Product Description

The Rough Guide to Andalucia is the definitive travel guide to the best attractions Andalucia has to offer. Whether you wish to explore the vibrant regions of Andalucia, taste the flavours of Andalucia’s cuisine or discover the enchanting Alhambra palace and the White Town of Ronda; the Rough Guide to Andalucia has expert advice on what to see and do in Andalucia. Full-colour features explore the Semana Santa Holy Week and Moorish Andalucia; with comprehensive coverage on Andalucia’s history, attractions and the unique flora and fauna of this stunning region. Fully updated and expanded, this guide combines up-to-date descriptions of the best hotels and hostels in Andalucia, the best restaurants and tapas bars in Andalucia and entertainment to cater for all budgets. Explore all corners of Andalucia’s varied landscapes with expert tips for outdoor activities, from rock climbing and hiking to kite surfing and mountain biking and the clearest maps of any guide.

Make the most of you holiday with The Rough Guide to Andalucia!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92713 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 652 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781848360372
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"The best guidebook" The Sunday Times "Best guidebook" The Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Mark Ellingham wrote the first Rough Guide - to Greece - in 1981. He followed that with The Rough Guide to Spain the following year and has spent time in Andalucia most years since then. Geoff Garvey has been captivated by Andalucia since his first visit as a student in the early 1970's.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Where to go: some highlights

Andalucía's manageable size makes it easy to take in something of each of its elements – inland cities, extensive coastline and mountaineous sierras – even on a brief visit. The main characteristics and appeal of each province are covered in the chapter introductions, but the more obvious and compelling highlights include:

Sevilla. Andalucía's capital city, the home of flamenco and all the clichés of the Spanish south has beautiful quarters, major Christian and Moorish monuments and extraordinary festivals at Easter and at the April feria.

Moorish monuments. Granada's Alhambra palace is perhaps the most sensual building in Europe; the exquisite Mezquita, a former mosque, in Córdoba, and the Alcázar and Giralda tower in Sevilla, are also not to be missed.

Castles. Niebla in Huelva and Baños de Encina in Jaén, as well as those in the cities of Málaga and Almería are the outstanding Moorish examples; the best Renaissance forts are at La Calahorra in Granada and Vélez Blanco in Almería, whilst hilltop Segura de la Sierra in Jaén has the most dramatic location.

Cathedrals. Sevilla's Gothic monster is the biggest, but those of Cádiz, Granada, Jaén, and Almería are all worthy of a visit.

Renaissance towns and hill villages. Small-scale towns and villages, once grand, now hardly significant, are an Andalucian forte. Baeza and Úbeda in Jaén are remarkable treasure-houses of Renaissance architecture, while Ronda and the White Towns to the west are among the most picturesque hill villages in Andalucía.

Baroque. The Baroque splendours of Andalucía are without equal; towns such as Écija and Osuna in Sevilla province, and Priego to the south of Córdoba have clusters of stunning Baroque churches and mansions.

Roman and prehistoric ruins. Itálica near Sevilla, Baelo Claudia near Tarifa and Carmona's Roman necropolis are all impressive Roman sites, while for an atmospheric lost city Mulva, in the hills of the Sierra Morena, is hard to beat. Andalucía also has some of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe, including a group of third millennium BC dolmens at Antequera, and the remarkable Los Millares site near Almería.

Beaches and resorts. For brashness and nightlife it has to be the Costa del Sol, but you'll find that the more authentic resorts such as Nerja, Almuñecar and Mojácar are less frenzied. The region's best beaches lie along the Atlantic coast and to the east of Almería.

Hiking. The Sierra Nevada and the nearby foothills of Las Alpujarras in Granada are excellent places for hiking, as are the densely wooded hills of the Sierra de Cazorla and the Sierra de Morena – including the latter's less well-known offshoot, the Sierra de Aracena, in the north of Huelva. Andalucía's dozen or so parques naturales (natural parks) are located in areas of great natural beauty, and are detailed in the Guide.

Seafood. This is Andalucía's speciality and is excellent all along the coast but particularly so in Málaga and seafood-crazy Cádiz. The many good places to try it are listed in the relevant chapters throughout the Guide.

Bars. Spain has the most bars of any country in Europe, and Andalucía has more than its share of these. For sheer character and diversity, the bars of the cities of Córdoba, Sevilla and Cádiz are some of the best anywhere.

