Expert: Víctor Díaz - 9/28/2009

Question
I plan a trip to Spain for 2 weeks..staying in Nerja and travelling to Cordoba, Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla, Granada, and Madrid..would like to have my base in Nerja and go by bus or train to the other places. Which do you think would be best, bus or train ands the most economical and safest way to do so...I am a 66 year old female and do speak Spanish.
Any information you can give will be greatly appreciated
Ruth Collazo

Answer
   
Hello Ruth

Nerja doesn't have train station so you should use buses to get to Malaga from where you may choose buses or trains to get to other destinations in Andalucia.

Two useful links:
for trains
http://www.renfe.es
for buses, the website of the Malaga bus station
http://www.estabus.emtsam.es/

With the bus station website you may find the schedules of buses, connections available and company that owns the line, so you can find the website of the bus conpany later for a more detailed schedule and prices, the links for the bus companies are outdate though.

The most confortable way of travelling around is useing trains, but there isn't always a good connection from Malaga, for example there are no direct trains to Granada and you have to change trains and wait for the second train coming, and for this travel is more convenient buses that are cheaper and faster.

Nerja-Malaga connection
According to Malaga bus station web site is oned by Alsina Graells bus company, now part of Alsa group. Alsa is the main bus operator in spain and his site has an excellent english version.
http://www.alsa.es
There are many buses daily finishing in Malaga bus station.

Malaga-Granada
better by bus with Alsa

Malaga-Cordoba
you have buses with Alsa and also high speed trains, here seems that train is the best option.
Takes around 1hr and Avan trains (also high speed) cost from 20euros.

Malaga-Madrid
cheaper by bus, but it's a long distance and if you can afford it i recommend high speed trains.
(Ave trains) a normal ticket cost around 80euros, but if you purchase it in advance you may opt for a Web or Star offer, i have checked a random day in october and found star offers from 40euros.
Just in case you want to check the bus option, this is the website
http://www.daibus.es/htm/home.htm

Malaga-Jerez
No easy connection here, by train means going first to Cordoba or Sevilla and then another train to Jerez.
According to the Malaga bus station ste, it takes 4h30 and there are a couple of buses daily with Los Amarillos, i have checked their site and i wasn't able to find this route
http://www.losamarillos.es/venta/busqueda.jsp

I also found a thread on tripadvisor saying that this route is owned by Comes, but it's a thread from 2 or 3 years ago and the information may be outdated, they give a link
http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_2_english.htm
but i couldn't find this information from their route information, looks like they give up this line, the web page exists but it's not listed among the active routes.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g227869-i1288-k465435-Transportation_from_M...

I also checked other important bus company in the area, Portillo and i found nothing.
http://www.ctsa-portillo.com/

Looks like there are buses to Cadiz and from there you could use train or another bus to get to Jerez.
Personally i think it's too far and the connections are not very good for a daytrip.


Finally, for your information, bus malaga station and main train station in Malaga are side by side and will be easy to transfer from one to the other.

i hope this helps a bit.