Our Trip to Spain – part 1 – Seville
We planned to take our girls to Spain and Morocco for spring break in 2020 but then COVID hit.. we thought we would be able to go in 2021 but again COVID… Third time was the charm and since Morocco was still not open to tourists in December of 2021 (and I like to plan ahead) we decided to skip Morocco all together and do Southern Spain instead.
To be honest, I was not that thrilled about going to Spain. I did a study abroad there in college, visited a whole lot of places and have been back since then. I never made it to Andalusia though so we decided to focus on that region. Apparently Spain in the #2 tourist destination in Europe and I can see why – I forgot how awesome this country is and we had the best time!!! It was our first time in Europe since COVID so that made the trip even more special!
We drove to Tarifa (southern-most point of Iberian Peninsula) and said ‘hello’ to Africa (African coast is only 7 miles away from there), checked out the Rock of Gibraltar, marveled at the architectural masterpieces that are Alhambra (in Granada), La Mezquita (in Cordoba) and Royal Alcazar (in Seville), saw tons of Easter Processions (we travelled during Holy week and did not know what to expect so these processions, once we got used to them, were a lovely bonus), explored cute hilltop towns of Rhonda and Vejer de la Frontera, enjoyed a flamenco show, cooked (and ate) paella and had lots and lots and lots of delicious food!!
You can get a glimpse of what we saw here.. And if you are interested in planning your own trip to Andalusia scroll below to see practical info such as hotels we stayed at, restaurants we loved, and cool things we did. Because we did see so much I decided to split up our travel in a few blog posts – this one contains info about Seville; other towns (Granda, Cordoba, Gibraltar, etc) will follow shortly.
Hotels
We stayed in Seville twice – first for one night when we first arrived and then again for 3 nights when we were done with the road trip.
First night we stayed at Hotel IMG Rey Alfonso – I would definitely recommend it. It’s in the old town, very close to the Cathedral and plenty of restaurants to choose from. The rooms were spacious with great views and a breakfast was delicious.
On the tail end of the trip we stayed at Casa De La Plata – this was an even better hotel – amazing breakfast (hot made to order churros – need I say more??), with treats in the room every night and very cool and funky decor. Will stay there again in a heartbeat!
Restaurants
One of our favorites was La Bartola – we stumbed upon it when we were looking for a place that was serving lunch at noon (many many many restaurants don’t ) and we were so glad we did – creative delicous dishes that we could not get enough of.
El Traga – this place was recommended to us at the hotel and had high ratings on tripadviser so we had to check it out. It was lovely (cool decor, creative dishes) and we had a great dinner but it was not something I would go out of my way to visit.
Burro Canaglia Bar and Bistro – this place has several locations – we went to the one that’s by Setas De Seville – this place is HUGE and the decor is absolutely amazing! Despite being so huge, they get booked up so definitely make reservations. We went there because after many days of tapas, my family rebelled against having for yet another meal and they overruled me and decided on italian. This restaurant does really cool fusion pizzas among other things.. Service was really bad though (it might be because they were super busy because of Holy Week) – I would give them a try again though.
Ispal – I made reservations at this place literally a month before our trip – its highly rated Michelin starred modern restaurant and I knew we had to try it. It was was an experience – a 10+ course 3.5 hour long affair that even for me (who LOVES to eat) was a bit too long with too much food. But it was delicious, the service was great and the presentation pretty special. Definitely worth a try.
Puerta de la Carne – this fast-ish food place was always so popular with the locals we had to give it a try and I am so glad we did! Freshly fried but really light seafood – a must!
Things To Do
When in Seville you gotta hit all the obvious touristy places – Plaza De Espana, Seville Cathedral, Royal Alcazar. Setas De Seville is a bit of a beaten path but pretty cool and worth a visit. Here are a few other off the beaten path things we saw and did.
Flamenco Show
Being in Seville, we had to do a flamenco show and after a lot of research we chose Tablao Flamenco El Arenal. We had tapas there prior to the show and they were surprisingly good! And the show (it was about an hour long) was really cool – definitely not to be missed while in Seville.
Cooking Class
One of our favorite experiences of the whole trip was a paella cooking class at Taller Andaluz De Cocina. It was 3 hours long but the time flew by – we made sangria and traditional paella and it was the BEST paella any of us have ever had! The whole space is very cool – brand new, modern and clean, and our chef was awesome. So if you are ever in Seville do yourself a favor and book a class there – you can thank me later!
Market
I love all types of markets and Seville has a few but after some deliberation we decided on Mercado de Triana. The only issue was that we were there on a Good Friday and more than half of all stalls were closed:(. But we did not go hungry – chuicarron in a cone (among other goodies) was absolutely delicious!
Hope you find this useful and stayed tune for travel info on other places in Andalusia!
