Tips for experiencing the spell of Seville
If you are coming to Seville in August 2020, you are probably looking for things to do, places to see and experiences to live. It goes without saying that in the capital of Andalusia there is a special magic that can only be breathed once here. Our hotel Macià Sevilla Kubb is at a strategic point to be able to move freely through these streets and squares, in Plaza Carmen Benítez. And a temporary offer: 2x1 on breakfasts .
On the Seville Tourism website you will find all the necessary information, also updated with the conditions of the New Normality and all the information necessary to make a safe trip. There are other useful information websites, but we are going to provide a series of suggestions from our point of view:
The Monuments in August, at night
We are in a spectacular city, but in August the heat can make it difficult to enjoy some spaces, especially at certain central hours of the day. There is the possibility of visiting the Palacio de las Dueñas (which is a 10-minute walk from the Macià Sevilla Kubb) at night, or the María Luisa Park with a Becquerian dramatization (there are few places left!) Or Las Moradas de Santa Teresa. In this link you have more details .
The most visited sites, upon reservation
If it is your first time in Seville, you surely will not want to leave without seeing the Giralda or the Cathedral. As you will suppose, they are places with a great demand for tourism and especially in these times we recommend that you book your ticket in advance. Our advice is to send an email to reservas@cahedraldesevilla.es or call 954 21 49 71. For the Torre del Oro, the phone is 954 22 24 19. And in the case of the Real Alcázar, call 954 50 23 24 .
A fresh visit: The Santa Cruz neighborhood
It is proven: the Santa Cruz neighborhood, 15 minutes from the Kubb, has a temperature of up to 10ºC less than other neighborhoods in Seville. Look for the Callejón del Agua or the narrow Calle de los Besos and get lost a little. But don't let it get dark at night, that there are ghost legends ...
Concerts in August
The city is slowly recovering its cultural life and there are some concert cycles that are recovering. Among them stands out the CajaSol Foundation Summer Nights, in the Plaza de San Francisco, which on Thursday August will feature swing recitals, Latin fusion or pop. Free entrance! The invitations are collected at the box office on Calle Álvarez Quintero. On the other hand, at FIBES you have the Kultura & Co cycle outdoors with Carolina Durante or 091
Modern culture in Seville
Seville has a long tradition and many centuries, but it also has a modern face. Kato, César Bahamonte, Fabián Bravo or Alexandra del Bene are some of the graffiti artists who have given another air to the walls of our city. In this link you have a small route . And independent culture also has a level: Nostromo, 20 minutes walk from the hotel, has just been named the Best Comic Shop in the World at the last Comic-Con in San Diego . It is worth visiting!
Andalusia, the 2020 destination
For those of us lucky enough to live and work in the South of Spain, making a plea in favor of traveling to Andalusia can be a no-brainer. It has already been said many times and it is still true: Our land has all the virtues and opportunities to be one of the best vacation destinations in the world, and the tourism industry has developed so much and so well that staying in a hotel in Seville , in Granada, Córdoba or Cádiz is a hit at any time of the year .
We have just opened the doors of five of our hotels ( Macià Sevilla Kubb , Granada Five Senses , Macià Alfaros , Macià Doñana and Macià Real de la Alhambra ) and we are convinced that in 2020 this conclusion will be more emphatic than ever. The reservation response that we have begun to notice in our hotels in Andalusia attest to this.
In the first quarter of 2020, before the state of alarm began, Andalusia was the preferred destination for national tourists, with more than five million trips ending in the south . We hope to multiply that mark and break all our records between July and August, even knowing that the situation is complex and we have much to recover. We have our own seal of our community ('Safe Andalusia') and we foresight started from the beginning of the health crisis to design our own safety and hygiene program called 'Safe and Care', with which we want to distinguish ourselves as accommodation for reference regarding guarantees.
Seville already has its own seal as a safe city at the international level (endorsed by the WTTC), just like Córdoba . The BBC is recommending the Alhambra in Granada as a monument to visit this year. Doñana celebrates 50 years as a Natural Park in 2020, being the largest nature reserve in Europe, freer now than ever . We could say an endless number of reasons to come that go beyond the sun and the beaches, which remain unique pillars in the world for Andalusia. But it is also that hotels in Andalusia already account for 25% of reservations and forecasts continue to advance.
