Things to Do in Seville: 3 Days Planned Around the Sun

The heat decides the shape of the day

Seville’s summer heat changes how a day here works more than any single sight does — July averages four degrees more than Madrid and eight more than Barcelona. These figures are the 1981-2010 climate normals for Sevilla Aeropuerto from AEMET, the Spanish state meteorological agency.

1. July averages a 36.0°C high and August 35.5°C, with only 2 mm and 5 mm of rain.
2. June and September are still hot, at 32.2°C and 31.7°C.
3. May is the sweet spot: a 27.2°C high with 30 mm of rain.
4. Winter is mild in the day — January averages 16.0°C — but December is the wettest month at 99 mm.
5. In July and August, do the Alcázar and the cathedral at opening time, stay indoors from about 2pm to 6pm, and go out again when the city does.

The city itself runs on this clock. Lunch is late, the streets empty in the early afternoon, and the squares fill again after dark. Fighting that rhythm is what makes a summer trip here miserable.

The Alcázar and the cathedral stand side by side

The two biggest sights in Seville face each other across a small square, and together they take most of a day.

1. Real Alcázar — the royal palace, still in use by the Spanish royal family, with Mudéjar courtyards and large walled gardens. Give it at least a morning.
2. Seville Cathedral — one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world, built on the site of the city’s great mosque.
3. The Giralda — the cathedral’s bell tower, once the mosque’s minaret. The climb is by ramps rather than stairs, wide enough for a horse.
4. The Archivo de Indias — the plain building between the two, holding the records of Spain’s colonial empire.

Both draw long queues, and they are next to each other, which doubles the wait if you do them back to back. Book ahead where you can, and do one of them first thing in the morning.

Santa Cruz is for getting lost, early

The old Jewish quarter behind the Alcázar is a tangle of whitewashed lanes, small squares and orange trees. It is the Seville of postcards, and it is at its best before the day-trip crowds arrive.

1. Walk it in the morning, before about 10am, or in the evening.
2. The lanes are narrow enough to stay in shade, which makes it the one district that works in the heat.
3. The restaurants on the squares nearest the cathedral are priced for people who will not come back. Walk a few streets further.
4. The Casa de Pilatos, at the northern edge, is a sixteenth-century palace with tiled courtyards and far fewer visitors than the Alcázar.

Plaza de España and María Luisa park

Built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition, the Plaza de España is a vast semicircle of brick and ceramic around a canal. It costs nothing to enter.

1. The tiled alcoves along the building represent the provinces of Spain.
2. The canal and its bridges are the photographs everyone takes; the colonnade behind them is shaded.
3. María Luisa park next door is the old city’s great shaded park, and the best place to be in the late afternoon.
4. Go in the late afternoon rather than at midday: the square is open and unshaded.

Cross the river to Triana

Triana, on the west bank of the Guadalquivir, is the old neighbourhood of potters, sailors and flamenco, and it still feels like a separate town.

1. Cross the Isabel II bridge, usually called the Triana bridge, from the centre.
2. The Mercado de Triana sits at the end of the bridge, on the site of an old castle.
3. Calle Betis runs along the riverbank, facing the Torre del Oro and the old city.
4. The ceramics workshops and tiled shopfronts are the neighbourhood’s trade.
5. Come in the evening, when the riverside bars fill and the heat has broken.

Day trips from Seville

Córdoba is the one to choose if you only do one. In July and August, go early and come back before the afternoon — it is just as hot as Seville.