nevertooold

We are planning our trip to Spain next September and plan as follows:

Madrid - 4 days
Toledo - 2 days
Operesa - 1 day
Granada - 2 days
Sevilla - 2 days
Barcelona-5 days

We will be able to have 1 additional day and night and are trying to decide between a night and day in Ronda versus a night and day in Segovia (La Granja parador).

Any suggestions or recommendations, please?

As always, thanks.

Maribel

nevertooold,
Given your itinerary, I'm going to assume that you'll fly from Sevilla to Barcelona.
So after Madrid, it seems that you'll be moving south for 7 days. If so, I'd just add another night on your southern route, in Ronda, rather than spend that night to the north of Madrid in La Granja. You can do Segovia and even la Granja on a day trip (via high speed train to Segovia then bus to La Granja) from Madrid.

Just a note:
Oropesa (as fabulous as the parador there is) isn't on the direct route from Toledo to Granada. It is located directly to the west of Toledo, on the way to Extremadura, not Andalucía.

The Paradors more closely on that route from Toledo to Granada would be Almagro (but close to Toledo in La Mancha), then Ubeda and Jaén in Andalucía. Of the latter two, Ubeda would be my personal choice because it is a truly beautiful Renaissance town with gorgeous architecture. The parador there is a 17th century ducal palace.

nevertooold

Mirabel - it doesn't matter when the extra night and day arise - we would go to Segovia directly from Madrid and then go to Oropesa, Toledo etc. or we would go to Ronda on our way to Seville.

My question is not in regards to which town would fit in best with regards to the itinerary, but which town would be more enjoyable/memorable to visit for the night and day.

Thanks.

nevertooold

Mirabel - we were going to Oropesa first, by the way, only because our schedule was such that the seventh night is a Friday and Oropesa was allowing a "golden days" stay and Toledo was not, so we were planning to go to Toledo first (although it does set us back 50 miles or so to go to Oropesa) in order to take advantage of the G.D. rate at Toledo for the 2 nights (Wednesday and Thursday).

If we decide to go to Segovia or Ronda, we would leave Madrid one day earlier and go to Segovia Tuesday mid-day (we arrive in Madrid at 9:15 am to start our trip on Saturday and feel (hope?) that 3 1/2 days there could be sufficient) or we could alternatively go to O. first on Tuesday afternoon, stay there that afternoon and the next day before going to Toledo wednesday night, where we would stay for 2 nights at the golden days rate before driving to Granada late Friday afternoon.

Maribel

Hi nevertooold,
Thanks for the explanation; I now understand the situation much better. With the special discounts (Golden Age, 5 night plan, etc.) it's sometimes challenging to work out an all Parador itinerary due to the restrictions to those plans (Sun.-Thurs. only in some Paradors, etc.)

Am I correct that you'll be flying from Sevilla to Barcelona?

It seems that you would really like Oropesa to fit into your itinerary and don't mind the backtracking to make it fit.

Regarding your question of which town would be more memorable, La Granja or Ronda, for me it would be Ronda for its marvelous setting atop the gorge and surrounded by the Serranía.
I don't think that the Ronda Parador itself you'll find quite as spiffy, luxurious as the brand new La Granja Parador with spa, but a detour to Ronda from Granada to Sevilla would allow you to see some of the pueblos blancos (white villages) which are on many folks "must see" list in Andalucía.

But Ronda will, indeed, be a detour south since it's not on the direct Granada-Sevilla driving route, as you probably know. Whether this detour would be worth it to you for one night is something to consider. I find Ronda to be a charming, captivating and romantic town, especially at night, and a visit there for me is always memorable, but I also love the city of Segovia.

The La Granja parador lies 13 km. southeast of Segovia in the town of San Ildefonso (La Granja) which would be very quiet mid-week-not much going on there after the Palace closes. But you would spend the day touring in Segovia and just retire to La Granja for the night, I assume.

Sorry I can't give you a definitive answer, but I love both places. If it were my first trip to Spain, I'd probably choose Ronda simply to have more time to explore Andalucía, Moorish Spain.

With 4 days in Madrid, again, I'd try to fit in a day trip via high speed train to Segovia to visit the city itself.