natandjim0805

I'm in the beginning stages of planning a trip for my 20th wedding anniversary. Spain is on our short list of possible destinations. If we choose Spain, here are the details:

We will be traveling end of July/beginning of August (two weeks total).

We will fly in and of Madrid.

We want to visit Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Costa de la Luz (for the beach), white villages, and Granada.

We are in our 40s and love good food and wine.

For the Costa, not looking for a big town. Small, nice beach, good good, nicer hotel but not luxury.

Any itinerary ideas? How many days in each place? I'm assuming we would need a car for the Costa and white villages. I'd like to base ourselves in one town in the Costa and maybe see white villages from there?

Thx!

Bedar

This year or next ? I'd plan the following route:- Madrid to Cordoba to Seville to the Costa to the white villages to Granada to Madrid. A real loop so there's no backtracking.

kja

I trust that means you are aware of the usual temperatures at that time of year and are OK with them?

I would find the trip you are proposing a bit too rushed for my tastes, but YMMV. I recommend that you plot your wish list on a calendar. Each time you propose to change locations, pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). As you do so, note that many things in Spain are closed on Monday, and often for all or part of Sundays too; and many things in Spain will also be closed daily for a very long mid-day break.

You will definitely find great food and wine in Spain!

Hope that helps.

natandjim0805

Thanks for the replies. The trip is actually happening in 2020. We are huge planners. . Also, we are both teachers and can only do a trip like this in summer (also our anniversary is August 5). We have two children who will be 10 & 12 then, so two weeks is the longest we would like to be away from them.

KJA, any ideas on how to make things less rushed? I feel like Sevilla, the Costa, and Granada are a must. I love the ocean and have fallen in love with the pictures of the Costa that I've seen, plus being so hot, it would be nice reprieve. Madrid over Córdoba? Is there a white village close to the Costa? Sorry if I sound uninformed. Just getting my feet wet!

quiltingmamma

If Madrid is on the list because it is the flight hub, and Andalusia is more of a draw, why not look at flight availability to Malaga? or Seville?
Another alternative is to look at flights that could connect you to an internal flight to one of your cities - Seville or Granada? For example, I have a flight from Canada to Madrid, but on the same ticket, was able to add a flight to Granada for a few dollars. It is because Air Canada and Iberia belong to the same Star Alliance group. It saves me a later internal flight at a higher cost, and it means I don't have to try to coordinate train from Madrid to Granada the same day or later.
If looking at return to Madrid because of anticipated seat sales, there is some financial validity to that; however, there is the added costs of additional transport, and then the lost of time. All depends on what that is worth to you.
Do you want more than a day trip to Cordoba? If not, then you can do it from Seville as a day trip, or for the day enroute to Madrid (if that stays on the itinerary). Personally, I have created a mess with my Cordoba days as even with 2 nights, because they are Saturday and Sunday nights, it means I am impacted with both the Sunday reduced time and then Monday closures. When I planned, I didn't know about the Medina el-Zahrat outside of town. There is more to see in Cordoba than can be seen in just a day trip - but only you can decide how much will interest you.
If we keep with your plan, it means 12 days on the ground, yes?
2 nights Madrid
early train to Granada
2 nights in Granada (though 3 would be better)
one way rental car Granada to Seville via white towns and Costa - number of days determined dependent on what you do afterwards
4-5 nights Seville (include a day trip to Cordoba
early departure to Madrid for what you missed
depart next day.
Hmm - leaves only 2 days for Costa....but you can at least see what appeals and what does not....

natandjim0805

Honestly Andalucia is more of a draw, so I like the idea of flying to one of our destinations via Madrid. We will fly out of Boston. I definitely want more time at the Costa. Was thinking four nights. If we flew into Sevilla, would Sevilla 4 nights (day trip to Córdoba included), Costa 4 nights, white towns 2 nights, Grenada 3 nights, and Madrid one night before flying home make more sense? We wouldn't have much time in Madrid, but the idea of taking a long train ride from Granada and then an 8 hour flight home in one day is a lot, so I think one night is better than nothing. I understand this would extend our stay a bit past two weeks. Thx!

natandjim0805

I looked up flights and most to Sevilla or Granada have huge layovers. Malaga is better, but still a lot of travel time. I think we will stick with Madrid. How does this look:

Two nights Madrid
Three nights Granada
Five nights white towns/Costa
Four nights Sevilla (includes a day trip to Córdoba)

This plan gives us two full weeks with two travel days. We can fly nonstop Boston to Madrid which works well for me bc I'm a nervous flyer.

