Most journeys have a route; the Al Ándalus has a plot. Over seven days between Seville and Madrid, the train moves through a thousand years of caliphs, conquistadors and kings — and the specialists at Palace Tours, who arrange this journey season after season, never tire of narrating it. Here is the story, stop by stop.
Act one: Andalusia
Seville opens the tale with a first taste of the city and lunch before boarding — our Seville guide sets the scene for the days you add around it. The train then rolls to Jerez, which earns a full day and two nights: Andalusian horses, cellars of ancient sherry and an old town made for wandering (we wrote about both). The Royal Andalusian School's horse show is usually part of the programme, though it may be changed or cancelled because of scheduling or weather. Next morning Cádiz — the oldest city in the West — turns everything sea-silver, before the train turns inland to Córdoba and the Mezquita, that forest of striped arches with a cathedral grown in its heart (the full guide).
Act two: Extremadura, the surprise
Few first-time guests expect Extremadura to steal scenes, yet it does: Mérida's Roman theatre still stages plays two millennia on, and Cáceres' medieval quarter is so intact that filmmakers use it as a time machine. Both are UNESCO-listed, both nearly tourist-free.
Act three: the road to Madrid
From Cáceres the train runs east to Torrijos, its base for a day in Toledo, which gathers Christian, Muslim and Jewish Spain onto one granite hill — see the three-cultures guide. That same afternoon Aranjuez's royal gardens hand the journey its final flourish, and the next morning the train arrives in Madrid for a farewell lunch.
The train runs both directions — Seville → Madrid and Madrid → Seville — with live departure dates on each page. Before you choose, read when to go and how booking through Palace Tours works.
