My wife and I will be spending eight nights in Spain in late May/early June. We are flying in and out of Madrid. Primary interests are architecture, food, culture and a museum or two.

As of right now, we are leaning towards using public transport over car rental.

Tentatively we are planning to start with 3 nights in Seville and ending with 3 nights in Madrid.

What we are wrestling over is where to spend the 2 nights in the middle.

We are considering one of the following:

- 2 nights Cordoba
- 1 night Segovia/1 night Toledo
- 2 nights Granada

Granada seems to be almost universally suggested as a must see, but we have been wrestling over the several extra hours of travel during prime daytime hours it would take to add it in versus the other options.

Cordoba seems like it might be an OK compromise instead of Granada with much more direct and quick transport, although sacrificing the Alhambra for "lesser" but similar sights.

Our other thought is that we generally like to stay in a mix of metropolitan and smaller areas on our trips. Spending an overnight in Segovia and Toledo seems like it might be a nice contrast to larger Madrid and Seville. I will also add that my wife and I have both been fascinated with pictures of Segovia and is definitely on our must-see list whether it is an overnight or day trip.

We appreciate any insight into our "predicament". Thanks!

When my dad came to visit me in Spain, he wrestled with the decision on whether or not to fit Granada into our plans (I was living in Sevilla and we were going to be spending time there and in Madrid). As Granada is out in "left field" he decided to ultimately ax it and I think it was the best choice.

I did visit Granada before and with the exception of the Alhambra (yes obviously the reason most people visit Granada), the city itself I found to be disappointing. Nothing like Seville and its ambience in that regard. It's not the same by any means, but I did find the Alcazar in Seville to be a suitable "substitute" if you will in terms of architecture and the stunning gardens.

I loved Cordoba's Mezquita (we also did a day trip there from Seville). One of the most impressive sights I have ever seen. Although I don't think you need 2 nights in Cordoba.

My rec would be to spend one night there, and then another night in the Madrid region (Toledo and Segovia are both fantastic places although I think you'll find more of a smaller type feel in Segovia). Or even just add Cordoba as a day trip to your Seville portion of your itinerary and have the other night up in Castilla.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the quick reply, librarychica.

I do think that we are leaning towards striking Grenada off of the possible itinerary. It seems like it would make our relatively short trip much smoother.

We had not considered splitting up our two middle nights as a single night in Cordoba and one in Segovia. That could be interesting too. Thanks for the suggestions.

Something else that we haven't completely considered yet would be to do just Seville and Madrid with everything else as day trips. I do see the appeal of having to pick up and move camp only once during our trip.

decisions, decisions...

If it were my trip, and I had a reasonable expectation of returning to Spain, I would not try to visit Seville and Madrid in the same 8-day trip. I would leave Seville for a trip to Andalucia that could include Cordoba and Granada. And on this trip, I would concentrate on Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, with perhaps a couple of other day trips.

If you are a food lover and you are willing to rent a car, for example, I can almost promise you a fantastic experience in the lamb towns of Pedraza and Sepulveda. Four days in a bare minimum for Madrid itself, and if you want to visit Toledo and Segovia, your trip is pretty well filled up without including the south. PLus it will be very hot in Andalucia at that time of year..

Personally with only 8 days (and assuming you are arriving on a transatlantic flight and will be jetlagged for a day at least) I'd focus on just 2 bases, Madrid and Sevilla. I'd try to spend 4 nights in Sevilla and do a daytrip to Cordoba (you could even visit on route between Sevilla & Madrid or vice-versa). 4 nights in Madrid would give you enough time for at least one daytrip and perhaps even both Toledo & Segovia. You could overnight in Toledo or Segovia but there are advantages (smaller town, nice atmosphere after daytrippers leave) and disadvantages (unpacking/repacking, hotel change, etc...) - you'll just need to weigh which is more important to you.

Trying to squeeze in Granada would be very tight, but doable. With only 3 days in Madrid & Sevilla it barely scratches the surface and doesn't give much time for daytrips or exploring (and overcoming jetlag).

@ekscrunchy:

Truthfully, I'm not sure how soon we would be able to make it back to Spain. We've been averaging one big trip a year and have many new destinations left to hit on our "to do" list before we would probably start thinking about return visits. That is one of the reasons we started looking to expand the trip to include some of Andalusia. But I can definitely appreciate sticking to one area and doing it right.

We have gone back and forth about renting a car, specifically so that we could visit some smaller villages. How much difficulty with a language barrier do you think we would encounter in the villages you mentioned? We both have some very limited Latin American Spanish, but far, far from fluent.

Also, my wife is a sort-of vegetarian (eats fish, eggs, etc...). What could she expect to find at restaurants in rural areas? Although if she has to live off of local cheeses, breads and wine for a few days I'm sure she won't complain too much

@CathyM...

Thanks for the reply. We will be coming from Midwestern US so will definitely be a little frazzled upon arrival.

4 Seville/4 Madrid sounds like the least complicated itinerary with the most flexibility. We will have to put some more thought into that.

ZH: The fact that she is a vegetarian changes things. In that case, I would not recommend a visit to the Castillian towns that I mentioned above since the reason to visit these places is to eat lamb. But overall, she will be fine. Eggs are always on offer, and even inland restaurants usually have some kind of fish. And, as you mention, there is always cheese and bread.

I find the driving to be easy as long as it does not involve driving in and out of big cities. And I am part of the (select, I might add!) group that depends on paper maps, not GPS (can you imagine that there are still people like this!?). But I do speak Spanish pretty well. But if you stick to the MAdrid/Seville plan, you really do not need the car at all. The trains are excellent, but you must prepare yourself for the travails of using the Spanish railroad's website. There are threads here devoted to this...

I am excited for you and hope that this will be the beginning of a lifelong love affair with Spain!


I agree about skipping Granada, by the way. It is just too far out of the way for you on this trip. We took a week-long trip a few years ago that included Seville, Arcos and Sanlucar. Even being in Andalucia for that amount of time, we did not include Cordoba or Granada and I felt that it was the right decision for us at the time.

We had 4 nights in Seville (flew in and out of there from JFK); two nights in Arcos; and one night in Sanlucar, with a daytime visit to Jerez for a bodega tour. Worked out very well, but we did have a car which we picked up when we left Seville, and the driving was quite simple.

Cathy's advice seems best. It is a shame to go to Andalucia and not see the Alhambra though. With 4 nights in Madrid I wouldn't take 2 full days to see both Toledo and Segovia I would choose one but that's just me. 3 days in Madrid is just scratching the surface. Your wife can eat well on fried fish, olives and bread.

> we have been wrestling over the several extra hours of travel during prime daytime hours

Unless things have changed over the last few years, siesta is often taken very seriously in Spain. In some places, almost everything but restaurants wwer closed for several hours in the middle of the day. I found it a perfect time to travel!