Santa Cruz
Hotel Alfonso XIII
Landmark grandeur: Seville's famous 1929 grand hotel, with a colonnaded courtyard restaurant and an outdoor pool.
Seville guide
Luxury travel guide to Seville
Andalusia's capital, made for slow travel: palaces, flamenco, tapas and long evenings on a terrace.
By Ramin Jafari · Facts checked
Seville wears its history lightly: Moorish palaces, orange-tree squares, grand hotels in historic buildings and terraces made for an afternoon vermouth. After the discovery of America its river port was the leading port of its age, and the wealth it brought is still in its monuments. Whether you come for romance, for culture or for the food, its flat old town is easy on foot and an easy base for the rest of southern Spain.
At a glance
- Best months
- March to May, and October into early November
- How long
- Three days for the city; more with Córdoba, Ronda or Jerez
- Getting there
- Fly to SVQ, 10 km from the centre, or take the AVE from Madrid
- Getting around
- On foot: a flat old town, one of the largest in Europe
- Best for
- A romantic stay, a cultural trip or one built around food
When to go
The best time to visit
Spring and autumn suit Seville best.
From March to May the average high climbs from about 22°C (72°F) to 27°C (81°F), and in October it is back to about 26°C (79°F): warm enough for lunch on a terrace, comfortable for walking the old town and its courtyards. In July and August it averages about 36°C (97°F), and sightseeing moves to the early morning and the evening.
Spring also brings the Feria de Abril. Most of its casetas are private, entered as a member’s guest, but some are open to visitors, and the city’s own caseta takes table bookings, which we can make for you, subject to availability.
Our best time to visit Seville guide goes season by season, and the best time to visit Spain looks at the whole country.
Where to stay
Where to stay in Seville
A grand hotel, a boutique house or a modern tower across the river: three of the hotels we recommend in Seville, each a different way to stay.
El Arenal
Mercer Sevilla
An intimate five-star boutique hotel in a late 19th-century mansion in El Arenal, with a rooftop terrace and pool for guests.
La Cartuja
Eurostars Torre Sevilla
The top nineteen floors of Torre Sevilla, Andalusia's tallest building: 244 exterior rooms, with a restaurant, a spa and a rooftop terrace stacked above them.
They are a selection, not the whole choice. Our Seville accommodation overview compares every hotel we feature there, area by area, and we arrange others to suit you. For the rest of the country, see luxury hotels in Spain; our luxury trip planning page explains how a stay becomes a whole journey.
Food
The food of Seville
Seville cooks Andalusian tradition with a modern edge, and tapas are how much of the city eats.
Abantal, chef Julio Fernández Quintero’s restaurant, holds a MICHELIN Star in the 2026 guide for tasting menus that take traditional Andalusian flavours somewhere new. El Pintón, in a historic building in the shadow of the Giralda, sets out to join tradition and new ideas.
Among the dishes to try: gazpacho, a summer speciality; carrillada, slow-cooked Iberian pork cheek; and torrijas, the sweet of Lent. The Mercado de Triana, by the Triana bridge, has stalls of fruit, vegetables, fish and meat, with tapas bars among them.
We can arrange a market visit, a chef-led tasting or a pairing of wines from the sherry country and Montilla-Moriles, on request: see our culinary and wine tours, and for wine further north, wine tasting in La Rioja. Our Seville food and cuisine guide has the restaurants, the market and the sherry in full.
Sights
Sights and experiences
Three landmarks no first visit should miss, and the experiences we can arrange around them.
Santa Cruz
Seville Cathedral and the Giralda
- World Heritage
- UNESCO, since 1987, with the Alcázar
- Visit
- About 75 minutes, beginning with the Giralda
UNESCO calls it the largest Gothic building in Europe. Its five naves hold the tomb of Christopher Columbus, and its bell tower, the Giralda, was the minaret of the mosque that stood here: a masterpiece of Almohad architecture, crowned in the Renaissance by Hernán Ruiz. For Spain’s other great monuments, see our guide to Spain’s castles and palaces.
Santa Cruz
The Patio de las Doncellas The Real Alcázar
- Royal rooms
- The Cuarto Real Alto, which we can add to the visit
Begun in the 10th century as the palace of the Muslim governor, the Alcázar is still the Spanish royal family’s residence in Seville, as UNESCO notes; the palace calls itself the oldest royal palace in use in Europe. Its heart is the Mudéjar palace that Pedro I built in the mid-14th century, its patios opening onto extensive gardens.
Parque de María Luisa
Plaza de España
- Built for
- The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929
- Architect
- Aníbal González
A semicircle of brick, ceramic and tile in Seville’s regionalist style, crowned by two tall towers. Its 515-metre canal can be explored by boat; the four bridges over it stand for the old kingdoms of Castile, León, Aragón and Navarre, and tiled benches picture the provinces of Spain.
Beyond the monuments, and each on request, subject to availability:
- The Alcázar out of hours. The palace takes requests for private visits outside its public hours.
- A private flamenco evening, arranged around your stay: see private flamenco in Seville.
- The Guadalquivir by boat, with local wines and tapas on board.
- A ceramics workshop in Triana, the old potters’ quarter across the river.
- A day at an olive-oil estate or a sherry bodega, with a private tasting.
There is more in our things to do in Seville guide and among the experiences on our Seville page; for private guides across the country, see our architecture and cultural tours.
Three days
Three days in Seville
Three days cover the essentials at an easy pace, from a private transfer on arrival to a farewell dinner. Each is a starting point we shape around you.
Day 1
Arrival and Santa Cruz
Sunset
A guided walk through Santa Cruz.
Dinner
A historic tavern serving modern Andalusian cooking.
Day 2
Architecture and food
Morning
The Alcázar and the Cathedral with a private guide.
Lunch
A table at a restaurant in the MICHELIN Guide.
Afternoon
Time to yourself, or the spa.
Evening
Flamenco, with tapas and wines to match.
Day 3
Triana and the river
By day
Triana’s artisan workshops, then a cruise on the Guadalquivir.
Dinner
A farewell dinner on a rooftop facing the Giralda.
For a longer stay, our four-day Seville itinerary adds the city’s art and gardens, and a day out of town.
Itineraries that include Seville
The Charm of Andalusia
from $9,800 per person
The Grand Spanish Tour
from $27,200 per person
Luxury Spanish Honeymoon
from $16,800 per person
Spanish Family Adventure
from $9,400 per person
Seville guides
- Things to do in Seville
The Alcázar, the Cathedral, tapas, flamenco, the river, and the horses of Jerez.
- Seville food and cuisine
Seville's table, where to eat, and the market, the ham and the sherry.
- Four days in Seville
Four days, day by day, where to stay, and how to extend the trip.
- Best time to visit Seville
Season by season and month by month, with the festivals and the heat to plan around.
More city guides: Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca and San Sebastián, or all our Spain guides. Across Spain: our luxury travel guide, luxury destinations, the top five-star hotels and boutique hotels, why personalisation matters and Spain’s national parks.
Plan your Seville trip
Tell us your dates and who is travelling. Everything else we can work out together.
Plan your Seville trip Our Seville page
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