Lifeman

Don't do Ronda instead of an extra night in Barcelona. Barcelona will take at least 4 nights and even then you won't see it all. Ronda is not for a first trip to Spain in default of the major sights.

4 nights in Seville is 2 too many and a max of two nights in Granada is plenty. After the Alhambra, there's not much else. Whilst Valencia is a nice city, again see the major stuff first.

Madrid for the museums and to kill the jetlag 3 nights
Seville 3 nights
Granada 1 night
Barcelona the rest of the time, (with day trips to Sitges and Figueres) for everything else.

This is still lots of travelling in two weeks, but if you restrict the ports of call to 4, you'll enjoy your time much more than going everywhere at at 100mph. I'd do:

Cowboy1968

In Barcelona, I'd slightly lean towards the Hotel Claris and not the Villa Emilia - purely based on location, not quality of each establishment.
The area one block off Pg. de Gràcia is a bit more lively with more choices of restaurants etc. than the one in left Eixample.
Yet, many visitors like the old town districts better, esp. the Born district. Maybe you want to look for hotels there as well.

trommom

Due to some flight issues, we will now have to fly in and out of Madrid. So based on your input and the flight changes, i'm thinking of the following itinerary:

Madrid - 4 nights
Sevilla - 3 nights
rent car
Ronda - 1 night
Granda - 2 nights
Fly to Barcelona
Barcelona 3 nights
Fly back to Madrid on the last night

Am i still on track?

Aduchamp1

I would split Madrid into two stays and then decide what you want to see on the return.

It is still a lot of traveling for two weeks.
________________________-
Is the road from Granada to Ronda, still two lanes with many turns where you cannot see around it?

danon

How about
Lend in Madrid and continue to Barcelona right away ( many cheap flights )
After 3 nights fly Vueling to Granada for 1 or 2 nights
If you wish to rent a car to go to Ronda and Seville for 1 and 3 nights
AVE from Seville to Madrid for the last several days 4 nights

JenJasonNYC

I too was a Spanish major - had already seen Madrid before I spent 10 days in Spain with my husband, but here is what we did:

Used our Marriot time share in Marbella - central location to sleep every night (maybe your family has points you can cash in on??!!) Rented a car...

Day trips to:

Malaga
Mijas
Granada
Tangiers (Africa!!)

Then flew to Barcelona for a few days.

I loved that we could enjoy the beach as well as the cities around us. They all had unique characteristics - and going to Africa was amazing! (especially since i rode a camel!)

My only regret? Not going to any vineyards while I was there...other than that - it was perfect!

If you have time - you can fly to Madrid first, spend a few days, then go to Marbella (fly in to Malaga), then Barcelona.

If you want more details on either of my trips I'd be happy to provide them...it was an incredible experience to see all of the things I had studied in school for so long!!!


Next trip will include Sevilla and vineyards!

enzian

A couple of comments.

If you are not flying on to the US from Madrid after Barcelona, but instead spending a night or two in Madrid, I suggest you take the train instead of flying. The AVE takes under 3 hours, city center to city center, and is very pleasant and comfortable.

For the Alhambra, consider a night visit to the palace in addition to whatever you want to do by day. We did both a " visit the environment" walking tour ( 5 hours, including some places not open to the public without a guide), and a general day visit, on successive days, and it was still not enough of the Alhambra for us. We liked the audio tour in English very much; it pretends to be Washington Irving guiding you.



We stayed upon the hill at Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol, and it was a perfect place in a great location. It is just below the Alhambra Palace hotel.

trommom

Thanks for the input! I'll look at taking the AVE from Barcelona to Madrid. That would give us an opportunity to see more of the countryside as well.

I'm still grappling with whether we should stop in Ronda or not. While i like seeing all the cities we are seeing, we do like to drive a bit and just stop to see things along the way some times and i thought it would be a nice change from the other areas we are seeing. But i don't want it to be crazy for us either. If we don't do that, then i guess we could just take the train from Sevilla to Granada, correct?
If you think 4 nights is too long in Sevilla, rather than spending a night in Granada, i could save that night for the night we have to return to Madrid. I just thought we could do some day trips from Sevilla, such as Cordoba or Cadiz or something like that? But perhaps I'm trying to see too much at one!

danon

You can stop in Cordoba on the way from Seville to Madrid. Same AVE line.
We were in Seville four days which was too long for me.
I find much more to see and do in Barcelona and Madrid.

trommom

Couldn't we drive to Jerez de la Frontera and see vineyards, etc as a day trip from Sevilla as well?

Aduchamp1

In Spain the vineyards are often called bodegas. These are different from the neighborhood bodegas in NYC that sell toilet paper and crack.

trommom

We have our itinery just about finalized and would like everyone's input:

Madrid 4 nights Hotel Preciados
Train to Sevilla
Sevilla 3 nights Casa No. 7
Rent car, Drive:
Ronda 1 night La Fuente de la Higuera
Granada 2 nights Hotel 1800 Granada
Fly:
Barcelona 3 nights Hotel Villa Emilia
Train back to Madrid
Madrid 1 night Palacio Del Retiro

How does this look? How about the hotels? Any better recommendations?

CathyM

Honestly with only 14 days I'd focus on 2 regions - this is 6 overnight stops. I'd drop Barcelona or Madrid. Since it appears your flights may be set I'd cut Barcelona. Barcelona really deserves at least 4 nights particularly if you plan to do any daytrips (ie. Tarragona, Girona). As far as Sevilla goes I could easily spend (and have on several occassions) 5 nights there and do daytrips - Cordoba is a must but there are many other possibilities within an hour (Jerez, Arcos, Osuna, Carmona). With the 3 additional nights I'd add at least one to Sevilla, one to Ronda (giving enough time to explore the villages) and perhaps have a night in Cadiz, Malaga, Antequera,etc...

Save Barcelona for another trip when you have more time to thoroughly enjoy and also explore the region of Catalunya.

Just my 2 cents.

trommom

So, we could add a night to Sevilla and a night to Ronda and perhaps an additional night when we return to Madrid

Madrid 4 nights
Sevilla 4 nights
Ronda 2 nights
Granada 2 nights
Madrid 2 nights

Would you all recommend this rather than the itinerary with Barcelona in it? Should we throw a night or two in somewhere else?