A case study from a long term traveller in Granada and Seville.
Five Take-aways:
- Public Transport in both cities will be cheaper by card if staying longer term. In Granada a bus card can be bought for 2 Euros which brings the individual journey cost down from 1.60 to .45 cents. It doesn’t work for the tram or route 4 though – more info here: In Seville the operator Tussam offers a card which can be loaded with cash to pay for buses, trams and the metro. Machines are available at tram and metro stops and from tobacconists. There is a small saving in cost, but the main advantage is not having to find cash each trip.
- The Alhambra in Granada and the Alcazar in Seville are both very popular attractions and get booked up VERY early, especially in the high season. Make sure you book well in advance and from the official sites. Click here for the Alhambra. And click here for the Alcazar but note this is not the Alcazar website but offers tickets without having to queue in person.
- Tapas are almost always free with alcoholic drinks in Granada and part of the fun is not knowing what you are about to get. It would be wise to point out if you are vegetarian or have an allergy etc. In Seville they (usually) need to be paid for.
- Look out for Asociacion de vecinos bars in the Seville area (they may be elsewhere) for a very local atmosphere and good prices.
- I found that Deutsche Bank in both cities offered free withdrawals from ATMs (most others charge a fee.) This was with a UK bank debit card – I cannot confirm for other countries.
Introduction
One of the big decisions about going to an unknown city is where to base yourself. I don’t just mean which apartment or hotel to stay in, but which neighbourhood, and this can have a big impact on your whole experience. Obviously, there are factors that need to be taken into account like safety, access to amenities, shops, cafes etc. and also some which might matter more as you get older, such as the state of the pavements and how hilly the area is.
Another major factor is cost. As a rule, the nearer you are to a city centre or tourist attraction, the more expensive the place will be. That might change if a particular district is ‘upmarket’ or has a fancy reputation, but it usually holds true that the further out you go the cheaper it is. You then have to see if it is worth it in terms of the time and money commitment to get to where IT (whatever that means for you) is happening.
As a long-term traveller, I take the attitude that I don’t mind where I am staying within a town or city because I will enjoy the experience whatever. I try to take the attitude of enjoying where I am. Not feeling I’ve missed out because I’ve not been in the liveliest of places. I also sometimes long for down time when I am in a place where there are no tourist attractions, so I can get on with just living my life – rather than thinking I ought to be seeing some art or event.
In this blog post I am going to contrast my experience of living near to the centre of Granada and just within walking distance of the main attraction there – the Alhambra, to my one month stay in Mairena del Aljarafe about 10 kilometres from Seville.
Close to the centre – Granada
I have to say that being in Granada over Christmas and New Year was a joy. The city is beautiful, clean and not too busy – despite being an obvious tourist destination. I was situated about a 20 minute walk from the centre, a similar distance (but very uphill) from the Alhambra and both were accessible by short, regular bus services. I was proud of the fact that I was able to buy a travel card from the first bus driver I encountered by asking for it in Spanish and getting the correct one, that felt like a win!
It was a tourist area, with plenty of serviced apartments and small hotels around, though there was a good local ambience as well. In particular was a bar, the Rincón de Abuela or Grandma’s corner which I visited a few times on my stay. I guess it’s time to confess my love of Granada and why I wanted so much to visit; I was lured there by the talk of free tapas. Which is true, Granada is proudly famous for this. Every time you order an alcoholic drink, be it a glass of wine or a half of beer, you receive a small plate of food and not just a few peanuts or olives, but (usually) a mini meal. This pleased me for three reasons. One, it’s free food of course, okay the price of the drink might be a little more than in neighbouring towns, but it FEELS free which is what matters. Two, you don’t know what you are going to get until it arrives … which might feel a bit edgy for some, but I enjoyed the element of surprise. The only thing would be if you had an allergy or were vegan / vegetarian, you would have to say. I was asked if I was vegetarian at first at the Rincón but after going there a few times (and happily eating meat) I wasn’t asked again. Three, you don’t have to worry about ordering things. This was a bonus, because more than once I have ordered something from a menu (in multiple countries) but because my pronunciation was wrong I have ended up with something else – usually not a problem, but sometimes disappointing if I was especially looking forward to what I originally chose.
There are of course, tapas in Seville (as in all parts of Spain) but they have to be ordered and that is not always easy, not just because of pronunciation but also as some tapas are a large plateful and others are just nibbles. That matters far less if you are not paying for it.
