Seville Relaxed 2.5-Hour Guided Bike Tour from Santa Cruz

Barrio Santa Cruz and Plaza de Santa Cruz

Barrio Santa Cruz is the most romantic corner of Seville, a maze of whitewashed lanes, tiny squares and patios filled with orange trees and jasmine. Until the late 14th century it was the city's Jewish quarter, and in the early 20th century it was carefully restored into the picturesque neighbourhood you see today. Plaza de Santa Cruz, where the tour begins, is a quiet square with benches, rose bushes and an elaborate wrought-iron cross from 1692 at its centre.

The lanes here are too narrow for a group of bikes, so the tour starts at the edge of the quarter, but your guide explains its history and points out places to come back to on foot, such as the Callejón del Agua running along the Alcázar wall. Barrio Santa Cruz is best explored early in the morning or after dark, when the day-trippers have gone.

The Murillo Gardens

Right behind Plaza de Santa Cruz stretch the Jardines de Murillo, once the kitchen gardens of the Royal Alcázar and given to the city in the early 20th century. A long avenue lined with tiled benches, palm trees and enormous fig trees with twisting aerial roots runs between the old walls of the Alcázar and the Menéndez Pelayo avenue. Locals use it as a shady shortcut, and it is one of the most peaceful places in the centre.

Cycling slowly under the trees is the perfect warm-up for the ride. Your guide stops by the old wall to explain how the Alcázar's gardens fed the royal court and how water was brought into the palace. If you want to return later, the gardens are open every day and free, and they lead straight to the entrance of Barrio Santa Cruz.

The Former Royal Tobacco Factory

Leaving the gardens, the route passes the former Royal Tobacco Factory, a monumental stone building completed in the second half of the 18th century. When it opened it was one of the largest buildings in Spain, surrounded by a moat and watchtowers to protect the precious tobacco that arrived from the Americas. Behind its baroque façade thousands of workers, most of them women, rolled cigars in long galleries lit by courtyards.

Since the 1950s the building has housed the main seat of the University of Seville. From your bike you can admire the sculpted gateway crowned by a figure of Fame, and your guide explains how the factory shaped the image of Seville abroad and why so many students now pass through its patios. It is a short stop on the way to the green spaces of the 1929 exposition.

María Luisa Park and Plaza de España

María Luisa Park is a dream to cycle: flat, shaded avenues weave between palms, orange trees, ponds and tiled fountains, and much of it was designed for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition. The tour rides through the park to Plaza de España, the exposition's grand centrepiece, a semicircle of brick, marble and ceramics where tiled alcoves represent each Spanish province and four bridges cross a curving canal.

Here you stop for photos and time to look at the alcoves. The square is especially beautiful from the upper balconies, which you can visit on your own after the tour. Plaza de España is free and open at all hours, and the park nearby has rowing boats and shady paths, so many riders return later for a slower visit.

The Guadalquivir Riverside, Torre del Oro and Triana

From the park the route reaches the Guadalquivir and follows the riverside path past the Torre del Oro, the Almohad watchtower that guarded the harbour in the days when Seville traded with the Americas. Wide and flat, the riverside path is a favourite with Sevillian cyclists and joggers, with views of the bullring and the bridges.

The tour crosses the river into Triana, the traditional quarter of potters, tile makers and flamenco, where your guide shows you ceramic façades and the market before you ride back over the river towards Santa Cruz. If you are wondering how to get to Triana on your own later, it is only a short walk over the Isabel II Bridge from the old town.