Things to do in Seville: what is worth it and what is overrated

Seville has three visits that justify the trip on their own and a fourth that everyone argues about. This page ranks all four by price, length and best time to go, with 2025 and 2026 figures and where they come from.

And it adds what no brochure puts on its cover: the best of Seville's Holy Week can be seen for free from the street, and resold tickets consistently cost more than official ones.

Which visits are worth it, and what do they cost?

The reduced cathedral ticket costs between €6 and €7 for over-65s, students up to 25, large families and people with a recognised disability of between 33 and 65%.

The Alcázar and the cathedral: the problem is not the price, it is the time

Neither is overrated, and both are spoilt for the same reason: going in between 10:00 and 15:00, when the groups and the queues coincide.

The Alcázar needs two to three hours to do properly, mainly because of the gardens, which are half the visit and the part where the crowds thin out. If you have to choose, going in late is better than going in early.

With the cathedral, the debate is about the interior: some find it less spectacular than other Gothic cathedrals in Europe. Nobody argues about the combination with the Giralda, though, because the former minaret tells the city's story better than any sign.

Las Setas: the most confusing prices in the city

Here the sources openly contradict each other, and it is worth knowing before you pay. One 2026 guide gives €16 with a drink included, a blogger the same year gives €16 without a drink, and a third 2026 guide quotes €3.

Most likely several options coexist: a rate for registered residents, a visitor ticket and some package with a drink. No public source sets them out clearly.

What is documented is the trend: before the pandemic the walkway cost around €5 with a drink, and today you pay around €16. It is the most talked-about price rise in Seville, and the one that most disappoints returning visitors.

Ticket reselling, in figures

Intermediary platforms sell the same basic ticket as the official website, with a mark-up of between €1 and €4 per ticket. For the cathedral, that is €12 official against €12 to €14 on a platform.

The sales pitch is usually skip-the-line access, but in Seville booking on the official website already avoids most of the wait. For four people at three monuments, the mark-up adds up to between €12 and €48 for nothing in return.

The reasonable exception is a genuinely guided visit, with a live guide and commentary, which is a different product. Tell one from the other before comparing prices.

Holy Week: the best of it is free

From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, between 70 and 76 brotherhoods take to the streets. Watching them from the street costs nothing, and that is the most valuable piece of information on this page.

Chairs and boxes on the Carrera Oficial are sold through the Consejo General de Hermandades y Cofradías, and they sell out well before Holy Week. Nobody publishes the date they go on sale or the real deadline.

Many locals do not buy a chair: they pick a less crowded street on the return route and watch the brotherhood go by standing up. It is cheaper, more authentic and a good deal more comfortable than a stand you have to reach two hours early.

• La Madrugá, the night of Maundy Thursday into Good Friday, is the high point: processions from midnight to dawn.
• Palm Sunday brings together brotherhoods often recommended for a first time: La Borriquita, La Paz, El Amor.
• Good Friday with El Cachorro and Holy Saturday with the Santo Entierro are the most sober and most striking days.
• A realistic session is 3 to 4 hours, although a whole brotherhood can be out in the street for 8 to 11 hours.

The centre seizes up from 19:00 onwards, and you should reach your chosen spot 60 to 90 minutes early. After that time, getting from La Campana to the cathedral is no longer realistic.

Still unpublished

• The exact terms at Las Setas: what each rate includes, who the €3 rate is for and at what times it applies.
• Regular free days such as the first Sunday of the month. No source consulted gives a list for Seville.
• When the Carrera Oficial chairs go on sale: we know they sell out, not when they are released.
• The effect of the processions on monument opening hours: special hours are acknowledged, with no published calendar or notice.

The very touristy flamenco shows are the other point of debate, and here we have to be honest about the limits: independent reviews criticise the standardisation, but there is no published data to measure how many of them are like that.

To plan your days, see the map of the centre and real distances and public transport fares. To choose a base, the guide to where to stay, district by district, and if you arrive by car, the parking zones.

Sources

• Welcometoseville: prices and opening hours of Seville's monuments (2026).
• Tourismattractions: attractions and comparison of online tickets (2026).
• Opentravelguide: visit length and recommended times (2026).
• Seville-trip: Seville on a tight budget (2026).
• BBQboy: how the price of Las Setas has changed (2026).
• Machupicchu.org: guide to Seville's Unesco sites (2025), for free entry to the Archivo de Indias.
• Nomado Travel: guide to Holy Week in Seville (2026), for the number of brotherhoods, chair sales and peak crowd times.
• Seville Traveller: brotherhood timetables (2025).
• Mr. Manzano (2026) and The Local: what to know about Holy Week.

Entry prices are reviewed every season and always carry the year of their source. When two sources contradict each other, as with Las Setas, this page says so instead of picking one.