We are hoping to get a little help/insight from the Fodor's blogger community about our trip this November. I will provide a basic outline of our trip and am looking for feedback and suggestions. We have mapped this out based on flying from Barcelona to Madrid and from Seville to Barcelona but are contemplating renting a car and driving everywhere instead - good/bad idea?

Our itinerary:
- Nov 2nd & 3rd: Arrive in Barcelona in mid morning; rest of day and next for exploring
- Nov 4th: Fly or Drive to Madrid
- Nov 5th & 6th: Day Trips to Segovia, Toledo
- Nov 7th & 8th: Madrid, then off to Seville (by train or car; depending)
- Nov 9th & 10th: Day trip to Cordoba, explore Sevilla
- Nov 11th: Back to Barcelona by plane or car
- Nov 12 - 17: Explore Barcelona, Day trips to Girona, Taragona, Montserrat

That's the plan!

You are barely scratching the surface in Andalucia - 3 nights based in Sevilla and a daytrip to Cordoba. Then there's no mention of Granada. There's no time for other highlights of this region: the white villages, Malaga, sherry triangle villages, Cadiz, etc......

With 2 weeks I'd focus on just 2 regions - you'll have more than enough to keep you busy. This could be Madrid/Barcelona or Barcelona/Andalucia or Madrid/Andalucia (if you haven't already purchased airfare to/from Barcelona).

With the itinerary outlined above I wouldn't want to rent a car. All of the places are well service by bus and train. A car would be expensive to park and a hinderance in the larger cities.

It all depends what you are interested in..if you like cities ( rather than exploring small towns - except for day trips) you are o.k.
Fast train AVE from Barcelona to Madrid is a good way to travel if you can get web. or estrella fare - book 60 day ahead of time.
You can get a cheap flight form Seville to Barcelona on Vueling.
http://www.vueling.com/?language=EN

If you go straight from Barcelona (fly?) to Madrid ( I assume you have to fly in and out of Barcelona,), you might be able to save time and "squeeze in" 2 nights in Granada,fly from Granada back to Barcelona.
Or work your way the other way around Barcelona, Granada
Seville, Cordoba, Madrid, Barcelona.
I am not familiar with driving in Spain.

Having visited Spain almost annually for the last several years, usually renting a car but last year by train, I highly recommend consideration of trains. Parking is exceeding problematic and expensive in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. I agree with Cathy that you'll have a much better time if you focus on just a couple of areas, but three are doable. You might want to redistribute days, with more in Andalucia and fewer in Barcelona at the end, when you might have less energy and enthusiasm. Day trips by that point might not be so thrilling. If you keep to your schedule, you'll be in transit much of the time. Just getting from place to place can take a long time. And you won't want to miss Granada. (If you're looking for a hotel in Seville, I highly recommend the Hotel Murillo.) Rather than do day trips from Madrid to Segovia and Toledo, you might want to consider just spending the night in each of them. True if you're taking trains, you'll probably have to go through Madrid to get to both cities, but it will be more relaxing to stay put once you arrive and besides, both places are splendid at night. Have a wonderful time!

Did you already buy your plane tickets. If not, have you looked into open-jaw, flying into Madrid and out of Barcelona? That will give you about an extra day to sight see.

I haven't been to Andalucia, but have been to Barcelona and Madrid. Barcelona is a great city and you can easily keep busy for a week without even doing day trips. Madrid, a few days is enough. Toledo is an easy, worthwhile day trip from Madrid.

Print out Maribel's guides (maribelsguides.com). They are quite useful.

personally, i agree that you are trying to cram in too much, but if you are savvy, you can still take things a little more leisurely but see [most of] what you want to see.

fly into Barcelona - spend 3 days.
fly to Seville - spend 3 days.
pick up car - tour for 5 days.
drive to granada - return car - stay 2 days.
train to Malaga/madrid - fly home.

I've got nothing against Barcelona, but if you dropped it and left it to another time you'd have a much nicer trip.

Thanks to everyone for their respective comments thus far.

To clarify, yes, we already have plane tickets into and out of barcelona (purchased many months ago). So, the beginning and end locations of the trip are set. It sounds like the car rental idea, especially with as much as we've crammed in, is not such a good one.