The other joy of living centrally is the ease of getting about. My regular readers will know of my love of trams and metros. In Granada there is one line which is a kind of combination of the two (a tram which runs underground for much of its route,) and there is a fast and efficient bus service, including an hourly night service which I never used. Part of the fleet consists small, quiet, electric buses which are used to scale the steep narrow streets that lead up to the Alhambra, and allow you to see the lovely views without having to stop and catch your breath every 100 yards or so. Although I caught my breath for a different reason when I saw the Alhambra – this must be the most gorgeous place in Spain and a must see for tourists to the country.
All in all, I loved my time in Granada and was pleased with the place I stayed in, even if it had shared access with the host’s barking dog …
Far from the centre – Seville.
Now for my time in Seville – or to be precise, in Mairena de Aljarafe. This small town is about 7 miles / 11 kilometres from the city and feels like a well-to-do suburb. Lots of modern buildings but even there the pavements are lined with orange trees which were bulging with fruit whilst I was there (January / February) and giving off a warm citrusy smell. Towards the end of my time there I was treated to the attempts to harvest them. They are too bitter for eating, so are collected for medical use and perfumes.
The town was connected to Seville via a half-hourly circular bus M-134 or M-135 depending on direction, and some other irregularly timed buses as well. However, the quickest way to travel was via the metro; the station of Cavaleri was in the centre of the town. The travel time into Seville was about 20 minutes – but it took a good 10 minutes to walk to the station meaning a one hour journey there and back. Being near the end of the line (Cavaleri is the penultimate stop) does mean that I always got a seat going into the city. Coming back was not always the case … at least not until the crowds had thinned out.
In terms of food and drink, this was very much an adventure. As I had just moved on from Granada I was wanting to see if I could find the equivalent of Rincón de Abuela in Mairena. There were quite a number of bars and restaurants listed as being within walking distance of my accommodation (Spain has the highest number of bars per head of population in the world!) Obviously it was a bit of a work of trial and error. More than once, I walked into a place and found I was the only person there. Perhaps this was because I was wanting to go out at a far earlier time than Spanish people who have a reputation for eating late; or because of the time of year (mid January to mid February.) Because I kept looking for ‘the place’ I never really settled on anywhere, which was sad. One place I did go back to two or three times decided to close for vacation on my last couple of weeks there …
One thing I did find in the town which I have not come across elsewhere in Spain was the concept of a neighbours’ or residents’ associations with bars open to the public (although I do believe they exist elsewhere in Spain too. ) I went to two or three of these, but found it quite difficult to order food, not knowing the right etiquette and being unsure what tapas was free or had to be paid for. This seemed to vary from place to place, unlike Granada where you could be sure that everything was free. There was also more of a language barrier, although I was able to get by using Google translate.
My trips into Seville varied in success. I had to make a couple of journeys in to a vaccination clinic to check what I needed for my forthcoming trip to Georgia and Armenia, once to make the appointment and once to see a doctor. The vaccinations I needed had to be bought at a pharmacy and then taken to a local clinic for injection, which seemed a rather contrived way of doing things to me, but luckily not something I would need to do often. Other than that I went to see the usual landmarks of the Alcázar, Las Setas and the Plaza de España …
The cost of this was minimal as I was able to get a travel pass for the month I was there, this time by buying it via a vending machine at the metro station, making travel changes simple as well as affordable.
In conclusion.
I had two very different experiences in the same region of Spain. To be fair, I did only spend three weeks in Granada and that was over the Christmas and New Year period so my trips out of the city were limited. I took one bus ride into the mountains. But my energy levels were not up to doing much more.
In Mairena I did a lot more exploring other small towns by public bus and did some walking in the countryside between the town and Seville, but ideas I had about venturing to other cities were scotched by the amount of time needed to be added on to the journey time just to get to the main railway station in Seville. I guess I do have more optimism about my energy levels then reality allows, but Mairena was a lovely place to have some down time; quiet and comfortable. In conclusion, if I had to do it again I would look for somewhere a bit nearer to the city than where I was in Seville. I think the sweet spot is probably about 15 – 20 minutes by bus or train from the centre and I need to learn that the Airbnb hosts’ optimistic definitions of how far they are from stops and stations needs to be tempered with my slow walking speed.
I hope this post shows how different your experience of Spain can be, just from the choice of where to stay. You will have a wonderful time in this beautiful with its wonderful sights, attractions and food and the second half of my stay in (fairly) central Cadiz and on the outskirts of Madrid may be the subject of another blog post … look out for that!
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