We plan to spend two to three weeks in Spain in late September or early October. We want to see it all, including Bilbao. We are still trying to decide our route and how much to drive or fly. Should we go LA-London-Bilbao or go Barcelona first and work our way back to Bilbao after seeing Granada, Seville etc. Suggestions wanted. Thanks

Hi, Dick. <BR>You have to think quite a lot about what you are looking for. If you are planning to fit in two weeks Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada and Sevilla, well, you can end up really tired, unless you decide to fly between destinations. <BR>I would divide Spain in two or four parts, depending on how many days you have and how in depth you want to go. <BR>Seeing that you are mentioning Bilbao and Barcelona, I would concentrate on the north part of Spain. <BR>Your dates can still be warm (although not to swim in the Cantabrico), and you could see a non-topical part of Spain. <BR>Write telling more about your tastes, your budget, your age, and I am sure there are plenty of people in this forum ready to help. <BR>Also, perform a search, and look in other websites, such as Rough Guide <BR>http://travel.roughguides.com/content/2604/index.htm <BR> <BR>Good luck, Cova <BR>

I've posted another message today about our travel plans so I won't repeat it all here, but we are going to Bilbao and are looking for a nice, not-too-expensive hotel in Bilbao. <BR> <BR>Any suggestions? Also, how many days should a person plan on spending in Bilbao? Is there much to do and see? <BR>Mary

Just returned from a trip to the Basque country including Bilbao. While there are not a lot of tourist sites per se in Bilbao, i can't stress enough how pleasantly surprised I was with this city. Of course the Guggenheim was spectacular. But the rest of the city is clearly on the rise. The old town is charming with plenty of great tapas bars and shops. The newer part of town, esp. along the Gran Via is quite elegant, with great upscale shopping. <BR>I stayed at the Hotel Aranzazu, which is owned by the same company as the Carlton. The Aranzazu is nowhere near as elegant as the Carlton, it is much more modern and seems to cater to tour groups. But it was quite reasonable and located close to the Guggenheim. Parking on site, rooms comfortable and clean, staff friendly. <BR>Since Bilbao's tourist attractions are limited, I would suggest no more than two nights there. Spend half a day at the museum and the rest of your time exploring the city and enjoying the amazing cuisine. There is also a fine arts museum near the Guggenheim in which to spend some time. I would also suggest walking to the esplanade on the opposite side of the River Nervion from the Guggenheim. You will really be able to appreciate the amazing architecture of the Guggenheim, unobstructed, from there.

Dick & Mary, <BR> <BR>Check out the Food and Fish Market in Bilbao. It is excellent. We also managed a day trip to San Sebestian while we were in Bilbao last year. Have a good time, it is real un tourist Spain in parts. <BR> <BR> <BR>Cathy

Mary, <BR>Like Tom, we stayed a few yrs. back at the Hotel Aranzazu. We used Halcon Viajes coupons, valid on weekends (and available at any Halcon Viajes travel agency; at least last yr. this hotel participated in the coupon program) which made our lodging quite inexpensive. The Aranzazu has been around a while, a moderate "classic" hotel, not luxurious as Tom says, but just fine and comfortable with a great location on Rodriguez Arias street with its posh shops and one block behind the Gran Via. <BR>We would stay there again just to save our pts. for Bilbao's amazing restaurants.

The Aranzasu is great. San Sebastian is beautiful at that time. You might stay a few days there too. Try the Hotel Codina--two blocks from the beach, very reasonable with breakfast.

Dick, <BR> <BR>We spent 2 weeks in Spain last October and I was very happy with our route. We spent our first night at the Parador in Hondarribia, less than an hour from Bilbao -- great place and charming little town. We did not spend the night in Bilbao. Having gotten there in the early morning we found a day there was adequate. We spent a second night about 2 hours south-west, at another Padador in Olite -- another delightful town, with a wonderfully restored castle, part of which housed the Parador. <BR> <BR>We continued down to Barcelona, stopping for lunch in Zarragoza. We dropped the car off in Barcelona, staying for 3 nights. (Be sure to pick up a map of the “Ruta del Modernisme”, which guides you to the most famous of the architectural sites.) The longest drive of the trip was from Barcelona to Valencia, where we stopped for one night, and then on to Granada. This is the only part where you might want to fly or take the train if car travel is too much for you, although you would have to fly to Malaga or Seville. <BR> <BR>The Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Ronda loop was the most pleasant driving of the trip. In addition to those famous towns, the highlights for me were two towns that we stayed in along the way. The first was the town of Ubeda, between Granada and Cordoba (more or less). We stayed a Parador there as well. We were really pleasantly surprised by the beautiful Baroque buildings on the main square, and in the neighboring town of Baeza. The second was the town of Carmona, a pleasant whitewashed town about 30 miles from Seville. You can walk up to the top of the ancient Moorish walls. There’s also a great view from the top of the bell tower of the church just outside the city. We liked it so much we stayed 2 nights. The Parador there was our favorite of the trip (well, maybe tied with Hondarribia). After Seville and Ronda we dropped the car off in Malaga where we caught our flight home. <BR> <BR>As you can see, we did not make it to the central or northwest part of the country; however, I can’t imagine doing more than this in two weeks. If we had had more time, I would have dropped the car off in Seville and taken the train to Madrid, perhaps making a day trip to Toledo from there. Oh well, maybe nest time. Have fun. <BR>