SEVILLE · ANDALUSIA
Moorish palaces, orange trees, flamenco nights.
Skip-the-line tickets for the Alcázar and the Giralda, flamenco in Triana, tapas after dark and Guadalquivir cruises, and the day trips out across Andalusia to Granada, Córdoba and Ronda.
Seville's own
The palace, the dance, the tower.
Every European city has a cathedral and an old fort. Only Seville has a royal palace the Moors built and the kings kept, the birthplace of flamenco, and a minaret you climb on horseback.
A palace still in use
The Real Alcázar
Spain’s royal family still keeps rooms on the upper floor, which makes the Alcázar the oldest palace in Europe still lived in. Below them, eight centuries of Moorish and Christian builders piled tilework, horseshoe arches and sunken gardens one on top of another. The Patio de las Doncellas is the courtyard you have seen a hundred times and still stop in front of.
- 1 Seville: Royal Alcázar Entry Ticket
- 2 Seville: Cathedral, Giralda, and Royal Alcázar Guided Tour
- 3 Seville: Cathedral, Giralda & Alcazar Entry With Guided Tour
Where it was born
Flamenco in Triana
Flamenco grew up in the gitano quarters of Seville and Triana, and this is still the place to see it close enough to hear the floor. The small tablaos put a singer, a guitarist and a dancer a few feet from the front row, no microphones, the cante raw and the heels loud. It is the night of the trip people talk about afterwards.
- 1 Seville: Live Flamenco Dancing Show Ticket at the Theater
- 2 Seville: Puro Flamenco Show with Optional Museum Ticket
- 3 Seville: Live Flamenco Show at “Teatro Flamenco Triana”
A minaret turned bell-tower
The Giralda
The Giralda began as the minaret of the Almohad mosque; when the mosque came down the city kept the tower and built the largest Gothic cathedral on earth around it. You climb it by 35 ramps rather than stairs, the way the muezzin once rode up on horseback. Columbus is buried in the nave below.
- 1 Seville: Cathedral and La Giralda Entry Ticket
- 2 Seville: Cathedral, Giralda, and Royal Alcázar Guided Tour
- 3 Seville: Cathedral, Giralda & Alcazar Entry With Guided Tour
Book this first
Where most Seville trips begin.
The sight at the top of almost every Seville list, and the one to lock in before the day fills up.
The classics
Seville's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
The Real Alcázar, the Cathedral and Giralda, flamenco and the river. The sights most people come to Seville for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Seville trip turns on.
The Alcázar and the Cathedral, flamenco and tapas, the river and the road out to Ronda. The handful most trips are built from, and the best way to do each.
Getting in
How to skip the queues.
The Alcázar and the Cathedral both sell out and both queue for hours in high season. Three ways through the door, depending on whether you want speed, a guide, or both monuments in one morning.
After dark
Dinner here is a crawl, not a table.
Sevillanos do not book a restaurant and settle in. They work a string of bars, a plate or two and a glass at each, standing at the counter or spilling out onto the street. A tapas tour walks you through the ones worth the elbows, from Triana across the river to the bars around the Alameda.
The best tapas & wine tours in Seville →The river
The river that made the city rich.
The Guadalquivir is the only great navigable river in Spain, and for two centuries Seville held the crown's monopoly on trade with the Americas, every galleon of New World silver unloaded on this bank. Cross it now for the view back at the Torre del Oro and the Triana shore, by sightseeing boat, sunset cruise or kayak.
River cruises & boat trips →After dark
The night belongs to flamenco.
When the heat finally drops, Seville goes out. The tablaos open across Triana and Santa Cruz, the guitar starts up, and a single dancer holds the room on nothing but heels and hands. Take the early show for the close seats, then walk it off over late tapas.
- 1 Seville: Live Flamenco Dancing Show Ticket at the Theater
- 2 Seville: Puro Flamenco Show with Optional Museum Ticket
- 3 Seville: Live Flamenco Show at “Teatro Flamenco Triana”
Beyond the city
Andalusia, a day at a time.
Seville is the easiest base in the south. Granada for the Alhambra, Córdoba for the Mezquita, Ronda for the gorge, Cádiz for the Atlantic, and the Rock of Gibraltar, each an easy day’s return.
About 3 hours
Granada & the AlhambraThe Nasrid palaces and the Generalife gardens, the high-water mark of Moorish Spain.
45 min by train
Córdoba & the MezquitaThe forest of red-and-white arches inside the great mosque-cathedral.
About 2 hours
Ronda & the White VillagesA town split by a gorge, and the whitewashed pueblos of the sierra.
About 1.5 hours
Cádiz & JerezAtlantic sea walls, sherry bodegas and the dancing horses of Jerez.
About 1 hour
Doñana National ParkMarshes, dunes and one of Europe’s great bird wetlands, by 4x4.
About 3 hours
GibraltarThe Rock, the Barbary macaques and the view across the strait to Africa.
On two wheels
Flat, walled, and built for bikes.
Seville is one of the most cycle-friendly cities in Europe: pancake-flat, hemmed in by riverside paths, and laced with separated lanes the city laid down almost overnight. A bike or e-bike covers the old town, the Plaza de España and the Triana bank in a morning, with none of the heat you build up on foot.
See all 47 bike & e-bike tours →By sight
Pick where to start.
The Alcázar for the palace and the gardens. The Cathedral for the Giralda climb. The river for the Torre del Oro. Las Setas for the rooftop walk. Itálica for the Roman mosaics. The old casas for the courtyards.
By experience
Pick a way to see the city.
Skip-the-line tickets if you are short on time. Flamenco for the night, tapas for dinner, a cruise for the river. A bike for the lanes, a cooking class for the morning after.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Seville? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
Just added