Is it logistically possible to take a train from Sevilla to Madrid on our departure day if we book a late afternoon flight home?

Thx!

indyhiker

My guess is that your return flight from Madrid will be in the morning, making it difficult, if not impossible, to travel from Seville on your travel day home.

I, personally, would travel to my first destination upon arriving in Madrid and then put my days in Madrid at the end. When we travelled recently to Spain, we went straight to Seville by train upon our arrival in Madrid and started our itinerary there.

natandjim0805

Thx for the info.

So, how does this sound: arrive in Madrid and take train directly to Sevilla (how challenging is this in term of getting to station?) and stay 4 nights in Sevilla with day trip to Córdoba included. Then rent a car, stay 4 nights on the Costa, then make our way to Granada, visiting a couple of white towns on the way, spending one night somewhere. Drop off car in Granada, stay for 3 nights, then train to Madrid for 2 nights before heading home.

I really like the look of Conil or Zahara on the Costa. Thoughts? I'm not too concerned about visiting any bigger towns/cities while on there as we will see other cities on the trip. We will have a car, so we wouldn't be restricted to visiting just Costa town we stay in, but we don't want to do too much. This is the laid back part of our trip.

Christina

I wonder why you want 3 nights in Granada and only 2 in Madrid? Just seems odd to me but maybe you don't like big cities, not that Granada is teensy. I suppose they'll be about equally hot.

Sure, you can take a train the same day as your flight. The trains only take about 2.5-3 hrs from Seville to Madrid. So you can be there by 10 am or 11:15, I think those are the 2 best AVEs. Then you have to get to the airport from Atocha, but if you had a flight out around 4 pm, totally do-able.

Are you absolutely sure you understand how hot it will be in August in Seville? That's the worst city, the others maybe only around 90F in afternoon (Madrid and Granada). Seville could be more like 95-100.

indyhiker

There are flights as late as 4 p.m. from Madrid to Boston? Looking at a random day on Orbitz (which admittedly doesn't pick up all carriers), the latest flight out I see is noon. Regardless, I think using your arrival day in Madrid as a day to travel onward and putting your nights in Madrid last works well. Your arrival day is kind of a wash anyway.

Getting to Seville by train from Madrid is easy. There are several ways to get to Atocha from the airport, including by taxi. We took an express bus that was cheap if not particularly comfortable. But you can take a taxi or the metro (although I think this involves at least once change and some stairs if memory serves. If you travel light, it might not be a big deal).

We purchased train tickets well in advance and got a pretty good discount. My only regret is that we picked a later train than we really needed to and had to spend a fair amount of time at Atocha waiting for it after our flight. We still got to Seville in plenty of time to get settled in, shower and have a nice dinner.

natandjim0805

I know it will be hot. I wish we could do this trip in April or May, or the fall, but being teachers, we can't. And I really want to be in Spain on our actual anniversary date, August 5. I thought by spending some time at the Costa we would get a respite from extreme heat (at least we could swim in a hotel pool and the ocean if it's really hot).

Would the recommendation be to do two nights in Granada and three in Madrid?

quiltingmamma

I find there is a toss up of trying to get to the next location the same day as arrival. Maybe I have done too many winter flights with weather delays, but even in summer, there can be flight delays. Therefore, how do you hedge with train tickets? It is possible to save 60% buying 60 days prior to travel, but if you miss the train, then you buy at full price - but when there is a vacancy.
All of this is moot however, as you are developing itinerary for 3 years from now and anything can change.
We have given you options and you can develop them dependent on the flights available to you.
In the meantime, read the travel guides and books of fiction and non-fiction. Short list accommodations, read Seat61 website about train booking strategies, and then decide on the itinerary once flights come available. Me; I am at the time of life where given 3 years I might have totally forgotten we had this 'conversation' ;-)

natandjim0805

Ha, ha, me, too! Thx for all of your suggestions, everyone! This is a dream trip for me, so I'm pretty excited. ��

indyhiker

Quiltingmama, I've gone both ways myself and agree that there are pros and cons. We gave ourselves a pretty big window after our flight to catch our train. We could have and should have checked our bags for a bit at Atocha and wandered around the area a bit. That would have made the wait a bit more palatable.

