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Southern Spain wth family in 1 week by car

Southern Spain wth family in 1 week by car

Old Mar 11th, 2014, 08:03 PM
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Southern Spain wth family in 1 week by car

Hi

We are headed to Spain end of April for a week. We are 4 adults and 4 kids (4yrs - 9yrs) and thus are planning to rent a car. Flying into Barcelona and flying out of Madrid. I read some posts and realize this is going to be very tight and lot of driving. We were thinking of keeping our drive time/ day to not more than 4 hrs or so and thought of the following route

Day 20 Arrive Barcelona 10am - day here to do ??? stay night @ Barcelona
Day 22 Drive to Valencia, to do ???and stay here
Day 23 Drive to Granada to do ???
Day 24 Visit Alambhra and gardens , overnight Granada
Day 25 Drive to Seville, to do ??? and stay night
Day 26 Spend day @ Toledo/Seville and drive to Madrid evening
Day 27 Fly out Madrid

I need help with the following :

1) what are the must see places/ points of interest along this route that we could do given that we have such a tight schedule? Any help on this is highly appreciated...
2) How is this drive? Road conditions? traffic? 2 of us tend to get car sick.....
3) Any suggestions for places to stay and dine in these towns?
4) How is it driving in the towns itself...do you get parking?

Would appreciate your thoughts and recommendations ...we are already late in our bookings.

Thank you
asmama is offline  
Old Mar 11th, 2014, 08:22 PM
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Do you plan on seeing any of Spain as you drive by? And how do think a 4 and 9 year old will react to all that time in a car?

With seven days, one is dedicated to jet lag and Day 26 is insane, I would narrow it down to what you truly want to see and reduce the time in the car.
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Old Mar 11th, 2014, 08:24 PM
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I have to admit that I can not imagine this being a pleasant experience, nor can I imagine it being one that would introduce any of you to the joys of traveling in Spain. In any of the cities, a car is likely to be an incumbrance. With only 7 days, you are trying to visit 3 distinct regions, each of which easily merits 10 days, if not more. With all the time on the road, packing/unpacking, checking into/out of hotels, ... you have almost no time to actually see anything. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I'd rather share my reservations than let you think that this itinerary is worth pursuing.

I strongly encourage you to get at least one (if not 2 or 3) good guidebooks from either your favorite bookstore or your local library. With only 7 days, visit Barcelona and surrounding areas OR Madrid and its surrounds OR Andalucia. I wouldn't even recommend trying to visit any two of these areas -- JUST ONE!!!

Good luck!
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Old Mar 11th, 2014, 08:40 PM
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2 questions (well, 3 actually)

1) Where do you hope to find a car that will hold 8 people, their luggage, and at least 1 car seat and likely more?

2) Even IF you found such a vehicle - how would the poor folks stuck in the back of this behemoth feel about hours seeing Spain throughout the heads of those in front of them?

3) You have 8 people and only one two-nighter. The rest of the time you are packing/checking out/driving/checking in/unpacking every single day - how are you at herding cats?
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Old Mar 11th, 2014, 10:46 PM
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I know we are all raining on your parade, but it is because of lots of travel experience, and it is meant to help get you think about seeing more by traveling less. There is a absolutely not enough time for your itinerary.
Assuming your tickets are purchased, and the dates you gave are accurate (you did not include day 21 - hope it is for Barcelona), this is what is possible:

Day 20, arrive Barcelona 10:00 am, check into hotel.
Days 21 & 22, Barcelona

First afternoon, have lunch and if you are not too jet-laged, get one of the biggies out of the way be touring Sagrada Familia. Walk Las Ramblas, but do not eat on Las Ramblers unless you get a great rec. most is bad! If you skipped it on day 1, then tour Sagrada Familia and other Guidi buildings. Be sure to go inside Casa Mila. Visit Palau de la Musica. Take the cable up to Montjuic. If you are too jet laged for real touring the first afternoon, go to Parc Guell - fabulous.

Day 23, fast train to Madrid, check into hotel
Day 24, day trip to Toledo - a quick 25 minute train ride from Madrid.
Day 25 & 26, Madrid (Prado, palace, park, museums, tapas, Plaza Mayor or another day trip to Segovia).
Day 27, fly home

You could also, on day 23, go straight on to Toledo for the night - very mystical at night, and to Madrid on the evening of day 24.

The drive between Barcelona and Madrid is long and not really interesting. I did it once - never again.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 04:49 AM
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Ouch! ouch!

I get the point completely and that is why I like Fodors and Fodorites!! Very honest opinions and guidance!
I have had a sleepless night myself thinking about this and also tried to contact the airlines to see if we could potentially make any changes and have got one more day but thats about it. Should have done this thread before booking our flights.

But now that we are in this situation we are trying to make the best out of it. Our group is tilted more towards Andalucía (Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Toledo). We are ok for now if we skip Madrid and Barcelona activities and were thinking of them as only ports for arrival and departure.

We were thinking of booking a minivan for the trip so the kids could be together. We were thinking of taking big breaks during the drives and see around and eat locally. As much as possible we would also not like to check in check out daily. So my question is ...Is there a faster way to reach Granada from Barcelona? What would be the train ride like? That way we could skip the halt in Valencia and spend more time in Andalucía. With that one extra day we could now potentially do 2 nights Granada and 2 in Seville and 1 day for Toledo on the way to Madrid. Flight out of Madrid in at noon so we could reach Madrid late in the night the previous day after spending day in Toledo.

As I said, we are in this situation now and would like to see how we can make this trip as pleasant as possible with our constraints so any help and guidance will be very helpful.

