We are planing a 7 day trip to spain in october. We will be arriving in Barcelona and plan to stay there for two days. We are trying to decide if we should fly to Granada or rent a car and drive taking one night to get there. Stay 2 nights in Granada 2 nights in Seville and one in Madrid (save Madrid for another trip) should we fly or drive???

The flight between BCN and Granada takes a little over an hour non-stop. If you book early enough you can get a very reasonable fare on airlines such as Iberia which does this route non-stop..emphasis on book <b>early</b>.

With only seven days to spend I would definitely fly.

Do you depart from BCN or Madrid?

I second the recommendation for flying and checking out Iberia's cheap air fares on the web.

I would also consider flying to Sevilla from Granada, given Iberia's low rates on the web.

I have looked into flying on Iberia and even for oct the fligts were around $275us i checked out Air europa and Vueling airlines and they have fights for around 50 eu to Sevilla and nothing direct to Granada. should we fly to Sevilla and drive to Granda and than to madrid?

Easy choice. Skip Madrid. It's a relatively modern city with little of interest, unless you are heavy into art musuems.

Andalucia is a far better choice. But spend only 1 night in Granada. It is a must to see the Alhambra, but there is lttle else.

I take the night train.

The Estrella departs Barcelona at 10PM and arrives in Madrid at 7AM. The upscale Trenhotel departs at 11PM and arrives at 8AM. Some cabins on Trenhotel include en suite shower and toilet.

I used the Estrella from Madrid to Barcelona. It is a great way to travel. It saves you a day on the road or messing around at airports. It offsets the cost of a night in a hotel. It runs city center to city center. It is a no brainer.

We are flying out of Madrid so we need to stay the last night in Madrid. We thought about the night train but i was haveing trouble finding out information if the night train goes to Granada. where do i get the info about the trains?

Sorry about my earlier post. I completely ignored your expedition to the south.

The map tells the story. Make the long reach on a plane from Barcelona to Sevilla. Then drive over to Granada.

Or, take the night Trenhotel from Barcelona Sants station departing at 9PM and arriving in Granada at 8AM. This train has a restaurant wagon. The Spaniards don't have dinner until 10PM so the train schedule works fine. You will have a very pleasant trip.

From Granada there are several Talgo trains a day with a 6 hour journey to Madrid Atocha station. What a beautiful station with a huge garden in the middle.

From Sevilla there are AVE (Alta Velocidad Espa&ntilde;ola) trains every hour making a 2-1/2 hour dash to Madrid Atocha.

My data is from the Thomas Cook European Timetable Winter 2005/6 edition. The Spanish National Railways web site is www.renfe.es. I've never used it but you have many months to work on it.

Thank you all for your input We have decided to fly from Barcelona to Seville. We are thiking about renting a car to go to Granada and keeping it until we get to Toledo and droping it off before we go to Madrid. Between Granada and Toledo are there any places we should make a point of seeing?

I flew from BCN to Seville a few wks ago. Iberia and Spanair both has cheap tickets. Iberia prices vary by the day, so you may luck out.

I didn't go to Granada, but know for sure that from Seville, the train takes 3 hrs.

Oh, enjoy your trip to Spain! It's a wonderful country!

We really enjoyed our road trip, and I think you will have fun as well. The drive between Granada and Toledo can be rather long - 5 hours or more - so you might want to be prepared for that. The scenery on the way isn't thrilling to some, but I enjoyed La Mancha because it is different from where I'm from. You might want to consider a stop in Ja&eacute;n or a short detour to Ubeda and/or a short stop at either Consuegra or Campo de Criptana to get up close to the windmills (this really only takes a few minutes and is absolutely remarkable for pictures!).

Thank you for the sugested stops betwwen Granada and Toledo. Does anyone have hotel sugestons for Granada or toledo?

&quot;Granada and Toledo are there any places we should make a point of seeing?&quot;

Ity is a long boring drive. Dump the car at Cordoba and take the AVE.

That is one of the things i was thinking of doing. Does that mean that we should give up on Toledo. I had been thinking that we might stop in Cordoba for an afternoon on our way(sort of)to Granada. At this point we are 2 night in seville I thought 2night in granada than there is one night that i am not sure what to do with and than on to madrid mostly to fly out of. we thought we would leave exploring Madrid to another trip. Any thoughts as to where weshould spend that night?

&quot;long.. boring drive???&quot;

not very creative

as mentioned..
www.ubeda.com ..worth a detour.

consuegra also great.
almagro.. just to mention a few.
great parador at jaen.

plenty of the off the beaten path PLUS world heritage sites to keep you busy and convince yourself there is more to spain than big cities.