My husband and I are going to visit Andalucia during Easter and if we want to cover Cadiz/Ronda also besides Seville, Cordoba and Granada, how should we plan the route? Our flight would be landed at Madrid and we have to go back to Madrid to take the flight back home later. We think we would take the AVE train to and from there. Is there any website to check the schedule, availability and fare of the AVE train? Can we reserve the ticket on the net? Please advice. Thanks!!!

Here is the link for Renfe. They have trains from Madrid to anywhere in Spain you want to go. You can also change the language to English.

http://www.renfe.es/

If you want to cover Cadiz, Ronda, Seville, Cordoba and Granada, you are going to have difficulty doing that if time is short. It probably is easier to start in Seville, and work your way in a circle to cadiz/ronda, then granada, leaving cordoba for last where you have that AVE you can take back to Madrid. It is also probably the one city to skip if I absolutely had to eliminate one from the Seville-Cordoba-Granada triad, or at least its the city where you could spend the least amount of time in (no offense to the Cordobeses!!)

Booking ahead is reccomended for Easter week though I am not sure how easy that is to do on-line....a travel agent may be more helpful.

I spent two weeks in Sevilla during Easter week (or Semana Santa). You really have to book ahead for accomodations and travel. Sevilla will be the place to be if you are interested in seeing all the processions. It will be very difficult to travel during those times, so it would be equally wise to buy your Renfe tickets now and plan out your trip day by day since all of Spain will be in Andulucia during those two weeks!

Beware of pickpocketers and unsavory establishments esp. during Semana Santa who will hike up costs to tourist...