The Andalusian Government has put tourism as one of its priorities, in fact, for recovery during the new normal. Tourists already have a useful information portal , and with the hashtag # ViveAndalucía and #Intensante, they are reminding all our visitors that this community has something special that can be explained but is not fully understood until it is lived. Add our hashtags, # FeelingMacià and # FreelingMacià to that list. If you are Andalusian and you are reading this you already knew it, right?
Reasons to boost national tourism: the destination is close
Safe Tourism Certified - Travel Tips
It should come as no surprise that at the moment when the terms and conditions of the so-called 'de-escalation' are beginning to be defined, the tourism sector is one of the most mentioned and causes the most concern. In 2019 this sector left a total of 92,278 million euros (INE data) in our economy, breaking a new record. And a study by Best Hotels Spain has already warned that hygiene and safety will be decisive factors in achieving more hires in 2020.
From the hospitality professionals themselves, a debate has been built around the way in which tourist establishments should reopen their doors. The Business and Hospitality Association of Madrid took the initiative at the time, starting to talk about a special registry, which they called the Covid Free Hotels Protocol, but the Institute of Tourist Quality has already officialized a special seal, the Safe Tourism Certified , which covers 21 tourism subsectors.
This has led to a series of protocols and guides published by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism for the sector, with some specific recommendations for hotels , in a report prepared by the Committee of Technicians constituted by the ICTE itself in collaboration with the Confederation. Spanish Hotel and Tourist Apartments (CEHAT) and territorial organizations, chains and hotel companies such as ours, agreed with the Spanish Association of Labor Prevention Services (AESPLA), PRLInnovación, and unions. This document already includes a complete series of indications on common spaces, the reception service, cleaning in kitchens or rooms, protocols for action against infections, etc.
At Maciá Hoteles, it is still early to predict what holidays and trips of foreigners and nationals will be like in our destinations. We can confirm that we have been preparing to reopen our doors from the day we closed them, with staff training processes, implementation of hygiene protocols, special security studies for common areas -which are usually one of the attractions of our hotels in Andalusia-, among other actions that coincide with what these official guides are recommending to the sector.
Tips for traveling, if you are traveling
In the event that we are going to travel in the coming months - we will all do it again, sooner or later - we consider it necessary to assume that the world we are going to find is going to be different from the one we stopped exploring before March 15. We will have to take into account new conditions and possibilities, and in these tips we try to summarize the most important:
- 1. The new normality carries a new responsibility . That the infections do not return and that we are all safe depends on all of us following the recommendations that we already know, wherever we are, and that we are sensitive to possible measures that have been put in place wherever we go.
- 2. We have to be prepared . In your luggage add gloves, masks, sanitary gel, everything that can be extra security without thinking about buying it at the destination.
- 3. Take out cancellation insurance for flights, train tickets, reservations ... If there is one thing we have learned it is that nothing is completely predictable.
- 4. Identify with the environment and support the local economy . In the places where you go to enjoy a few days of tourism there are professionals linked to tourism of all characteristics and they are looking forward to your arrival to reactivate.
- 5. Anticipate what you are going to do, plan visits and activities . Everything that can be planned will facilitate your trip. Don't improvise.
- 6. Put patience in the suitcase and do not have very defined expectations . It is likely that part of that planning will be frustrated because some activity does not adequately manage your reservations or because there is a lack of information about spaces or visiting hours. We are all doing our best and there may be glitches. If we can help you from the reception of a Hotel Macià to make your stay more satisfactory, count on us.
- 7. Enjoy! We all continue to carry uncertainty and fear, but within the possibilities that this 2020 leaves us we have to appreciate this new time. All those who have been working these two months for our health did so thinking that we could be able to be happy again. We owe it to them! Feel free!
Follow our social networks and our blog to stay up to date with the news of our hotels in Andalusia. We are closer to see you again!
World Monument Day 2020 is celebrated at home
Today is celebrated around the world as World Monuments and Sites Day . It is a celebration sponsored by UNESCO that depends on the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and that this year, like so many other things, will be celebrated in a different way. As a company linked to the tourism sector in a region as monumental as Andalusia, we are especially aware of the heritage that is close to our hotels and we are going to celebrate it by joining the label #PatrimonioCompartido and # IcomosIDMS2020. Among other things, you can consult this interactive digital poster that ICOMOS itself has designed and published:
We are going to enrich it by reviewing the most fascinating monuments that are in the surroundings of our establishments to remember that they are still there and that we will continue to take care of them and admire them when the confinement ends.
