>...7 days..., flying in and out of Madrid...want to
see...Andalucia... >...found train schedules...nothing...regarding BUS
schedules.
    > Also, would renting a car be a better plan? What is driving like in
    > Spain? How expensive is the petrol?

First, if you only going to be in Spain seven days, you're not going
to see much of Andalucia unless you're planning to see it all through
a bus/car/train window. You probably need to pick some specific places
to visit as travel times are not trivial.

Regarding buses, they can be very useful as they go more places and
more often than do trains. But information can be hard to come by,
even when you are on the ground in Madrid. First, the bus companies
are spread out in various terminals and often don't have much of a
facility other than the platforms, a small waiting area and a little
office. I took the bus to Vigo this past December and the ticket
seller had to close the ticket office down for 40 minutes because he
ran out of change and had to go to the bank. Fortunately I was there
plenty early to buy my ticket for a later departure.

I believe the station you will want for Andalucía is at Metro stop
Méndez Alvaro sort of east or southeast Madrid. I once took a bus that
went Madrid-Granada-Malaga-Algeciras (I was catching the ferry to
Morocco in the last city); we left at about 10:30 at night, arriving
in Algeciras at 6 am. It cost $20. Spanish buses are reasonably
comfortable, and nothing like the horrible buses we have in the US.

Driving is much, much faster than either train or bus (with the
exception of bullet trains). It's like anywhere else, "When in Rome
drive like the Romans." I've done it lots of times. You can obviously
go more places (though in seven days not *that* many more places), and
you can more easily deviate from your plan. Diesel's about $2/gallon,
gas more like $3. But if you pick a few main destinations (like
Granada & Sevilla & maybe one other), you can travel pretty
efficiently and see a lot.

By sometimes (though not often) I like a vacation in which I simply
drive all over the place. Then definitely rent a car.

Phil Richards wrote in message news:...
    > On 29 Jan 2003 03:00:57 -0800 Alejandro said...
    >
    > > Bus schedules and tickets: http://www.alsa.es/
    >
    > Presumably this is a long distance bus company - it doesn't seem to offer
    > much for local buses in the Andalucia region.


Ooops... sorry, you're right... I should have verified it before
posting...

Try http://www.continental-auto.es instead. I'm afraid there's no
English version (at least I don't see it), so here goes some asistance
for non Spanish-speaking people:

1. In the main page click "horario y venta de billetes" (schedules and
ticket purchase)
2. Select Andalucía in "lineas regionales" (local buses)
3. "Ver orígenes" will allow you to select your trip endpoints and
have a look at available schedules.

Continental is a good company with an extensive bus network (not only
in Andalucia, but other regions in Spain too), but if you don't find a
Continental bus between two cities it doesn't mean that it doesn't
exist. As other poster said in this thread, there are lots of
companies operating local buses.

Hope this helps,

Alex

    > Try http://www.continental-auto.es instead.

Where could we find locations of their bus terminals ?

Thanks.
-Misha

    > I'm afraid there's no
    > English version (at least I don't see it), so here goes some asistance
    > for non Spanish-speaking people:
    >
    > 1. In the main page click "horario y venta de billetes" (schedules and
    > ticket purchase)
    > 2. Select Andalucía in "lineas regionales" (local buses)
    > 3. "Ver orígenes" will allow you to select your trip endpoints and
    > have a look at available schedules.
    >
    > Continental is a good company with an extensive bus network (not only
    > in Andalucia, but other regions in Spain too), but if you don't find a
    > Continental bus between two cities it doesn't mean that it doesn't
    > exist. As other poster said in this thread, there are lots of
    > companies operating local buses.
    >
    > Hope this helps,
    >
    > Alex

"Misha Orel" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > > Try http://www.continental-auto.es instead.
    > Where could we find locations of their bus terminals ?
    > Thanks.
    > -Misha
    > > I'm afraid there's no
    > > English version (at least I don't see it), so here goes some asistance
    > > for non Spanish-speaking people:
    > >
    > > 1. In the main page click "horario y venta de billetes" (schedules and
    > > ticket purchase)
    > > 2. Select Andalucía in "lineas regionales" (local buses)
    > > 3. "Ver orígenes" will allow you to select your trip endpoints and
    > > have a look at available schedules.
    > >
    > > Continental is a good company with an extensive bus network (not only
    > > in Andalucia, but other regions in Spain too), but if you don't find a
    > > Continental bus between two cities it doesn't mean that it doesn't
    > > exist. As other poster said in this thread, there are lots of
    > > companies operating local buses.
    > >
    > > Hope this helps,
    > >
    > > Alex

There's a list of bus stations (estacións de autobuses) here:
http://www.continental-auto.es/continental/redcom.html
GG

On 28 Jan 2003 19:04:01 -0800, [email protected] (Ross) wrote:

    >Also, would renting a car be a better plan? What is driving like in
    >Spain? How expensive is the petrol?

Hi Ross,

Petrol is about 0.7 euros/liter for diesel, 0.85 euros/liter for
gasoline.

If you plan to visit Gibraltar, know that there is cheaper.


Regards,

Aitor
http://w3.to/travellers