mnotarangelo

Hello
My wife and I will be traveling to Spain in the spring for our honeymoon. We are landing in Madrid but will be staying the first couple of days toward Barcelona. Is there a nice Castle Parador on the way to Barcelona? We figure one night there and one in downtown Barcelona.

I think it's between 5-6 hours drive there so anything more than half way to Barcelona is great.

Thank you!

Michael & Sherry

yorkshire

Can you post your itinerary--I am confused. Are you flying out of Madrid? Is there reason to have the car the rest of the trip? Otherwise, it seems like taking the train direct to BCN would be the way to go.

owlwoman

We stayed here when we drove between Madrid/Barcelona:

http://www.paradoresofspain.com/deta...m=32#mainimage

Love the paradors, stayed in quite a few.

You need more than a night in Barcelona to do it justice...we had three nights, could of done one more.

mnotarangelo

Hello,
We are flying in and out of Madrid.

We have a condo for a week in Denia (Sat-Sat) but will only use it as a home base. We are okay to move to other locations as well. We want to see Madrid and Barcelona. We have 10 days in total. My wife wants to go to Morocco BUT I just can't imagine that happening. I was thinking Barcelona - one night in a castle/paradore, one in the city. We will stay in Madrid - the two nights prior to leaving (Fri/Sat). So we have basically Saturday through Friday morning in Denia but will do anything. We love the off the beaten path trips wherever we go. Mingle with teh locals, family restaurants, the big tourist sites but small out of the way as well.

I know that's a lot but that's basically how we will do this. Denia is one of the timeshare areas we can go to. Some on the southern tip (Malaga? maybe) and then really nothing else. It's not key we stay there but it's free!

your help is so appreciate!

Mike

Egbert

Check out Teruel. I would skip Morroco and do it on a separate trip if you must.

Togo

"We love the off the beaten path trips"
Well, Albaracin is a small village in the middle of nowhere (actually somewhere between Zaragoza and Valencia), and it's one of the best time-forgotten, pretty village that I've seen in Spain. It's not touristy at all and does not have parador. Just don't go there on Monday, because all the restaurants close.

mnotarangelo

Thanks for the commmentary Egbert and Togo. Lots to think about. I am a bit intimidated we might try to do too much and miss the true heart of the cities and the country.

I started to research the car hire info. The rental price is steep if you want an automatic but what really is concerning is that the gas prices seem to be so high. I am wondering if I'm crazy to want to drive all over the country when gas is upwards of 7-8 dollars a gallon!

Aduchamp1

The area between Madrid and Barelona is not the most interesting. Unless you are locked into driving there is now the high-speed AVE between those cities and one between Madrid and Valencia.

And while I understand that you like off the beaten locations, some of the beaten places are wothwhile.

There are no paradores in Madrid and Barcelona. The system was originally established to bring tourism to the less traveled area.

And I am very confused, if you have a condo in Denia, how are splitting your time between Madrid and Barcelona?

Cowboy1968

I've done that "shortcut" from Madrid to Barcelona by car in September. We drove from Madrid to Cuenca (1st night), Albarracin, Teruel (2nd night). Then we had planned to go further across the mountains of Southern Catalonia but we had enough of mountain driving, so we took the motorway towards Castellon and north with a stop in the Ebro delta (3rd night).
I'm not sure if you can fit that itinerary in less than 2 nights without rushing through the towns and villages. And you would backtrack quite a lot going later from BCN to Denia.
The drive from Cuenca to Teruel takes a while on winding mountain roads - though the scenery is awesome, with many sights along the road like the surreal rock formations in Cuenca's "Enchanted Town".

You are probably better off when you take a more northern route that follows or stays close to the direct A-2.

mnotarangelo

Hi Aduchamp1,

I do have the condo in Denia but I thought I'd use it in the middle of our stay. Go to Barcelona area the first few days, then Denia in the middle and Madrid for the final two days before heading home.

While in Denia, I figure we'll explore the areas we can see for day trips plus just hang out as it IS our honeymoon after all!

Thanks, Mike

mnotarangelo

Hi Cowboy,

I thought I'd do one big triangle! Madrid to Barcelona to Denia and back to Madrid. I guess I'm a bit ambitious in my goals! I might have to alter it. We are locked into Madrid as the flights orginate and depart from there. Everything else is up to discussion. And the Denia condo isn't bought yet so we could go someplace else - although not the DEAL we got with the Denia property.

I guess now I'm more confused than ever! It all looks great on paper but reality seems to bring something different.

Michael

yorkshire

There is so much to see and do in Madrid and Barcelona. You will save money by skipping the car rental.

yorkshire

You will save a little by not renting a car. I would stick to Madrid and Barcelona, or Madrid and some other combo.

CathyM

If you're not locked into the Denia time share and you only have 10 days for your honeymoon then I agree with yorkshire - slow down and stick with Madrid and Barcelona OR Madrid and some other combo. I'd assume for your honeymoon you may want a more relaxed pace versus alot of packing/unpacking.

I don't see from the above posts when this trip is occuring.

If you didn't do Madrid & Barcelona the other combos would depend on your interest and the time of year. Madrid, Sevilla & Granada would be somewhat faster paced but not too bad.

mnotarangelo

Cathy/Yorkshire...

I know. We want to do so much. We will be there from 4/11 to 4/22.

We love off the beaten path stops, food, architecture, doing what the locals do...etc.

We planned on Denia as noted because of the cheap accomodations and to save some cash. There are many vacation buy owner locations as well. Maybe I can use something like that.

We are flying into Madrid. Then from there..we are open.

lincasanova

I wrote this trip report awhile ago. maybe something will catch your eye.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...d-zaragoza.cfm

Do stop at siguenza at least for coffee if you end up driving..

lincasanova

You can leave straight from the airport on this route, skipping Madrid visit on arrival.

mnotarangelo

Thanks Lincasanova!

I like the idea of stopping at the paradore. Looks amazing. I guess I'm concerned that the gas might make the trip outrageously expensive. What do you think?

I want to meander through the country as much as possible. So I thought a car could assist with that.

Mike

Egbert

Yes the gas and tolls and rental will make the trip very expensive but there is no other way to get into the "small villages". In my opinion, a lot of the small towns in between Barcelona and Madrid (and throughout Spain) are boring and ordinary and there is so much to see and do in those two cities. The high speed train is great.

Continental_Drifter

We just did this trip in the reverse. We love this area of Spain and don't find it "boring." I guess it's all in what you want.

Want the northernmost Moorish palaces converted into fine hotel/paradores? This is your place. - They are off the main highway between Madrid by anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or so, so check your distances.

We stayed in Zaragoza for a couple of nights and are SO glad we did. It's simply a beautiful city with wonderful history and warm welcoming people. (Well of course they are, it's Spain!) Zaragoza is where the concept of tapas originated. Wandering the old city stopping for a vino here with a tapa, wandering to the next place for the next vino and tapa made for a wonderful evening. There's a lovely cathedral and Beautifully restore Moorish palace.

So very worth the fuel and tolls. Driving this area of Spain is like nowhere else you've ever seen. Imagine driving for miles and miles through deserts with distant ruins atop impossibly erect hills, small welcoming villages for lunch, only to round the next long bend and be blown away by vineyards that go on and on as far as you can possibly see. You'll suddenly realize you are driving on a very long mountain ridge with incredible views in both directions. It goes from ruddy brown desert to verdant green fields from Madrid to Barcelona.

Let us know what you decide!