Cadiz to Seville transportation

[Fairfield Nana]

Does anyone know of economical and efficient transportation from the port of Cadiz to Seville and return for a 6-8 hour day trip? Thanks.

[Pet Nit Noy]

Does anyone know of economical and efficient transportation from the port of Cadiz to Seville and return for a 6-8 hour day trip? Thanks.

 

Are you looking for transportation only or for a day tour that includes transportation? If it's the latter, I can enthusiastically recommend Spain Day Tours. (URL below) We used this company on a port call to Cadiz last August. Six couples -- all strangers to one another -- signed up with this company. We traveled in a comfortable van to Seville for a brief but delightful visit. Don't confuse this service with the day-tour in Seville they describe. That description assumes the visitors are already in Seville. Your visit will need to include the 90-minute-each-way trip so it will be limited to other cruisers from your ship and your time in the city will be shortened.

 

We saw a lot and our guide provided appealing explanation. The company got us back to the ship with a comfortable margin. We later heard a considerable number of folks were jealous of us. We appeared to be the only group who actually made it to Seville considering our hours in port.

 

I'll add that we had a very cooperative group of travelers. We all arrived at the van earlier than requested and, both coming and going, we voted to skip the rest stop. That added 30 minutes to our time in Seville, not an overwhelming amount, but appreciated nevertheless.

 

Spain Day Tours Shore Excursions:

 

http://spaindaytours.com/spain-shore-excursions.html

Edited March 6, 2014 by Pet Nit Noy

[VMax1700]

you can get a day return on the train, but the times don't really suit cruisers.

Depart Cadiz 8.10am and next one is 1.30 pm. A day return ticket (ida y vuelta) is about €32 per person.

http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html

 

Over 60's can get a reduction (Tarjeta Dorada) but you need to buy this at the station before booking your ticket.

[Hlitner]

When we have gone to Seville (from Cadiz) we simply took the train. It is cheap, fast, and the Spanish Railroad (RENFE) provides very nice and clean trains. It is possible to walk from the port to the Cadiz train station, but it does take a good walker about 30 min (it is faster if you can walk through the port and exit at the commercial truck gate near the train station). One can also walk out of the port and simply grab a local bus to the station (several bus lines have stops at the station) or grab a taxi.

 

Hank

 

P.S. See my post below regarding the trains

Edited March 6, 2014 by Hlitner

[Hlitner]

you can get a day return on the train, but the times don't really suit cruisers.

Depart Cadiz 8.10am and next one is 1.30 pm. A day return ticket (ida y vuelta) is about €32 per person.

http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html

 

Over 60's can get a reduction (Tarjeta Dorada) but you need to buy this at the station before booking your ticket.

 

I am afraid your info is misleading and only references the more expensive "Alvia" trains. Most folks simply take the local trains (they are very nice modern cars) which only cost 12.60 Euros (return) with an additional discount for seniors (I think a senior pays about 10 Euros return). There are outbound (Cadiz to Seville) trains at 8:35, 9:35 and 11:35. And the return schedule is also pretty good with most trains departing Seville at 45 min past the hour. I should add that the "Alvia" trains are hardly worth the extra money since you only save about 7 minutes (at most) on the journey versus the regular trains.

 

In addition, there are regional buses that leave from the bus station (adjacent to the Cadiz train station) that make frequent runs to Seville. We generally prefer the train, but if we happen to miss the train then we just walk over to the bus station to see if a bus will be a better option then waiting an hour for the next train.

 

Hank

Edited March 6, 2014 by Hlitner

[VMax1700]

Hank, my apologies, you are correct. My only explanation is that I rushed the web enquiry during my lunch break and used the spanish language website. It looked wrong, but I didnt have time to check further.

 

thank you for correcting it!

 

The train service is excellent in Spain and very good value.

[mbeginner]

Does anyone know of economical and efficient transportation from the port of Cadiz to Seville and return for a 6-8 hour day trip? Thanks.

 

 

A better option is by bus to Sevilla.A bus to Sevilla from Cadiz is a good option. It’s relatively fast (about 1 hour 40 minutes one-way and €13.45 per person one-way). They run every 2 hours. In Sevilla get off at the San Sebastian bus station.This is on walking distance from the historic center. Cadiz bus station is located in front of the train station, just across the street from the docking area exit. Down at the parking lot near the roundabout of Plaza Sevilla you will see the bus terminal. By the time we checked, the bus station office was located in some white containers close to the bus stop. Better check the bus timetable from Cadiz to Sevilla before you go.

