First Pass High Level Spain Itinerary
 

Hi everyone! We are trying to plan a trip to Spain next year for our family of 5 along with my parents. We are limited to around 2 weeks so I'm trying to balance seeing as much as we can with everyone enjoying themselves and not being too rushed. I would love to know your thoughts on my first pass plan.

Day 1 - Lv Tx - travel to Madrid
Day 2 Madrid
Day 3 Madrid
Day 4 Madrid
Day 5 Madrid
Day 6 Travel to Seville
Day 7 Seville
Day 8 Seville
Day 9 Travel to Granada - AM
Day 10 Granada
Day 11 Travel to Barcelona
Day 12 Barcelona
Day 13 Barcelona
Day 14 Barcelona
Day 15 Travel home

Looks fine so far!

Oh great. I'm concerned about making sure that we have enough time where we need it. From what I had read it seemed as if 3 days in Seville and 2 days in Granada were enough but I wasn't totally sure. :)

Be sure to have the mezquita / mosque in Cordoba on your itinerary - either on your way to Seville or as a daytrip from there. I don't happen to be a big fan of Madrid, except for the museums, but there are nice daytrips from there. Maybe you want to add a day to Barcelona and take one away from Madrid?

ID: I don't understand the High Level part?

Thanks suec1 - I will look into Cordoba. I kept an extra day in Madrid because I wasn't sure about jet lag. Will talk to the family about that.

tuscanlifeedit (love your name btw :) ) - I was just calling it high level because i don't know what we'll do in any of those places yet. There is not detail behind it. :)

ID: I thought maybe sea level had something to do with, or top ranking government officials. ;-)

Sound reasonable, you must be new to these boards.

Business jargon mixed with a travel itinerary from someone who moved from Idaho to Texas.

Sorry for the business jargon. No place for that on a travel site! I am new to posting although I've read the forum quite a bit. Spain is daunting to me for some reason so I appreciate the help!

It sounds like a reasonable itinerary. What you will find is a great diverge of opinion because Spain can be so varied in what it has to offer.

It is reasonable, but. . . It really depends on what you want to see and do in each place. You have plenty of time to figure that out, then decide on number of days.

The order of the itinerary may depend on how you plan to travel from place to place - car/van, train, plane?

When are you going? spring, summer, fall?
How old are the children and how fit are the GPs? Those things will affect suggestions and advice about itinerary.

My itinerary for October is very much the same. Madrid 4 nights, Toledo 3, Seville 5 with day trip to Cordoba and maybe one to Granada, then Barcelona 5. All that seemed easy to determine and the difficult part now seems to be an itinerary for each place. I am reading and researching a lot.

I must admit that I think it well worth considering dropping one of these 3 main regions so that you can explore the other two a bit more fully. In fact, you could easily spend 2 wonderful weeks just in the south of Spain.

Here's a suggesion: Get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, note their opening/closing times, and mark them on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, including AT LEAST two or three hours on either side (for getting to/from the airport or whatever, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, obtaining currency, and getting oriented). Then see how things fit together.

Hope that helps!

Thanks everyone. We are planning on late June/early July next year. The kids will be 15, 11 and 8 and are great travelers. We did a 3 week trip to France and Italy last year. My parents are very fit and active so I'm not too concerned about their stamina.

Violet duck - I wish we had the amount of time that you have. Sounds like a great itinerary.

I do have guidebooks that I've been checking out as well as lots of reading on Fodors/ Tripadvisor.