Mid-range · 12-hour walk · Seville
Seville in a day: the Alcázar to flamenco
The Alcázar at opening, the cathedral and the Giralda, tapas in Santa Cruz, the Plaza de España, a ducal palace, the mushroom at sunset, Triana at dusk and flamenco to finish.
Seville is hot most of the year and the city lives around it: out early, in during the afternoon, out again late. So the two great monuments go first, in the cool, and lunch is long; the afternoon keeps to shade and shelter; and the evening is Triana and flamenco, which do not start until the day has cooled. Book the Alcázar and the cathedral — both queue round the block by ten.
The route, stop by stop
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Real Alcázar
The oldest royal palace in Europe still in use, built for Pedro I in the 1360s by Muslim craftsmen from Granada and Toledo. The Palacio de Pedro I and the gardens behind it are where to spend the time.
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Seville Cathedral & Giralda
The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, with Columbus's tomb carried by four figures for the kingdoms of Spain. The Giralda is climbed by ramps, not stairs, built wide enough to ride up on horseback.
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Barrio Santa Cruz
Lunch in the old Jewish quarter, whose lanes were laid out narrow for shade. Take tapas standing at the bar, the Sevillano way; the tables outside cost more for the same plate.
60 min here Walk here → -
Plaza de España
Through the María Luisa park to the half-circle of brick and tile built for the 1929 exhibition, with an alcove for every province of Spain. Walk it in the shade of the arcade, not across the middle.
45 min here Walk here → -
Palacio de las Dueñas
The Alba family's town palace, where the poet Antonio Machado was born, with a courtyard of lemon trees that is the calmest place in the city at the worst hour of the heat.
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Metropol Parasol
Las Setas, the wooden mushrooms over the Plaza de la Encarnación. Walk the rooftop at sunset; the Roman ruins found while digging the foundations are displayed underneath.
45 min here Walk here → -
Calle Betis
Across the Isabel II bridge into Triana for the terraces along the river at dusk, looking back at the Torre del Oro and the cathedral.
45 min here Walk here → -
Flamenco in Seville
Back across the river for flamenco. The small tablaos, with forty chairs and no dinner, are the honest version: the dancers are close enough that you hear the footwork before you see it.
More in Seville
Every walking route in Seville, or the full Seville guide for where to stay and what a day costs.