one coach, forty seats, cobbles and slopes described honestly
Escorted Andalusia Vacation Package: Three Cities, Two Hill Towns, Nine Nights
Forty seats on one coach, nine nights, five bases. This escorted andalusia vacation package fixes its route before you book, because a vehicle that size cannot turn around on a hill road.
Nine nights, from $2,340 per person.
Nothing here counts you and nothing here follows you off the page. One word can be written down, and only the word yes, so this strip stops coming back. What that means in full.
The coach carries forty two and we sell thirty six to forty seats on it, which means the back row is usually empty and nobody sits three across. Nine nights, five hotels: three in Seville, two in Cordoba, two in Granada, and one night each in Ronda and Arcos de la Frontera. Between those beds the coach covers about 540 miles on good roads, plus two stretches of mountain road that take longer than the distance suggests.
This escorted andalusia vacation package puts the hardest walking in the first three days, on purpose. Seville's old quarter is flat but the paving is river cobble laid by hand, rounded and slick when wet, and the Alcazar gardens run to gravel. Cordoba's Juderia is narrow and shaded and easy. Then Ronda and Arcos, which are hill towns in the literal sense: the coach parks below the old town and you climb, on stone, on a grade of roughly one in eight, for eight to twelve minutes depending on your legs. Nobody calls that gentle here.
Granada finishes it. The Alhambra sits above the city and the walk from the gate through the Generalife, the Alcazabar and the Nasrid Palaces runs about two and a half hours with almost no seating, on stone worn smooth in the middle of every step.
- What size this is
- About forty of you on a full coach, which buys a professional driver, a guide with a microphone and a fixed route, and removes any chance of changing the plan at breakfast.
- What is actually included
- Nine nights in three and four star city hotels with breakfast; all coach transport within Andalusia including airport transfers on the group arrival day; an English speaking guide throughout; local walking guides in Seville, Cordoba and Granada; timed entry to the Alcazar, the Mezquita and the Alhambra including the Nasrid Palaces; four dinners; luggage handling at every hotel.
- Who else is on it
- Thirty six to forty two people, most of them in pairs, sharing one coach and one guide for nine days. Timed entry means the group moves as one body: forty people take eleven or twelve minutes to clear a ticket gate, so the guide calls a departure and the coach leaves on it. You will hear the same jokes twice and you will learn everybody's name by day three. Free afternoons are genuinely free, but mornings belong to the group.
- What it does not include
- International flights and any domestic flight; lunches and five dinners; drinks at included meals; entry to sites not named above, including the Granada cathedral and the Seville bullring museum; tips for the driver, guide and local guides; taxis on free afternoons; anything in Gibraltar or Morocco, which this route does not enter; laundry, phone and minibar charges; travel protection products of any kind, which this office does not sell or arrange.
- Who should not book this
- Anyone who cannot manage forty five minutes of walking on uneven stone without sitting down, and anyone who wants to change the itinerary once it starts. The coach does not wait, the hill town streets have no ramps, and there is no shorter version of the Alhambra walk.
What Forty People Do To A Day In Andalusia
Forty is the number at which the trip stops being flexible and starts being reliable. You get a driver who has done these roads for years and knows which pass to take when the wind comes up at Ronda. You get a guide who has arranged the timed entries months ahead, so at the Alhambra gate the group walks in on its slot instead of joining the line that starts at six in the morning. You get four dinners in rooms that hold forty, which is a real kitchen and not a set menu improvised for a crowd.
What you lose is the ability to change anything. A coach that size cannot stop where the driver would like: half the pretty places in the sierra have no turning circle and no legal parking, so the route uses places that can physically receive a coach. If a group of six wants an extra hour in the Mezquita, they get it only if the whole group gets it, and usually the whole group does not, because the coach has a slot at the next town.
Loading takes eleven minutes with luggage and four without, and that is not an exaggeration, it is measured. The guide will call departures with that number in mind. Being late by five minutes costs forty people five minutes, and the group learns this on the first morning and then rarely repeats it.
from $2,340per person
- Where it comes from
- The lowest figure this office has actually booked this trip at inside the last twelve months.
- Read as
- Two people sharing one room, unless the rows above this say otherwise for your case.
- What lifts it
- A smaller party than the size this trip is filed under, a better grade of room, a peak week, and a late decision.
- When it stops moving
- When an operator puts its own name under it in writing. Until then treat it as the floor of a range this office has seen.
Whatever you settle is settled with that operator, on whatever system it runs. No part of it passes through this office and no card is ever seen here.
Months That Work And Months That Punish
Andalusia in July and August is the reason this trip does not run in high summer. Seville and Cordoba routinely sit above 100F in the afternoon, the stone holds the heat until midnight, and the Alhambra walk in that temperature is not a pleasure, it is an endurance test. The departures below are the ones we sell.
The shoulder months are the whole argument for coming here. March in the sierra can still be cold and wet, and Arcos in rain is genuinely difficult underfoot, but the courtyards in Cordoba open in early May and the light in October is the best of the year.
- March
- Cool, 55F to 68F, rain likely two days in nine, hill town stone slippery
- April
- Warm days, cool nights, Seville very busy around the religious calendar, book earliest
- May
- Cordoba courtyards open to visitors, 75F to 88F, the strongest month of the trip
- June
- Hot by noon, 90F and up, walking moved earlier in the day
- September
- Still 90F in the first half, easing after the twentieth
- October
- 68F to 80F, low light, fewest people at the Alhambra, our own preference
What Gets Fixed When You Confirm
Confirmation is not a formality on this trip. The timed entries are bought in the group's name against a passenger list, and the Nasrid Palaces slot in particular cannot be changed or resold once issued. That is why the desk asks for names as they appear on the document you will carry, and why a change of name after ticketing means a new ticket if one exists at all.
- InquiryYou tell the desk the departure month and party size. A message is read the same working day, and a figure with hotels named by level and district takes two to four working days.
- Deposit and namesA deposit holds the seats. Full names go on the passenger list at this point because the site tickets are issued against it.
- Ticketing, about ninety days outAlhambra, Alcazar and Mezquita slots are issued and the day by day timing becomes fixed. Room types are confirmed by the hotels.
- Final documents, three weeks outHotel addresses, coach meeting points, guide contact and the walking notes for each town, including the grade and the surface, so you can decide what shoes to bring.
Ask About The Walking Before You Book
Most of the questions this trip gets are about the ground, not the price, and that is the right question. Tell the desk how far you can walk on uneven stone and whether you can manage stairs without a rail, and you will get an honest answer about whether nine days of this suits you. If it does not, say so and we will not sell it to you.