What is this part of Spain like in these two months? Which places would you recommend even though it won't exactly be beach/swimming weather?
Any problem finding open hotels?

Mike writes: Carnaval '04 will be the last week in February and Cadiz comes to life. You might have a problem finding much of a selection of open hotels that week. Otherwise it's pretty quiet during the winter months. I would stay in one of the larger cities (Cadiz. el Puerto de Santa Maria, Sanlucar de Barrameda) along the coast that's pretty well communicated with Sevilla. Huelva is a busy port: mostly chemicals & fertilizer. It may be nice to visit Palos de a Frontera on the outskirts of Huelva where Columbus' first Voyage of Discovery began

Mike,

I used to live in El Puerto de Santa Maria. You are right it won't be beach weather but usually nice enough to be outside all day.

I recommend Hostal Chaikana in Puerto. They have small, but lovely rooms each with a private bath recently remodeled with tile and marble. There is a small bar that serves a simple breakfast and has some snack foods during the rest of the day.

On a Thursday you might try to get to Jerez de la Frontera (easy train connections from Puerto). The larger sherry wineries have very frequent tours and the smaller wineries have a couple of tours each day sherry wineries . There is a royal riding school (Real Escuela de Arte Equestre) that puts on dressage shows every Thur. They have white Andalusian horses much like the Lipizan Stallions. Actually, the Lipizan stallions are descended from Andalusian horses.

Easy day trips are to Arcos de la Frontera ( Arcos [Spanish] ) and Ronda ( Ronda [English] ) with the oldst bull ring in Spain and the birth place of the formalized bull fight that is still being fought today.

Donna