At this point, we are reconsidering the time allocated to each location and whether we should remap our itinerary. Originally, our idea was to just go to Barcelona and Sevilla (region). However, after some research, we thought we might be able to squeeze Madrid (and surrounding towns) into the trip.

Given that it is now clear we both enter and leave through Barcelona, any new advice?

You will get lots of good advice here, and with it you can plan a lovely trip with that amount of time.

My opinion, tentatively ...Try not to back track.

Barcelona 2 nights
Fly Barcelona-Granada 2 nights

bus/train Granada -Sevilla 3-4 nights

Train Sevilla-Madrid 3-4 nights

Train/fly Madrid- Bcn ( depending on train/airfare). Leave something special for your last day in Barcelona.

I would think in 12-13 nights you can have a nice feel for all these places. Of course you can't see everything, but I don't think you will feel slighted.
You could reverse the whole thing, too.

Unless you are very interested in museums, I would leave Madrid out, as much as I like it. But if you are at all a museum person, give yourself a couple nights there to enjoy the variety. Otherwise, you can spend more time roaming Andalucia to small towns with a car and enjoy what SHOULD be much nicer weather there.

Enjoy!

hi gngroup,

based on the fact that you will be flying into and out of Barcelona, and that you don't much fancy hiring a car, I still suggest that you miss out Madrid and do the following:

Day 1 - fly into BCN and immediately pick up an internal flight to Seville.
Day 2 - Seville
Day 3 - Seville
Day 4 - Seville
Day 5 - train/bus to Granada [stopping off for the day in Cordoba]
day 6 - Granada
Day 7 - train to Malaga
Day 8 - malaga
Day 9 - Fly to Barcelona
DAy 10-12 Barcelona
day 13 - fly home.

I agree with leaving Madrid out on this trip - you'd have to cut Seville and/or Granada down too much, or miss out Malaga, which would be a shame as it's a really nice place. but if you want to go there, I'd miss out Malaga, get the train to Madrid from Granada, and then the train to Barcelona.

you could just as easily do the above reversing Seville and Granada, depending on the connecting flights out of BCN. I suggest leaving Barcelona as soon as you get there because it makes much more sense to have all your nights there at the end of you trip so as to put you in the right place for your return flight.

I would also leave Barcelona for the end of the trip, although I understand you wish to relax a few days first. Just remember that getting to and from the city ( and checking in and out of hotels) takes time.

Fly right away to Granada ( 2 nights)
bus to Seville (3 nights)
Ave to Madrid ( 4 nights), maybe a stop in Cordoba?
AVE or fly to Barcelona (4nights).
If connections are better you can do it the other way around:
Madrid, Seville, Granada, fly to Barcelona.
You can decide in Madrid and Barcelona if you wish to enjoy the cities or take day trips.
Depends on your interest.

I am flying into madrid Sept 23.....24
Segovia day trip 25
Toledo day trip 26
Madrid 27
Cordoba 28
Seville 29/30
Malaga 1, 2
Fly to Barcelona 3, 4, 5
Fly out Oct. 6th
Biggest hurdle is booking hotel rooms - going alone and do not mind the quick pace I will be moving around....since I am fit at 61.

Not changing my plan - helpful hints on hotels would be welcomed

Pipo

I see everyone doing this and don;t understand the madness for Barcelona. I recognize itis trendy - and it's an intersesting city.

But IMHO what it by far most interesting about Spain is Andalusia (and other areas off the beaten track) - since it's history is different from anything else in Europe.

Madrid, IMHO, resembles noting so much as Chicago. (There is nothing at all wrong with Chicago, I like Chicago - in Illinois - not Spain.)

We have been to Spain a total of 4 times. We have spent 10 nights and 12 nights in Andalusia and there is still a lot we want to see.

Before committing time this way - I would have an in-depth look at the Michelin Spain - and see how many stars are given to which places.

pipo, I would start your own thread to get more responses . Also do a search here for hotels in those cities as it is a frequently asked and answered question and will give you more options faster.

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I would recommend Annhig's itinerary as the best. I would have skipped Barcelona but that's out of the question. Seville and Granada might be your favorite part of the trip. You can always plan another trip to Madrid and the North coast.