Edited March 6, 2014 by mbeginner

[Fairfield Nana]

Thank you all for this info. Will give it lots of thought of train/bus/Spain Day Tours!!

[roothy123]

A better option is by bus to Sevilla.A bus to Sevilla from Cadiz is a good option. It’s relatively fast (about 1 hour 40 minutes one-way and €13.45 per person one-way). They run every 2 hours. In Sevilla get off at the San Sebastian bus station.This is on walking distance from the historic center. Cadiz bus station is located in front of the train station, just across the street from the docking area exit. Down at the parking lot near the roundabout of Plaza Sevilla you will see the bus terminal. By the time we checked, the bus station office was located in some white containers close to the bus stop. Better check the bus timetable from Cadiz to Sevilla before you go.

I'm not the OP, but thanks for that info, mbeginner & Hank. I had not explored using the bus. The bus and train seem to be about the same cost and time (25 euros roundtrip by train, and takes on average an hour and 45 minutes). I really wanted to go to some of the white towns, but we'll be in Cadiz on a Sunday from 11AM to 11PM, and travel options are limited. The horse school is closed on Sundays, and we're not really into wine, so Seville is looking better and better! We've been to Seville before (on the train - was easy), but it might be worth going again.

[aprilsp88]

Hank,

 

Where I can find the schedule of this local train (or are they the same)? During weekend the Alvia trains don't run as often.

 

Thanks,

April

 

I am afraid your info is misleading and only references the more expensive "Alvia" trains. Most folks simply take the local trains (they are very nice modern cars) which only cost 12.60 Euros (return) with an additional discount for seniors (I think a senior pays about 10 Euros return). There are outbound (Cadiz to Seville) trains at 8:35, 9:35 and 11:35. And the return schedule is also pretty good with most trains departing Seville at 45 min past the hour. I should add that the "Alvia" trains are hardly worth the extra money since you only save about 7 minutes (at most) on the journey versus the regular trains.

 

Hank

[roothy123]

I'm not Hank, but since I just saw this: This post is a year old, and I think there may be more recent information on how to take the train or bus from Cadiz to Seville. I believe I wrote something about it last summer after we came back. I will look for the post later. In the mean time, the local trains from Cadiz are just the regular Spanish national trains run by RENFE (see link above). Since both the train and bus run from almost exactly the same location, I would check the schedules for both and pick what suits you best - although partly it depends upon where you want to end up in Seville. Plan on at least 20 minutes to walk from the port to the train/bus, buy your ticket, etc. - maybe a half hour in case you get lost!

 

I'll be back...

[roothy123]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2095103

 

Take a look at the above post and let me know if you have questions!

[aprilsp88]

Roothy,

 

Thank you for your post. It's very useful.

 

From my understanding, what you took was the more expensive "Alvia" train Hank mentioned (for tourist). Did you also see "local" train, which is cheaper and hopefully more frequent? Where can I find the schedule?

 

Thanks,

April

[roothy123]

No. We actually took the bus to Seville, and the regular RENFE train back to Cadiz. I didn't know anything about another train (and still don't know what the Alvia train is!) I would go to http://www.renfe.es and look at the times the trains leave and how much they cost, and that will give you a good idea of what you might want to shoot for. You'll want to hit the "Welcome" at top to get English screens, and then enter Cadiz Estadio and Sevilla Santa Justa (or perhaps you can use the other station - San Bernardo, I think, but there are fewer trains to there).

 

Of course, the bus is really a slightly better option in my mind, as it arrives closer to the tourist attractions than the train does, and you could probably just get a good map and walk and sightsee without having to take a cab or bus from the train station. But the train and bus are about the same price, and take about the same time, so either is an option. We only took the bus to Seville and the train back as we wanted to see things in two different parts of Seville, and at the end of the day ended up closer to the train station than the bus station.

Edited March 14, 2015 by roothy123

[Hlitner]

Agree with most of Roothy's post (above). Normally, DW and I would take either the train or bus depending on which works better at the time we get to the station. The bus station is very close to the train station so this is convenient. Just keep in mind that Seville is a relatively large city so you really do need to do some pre-visit homework and its good to have a guidebook (with maps) in hand. Otherwise, you will need to find the tourist office to pick up some free maps and guides. There are also two train stations in Seville and you would want to do some planning so that you can decide which station is the better starting point for your own itinerary. The secondary station (San Berardo) is sometimes preferable to the main station (Santa Justa) because San Bernardo gives you easy access to the Metro (if you want to take the Metro).