Yes I have ordered my guidebooks...

Thank you all of you for your honest thoughts..I really appreciate it!
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 05:14 AM
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Check the schedules for Iberia and Vueling which is a reliable and cheap airline but does have weight restrictions on luggage.

I checked RENFE, which is a PITA, but a train from Barcelona to Granada would take a long time.

Also from the south check the AVE, high speed trains to Madrid which will also help.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 06:56 AM
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Just time for a quick response since I'm headed out the door . . .

But just re the mini van --- a mini van won't be large enough for your brood. If you have more than just the one very young or small child you'll need more than one car seat. But even w/ no car seats, a nine passenger van won't hold 8 people plus all their luggage.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 09:09 AM
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Sorry to say, still a very, very bad plan!

Honestly, if flights can not be changed, there is so much to see and do in Barcelona, it would be fun for all of you. It makes sense, especially on such a short trip, to cut out as much travel time as possible and maximize experience and sightseeing.

Second, if you land at 10:00, then fly on to Granada, it will pretty much eat up your whole first day, and you will all be exhausted and totally jet-laged the next day. What a miserable way to spend your first two days!

Forget the minivan, not workable for this trip.

Now, is there any way you can change the flight to land in Malaga? That is much closer to Granada, about two hours by bus for 10 euro. People do it as a day trip even from there, but that would not be good with kids the size of yours.

The best thing I can think of would be to
Days 1 - 2, visit Barcelona
Day 3, fly to Seville
Days 4 - 6, Seville (On one of those days do a day trip to Cordoba to see the great mosque; some prefer it to,the Alhambra)
Day 7, train to Madrid, check into hotel, afternoon trip to Toledo
Day 8, fly home

If you have another day, add it to Barcelona or,
Day 7, train to Madrid, spend afternoon in Retiro Park with kids, rent boats.
Day 8, train to Toledo
Day 9, fly home.

So you know where I am coming from, I have been to Spain three times, twice with DH, ten days each, once with kids for six days.

The Alhambra is one of my favorite sights.

OTOH, Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell are also two of my favorites, and being in Barcelona and not seeing them seems a real shame. When will you get back there to see them? Take advantage of already being there on this trip and see them. Barcelona was also the kids' favorite place.

So, with the short time on your trip, with four kids and four grownups, landing in Barcelona, and departing from Madrid, I would not include Granada.

I would also not do the min-van thing. I did something similar with the kids. It was a huge mistake, not enjoyable and wasted hours of time that could have been used for sightseeing or a cultural experience.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 09:21 AM
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A note in driving in southern Spain: the cities and towns are ancient and the streets winding, narrow and confusing.

We had to get taxi drivers in Seville and Granada to lead us to our hotels--this was in the days before GPS and Google maps, but an indication of how confusing the streets are.
We had the smallest possible car, but the tires scraped the curbs in one of the streets in Seville.
So--don't hire a car.

You really don't have time to do much. If it were my trip, I'd first book my visit to Alhambra, as that is the main (some--not I-- would say only) reason to visit Granada and requires a reservation. Depending on whether your visit is early or late in the day, plan to spend one nite (before if early, after if late) or two nites max. Then take the bus or a train to Seville. Either will take you around three hours. Seville has much more to do, IMHO, so I'd spend the rest of my time (less a nite) there. Then take the high speed train back to Madrid. Toledo is not really in Andalusia--it's right outside Madrid and you can reach it by train in about half an hour. You MIGHT be able to squeeze in a day trip to Toledo from Madrid if you leave Seville early in the day --Toledo was one of our favorite places in Spain and the only one in that area we would like to return to. Last nite in Madrid so you'll be on-time for your flight.

Not ideal, as you don't have enough time anywhere except Granada.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 09:30 AM
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I have to agree - you are flying into Barcelona and home from Madrid. You have 4 adults and 4 children in your traveling party. Stick with visiting Barcelona and Madrid and visit Toledo as a daytrip (by train) from Madrid. Train between Barcelona and Madrid. You only have 7 nights. Save Andalucia for another trip and budget around 10 days.

The only way I would even think of visiting Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba would be:
Day 1: land in Barcelona and find a connecting flight to Granada; arrive in Granada jetlagged and mid/late afternoon; spend 2 nights in Granada
Day 2: Granada
Day 3: train from Granada to Sevilla; spend 4 nights in Sevilla
Days4-6: Sevilla exploring w/a daytrip to Cordoba (by train)
Day 7: train back to Madrid for final night
Day 8: fly home
*no time for Toledo (which is not in Andalucia)

As Sassafras mentions this will likely be very exhausting for Granada as you'll be jetlagged and not have a chance to recover. This wouldn't be very relaxing with 4 adults and 4 kids in tow.

I wouldn't even think of renting a minivan for all of these people and trying to park/maneuver in the big cities. It would basically be useless once you arrive.

Madrid and Barcelona are wonderful cities. 7 days is barely enough to enjoy them.
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Old Mar 12th, 2014, 09:35 AM
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As noted, the largest 9 passenger van (people mover) will not accommodate 4 adults and 4 children, including luggage. The children will all need their own seats and those 12 or younger require a child or booster seat.

Depending on where you are flying in from, the first day can be pretty much of a loss, especially when dealing with children. With only 1 week (6 days?), I would forget about driving, or attempting to drive, all over Spain and try to enjoy Barcelona and the surrounding area.

Unless you have all of your accommodations booked, there may be a problem as Holy Week, Semana Santa, in 2014 is from 13 to 20 April throughout Spain.
Robert2533 is offline  
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