Hopefully someone who has done the journey will come along soon but in the meantime there's train prices and times here
http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/index.jsp?page=hjhir130.jsp&O=51003&D=50500&AF=2008&MF=MM&DF=DD&SF=NaN&ID=s

Hi,

Many thanks for that - my Spanish still isn't that good but clearly there are plenty of trains, it's not that expensive and I think that it says that there's no need to book in advance or make reservations on most trains! Pretty fast too - if I'm reading it right it takes around 40/45 mins in each direction and they run late into the evening, so a day trip is feasible.

SM

Try this link for the english version here

HTH

Brilliant! Many thanks for that Allmen - and good to know that the English version confirms that I had understood the Spanish version reasonably accurately. Including the fact the the Andalucian Express is clearly no such thing and really does take nearly twice as long as the AVE even if it is considerably cheaper!

SM

I'm being driven insane by cowboy letting agents who are advertising very reasonable headline rates on the Net for 2 bedrooom self catering apartments in Seville and then when we try to book are demanding extortionate rates because we want to go for the week of the Feria! Trying to get the highest rates possible I can understand even if I don't like the way they are doing it but saying that they'll hold a reservation while we book flights and then when we get back to them in less than 24 hours saying that the apartment is now only available for part of the week whilst still trying to charge full week's rental I don't. In this instance we were saved by the fact that I couldn't get flights out on the day we wanted and only discovered when I emailed to ask if the apartment would be available a day earlier that he had apparently now let it out for the latter half of the week we'd reserved (or so I thought) to someone else! Thank God I hadn't been able to book flights for our orginal dates - we'd have been without a bed for our last 3 nights if I had done!

So rant over - does anybody have any recommendations for websites I can try for renting a 2 bedroomed apartment in Seville from Saturday 5th April until Saturday 12th April? I've tried Owners Direct and Homelidays and few other obscure spanish based ones without luck for those dates. Beginning to think that we won't make it this year and should plan ahead for 2009 but the problem is the dates for Feria depend on when Easter falls and not only does Easter not fall so early next year (making it difficult to fit in with Scottish school holidays) but the exact dates aren't set very far in advance anyway.

SM

SM, you've probably worked this out for yourself by now but I would imagine it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Seville is absolutely full yo bursting during the Feria and accommodation is at a premium, hence the prices.

The only apartments I've found are 1 bedroomed so maybe not big enough for you.

Perhaps you could check out Tripadvisor as there's information about the Feria on there and you could maybe post your questions too
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g187443-Seville_Andalusia.html

Alternatively have you thought about staying outside Seville itself and travelling in, once you get away from the city, acommodation should be fairly easy to come by although I expect it might be a hassle if you wanted to visit for more than one day!

Hi Jan400,

It's not the prices as such which are bothering me - we've been looking for an apartment in the 900-1000 Euros range which is easily twice the price of any other time of year. We knew it would be expensive and are prepared to pay for the right apartment - it's the fact that the goalposts keep shifting which is getting to me. Changing prices, saying they'll reserve an apartment and then letting it go, saying they only let for the whole week and then discovering that they've accepted a part week booking from someone else etc.

We did look at staying outside the city but the whole point is that we wanted to experience the atmosphere in the city itself including the nightime partying. So that doesn't exactly fit in with either using public transport or hiring a car. We've just about given up for this year - one last push to find something this weekend but if nothing comes up we'll call it quits. However, thanks, I'll check out the link you suggest and see if something comes up.

SM

Well, I'm not holding my breath but I think that I may have cracked it and achieved a reservation on a suitable apartment, for the dates we want and at a price we consider reasonable for such a peak week! I'll send in a review if everything works out all right!

Just need to crack the trains now so we can 'do' Cordoba on this trip too but that looks like it will be the easiest part of the whole thing!

SM

I think you will have a lovely time in Cordoba. The Palace and its gardens are superbly green and refreshing, the little alleys of the Jewish quarter are a joy to explore, and as for the Cathedral/mosque ... well you couldn't get that sort of planning permission through these days!!

We're off this Saturday and so looking forward to it - got the train timetables sorted etc and considering a sidetrip to Cadiz too! Cordoba was the centre of Sephardi Jewish culture - it's often forgotten that the Moors were not all Moslem - they included a large % of North African/Middle Eastern Jews too. At that time the University was at the centre of Jewish theological thinking and that tradition is only now being re-established with a re-surgence of interest in Sephardi music too which is one of my reasons for wanting to go.

SM