Andalusia

Thanks not just to backpackers but also the considerable student population, Granada (including the old town) is full of budget options, including multicourse menus for as little as 749 ptas ($3.80). That's what you'll pay, for example, for pasta, salad, a wedge of potato omelette, bread, and flan at Boabdil (Calle Hospital de Peregrinos at Calle Elvira); named after Granada's last Muslim ruler and awash in Moorish-motif tiles, it's located in the lower Albaicin. For simple but ample and good-quality platters for 950 ptas ($4.80) and a front-row seat to the action on Plaza Nueva, check out La Boqueria (Pl. Nueva 2). Farther up the hill, the very homey Cuevas del Albayzin (Placeta de San Gregorio at Caldereria Nueva), is a hangout for students and locals next to a sixteenth-century church; entrees with a side dish start at 650 ptas ($3.30) and a house specialty is roscas, bagel-like (but crustier) rolls ten inches in diameter and loaded up sandwich-style, from 425 ptas ($2.15). For real-deal Moorish ambience, at Arrayanes (Cuesta Maranas 4, just above Caldereria Nueva), Mustafa Bougrine from Casablanca serves up classic Moroccan fare (entrees from 400 ptas/$2) amid richly ornamented arches and banquettes. Finally, up near where the Albaicin becomes Sacromonte, a splurge at Mirador de Morayma (Calle Pianista Garcia Carillo 2) yields not just local treats such as fish-and-lamb stew for 1,400 ptas ($7), but the run of an exquisite seventeenth-century Granadine villa with a heartstopping view of the Alhambra.

Seville: Carmen, toros, & fragrant orange trees

Seville, Andalusia's capital (pop. 714,000), is one of the great cities of Europe - and was when Madrid was still a cow town - with more than enough to keep you hopping for at least a week: Europe's third largest cathedral (adults 800 ptas/$4, students/seniors 250 ptas/$1.25), with its climbable twelfth-century Giralda bell tower (formerly a mosque minaret); the Alcazar (700 ptas/$3.50, students free), a huge Muslim-Christian complex that echoes the Alhambra; the eighteenth-century Real Fabrica de Tabacos, the world's first tobacco factory (now part of the university; free) and setting for Bizet's opera Carmen; La Cartuja island in the Guadalquivir River, site of the 1992 Universal Exposition and a famous fifteenth-century monastery; the ornate 1929 Expo grounds; and Spain's oldest and most famous bullring, the Real Maestranza (season: Easter through October, tickets from about 1,500 ptas/$7.60). Then, of course, just wander the superb Barrio de Santa Cruz, the former Jewish quarter of cobblestone lanes and orange-tree-shaded plazas. Easter week and April's Feria de Abril are the high points of the year - when rates rocket up and room availability plummets. Even in normal times Seville's considered pricey by Andalusian standards - but read on, and save.

Lodgings

Of low-end nonhostel options, an excellent choice at 6,400 ptas ($33) per double from September to April (7,500 ptas/$38 at other times) is the 16-room Hostal Paris (Calle San Pedro Martir 14, 422-98-61, fax 421-96-45), not far north of the Maestranza bullring and near the Fine Arts Museum, with very fresh, whitewashed rooms including baths, A/C, TV, and phone. Right in the Barrio Santa Cruz, for 7,000 ptas ($36) per double, the Almagro-family-run Hostal Cordoba (Calle Farnesio 12, 421-53-35, franalmagro@inicia.es) has 12 immaculate rooms (amenities limited to bath and cable TV) set up around a classily simple jewel of an eighteenth-century courtyard. (One drawback of being family-run: a 3 a.m. curfew!) Close to the river, the Maestranza, and a ten-minute stroll to Santa Cruz, La R bida (Calle Castelar 24, 422-09-60, fax 422-43-75) is a gracious and distinguished old building with loads of antique touches-marble, paintings, tapestries, fountains, rich tilework, and carved wood-and 100 rooms that are slightly dated but fully decked out, amenities-wise. Doubles run 9,300 ptas ($48) November through February, 10,379 ptas ($50) the rest of the year (except Easter and Feria de Abril). Back in Santa Cruz, on the lovely little Plaza de los Venerables, is an atmospheric but slightly expensive eatery whose attached Hosteria del Laurel (422-02-95, fax 421-04-50, eintec.es/hostlaurel) is an inn-as charming yet modestly priced-that supposedly inspired the story of Don Juan back in 1844. Its 21 white-stucco rooms are clean, cheerful, modern, and well equipped; doubles run 8,025 ptas ($41) in January-February and July-August, 10,165 ptas ($52) in November-December, and 13,375 ptas ($68) otherwise.