Seville
Our Macià Sevilla Kubb hotel is a few meters from the old town of Seville, in Plaza Carmen Benítez. But if we had to choose a single recommendation we would insist on visiting the Real Alcázar of Seville , a fifteen minute walk from our door. Luckily we can go ahead and visit its online section designed for these days of isolation , including a virtual 360º view of its spaces.Cordova
The Macià Alfaros is also located in a privileged way in the center of Córdoba, with many nearby options: La Torre de la Calahorra, the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos ... But we are going to recommend the Roman Temple which is 250 meters from the hotel, in the Claudio Marcelo street. It dates from the 1st century AD. C. and was rebuilt by the architect Félix Hernández so that these ruins invited us to imagine their original majesty. And you are going to allow us to suggest you visit our Albaida Castle , whose history dates back to an 8th century Arab fortification converted into a castle that was owned by noble families, restored in 1919 by order of the Countess María de la Paz Olalla and Single house. It is the monumental jewel of Macià Hotels! In this link you can take a tour in images .Sanlucar de Barrameda
Cádiz and its entire coast are already a monument in itself ... Twenty minutes walk from the Macià Doñana you can visit the Ducal Palace of Medina Sidonia , declared monumental in 1973. You will be able to visit its magical gardens and if you approach it during its opening hours to the public you can see even Goya paintings. Not right now, of course. But you can tour in images part of this palace .Pomegranate
Here perhaps we should stop longer. There are five Maciá hotels in the Nasrid city ( Condor , Plaza , Real de la Alhambra , Five Senses and Monasterio de los Basilios ) and there is much, much heritage to see. The easy thing would be to tell you where the Alhambra or the Generalife is, which is one of the main claims of our city. But instead we are going to send you to the Royal Room of Santo Domingo , a recovered space that is even earlier than the Alhambra itself, and that in a more limited space transports us to Al Ándalus with the same magic. If you want, you can get closer to the feeling of the real world with this video:Remember that this is just a sample of what Andalusia offers the world, and that the World Day for Monuments and Sites continues with initiatives such as #patrimoniodesdemiventana with which you can collaborate.
Seville's April Fair
The most colorful party in the world: light, color and a lot of joy come together in the same month in Seville. Every year in April, Seville turns to its fair, a microcosm where the idiosyncrasy of a city unfolds with all its charm and all its power of seduction. The Fair is like a small and decked out city. An ephemeral world where houses are booths, lighting is achieved with lanterns and all the streets are named after legendary bullfighters. Seville is wrapped in tradition and fun for a whole week in which the different aspects of Andalusian culture are shown.
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Malaga Film Festival in Spanish 2019
Málaga hosts, between March 15 and 24, a new edition of the Spanish Film Festival where the latest cinematographic works will be screened. These days, the city lives a great atmosphere with the presence of well-known actors, directors and people related to the world of cinema. It also has numerous parallel activities that manage to turn this event into one of the most important in the city. The Cervantes Theater, the Echegaray Theater and the Albéniz Cinema are some of the venues in the city where several feature films, short films and documentaries will be screened.
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Concert by Bob Dylan in Fuengirola
Enjoy the next Bob Dylan concert in Fuengirola. The concert will take place on May 4, starting at 7:00 p.m., and in a unique location, the Sohail Castle of Fuengirola. Tickets can be purchased from € 80.
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Holy Week in Córdoba
The Holy Week of Cordoba, which begins on the 14th and ends on April 21st, is a commemorative feast of the Passion of Christ in which the people publicly manifest their faith. The city is filled with processional parades that shed the smell of incense and the dim light of the candles carried by the Nazarenes. In Cordoba there are 37 Confraternities of Penance at present that organize the processions, some with centuries of history, and that agglutinate citizens of all the ages and social condition. The Holy Week of Cordoba, unlike others, is silent and collected. The processions framed in the Historic Center of Cordoba, World Heritage, highlight especially making it one of the most important in Andalusia.