Offbeat. Among the more curious things to see in Andalucía are a self-styled pope who has built a New Vatican near Utrera in Sevilla province; a rosary museum at Aroche in Huelva displaying beads once owned by the famous; a nineteenth-century English- designed housing estate in the middle of the city of Huelva; a mini-Hollywood in Almería which preserves the film-set of famous paella westerns; still-functioning nineteenth- century sulphur baths used by Lord Byron at Carratraca in Málaga; a Communist village run on Utopian principles at Marinaleda in Sevilla; the spectacular mines of Río Tinto in Huelva; and Andalucía's oldest inn, complete with highwayman's cell, at Alfarnate, in the rugged Axarquía district of Málaga.

When to go

In terms of climate the question is mainly one of how much heat you can take. During the summer months of July and August temperatures of over 40°C (104°F) on the coast are normal and inland they rise even higher in cities such as Sevilla, generally reckoned to be the hottest in Spain. The solution here is to follow the natives and get about in the relative cool of the mornings and late afternoons, finding somewhere shady to rest up as the city roasts in the midday furnace. The major resorts are busy in July and packed in August (the Spanish holiday month) when prices also are at their highest.

Better times to visit are the spring months of April, May and early June when lower temperatures combine with a greener landscape awash with wild flowers. The autumn is good, too, although by this time much of the coastal landscape looks parched and the resorts have begun to wind down; in hilly areas, however, such as the sierras of Cazorla and Aracena and the high valleys of Las Alpujarras the splendours of autumn can be especially scenic. The winter months – particularly December and January – can often be dismal and wet as well as cold at altitude, although Almería sees only one day of rain a year on average and in winter has many days of perfect crystal visibility.

Customer Reviews

Must Have Guide
Fantastic resource for the Andalucian paradise! We travelled to Spain with other guides, purchased this one on Gibralter and weren't without it the rest of the visit! We also travelled with a 6 month old, great recommendations for sites and out of the way not- touristy spots. Roman ruins listed in here are incredible and would have been missed if using any other guide.

A must-have for the Andalucian-bound!!!
Keeping in the tradition of the insight, clarity, and usefulness which has made Rough Guide among the best of guide book series, the Rough Guide to Andalucia is the definitive book for any tourist interested in visitng that region.

Uncluttered, with honest facts AND opinions about where to eat, landmarks, hotels, hostels, and more, the Rough Guide is peerless in it's thorough usefulness.

This book does an excellent job of presenting more than your usual tourist traps. Special needs travelers (pets, children, handicapped) can also get a sense of what may and may not be good ideas for your Andalucian odyssey.

All in all, if you're looking for a guide book that presents what you NEED to know without a lot of editorial musings, you will find the Rough Guide to Andalucia not only at the forefront of this genre, but without competition when it comes to giving you all things the "non-touristy tourist" wants to know.

Top this.
This high-quality guide is 50% thicker than the Lonely Planet guide to Andalucia, yet it's not too big or heavy for a light packer. (But I wouldn't want one any heavier than this.) There's no filler; it's dense with practical information.

The "Let's Go" guides are written by undergrads and have excellent lists of accommodations and eats, but the rest of it tends to be immature and alarmist purple prose. (I'll never forget this comment on Morocco: "But be careful, camels have been known to carry syphilis." OK, how many people do you know that have caught syphilis from a camel?!) I call it "Let's Not Go" because they always try to scare you. Other travelers I've met had similar comments and once upon a train ride we had some laughs swapping ridiculous citations.

Rick Steves is just too political for me. His "guides" read like tiresome negative campaign commercials or anti-American polemics.

This guide is about Andalucia. It starts off with a section called "34 Things Not To Miss" with a nice color photo of each, includes a good index, clear and legible maps, and a section on Gibraltar. All the opening/closing times were accurate for the places I went. Those who enjoy intelligent historical and background commentary will like this.

There's no logistical info on Madrid but that's OK: those who land there can go to the prominent "i" booth in Barajas airport or Atocha (the main train station) for free maps and friendly information in English.

Accommodation prices are absent because they vary by season, but good values are pointed out. The money section should warn about the blue "EXACT Transfer" exchange booths in train stations which charge exorbitant fees (like 25%!) and refuse to cancel the transaction once they have your money. (They display different rates for three amount ranges, but charge the highest rate regardless of your amount; it would be a crime in most places.) Note that prices on everything have skyrocketed since the advent of the Euro: the Ave ("AHH-vay") fast train between Madrid and Sevilla cost 70 Euros each way (!) and taxi fares were what I would expect to pay in the U.S. (Tapas is still a deal.) I also suggest a free glance at the State Department's consular information sheet online --your tax dollars at work.