Neither is spending your holiday driving, nor speed touring Spain.

As I said in the original post - this is the way I want to spend my holiday - I like driving through an area just to see what its like & I enjoy popping in to get a quick look at a city, an overview... its not like I can't go back for a week if I like it. This is not my first trip, I travel a lot both for work & pleasure (I was home 20 days last year) and I have a pretty firm grasp on what works for me.

Since no one else is going with me I firmly believe that I can do it my way - you obviously are not required to plan your vacations around my wishes, please don't ask me to plan mine around yours...

I'd love some input on the questions I asked, there is a lot of great knowledge on this board that you just can't get from the guidebooks, but I did think about whether or not to even bother asking since I know the trip is not "acceptable" to most of you.

"Aug 28 (Tues) Requena Festival??/Valencia – overnight Bunol
Aug 29 (Wed) La Tomatina Festival – overnight Bunol"
I think you will have great difficulty finding somewhere to stay in Buñol. It´s a small town. Even if you find somewhere, it will probably be ridiculously expensive. Valencia maybe?

"Where should I overnight on the 1st between Granada and Madrid (Seville, Cordoba, Toledo)?"
Both Seville and Córdoba are impractical. Both are out of your way, Seville hopelessly so. Almagro maybe?

Here's a website that gives you all the car parks.
http://granadainfo.com/car_parks1.php

When you book a hotel, they often tell you what car park is nearest, most convenient. Our hotel actually had driving instructions into Granada to the car park.

Toledo is a great place to stay overnight. You could even drop your rental car there and train back to Madrid. We did that in reverse, saved us from driving in Madrid traffic.
Just make sure you get an early start so you have some time to have a look around Toledo.

I would stay in Valencia. It is only half an hour from Buñol and a great city with plenty of accommodation options. You are a bit short of time other wise from Barcelona to Zaragoza and then to Teruel and then to Buñol would be an intresting interior route through the mountains but you need at least 2/3 days otherwise you will racing against the clock.Your best bet is motorway(toll) from Barcelona to Valencia and then to Buñol.Not much to see unless you stop off at.EG Taragona which has some great roman monuments/ruins.
Ah and the Requena fiesta is based on wine and runs from 22 Aug to 2 Sept.Regional costumes,lots of wine and good food.(In my opinion better than the touristy Tomatina fiesta but each to their own)If you google "Fiestas Vendimia Requena"..plenty of pages(mainly in Spanish).Have a good trip!

My favorite top between Barcelona and Valencia is Peñiscola. great photos. nice curved beach. beautiful castle. might be a birds of prey show while you are there.

however.. the tollway from Barcelona is very expensive. you really are better off taking the train or bus ( financially) and maybe THEN renting a car in Valencia to go to Buñol if you do not want to go with everyone on the trains/buses.

Be sure to go to Granada on the free non toll roads they are fine. Lots of new roads have opened and it makes the trip fairly quick. If you have a car you can stop or sleep at the cave houses in Guadix. Jaen, Ubeda and Baeza are not too far off the track if you drive by there.

It sounds like you like to spin around so get a map with the paradors and castles off internet and keep that in mind as you drive through the countryside to make good use of the car. Other wise there's not much point in taking it.

Here's the best route from Buñol. These are excellent roads. No need to backtrack down to VLC.. you do not want the coastal road.

http://www.viamichelin.es/web/Itinerarios

in which case you could see about sleeping at this sweet vineyard hotel

http://www.entrevinas.com/

have fun and follow wise advice during that festival. lots of unpleasant things happen up there. you can imagine. the wet t-shirt syndrome.. ripping your clothes off of you (It's true).
be careful .

If you go the route I have sent you I would definitely stop at Alarcon. The National Parador town. it is amazing . It is not too far off the track because later you can get the A-3 going NW again without backtracking. Really worth the stop.

thanks for the info & the links! ...and the warning lincasanova - I'd heard some things, am hoping to keep my clothes on (I'm meeting guy friends there so at least I won't be doing that part alone...)

We have a hotel reservation in Bunol, got it quite some time ago (it’s non-refundable) – I did contemplate the whole Valencia vs Bunol thing, but in the end figured since the point was the festival it would be best to avoid the crowds on the train and the covered in tomato ride back to the city…


I do generally love the trains in Europe, but for this trip I was having a hard time with it – between the renfe website & my bank card being declined I got a bit frustrated the other day and started looking into rental cars – the prices were pretty good so I just went that route. I can go back to looking at trains if there is no value to driving/stopping along the way, but I generally enjoy driving through new areas and don't really consider it a waste of time (and I tend to read/sleep/whatever on trains and miss all the scenery even when that isn't my plan) So, this time I think I’m going to give the trains/busses a miss…

