And other ways to fall in love with southern Spain

Spain’s most celebrated luxury train has expanded its route and reminded the world of something we’ve always believed: that Andalucia deserves to be taken slowly.

Spain’s legendary luxury train, Al Andalus, has launched a new seven-day itinerary connecting Seville and Madrid, weaving south through Córdoba, Cádiz and Jerez before turning north through Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha. The carriages, once used by the British Royal Family, have been lovingly restored. And the travel world, quite rightly, is paying attention.

We’ve followed its relaunch with genuine delight. Not just because it’s a beautiful product — though it is — but because of what it signals about how travellers are starting to think about southern Spain.

For years, Andalucia suffered from the whirlwind itinerary: Seville on Monday, Granada on Wednesday, Córdoba on Thursday, home by the weekend. It was a way of visiting that technically ticked the boxes while missing almost everything that makes the region extraordinary. The Al Andalus — and the surge of interest around it — is part of a broader, welcome correction.

What the train does beautifully

The new route is intelligently designed and goes beyond Andalucia. It stops overnight at depots rather than running through the night, so the landscape remains visible and the pace stays genuinely unhurried. It takes passengers through places that even frequent Spain visitors tend to overlook: the Roman ruins of Mérida, the windmill-scattered plains of Campo de Criptana, the quietly magnificent old town of Zafra. For travellers who want the romance of rail travel alongside a considered introduction to southern Spain, it is a perfectly calibrated experience.

There is also something to be said for the particular pleasure of watching landscape unfold from a train window — the rhythm of olive groves, the slow drama of the sierra. Some experiences simply belong to rail, and the Al Andalus delivers them with considerable style.

Another kind of slow: the bespoke Andalucia

For those who catch the slow travel bug — and the Al Andalus has a way of doing that — there is a natural next question: what else does Andalusia offer at this pace? The answer, as it turns out, is quite a lot.

At TOMA & COE, slow travel is our working method. It has been since we started. What that means in practice is an itinerary built around your interests, your pace, your particular obsessions — whether that’s Moorish architecture, contemporary flamenco, sherry culture, or the working fincas of the countryside. It means a guide with genuine local knowledge and real relationships with the people and places on your route. And it means the kind of flexibility that lets an unexpected afternoon — a flamenco rehearsal, a private bodega visit, a village market that wasn’t in the plan — become the part of the trip you remember most.

Some of our favourite Andalucian experiences are simply not accessible by fixed rail route: the olive estates of Priego de Cordoba and hilltop villages of the Sierra de Aracena, the undiscovered coastline of Cádiz province, the Moorish villages of Las Alpujarras high above Granada. They require time, certainly, but they also require a guide who knows the way in, and the freedom to follow where the road leads.

Two approaches, one philosophy

The Al Andalus and a bespoke TOMA & COE tour are different ways of answering the same question: how do you give Andalusia the time it deserves? One offers the luxury of letting someone else handle every detail, from a carriage window with a glass of fino in hand. The other puts the whole region at your disposal, with an expert at your side and nothing permanently fixed except the quality of what you’ll experience.

Both, we’d argue, are the right idea. Andalucia has always repaid those who came with time to spare. It’s good to see the rest of the world catching on.

Inspired to explore Andalucia at your own pace?

Talk to us about designing a private tour that goes where the train doesn’t. We’ve been building bespoke journeys through southern Spain for nearly two decades — get in touch to start planning yours.