While these days I live in Seville and dedicate my days to sharing the bites and sights of Seville with hungry travellers, once upon a time life wasn’t quite so straightforward. I was visiting Seville often, sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks, always discovering more and more layers to southern Spain’s jewel with every visit. But many of these visits occurred when I was working as a guide in Andalucía and Spain, trying to share the best of Seville with adventurous visitors in basically, a day.
So when Royal Caribbean Cruises reached out and asked me to give a hand at crafting the perfect one-day itinerary (bearing in mind that a stop in Seville is a feature on some of their fantastic cruises!) how could I say no? Not only do I love this city and helping people find the best of the best, trying to squeeze it into one day is something that I used to do, well, for a living! So if you are cruising your way to Cadiz and wondering what to do in Seville in a day, here is everything you need to know in order to enjoy the best things to eat, see and do!
First steps: Getting to Seville
The good news is that the port in Cadiz and the train station are right next to each other, making organising your transport relatively painless. With a short 5 to 10 minutes, you’ll have left your ship and be on the train.
Train Tips & Info
- Trains run on average once per hour between Seville & Cadiz, but timetables vary so check the timetable online at www.renfe.com
- Prices start at €25.70 for a return ticket
- Book tickets in advance, especially during high season as trains sell out
- Print pre-booked tickets at home, or from the ticket machines at the station using the “localizador” number
On arrival to Seville, the quickest and simplest way to get to the city centre is by taxi. This journey takes about 5 to 10 minutes and will cost around 7 euros. Ask the taxi to take you to “Plaza Don Juan de Austria”, as many of the streets historic centre of Seville are pedestrian only. From there, it’s an easy 10-minute stroll to where you’ll want to be.
Busy streets around Seville’s impressive Cathedral. Just seeing it from the outside, you’ll realise how huge it is!
First order of the day: Visit the Royal Alcázar Palace
Part of southern Spain’s charm is thanks to its turbulent and varied history, and above all, the 800 years of Moorish occupation. We have the Moors to thank for the construction of so many fantastic monuments in the city (and to be honest, the whole of Andalucía), and Seville’s two most iconic monuments, the Cathedral and the Royal Alcázar Palace, both have at least something to do with that time.
While many people will try and visit both, no matter how short their stay in the city, I recommend doing just one, but doing it well. And that, in my opinion, is definitely the Royal Alcázar Palace– by far the most interesting and most unique to the city!
While the impressive arches, tile work, and even hand-carved ceilings and doors have to be taken in, my favourite part is the outside. Get lost in the gardens, find the colourful peacock, and even discover the water cistern hidden under the building. And above all, don’t miss the hydraulic water organ play every on the hour, every hour! It’s the only one of its kind in Spain, and one of three in the whole of Europe!
And as an added bonus, don’t miss the Upper Royal Quarters. These used by the Royal Family today, when they stay at their residence in Seville– that’s right, the Alcázar is the oldest official Royal Residence still in use in Europe! This is the part of the monument that sets apart the Alcázar in Seville from the (much more famous) Alhambra in Granada.
While the Alhambra in Granada is a fantastic reconstruction of the old Moorish Fortress, the Alcázar is real life. You can live it. And not only that, only one part of the building is directly from the Moorish times. In fact, the building has been developed over the centuries, basically turning it into an evolution of Seville’s architecture over time, and nowhere do you feel this contrast as much as from when you climb the stairs from the tiled patios below and enter the upper Royal Quarters.
Make sure you… book tickets in advance! You’ll avoid wasting precious time in the queue, and since the Alcázar was one of the many locations in Spain used as a set for the Game of Thrones TV series, the queues here are lengthier than ever. Also, access to the Upper Royal Quarters is limited, so if you do want to visit this special part, make sure you book.
Alcázar Tips & Info
- Book in advance at www.alcazarsevilla.org
- Ticket price is €9.50 for adults, plus an extra €4.50 for the 20 minutes audio guided visit to the Upper Royal Quarters
- Book the earliest time slot possible– queues can build up, yes, even if you have pre-booked tickets
Inside the grounds of Seville’s beautiful Alcázar Palace!
Photo Credit: Wolfgang Manousek
Discover the city through your stomach
After a couple of hours exploring the Alcázar Palace, it’s time to feast your senses in another form. Seville is laden with tapas bars– around 3000 of them, to be exact, so it can be difficult to know where to begin! You could set off and explore yourself, or you could call in the experts to make sure you get the best of the best in a short period of time.
At Devour Seville Food Tours we have a fun and informative Tapas & Wine Tasting tour is perfect if you just have a day in the city, as 2.5 hours is long enough to taste fabulous food and learn a little about the city, but short enough to make sure you have plenty of more time to explore. From a typical aperitif and Seville’s most loved traditional wines and products to tapas and modern wines in one of Seville’s greatest modern style tapas restaurants, you’ll taste and drink it all! And the best part? You’ll have your expert guide on hand to answer any questions you might have about the city and even direct to where you are off to next!