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International Villages Fair
Fuengirola is a welcoming city where citizens from all over the world live together. With the intention of publicizing the customs, folklore, gastronomy and cultural, historical and tourist attractions of the different nationalities, since 1994, the International Fair of Peoples (FIP) has been held on the Costa del Sol. It is a huge, interesting and interactive multicultural party. In this multicultural scenario, dances, customs, joy, music and flavors of the different continents are shared in a celebration that shows that Fuengirola unites. This event is held from Tuesday April 30 to Sunday May 5, 2019, without a doubt a unique event.
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Sun and Snow Festival
Sun Snow Festival is presented as a perfect combination of adventure, sport, music and the experience of living the festival at the highest altitude of the Iberian Peninsula, directly on the summits of the magical Sierra Nevada, a site that demands a strong commitment to the environment , because we are facing one of the largest national parks in Spain.
One of the main pillars on which Sun & Snow Festival; Snow Festival is sustained in the musical programming. Always going a step further offering emerging performances that will be the ones that shine with more force in the coming years without forgetting the big names of the panorama, house, techno, deep-house and independent of the moment.
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Cruces de Mayo de Córdoba 2019
Come and discover them from the 1st to the 5th of May 2019.
Every year, the Cruces de Mayo is celebrated in Córdoba, a popular contest that consists in rewarding the best decorated cross. With the passing of time a Christian tradition has become this festival rooted among the activities of Cordovan May.
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Granada Sound Festival
The next 20 and 21 September 2019 we will celebrate together the eighth edition of this music festival with artists like Vetusta Morla, Iván Ferreiro, Second, La Moda, Carmen Boza, Alice Wonder and many more that remain to be announced.
We hope to see you one more year, Granada is already preparing with its best tapas and canes for you to enjoy!
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Wight Night Granada
The longest night. The city dresses in culture from all corners so locals and visitors can live it.
VI Granada White Night Edition!
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KALENDAS EN CORDVBA
Initiative of the Tourism Delegation of the City of Cordoba to revive the heritage and Roman legacy of our city: from February 22 to March 17, 2019, Córdoba will enjoy guided tours, visits, yincanas, children's workshops and for adults , oil and wine tastings, cooking workshops, conferences, excursions to archaeological sites in the province, historical re-enactments, theater, hiking and cyclists, etc. etc.
But what are the Kalendas?
The Romans divided the month into three periods, kalendas, nonas and idus, which corresponded respectively to the new moon, middle moon and full moon. The kalendas indicated the beginning of the month, coinciding with the crescent moon, and therefore, corresponded to day 1.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Roman Bética Route, which covers fourteen cities in Andalusia. Córdoba, a city that was once the capital of the Bética, presents Kalendas in Cordvuba, putting the accent on the archaeological heritage of the city.
Cádiz, among the 52 destinations that must be visited in 2019 according to The New York Times
Every year, the American newspaper The New York Times announces its 52 favorite destinations.
A careful list of attractive tourist places prepared by the editors of the travel section of the newspaper that always provokes curiosity.
If in 2017 the Spanish representative was Antequera and in 2018 Sevilla and Ribera del Duero took over, this year has been the province of Cádiz which has managed to carve a niche, in the 50th place, in this prestigious selection led by Puerto Rico .
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New connections with Berlin and Naples
The Grenadian capital begins its connection with Berlin and Naples. This is another step for the Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén airport, which this year aims to exceed one million passengers and for this will have two great allies in these new links with Germany and Italy
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Report in HotelAddict Granada Five Senses
On the HotelAddict page they make us a report of the most original, they do it from the view of a traveler.
As if they were staying at our hotel, so as to make those who read it come to an experience almost as if he had been there https://www.hotel-addict.com/2018/08/22/granada-five-senses- rooms-suites-lures-guests-with-minimalist-style-and-an-urban-vibe /
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The greatest literary legacy of Spain is in Granada
Lorca's legacy is already in Granada, the Minister of Culture and Sports, José Guirao, confirms that he will stay in Granada forever. It has taken a lot of effort and overcome many difficulties, but to thank the Lorca family for having helped and collaborated to bring the entire legacy to the city of Granaina.
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Medina Azahara, new World Heritage Site
The Medina Azahara site already belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Site
An ephemeral city, but that has arrived intact to this day. The history that can be told through its ruins tells us of a war in the heart of Al-Andalus.
This will help to make known, even more, this jewel of history.
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