 

 

Hank

Edited March 14, 2015 by Hlitner

[roothy123]

I just went on RENFE's site, and entered a Saturday in June. Only one train popped up. I'm guessing that is because train schedules are not posted very far in advance. If you're going to be in Cadiz a couple months or more from now, I would just look at a weekend day in March or April to get an idea of what might be available later on. I know that last year (August, on a Sunday) we docked at 11 and there was an 11:15 bus and an 11:40 train. We weren't sure we could make the 11:15 bus (and barely did), but I had plotted out what we needed to do and where we needed to go, so we were off and running. We made it, but with only a few minutes to spare before the bus left. Of course, if we had not made it, we would have walked over to the train station and taken the train at 11:40! We had a nice day in Seville, and got back in time to walk around beautiful Cadiz for a little while, too.

[aprilsp88]

Hank,

 

Does "local" and "alvia" use the same train station? I can't find the 12.60 euro roundtrip "local" train in RENFE. The only train I found is the 16.6 euro one way "alvia" train.

 

Roothy,

 

Thanks for the tip to click "welcome" to get English. I searched all over the website to try to get English.

 

April

[roothy123]

I think I see the problem here. I mentioned "Cadiz Estadio," which means Cadiz station. It's possible there is a second train station in Cadiz, so if you only saw an Alvia train, just enter or select "Cadiz." There should be many trains listed, even on a weekend. I'll go on the RENFE site in a minute and check. Also, as I said, you won't get many listings if you're looking at a couple months ahead, so make sure you check something sooner. I did that last year, rechecked pre-cruise, and the schedules were the same. In Europe, days are entered before months, although I don't think you need to do that if you're accessing the English version ("Welcome") of the site. Just make sure, though, that you have the correct date and "Seville Santa Justa" or "Sevilla Santa Justa" chosen, as Sevilla does have multiple stations. I think there is an option to select first or second class, but maybe they are the same on that route; not sure. Also, "Ida" means one way and I forget the term for round trip (maybe ida y volta or something like that? whatever I have in my original post from last year.) Of course, with the English version, you not even need it, although it may say "return" instead of "round trip."

 

Going on Renfe now to take a look ...

[roothy123]

I used March 31, a Tuesday, asking for trains after 8 AM from Cadiz to Sevilla Santa Justa. There are regular (non Alvia) trains leaving at 8:40, 9:40, 11:40 and 12:40 etc. Cost for "clase turista" (tourist class) is 16,05 euros for a one-way ticket or 12,85 if you buy a round trip ticket (25,70 total round trip - getting a slight discount for round trip). Journeys average 1 hour and 40 minutes.

 

Coming back there are regular trains at 15:45 (and a more expensive and slightly shorter Alvia train at 16:08), 16:45, 17:45, etc.

 

You would (obviously) need to put in your actual travel date, or the closest date you can to get trains listed. I would allow 30 minutes to get to the train station (or bus station) and buy a ticket. You may be able to order and print out something online - not sure; however, I would just wait until you actually get there. I forget if we used cash (euros) or charged the ticket we bought for the trip home.

 

The bus schedule would be at the COMES address provided above. As others mentioned, you should have an idea of what you want to see once you get to Seville. I would also not rule out getting off at San Bernardo as most trains appear to stop there, or the bus.

[Hlitner]

When using the RENFE web site (or any European railroad site) it is always smart to look at a very current schedule (choose the same day of the week that you intend to travel) to get an idea of reality. But once you start looking forward more then a few weeks (sometimes even a couple of weeks) the online schedules may not be complete.

 

As to the bus schedules, these do seem to have fewer changes throughout the year then the trains. One can use this link to find the various bus schedules:

 

http://www.tgcomes.es/rutas_todas_english.htm

 

Hank

Edited March 15, 2015 by Hlitner

[Hlitner]

Should have answered another question. To the best of my knowledge (which is far from perfect) there is only a single train station in Cadiz (about a 20 minute walk from the port or a short taxi/bus ride). However, in Seville there are 2 train stations and I "think" that all the trains from Cadiz stop at both of those Seville stations. As I explained earlier, each Seville station has pros and cons and your choice should depend on your personal itinerary. This is why one needs to do some pre-trip homework or you might find yourself needing to do additional walking in Seville or even have to grab a taxi.

 

Hank

[aprilsp88]

Roothy and Hank,

 

Thank you for the reply. I'm clear now.

 

April