Overview of Cordoba:
Cordoba can be visited as a Day Trip from Seville or from Granada.
See Pictures of Cordoba's Mosque
The nearest airports to Cordoba are in Seville and Granada.
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Best Time to Visit Cordoba:
May. The month begins with the Cruces de Mayo (May Crosses) Festival, followed immediately by the Patio Festival, both of which feature the city splendidly decorated. Towards the end of the month is the Cordoba festival.
Alternatively, fans of six-stringed instruments should go to the Cordoba Guitar festival in July.
Number of Days to Spend in Cordoba (excluding day trips):
Two or three (although you could race round it in a day).
Read more on How Long to Stay in Each City in Spain.
Hotels in Cordoba:
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For a budget-priced bed in a dorm, try Hostelworld.
Another great option is to rent a private apartment from Airbnb.
Five Things to Do in Cordoba:
- The Mezquita, the biggest mosque in Spain. It is still in use.
- The orange grove behind the Mezquita.
- Pamper yourself in an arabic bath
- The botanical gardens, including the ethnobiological musueum (which investigates the link between man and plant) and the pinsapo Spanish fir, a rare tree indigenous to the area. Note the opening times in the link.
- The Jewish quarter - narrow white-washed streets, especially beautiful during the patio season (May)
Day Trips from Cordoba:
You could use Cordoba as a base to visit Granada and Seville, but really both of those cities are worth more time then that.
How to Get to Cordoba:
*The Madrid-Cordoba-Malaga train route is served by the AVE, Spain's luxury high-speed train.
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From Seville 150km - 1h40 by car/bus, 45m by train*. (No flights - Seville is the nearest airport!)
*The Cordoba-Seville train route is served by the AVE, Spain's luxury high-speed train.
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Where to Next?:
Check out this four-day tour of Seville, Cordoba and Granada from Madrid or Seville, Cordoba and Granada from Barcelona.
Renting a Car in Cordoba:
First Impressions:
Cordoba is the perfect size for a Walking Tour. Your Guide will show you the most important sights in the city in under four hours. And with the tour running in the morning, it gives you the perfect introduction to the city before you spend the rest of the afternoon on your own.
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The bus station and train station are side by side, which is convenient, and from there it is a 15 minute walk to downtown. The main square is Plaza de las Tendillas. However, there is nothing exciting about this part of the city - all very commercial with big department stores and little else. For the nice side to Cordoba, take a cab to Plaza del Potro (made famous by Cervantes's Don Quixote) in the old town, where you can start a pleasant walk up to Mezquita through streets that are more reminiscent of a seaside village than the centre of a city.
From here it's a short walk to the Mezquita - take a deep breath before you enter the chaotic environs of the area around the mosque as hundreds of tourists threaten to spoil the beauty of the Moorish monument. Do they succeed? No, it is still a very pleasant area to be in, especially the orange grove inside the walls of the mosque.
Once you've finished with the mosque, walk up through the old town, with the numerous handicraft shops (all locally made), up to the Jewish quarter.