The "con" for me and my husband is that all of our flights home to the States leave in the morning. So, it really necessitates staying that last night in the departure city--which is why I'd rather put my stay there the end so that I don't have just a one night stay somewhere. On one of our trips, we stayed the first night in Rome and then spent two final nights in Rome on our way back. I hated how disjointed that felt. Everyone else's mileage may vary!

If OP can take a later flight home to Boston (although I'm not finding that availability), then she could spend her last night elsewhere, e.g., in Seville. Otherwise, she's probably looking at spending the night before her departure in Madrid. Another alternative would be to spend the final night in Cordoba, which is a bit closer to Madrid via high speed train.

quiltingmamma

Indyhiker, I fully agree with your thought to keep the Madrid days together and at the end. It is the risk at the start and being prepared to absorb the cost. Option is to purchase pricier tickets that are exchangable or rebookable.
Point is, too fine of planning three years out is wasted energy...in my mind.

kja

With 2 children aged 10 and 12, and a commitment to go during August, I would definitely say SLOW DOWN! If Andalusia is the priority, than limit yourselves to Andalusia and wait to see Madrid until you have time to see it and some of the gems closer to it (e.g., Toledo).

I would explore flying into and out of different cities in Andalusia, maybe Sevilla or Malaga or Granada, depending on how the timing and routing work. And I would book through all the way in each direction, even though you won’t be able to fly direct. That way, if the first leg of your flight is delayed, it will the up the airline – not you – to worry about getting you on to your next flight. (The shorter legs are likely to be operated by an airline on a code-share agreement.) And don’t limit yourselves to flights into/out of Madrid. For example, my flight out of Sevilla through the U.S. was through London.

“If we flew into Sevilla, would Sevilla 4 nights (day trip to Córdoba included), Costa 4 nights, white towns 2 nights, Grenada 3 nights, and Madrid one night before flying home make more senses”

IMO, yes, that would make a lot of sense! Personally, I’d try to fly out of Granada (or reverse the order, flying into Granada and out of Sevilla), skip the night in Madrid, and add the day to Sevilla (or shift 2 nights to Cordoba) – but that’s just me.

I’m not sure what kind of layovers you are seeing, but be sure to think through the time you will spend getting from an airport to a train station and then on the train, and remember that when you fly TO Spain, you will need to claim your luggage and then re-check it at the first airport you reach, so a bit extra time might be worthwile. And this trip is for 2020, right? Flight and train schedules could change before then!

If you do go with the alternative you list in your message at 11:28 this morning, then I’d still add a day to Sevilla, and I, personally, would take it from the White Towns. Again, JMO.

Granada has plenty to see to justify 2 full days there – which is what 3 nights gives you. I was glad I had close to 3 full days there, and I was there when it was cooler, and I travel HARD. But many people give it less time. It really depends on what YOU want to see and the pace at which you would want to do so.

If you can stand the heat, it will be a wonderful trip no matter what! But DO plan for lots of down time at that time of year and be sure to plan around the Monday / Sunday closures I mentioned in my earlier post.

natandjim0805

Thx for advice, kja. Can you tell I'm excited about the trip? Trying to pack in you much, probably. We will not have our kids with us, FYI, but I need to be more realistic abouf how much we can reasonably do in two weeks.

kja

I get excited about each of my trips, too! Sound like you are identifying a glorious way to celebrate your 20th anniversary -- and BTW, congratulations!

indyhiker

I plan trips far in advance, too! I already have the rough outlines of the trips I want to take for at least the next few years, so I totally understand your excitement!