But for the brave food explorers setting off on their own, where do you begin? One of my favourite bars in Seville, and one that I have been bringing curious visitors to for years, is Taberna Peregil. This hole-in-the-wall bar has been serving one of Seville’s most special wines, vino de naranja (orange wine) to locals since 1904 and is an iconic place to start your food and wine adventure in Seville.
Sweet ‘vino de naranja‘ (orange wine) at Taberna Álvaro Peregil, one of my favourite hole-in-the-wall bars in the centre of Seville
Don’t be put off by its bygone era appearance. It’s true that it doesn’t look like much has changed for years, and that’s because it really is an authentic place hidden in a street of many tourist traps– you would walk straight past it if you didn’t know it as there!
Grab yourself a glass of vino de naranja (which by the way, happens to go perfectly with some slices of Manchego cheese). Then take advantage of the location to put away the map and get lost in the pretty and charming streets of the Santa Cruz neighbourhood. This is the old Jewish Quarter, and one of the most charming parts of the city! After your aperitif and a stroll around the area, it’s time to feast on some real hearty food. Some of my favourite places in the centre of Seville are:
- Freiduría La Isla – for delicious fried fish (don’t miss the Andalusian speciality of cazon en adobo (marinated dogfish). It pairs wonderfully with a glass of dry manzanilla sherry!
- La Taberna – for traditional, simple, and fresh of the grill tapas– all local favourites– this tiny place in El Arenal is the best in the centre. A truly local experience!
- Vinería San Telmo – If you prefer to sit down and enjoy, come here! I have been bringing people on my tours to this restaurant since 2012 and am yet to bring someone who hasn’t enjoyed the tapas prepared with a fusion and modern twist. Oh, and the wine list is worth checking out too!
Gazing up while walking around the picturesque Santa Cruz neighbourhood
Walk off lunch with a visit to Plaza España
When people have “done” the Cathedral and Alcázar and ask me what else they should see while in Seville, the answer is, hands down, always the same. Plaza de España. This massive pavilion might be a short walk from the city centre, but is absolutely worth the easy stroll out there. I know it’s a big call, but I would go as far to say that it’s my favourite building in Seville…or maybe even the whole of Spain.
Put Plaza de España into Google, and a whole tonne of images will come up. But the photos don’t do it justice. There is something to be said for standing in the middle of the pavilion, near the fountain, surrounded by the building and life going on around you. And the best bit? It’s free! The inside of the building is now used mostly as non-descript council offices, so you just explore the outside at your own pace.
Gaze up at the towers, climb the stairs in the back middle of the building heading to the top floor to look down below, and don’t forget to walk around the front perimeter of the pavilion to see all the mosaics. In each alcove is a different mosaic, dedicated to Spain’s 47 provinces. This building was purpose built to host the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, an event which showed Seville off to the world– and if this building is anything to do by, they did a pretty damn fine job at it!
Plaza de España is one of the best things to see in Seville– possible contender for my favourite building in Spain!
Take to the river on foot
Seville’s river, Río Guadalquivir, is strongly connected to its colourful past. It’s thanks to this river that Columbus and his men were able to navigate their ships back here from the Americas, which eventually led Seville to have a monopoly on all the trade coming from the new world for over 100 years! Those historic years turned Seville into one of the richest and most powerful cities in the world at the time, so today, a stroll down to the river is a must. Definitely worth taking the 15 minutes walk from Plaza de España for!
One of the first things you’ll find along the river is the Torre del Oro. Once upon a watchtower built by the Moors, then put to good use by the Christians during the Golden Age of Discoveries, and nowadays an icon of Seville.
There are many theories as to what it is named Torre del Oro (Golden Tower), and some people say it’s because during the Golden Age of Discoveries boats arriving in Seville had to pay a gold coin there as a fee to enter the city.
The Torre del Oro (Golden Tower), one of the icons alongside Seville’s Guadalquivir River
While no one really knows, to me this makes sense as just down the road away from the river there is the Torre de la Plata (Silver Tower). This is where people entering on foot used to have to pay a silver coin to enter the city. But name aside, today there is a small naval museum inside, though your time would be put to much better use continuing to look around elsewhere.
You could then continue down to the Puente de Isabel II (aka Puente de Triana), the most beautiful bridge across Seville’s river, which leads right over to the Triana neighbourhood, home to the gypsies until the 1950s and today home to locals who are proud to be from Triana, retaining the feel of once upon a time when Triana was a totally separate city.
If you are in the area before 3pm, don’t forget to cross the bridge and take a look inside the Mercado de Triana. This is one of the most beautiful produce markets in Seville and the perfect spot to catch a glimpse of local life. Then when you are ready to sit down and rest, head down to Calle Betis for a drink on an outdoor terrace alongside the riverfront before jumping in a taxi back to Santa Justa train station, to get your return train to Cadiz!
Looking down on Seville and the river from the Puente de Isabel II, aka Puente de Triana
Have you visited Seville before? Did you manage to see the best of the city in a day? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This post was written in partnership with Royal Carribean Cruises, but of course, all opinions and words are my own.
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