Evaluate our itinerary
 

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading over this forum and there seems to be some great feedback so I wanted to post our trip ideas and see what everyone thinks.I will be In Spain 16 days (July5th-21st):

Arrive in Murcia on the morning of the 5th and drive to Valencia (museums) and stay through the 6th
Drive to Barcelona on the 6th and spend 2 nights in Barcelona (6th&7th Sagrada Familia, Güell Park and Catherdral)
-Catch a flight to Ibiza on the 8th(3pm); spend 3 nights 4 days in Ibiza (8th-11th)
-Fly into Seville on the night of the 11th by night and stay 3 nights in seville (11th-14th)
-Drive to Ronda Early morning of 14th Stay the night. On 15th by morning drive to Caminito del rey from Ronda and hike for the day and end the day in Nerja.
-Nerja 15th-17th. The 16th the beach
-17th by morning drive to Granada stay two nights (on the 18th drive to Sierra Nevada and hike)
-19-20th Cartagena

21st Airport to Depart Spain from MJV

Is this schedule too aggressive? I feel like the driving between cities is fine, will we be spending too much time travelling and not enough time seeing things in the cities?

Sagrada Familia go to their web site and buy tickets, avoid wait in line.

Sounds tiring and not very productive. And remember a car in Spanish cities is more of a burden than useful. I assume to spend that much time in Ibiza and little elsewhere as you want to party.

There is no way I would go to Andalusia and not visit Cordoba - and would cut something else to manage it. We have don several road trips in Spain and had no problems - you just need to pick hotels with garages and also be good at parallel parking in tiny spaces.

Yes, do visit Cordoba but forget Nerja for the beach. There's a sewage problem there. Have a look at nearby La Herradura and Salobrena.

Have you factored driving times into this? it might help if you set it out day by day, vis:

Day 1 - arrive Murcia. [you don't say what time you get there] drive to Valencia. [2 ½ - 3 hours] stay Valencia.

Day 2 - Valencia am [we were there for 4 nights and still didn't see everything, you've got at most ¾ of a day] pm drive to Barcelona - 3 ½ hours.

Day 3 - Barcelona - 2 nights gives you a day to see the whole city.

Day 4 - well, you get the idea.

personally I would drop Valencia or Barcelona - and given that Valencia is much closer to your arrival point, I'd drop Barcelona and fly to Ibiza from Valencia - both Ryanair and Vueling have direct flights. Valencia is a lovely place and far less touristy than Barcelona - in 2 ½ days you could have a pretty good time there. Alternatively fly from Murcia to Barcelona if you can't bear to miss it.

Looks like you're trying to do it all. You can't.

I'd add to Barcelona and ditch the Nerja/Ronda part so you can see more of Andalucia. After all, you'll have a beach stint in the bag by then.

Are you arriving in Murcia by train, plane, etc? From where? Will you have jet lag to consider? If by plane, the Murcia airport is, I think, in San Javier, and will add about 1/2 an hour travel time to Valencia, making it a 3 hour drive, minimum. What time will you arrive in Murcia/Javier? Even if early, it will be at least noon by time you arrive in Valencia, so only an afternoon there for sightseeing.

I might be reading you wrong, but it seems that times counted for places just can't be right. You can't spend half the day driving and still count the whole day as a sight seeing day. Three nights in a place can never add up to 4 days.

Drive time from Valencia to Barcelona is 3 & 1/2 hours. Add in time to find hotel, unload and park car - 15 to 30 minutes. Even if you depart Valencia at 8:00 am, you will not be exploring Barcelona until noon. You can't stay in Valenca "through the 6th" and also have the 6th in Barcelona. You list Nerja as the 15th, 16th, 17th, but will be driving to, and staying in, Granada on the 17th. When planning a trip, never count a day twice. Might be easier for you to list by nights. People never count nights twice. Just be sure you then allow travel time.

Try to be accurate and add in travel time for a realistic look at your trip. Everyone likes different things, and you have plenty of time for a great trip, but is this itinerary actually giving you what you want? You are flying into Murcia/ San Javier and driving over 6 hours to Barcelona with a few hours and overnight stop in Valencia.

July 5, arrive Murcia/SJ, travel 3+ hours to Valencia. 1/2 day Valencia
July 6, travel 3+ hours to Barcelona. 1/2 day Barcelona
July 7, Barcelona
July 8, Barcelona, 1/2 day, fly to Ibiza, evening in Ibiza
July 9, Ibiza
July 10, Ibiza
July 11, day in Ibiza, evening flight to Seville
July 12, Seville
July 13, Seville
July 14, Ronda
July 15, travel to Nerja
July 16, beach day, Nerja
July 17, travel to Granada (Alhambra?)
July 18, day trip for hiking from Granada
July 19, travel to Cartagena, time?
July 20, Cartagena
July 21, depart

Look hard at the beginning of your trip. Realistically, you have less time everywhere than you had listed.
Valencia, 1/2 day
Barcelona, 1/2 day, 1 whole day, 1/2 day
Ibiza, evening, 2 whole days, 3/4 day, Ibiza (not even close to the 4 days you listed)

For Granada. Make sure you have tickets and get there on time. You might want to switch days with hiking, depending on when you can get tickets.