in the sixteenth century — an act of vandalism that is also the reason the rest survived. A free early-entry window has long run on weekday mornings; check the current status before relying on it, and go at opening either way.
• 13:00 — The Jewish quarter and the Calleja de las Flores, then the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos for its gardens and its water staircases.
• 15:00 — Salmorejo, which is Córdoba’s thicker answer to gazpacho, and flamenquín if you are hungry.
• 18:00 — The Roman bridge at golden hour, looking back at the Mezquita’s tower.
• Note: in early May the patio festival opens private courtyards across the old town and the city is at its best and its fullest. Book months ahead for those two weeks.

Where to stay in Córdoba (one night)

• Grand: Hospes Palacio del Bailío — a sixteenth-century house with Roman ruins under a glass floor.
• Mid-range: Las Casas de la Judería de Córdoba — linked old houses and courtyards a short walk from the Mezquita.
• Simple: a small hotel in the Judería; the whole quarter is within ten minutes of everything.

Day 5 — To Granada, and the Albaicín

• 10:30 — Train to Granada, about an hour and a half.
• 13:00 — Check in. Stay in the Albaicín or just below it — the old Moorish quarter on the hill facing the Alhambra.
• 16:00 — Walk up through the Albaicín: white houses, high garden walls, and a street plan that was never redrawn.
• 19:00 — Mirador de San Nicolás for sunset. The Alhambra on its ridge with the Sierra Nevada behind it, which is the view that sells Granada. It is crowded and still worth it; the Mirador de San Miguel Alto above it is quieter.
• 21:00 — Dinner in the Albaicín, where the drinks come with tapas. Three rounds is a meal here.

Where to stay in Granada (two nights)

• Grand: Parador de Granada — inside the Alhambra grounds, in a converted convent. It is expensive and books out months ahead; it is also the only way to be inside the walls at night.
• Mid-range: Hotel Casa 1800 Granada — a restored house in the Albaicín with Alhambra views from some rooms.
• Simple: a carmen guesthouse in the lower Albaicín — walkable, quiet, and half the price of the hill.

Day 6 — The Alhambra

• Go at your slot and not before. The ticket admits you to the grounds for the day but the Nasrid Palaces admit you for thirty minutes from the printed time.
• The order that works: Generalife gardens first if your palace slot is late, Alcazaba fortress for the ramparts, then the Nasrid Palaces — the Court of the Myrtles, the Court of the Lions, the honeycombed ceilings that are the point of the whole trip.
• Four hours at minimum. Water, a hat, and shoes you can climb in.
• Afternoon — Down to the city for a hammam, or the Capilla Real, where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried beneath a monument neither of them would recognise as modest.
• Evening — Sacromonte, the cave quarter, for a zambra — the Granadan flamenco form, danced in a cave rather than on a stage.
• Pick up the hire car this evening or early tomorrow.

Day 7 — The white towns and Ronda

• 09:00 — Drive to Ronda, roughly two hours, and the landscape does all the work.
• On the way: Setenil de las Bodegas, where the houses are built into and under an overhanging rock shelf, and the street is roofed by cliff. Twenty minutes and a coffee.
• 12:00 — Ronda. The Puente Nuevo across a hundred-metre gorge, the old town on the far side, and the Plaza de Toros — one of the oldest bullrings in Spain, now largely a museum.
• 16:00 — Walk down into the gorge for the view back up at the bridge, which is the one most people miss because it means climbing out again.
• Evening — Dinner in Ronda and a quiet night. The town empties when the coaches leave, which is the reason to stay rather than day-trip.

Where to stay in Ronda (one night)

• Grand: Parador de Ronda — on the gorge’s edge beside the bridge, with the view from the terrace.
• Mid-range: a hotel in the old town on the far side of the bridge, which is the quieter half.
• Simple: the new town around Plaza del Socorro, five minutes’ walk and noticeably cheaper.

Day 8 — Down to Málaga, and out

• Morning — Drive to Málaga, about an hour and a half, or two with a stop.
• If the flight is late: the Picasso Museum and the Alcazaba are both central, and the city has a proper beach.
• Drop the car at the airport and allow the usual margin for the fuel-and-damage inspection.