Dining

Those yummy little tapas are quite the thing here, and good deals in countless bars and eateries; one of the more popular is the Cervecer¡a Giralda (Calle Mateos Gago 1), in the shadow of the cathedral, where under white vaulted ceilings or at outside tables locals chow down on a huge selection of tapas from 300 ptas ($1.55) apiece or their entree-size analogues from 1,200 ptas ($6.10). Nearby, Seville's single most atmospheric budget-priced don't-miss has to be the San Marco (Calle Meson del Moro 6/10, san-marco.net) in Santa Cruz, set amid the twelfth-century stone arches of an Arab bathhouse and tasteful "updated Moorish" decor; among the pizzas, pastas, and other Italian staples you'll find resurrected recipes of Al-Andalus such as lamb in honey sauce with scalloped potatoes (1,500 ptas/$7.60). Less dramatic but awash in country-flavored charm is El Rincon de Pepe (Calle Gloria 6, between Plazas Elvira and Los Venerables), where the four-course, 975-peseta ($5) formulas (set menus) are the way to go. At 850 ptas ($4.30), the set menus are also the star at Meson Serranito, a chain whose service is gruff but whose Calle Antonia Diaz 4 location is in total tune with the Maestranza bullring around the corner: full of stuffed bulls' heads and taurine tchotchkes. Finally, for a touch of something different, Hang Zhou (Calle Mateos Gago 5, next to Cerveceria Giralda) is a nicely decorated spot with a selection of pretty creditable-tasting 825-peseta ($4.20) Chinese f¢rmulas.

Nightlife

Andalusia's hottest partying apart from the Costa del Sol kicks off low-key, with a 600-peseta ($3) agua de Sevilla (champagne, pineapple juice, egg liqueur) at Cafe Bar Abades, a classy eighteenth-century covered courtyard in Santa Cruz (Calle Abades 13, sol.com/abades). Continue to the high-quality, twice-nightly flamenco at Los Gallos (Pl. de Santa Cruz 11, 421-69-81, tablaolosgallos.com; 3,500 ptas/$18, including one drink). Then head across the river to the Triana district, where along the riverfront Calle Betis sevillanos party in clubs like Div n, Alambique, Rejoneo, and El Descansillo. A top choice for young 'uns: Mo d'Aqui (No. 55), with 200-peseta ($1) beers, 600-peseta ($3) cocktails, and occasional live music; for a more mixed-age crowd, try Lo Nuestro (No. 31A), with just slightly higher prices.

Cordoba: Narrow cobbled lanes & a magical mosque

Usually relegated to a two-hour tour-bus stopover or a day trip from Seville - two hours west by road, 41 minutes/round-trip 4,500 ptas ($23) via AVE train - the most important city in Al-Andalus (home to legendary figures like Maimonides and Averroas) is one of my favorite spots in Spain, an undersung

UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Guadalquivir where folks are even friendlier than in Seville and the atmosphere even more magical. Now home to a little over 300,000 souls, Cordoba has a Juderia (old Jewish quarter) with a still-existing section of twelfth-century crenellated walls and a mini-universe of the Moorish, Jewish, and Christian Middle Ages-cobblestone lanes like Calleja del Pa¤uelo ("Hankie Lane," dubbed in honor of its width); courtyards (in early May, the Concurso de Patios Cordobeses judges the fairest of them all); and sumptuous little moments even better savored in the calm of the evening, when the day-trippers are gone. There are synagogues, fascinating museums, even Roman ruins - but the old town's crowning glory is the Mezquita (1,000 ptas/$5), an eighth-century mosque partly deformed into a cathedral by the kill-a-Muslim-for-Christ crowd, yet still preserving its fairy-tale interior-six acres of splendid striped arches and gorgeously adorned prayer corners. Five miles out of town is another showstopper: the grandiose three-acre Moorish palace complex of Medina Azahara (600 ptas/$3); more ruined than, say, the Alhambra, it's still an incredible stroll back into tenth-century Al-Andalus.