Seville/ Sevilla is such a lovely city! If you want to relax and enjoy the Tapas life, Sevilla/Seville is the city for you! (please do be aware Sevilla can get very hot – even when we were there late September, it was still about 30-35c, in July/August 40-45c is not unknown!)
Slow travel gives us time to get to know the city! How lucky we are!
Sometimes life gets in the way of your plans, so we are learning to go with the flow! My husband had an unexpected problem with his eye, thankfully identified very promptly, and referred by his optometrist (Crystal Optometry, in Edinburgh, if you’re interested!). Surgery was needed, so we had to start our trip to Seville a bit later than planned and be back home a week earlier than expected, due to hospital visits. (As an aside – Fantastic service from the NHS, Edinburgh Eye Pavilion. It really could not have been improved upon!) Even better, we still had the best part of 4 weeks in Seville, so plenty of time to relax and enjoy our trip.
We arrived about 11pm on a Friday night, and we were met by the apartment management company, (they waived the late fee!), who walked us through all the details about the apartment. Thank you Veoapartment! We were talking about what we were going to do – in our case our first task is usually to get a ticket for public transport and explore the surrounding areas. The immediate advice from our agent was – don’t bother! Everything in Seville is in easy walking distance, there’s plenty to do locally and so it proved! Veoapartment’s service was really great. We encountered a few small issues while we were there – all quickly resolved! (Though on the night before we left, Storm Babet landed, and we think we lost our Satellite dish in extremely strong winds, not what you would normally expect! One of those things- we emailed the company to warn them, and then climbed on a plane the next morning, leaving it to them to worry about!!!)
We were just a couple of minutes away from this amazing restaurant & market site – Las Setas. (It’s formal name is Plaza de la Encarnacion, but known by all the locals as Las Setas because it looks like a huge mushroom! The market is just amazing. By chance we didn’t eat in the area but we did buy lots of very fresh food in the market. They were very forgiving of my rather poor Spanish accent, but we managed to make ourselves understood. (I did get the feeling tho, that the person serving felt they were drawing the short straw by being the person who had to look after us). Top quality meat, veg & fish though!
We had chosen our apartment carefully – access to public transport, (bus stop across the road), a supermarket close by (next door), a local market nearby (5 minute walk), outside space (a large outside terrace), not in the busiest tourist area (a 10 minute walk) and plenty of local cafes nearby. This year, everything worked out very well. All around us, Spanish was spoken, locals met their friends and sat chatting a local cafes/bars. What was very evident was that locals lived in the area. There were lots of families and older people, just sitting outside in the sun/shade, watching the world go by. A big difference to the centre of Edinburgh where we live, which is becoming so much of a ‘visitor’ city, that our local council is starting to introduce extra licensing for short term rentals. Sevilla seems to have a far better mix, even in the very centre of the city.
While, we both think Sevilla is one of the safest & cleanest cities we have ever been to, do watch out for ladies ‘giving away’ sprigs of rosemary, and then expecting money in return. There are plenty of local police around, but we were also warned to be aware of pickpockets in Plaza de España & the busy tourist area near the Cathedral/Palace. Fortunately we didn’t get caught, after our visit to Madrid in 2017, and Athens in 2019 when our friend got pickpocketed, we are far more aware. (Tip – we now use an ancient leather bag which fits snugly on a shoulder, safely tucked under an arm. It has a double strap, valuables are in a separate zipped pocket, so difficult to slice, pull off etc) Nothing in trouser pockets etc. The bag also looks very scruffy, which given we both also dress scruffily on holiday (actually most of the time!), hopefully it means that any sensible pickpocket will look elsewhere for better pickings! Fingers crossed!
Suggested Things to See/Do?
1 –Sevilla Cathedral – Needs to be pre-booked online. We had chosen 12:30 which proved to be an extremely busy time, however, 2 hours later when we left, the queues were non existent! The highlight is the view from the 50m high tower. Not for the faint hearted, there is a steady slope upwards, with the odd space to step aside to ‘look at the view’ (Catch your Breath opportunities!) At the top the views across the city are amazing, well worth the effort. The inside of the Cathedral is stunning, with lots to see. It took us 2 hours, and we could have stayed longer, but we were getting hungry and thirsty (It was about 30c outside).
2 – Royal Palace / Real Alcazar – Not only is the interior of the Palace beautiful, there are very large gardens to explore. Again allow about 2 hours to visit. Tickets have to be booked in advance, online. (Watch the website you use to book it, my search just now brought up one suggesting€29.50 – but on the correct site €13.50/€6.00!) As EU citizens, my son and I got in for €6, my husband had to pay €13.50! Such a shame….
3 – Plaza de España – Free! A huge park, built to the south of the Real Alcazar, it has a boating lake, and a building celebrating all the different areas of Spain. It took 13 years to build, (1917-1929), it was built for the Ibero-American exposition of 1929. Really impressive. Very busy at the weekends, less so during the week.
4 – Palacio de Las Dueñas – Known as the Casa de Alba. This was a surprise find. Quite close to our apartment. Lovely gardens and interesting interior. Quiet, and very peaceful, slightly out of the way! After visiting we went to look at the Alameda de Hercules, which is apparently the party place. Sadly at 11am, it didn’t quite live up to its reputation! Maybe at 11pm?, but for these two boring retirees, we’re normally tucked up in bed by then!
5 – Parque de Maria Luisa – the park has lovely quiet gardens, which are really pleasant to walk in. Unfortunately the Archaeological Museum was shut while we there. It’s south of the Plaza de España, and you can walk between the two, mostly away from the traffic in the gardens. (apologies for the slightly squint photo!)
6 – General Archives of the Indies – Are you interested in how permission was granted to travellers when The Americas were discovered by Columbus, and cross Atlantic traffic started, this is the place for you. Free, air-conditioned (very important!). A good straightforward exhibition in both Spanish & English. My husband rated this as one of the best visits. The concept that a full record was kept for several hundred of years on contracts, agreements, ship information etc. Fascinating….
As for the staircase…. What a gorgeous building?!
7 – Tapas, tapas & more tapas – I can safely say, that every single restaurant/cafe we went into, big, small, tiny, whether in a local place or a top tourist spot – the food was freshly cooked, simply served, and different in each restaurant, bar or cafe. They all take pride in their food be it a very small establishment with outside wooden tables, or a posh restaurant with starched tablecloths! I can recommend the restaurants on ‘the other side’ of Triana bridge. (We tried several!) We ate in a great cafe just round the corner from the Real Alcatraz – yes a bit of a premium for the location, but their cold meat platter was so delicious! The coffee is always good, the beers cold, tho to be honest, we really can’t comment on the desserts, we managed to avoid them! When our son visited, we also found several cafes doing coffee and delicious fresh pastries….
Dessert at Taberna De triana near Triana Bridge – Raisin Ice Cream and Moscatel Liquer (I think this was the only dessert we had! But well worth a picture
Would we go back to Seville?- absolutely. But it was a very laid back holiday. This was the least ‘touristy’ Slow Travel visit that we have done, but given we had quite a few family & health issues – for us, at the time, we couldn’t have chosen better. A warm, pleasant and tranquil time in a lovely setting. In our original plans, which we had prepared a year before, but they had fallen through, we had planned a far more ambitious trip – to arrive in Malaga, a few days in Granada, most of our time in Sevilla, a couple of days in Cordoba etc.
However, just at this time, for us, we couldn’t have planned a better rest and recuperate, take it easy trip. However, it would be so easy to build it into a far wider trip, depending on what you want.
I continue to recommend Seville as a place to stay be it for 3 days, 3 weeks or longer!
Let me know what you think!