I put a few of the routes in ViaMichelin using your suggestions – all about 18-21 hours driving and around 450 Euro for rental, fuel, tolls.
--------------------
Aug 25 (Sat) arrive Barcelona 23:00
Aug 26 (Sun) Barcelona
Aug 27 (Mon) pick up rental car, drive to Bunol
1. Barcelona - Zaragoza - Teruel – Buñol (7hrs, 657 km)
2. Barcelona – Peniscola – Bunol (4hrs, 395 km)
Aug 28 (Tues) Requena Festival/Valencia – overnight Bunol
Aug 29 (Wed) La Tomatina Festival/Valencia – overnight Bunol
Aug 30 (Thur) drive to Granada, overnight Granada
1. Bunol – Alarcon - Granada (7hrs, 527 km)
Aug 31 (Fri) Alhambra (08:30 tickets) - overnight Granada
Sep 1 (Sat) –Cordoba/Toledo
1. Granada –Cordoba (3hrs, 200km)
2. Granada – Toledo (6hrs, 372km)
3. Granada –Cordoba – Toledo (7hrs, 548 km)
Sep 2 (Sun) – drive to Madrid, drop off rental car – overnight Madrid
1. Toledo –Madrid (1hr, 89km)
2. Cordoba –Madrid (5hrs, 400km)
3. Cordoba –Toledo – Madrid (5hrs, 436 km)
Sep 3 (Mon) - Madrid, flight home 20:45

-------------
lincasanova - not sure what my internet is doing but your suggested route isn't showing up in ViaMichelin, so I just guessed that putting in Bunol – Alarcon - Granada was something close??

Is the interior route from Barcelona – Bunol enough different from the Bunol to Granada area to justify that route or would the coastal route be a better choice for a different area?

I was thinking that Sunday might be a better day to do the longer drive – so a stopover in Cordoba and then a longer drive on Sunday to Toledo or Madrid. Or would it be better to go to Toledo or Madrid on the Saturday and skip Cordoba?


Thanks!!!

I use ViaMichelin and I have to add this warning. All the timings are actual driving times. You have to add rest breaks and meal stops to those.

So your "Bunol – Alarcon - Granada (7hrs, 527 km)" really translates into around a 9-hour day on the road.

In fact, it will mean around 6 hr 30 min driving, plus time for visiting Alarcon, plus rest breaks, plus a meal stop somewhere, plus the time it will take you to find somewhere to park in Alarcon.

In short, I don´t think you have any chance of making that an agreeable day.

Your "Barcelona - Zaragoza - Teruel – Buñol (7hrs, 657 km)" is in fact an 8-hour drive, plus...plus...plus. A nightmare of a long day. You have absolutely no chance of visiting either Zaragoza or Teruel, by the way.

I could go on but I´m sure you have already caught my drift.

Barcelona-Buñol.. definitely via Peñiscola. Peñsicola calculate 1.5 hours from leaving highway.. driving into town, taking a few photos.. and if you choose to walk up into the perched village. perhaps a bit more.

From there to Valencia is 2 hours. Then of course you skirt the city on the "by-pass" A7 towards Madrid, never entering the city. Probably another hour from when you hit that by- pass until to get to Buñol exit, which is very well marked.

Just follow the link I sent you for the Buñol -Granada. All the new roads help make that trip easy. You will need to keep straight road numbers as directions are never "East/West" "North/South". Sometimes the name of the next town they put is unknown to you so it can be difficult to know which way to go on a new highway.

Enlarge that map on link so you can see the town names as they approach. Are you sure you are putting the map home page to Spain/Spanish? Not sure why it is not coming up the same for you. I have just re-done it and the same map appears. Just write BU and Buñol is the first town that comes up to click as starting point.

Good luck. Enjoy your time. Do not leave anything visible in the car on the seats. Always have everything put away before you stop and park, otherwise clever people who are watching will know what you have put in the trunk.

Good news you will be meeting up with some guy friends there. You should have some interesting memories.

Thanks! I will definitely print out some maps - and hopefully also have a Nav

Okay, based on the input from you guys I started looking at flights again... I found a flight out of Sevilla that will work.... I'm still researching, but this is what I'm thinking. The hotels for the second half (post Bunol) can all be changed.

Aug 25 (Sat) arrive Barcelona 23:00, overnight Renaissance Barcelona (Free w/points)
Aug 26 (Sun) Barcelona, overnight Renaissance Barcelona (Free w/points)
Aug 27 (Mon) am Barcelona, pick up rental car at 12, drive to Bunol, overnight Hotel Condes de Bunol (nonrefundable)
1. Barcelona – Peniscola (3hrs, 238km)
2. Peniscola - Bunol (2hrs, 174km)
Aug 28 (Tues) Requena Festival – overnight Hotel Condes de Bunol (nonrefundable)
Aug 29 (Wed) La Tomatina Festival/Valencia – overnight Hotel Condes de Bunol (nonrefundable)
Aug 30 (Thur) drive to Granada, overnight Apartamentos Turisticos Alhambra
1. Bunol – Alarcon (2hrs, 130km)
2. Alarcon – Jaen (4hrs, 312km)
3. Jaen - Granada (1hr, 94km)
Aug 31 (Fri) Alhambra (08:30 ticket) - overnight Apartamentos Turisticos Alhambra
Sep 1 (Sat) drive to Ronda, overnight Hotel Colon
1. Granada - Ronda (3hrs, 211km)
Sep 2 (Sun) – drive to Sanlucar de Barrameda - overnight Macia Donana
1. Ronda – Arcos de la Frontera (2hrs, 85km)
2. Arcos de la Frontera - Sanlucar de Barrameda (1hr, 62km)
Sep 3 (Mon) – drive to Sevilla airport for flight at 14:50