Whether you arrive in Cordoba by bus or train, you start your visit from pretty much the same place. That’s because the two stations are located across the street from each other. As Cordoba is often done as a day trip from Seville by train, these visitors arrive in the morning during cooler hours and may enjoy the walk through La Victoria Garden which runs between the stations and Cordoba’s historic center and main attractions. We visited in December, so the weather was cooler but overall sunny even in the afternoon. We were packing all of our luggage on our backs, and it was a longer walk than I had imagined. I don’t think we could have done the walk in the summer heat with our luggage. The park goes on and on, for quite a distance. It took us about 25 minutes to walk from the bus station to the historic center, and about the same time to walk back to the train station. The return journey seemed quicker, possibly because we knew what to expect. Google Maps says the train station is 2 minutes closer than the bus station.
The historic center is going to be on the left side of the park when walking in its direction, and the stations will also be on the left side of the park, when walking back in that direction. So whether you are going to or from, left is best!
Walking from the station to the historic center
I took a screenshot from Google Maps (above) and marked the location of the bus and train stations, the park is depicted in green, and I highlighted the historic center in yellow. The historic center comes before the end of the park! I used Google Maps to find our apartment and we only had one problem while navigating. Google Maps seemed to take us through a busy round about intersection in front of Eurostars Palace hotel; like right down the middle. We should have veered to the left where you see the green and the yellow touch in the screenshot; but instead, we got caught running through traffic with our luggage in tow (we saw some other people, without luggage, attempting something similar). We didn’t have this problem on our return, as it was obvious when returning where we should go. Once you get to the round about, you are almost to the historic center.
Enjoying Victoria Garden and Mercado Victoria
The park has a nice playground for kids, if you are traveling with kids and they need a break after the train or bus ride. Also, about midway there is a nice gourmet market with more than 20 stalls selling Spanish and international food, in case it’s actually you that needs the break. Stop in at historic Mercado Victoria! In my Google Map screenshot above, the arrow for Park is almost pointing right at Mercado Victoria. But honestly, if you are walking through there, you can’t miss it.
Timing our arrival with check in times
While many visitors arrive from Seville, we arrived from Granada and were staying two nights in Cordoba, before returning to Madrid. We couldn’t check into our apartment in Cordoba until 3pm, and we could not find a train that lined up with our check in time. We could have stashed our bags in lockers, but this stop was near the end of our trip and we wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I found an Alsa bus that arrived just in time to walk to the apartment for check in, so we opted for the slightly longer (about 1 hour) but significantly cheaper bus ride. There were two stops along the way, and the ride was scenic (lots of olive trees and even a castle). However, there were plenty of train connections from Cordoba to Madrid and we were happy to take a high speed train back to Madrid.
What to expect at the Cordoba train station
We had purchased our tickets in advance on the Renfe website. I had the tickets loaded in the Renfe App, and I had paper copies (just in case). The station was busy, just like any train station. You enter on what is technically the upper floor. There are reader boards that show arrivals and departures. It was pretty glitchy and was only working on one side when we were there and was difficult to read. I had to ask someone standing nearby which track the train would come in on. I was told Track 1 or 2 for Madrid. These tracks had security set up that you send your luggage through as you walk through a metal detector. On the other side there was a small booth with an attendant who scanned the QR codes on our tickets. She was very specific in telling me that I needed to wait on Track 1, and that I needed to look at the floor and walk all the way down to the orange line. We went down the escalator to the track and walked and walked and walked, to get to the orange line. I debated whether pink was orange, because we had walked so far by that point (it wasn’t). It was important to find the right color as the train is long and only stops for a short time to allow passengers to get off and on. Sure enough, when the train arrived, the car number with our assigned seats was at the orange line! So you definitely want to pay attention to which color the attendant tells you.
The track is labeled with the sector. This photo shows sector E (you see the letter is blue too) and corresponds with a blue line on the ground.
You can see that the pink line turns blue. The line goes through a lot of colors. Be sure to stand in front of the line that has your assigned color.
What to expect at the Cordoba bus station
The Cordoba bus station was busy, just like the train station. It also had similar services to the train station, including a cafe to grab a bite to eat, bathrooms, vendors, information and ticket sales, and a reader board with departure and arrival information. Just like trains arrive at specific tracks, the buses arrive at specific bays and you need to know which number to find your specific bus. We purchased our tickets in advance on the Alsa website and I had the tickets loaded in the Alsa App. The bus driver scanned the tickets at the bus, and there was no security check at the bus station.
Got any other tips, or anything I missed? Let us know in the comments!
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