Lulutravel

My husband and I are planning a trip arriving in Barcelona on August 22, 2020 to possibly drive from Barcelona to Rome Italy in 7 days. Is this trip possible and any recommendations. We have never been to Spain therefore staying in Barcelona for 3 days and then renting a car to just drive the coastline to explore, currently no itinerary but would like to see Nice, Monaco and any beautiful coast destinations?
We have already been to Cannes,France Pisa, Florence, Venice and Rome in the past, We will have to end in Rome because on The 23rd of August we'll be boarding a cruise to Greece. We appreciate any recommendations!

StCirq

What's your plan regarding the horrible drop-off charges for renting a car in Spain and dropping it off in Italy? You do realize someone has to get that car back to Spain, right?

There is a beautiful and inexpensive train that runs along the Med coast from Port-Bou to Avignon, but from it you can get to many other places by making a correspondance if you want to venture inland. That's what I'd do, but I'm not interested in glitzy places. I also don't travel in August because the weather is generally horrid and so are the crowds and the traffic.

HappyTrvlr

hetismij2

Regardless of climate change, driving from Barcelona to Rome is daft - quite a part from anything else the one way drop off fee would be huge. Why fly to Barcelona in the first place? Why not spend you time before the cruise in Italy?

BDKR

To sum up the facts:

1) 7 days is a very short time to travel from Barcelona to Rome along the coast.

2) August is probably the worst time of the year to do such a trip, because these are some of the most crowded holiday areas of Europe. Go by car and you'll be sitting in traffic jams, go by train and you'll be packed like sardines. Not to mention that the weather is usually very hot.

3) Going by a rental car you'll have to shell out an astronomical extra charge for dropping the car so far away from Barcelona.

With all this in mind the best advice any experienced traveller can give you is that you best don't attempt this trip, but do something else during that week. Spend more time in Catalonia, with the option to retreat to the mountains if the coast gets too hot/too crowded for your liking and fly to Italy. Or fly to Italy and spend more time there.

StuDudley

We spend 2 months vacationing in Europe every year - mainly France. I would never consider following your itinerary. It isn't very scenic most of the way (as others have stated), you'll be spending most of our time in the car, and August is not a good time to be there. You can assess the financial considerations yourself. I have lived all my life (I'm 72) on or near Hwy 1 in California. The drive along this hwy from Washington to Santa Barbara is stunning - an A+. I've driven about 70 of the coast between Barcelona and Rome (less in Italy), and it is an F for about 80% of the trip, and you can not "hug" the coast for most of the way like you can on Hwy 1.

Is your Barcelona flight cast in concrete?? If not, fly to Rome & visit Tuscany, the Amalfi cost, or someplace close to Rome. If Barcelona is set in concrete (we love Barcelona), spend a few days there, fly to Rome, and meet your cruise there.

Stu Dudley

Moderator1

Several off topic political or philosophical posts did not address the OP's question and were deleted.

kja

You've already gotten some great advice, and I agree that your time would probably be better spent explore the area near your the location from which your cruise will depart. I just wanted to add that (a) 3 days (with jet lag?) is exceedingly little for Barcelona and (b) while Barcelona is wonderful, it is hardly representative of Spain as a whole (because Spain as a modern country encompasses a wide array of culturally and historically diverse realms).

janisj

Driving that route really makes very little sense. First of all to see/do much of anything would require more than 7 days. Then as mentioned - the rental drop off fees could cost as much as your Transatlantic airfare.

I am very confused -- you mention arriving in Barcelona on Aug 22 and the cruise departing Rome on Aug 23. Assuming at least one of those dates is a typo - do I understand you booked a flight in to Barcelona and the cruise leaves from Rome 10 days later? (assuming your 3 days allocated to seeing Barcelona isn't part of the 7-day drive)

Lulutravel

That's what I was looking for someone with counstructive advice on who did the trip and I appreciate the comparison of California. I was imagining a beautiful coastline ride but since that's not the case we will probably visit the Amalfi coast, since Barcelona is not set in stone.
And I apologize we leave on our cruise Aug 30 so we had 7 days to kill.

Traveler_Nick

The drive is doable. I've done it a few times. But it's not worth doing in seven days.

The whole point of that drive is to stop along the way and visit the various smaller locations.

Google claims it's only 14 hours of non stop driving. You'll obviously want to add rest stops. Toll booth stops. At least one stop for fuel. Which ups the total to closer to twenty hours.

The sensible way to do it is in five or at most six hour blocks. That means four stops. Each one of which would deserve a few days . Or more.

Worse the coastal roads are jammed that time of year.

HappyTrvlr

Still remember the continuous flash of light as we went inland out of the tunnels, not pleasant.

StuDudley

Me too!! there must have been 100 tunnels (or it seemed like 100). I recall taking the sunglasses off & on & off & on & off....

Stu Dudley