kvonkeller

My husband, 21-year-old daughter, and I will be in Madrid in mid-March and wanted to go on a Thursday-Sunday excursion. We'll have a car, but we don't want to spend all of our time in it. We've spent time in Barcelona, Granada, Seville, Corduba, and Segovia on earlier trips to Spain, and we want to go someplace new. We're thinking about La Rioja or the Basque country. Any ideas?

kimhe

Fabulous San Sebastián on the Basque coast is 4-5 hours driving from Madrid. Something completely different than the other cities you've visited in Spain: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/tr...anted=all&_r=0
http://www.sansebastianturismo.com/en/

And in San Sebastián you are close to vibrant Bilbao with the spectacular Guggenheim museum: http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/th...ect-break.html

Iberiophile

Salamanca, Leon, Oviedo - especially Salamanca. Go forth and Google!

If you can deal with taking things slowly rather than taking the shortest route, the N630 between Leon and Oviedo goes through some stunning mountain scenery.

Iberiophile

Sorry, a PS - just realised you're going in mid-March. You might check out the likelihood of snow on mountain roads at that time of year, stunning scenery or not.

rialtogrl

The above suggestions are all good, but I would also suggest a carless journey on the high speed train to Valencia or Zaragoza.

You could try to catch part of Las Fallas in Valencia.
http://www.visitvalencia.com/en/news-in-valencia/327

ekscrunchy

Valencia is a great idea. We had warm and sunny weather in late February/early March a few years ago. The city is beautiful.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-blossoms.cfm

TravelFreakout11

If you want to go to basque country you gotta go to the gugenheim in bilbao.

kvonkeller

Thanks for the great ideas. The link to the NY Times article on San Sebastian is especially helpful.

lincasanova

If you do come for Fallas best to stay at edge of City near Palacio de Congresos ( Or Scinece center) where parking will be easy and good transport to downtown or a nice walk past many of the statues for Fallas on way into town. During Fallas many of the accesses by road are closed so very hard to bring cr into the city center. Also, noise can be a HUGE factor downtown. The area I am recommending is much quieter but not without services.