Hi I'm going to madrid in september for a week on a honeymoon and going the second week to the canary islands. I would realy like to go to Andalucia to spend a day and go back to madrid. Any suggestions? I know I could rent a car but I don't think I could find my way around. Do you guys know if there is day trips from madrid to Andalucia?
Thanks

Trapsatur / Julia Tours / Pullmantur have organised tours from Andalucía to Madrid. The shortest ones are to Seville and Cordoba and last for 2 days.

If you want to do it on your own, you can go on a day trip to Seville. Take the first AVE arrives at 09:25 am in Seville. Then, you can visit the city and take the last train (departing at 22:00 from Seville). Return tickets on the same day have 25% discount.

We took a one day tour to Sevilla on the "Ave" train. You can leave Madrid at 7:30AM be in Sevilla by 9:30AM. We then left Sevilla at 4PM and stopped in Cordoba. We took the last train from Cordoba back to Madrid and got there by 11:30PM. The whole trip was around $75 US dollars per person. It will be cheaper if you just go to Sevilla and back to Madrid. The train was great, we were in a Non-smoking car with a/c. If you just want to go one day, this is the best way to go.

When you buy your 'same day' return ticket on AVE Madrid-Sevilla you are 'locked in.' We took an early AVE, watched the Procession of la Macarena (it was viernes de Semana Santa - Good Friday) did a tour of Sevilla, had dinner and wanted to depart when we got ready at 19:00 (we had a reservation on the 20:00 AVE). We just had to wait at Sevilla's Santa Justa station for the later train (no changes allowed). You can spend a nice day in Sevilla (if it's not too hot). Last September (around the 8th), we arrived in Sevilla - it was 40-degrees Celsius (105 Farenheit). The pavement was so hot that it burned the soles of our shoes. We were there for several days so after dinner we would just go back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and then an air-conditioned 'siesta.'

[ 07-15-2001: Message edited by: Eddie ]

Thanks guys... If I need to get tickets on the AVE train.. to you have to book it ahead of time? and how do you get around seville and cordoba? and Eddie I live 45min. away from philadelphia... in Bethlehem..