First Trip to Spain
 

Hello everyone my sister and i are planning our first trip to Spain. We are thinking of Madrid as our starting point for 5 days and a day trip to Toledo and maybe venture a short trip to Portugal and come back to Madrid and head off to explore Seville. I want to see the Plaza de Espana and the Cathedral & Giralda tower. Any other suggestion for our visits in Seville?

My question is should we stay in Spain and see the surrounding cities or should we venture over to Portugal for a short visit. If we were to go to Portugal should we fly or take the Euro rail such as the AVE train? And if we are to visit cities around Spain should we get a Euro pass or should we use the local train system? Which is more economical?

Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Cece

how long is your trip?
what time of the year?
where in Portugal? How long?

Hi Cece,
Whether or not you should venture into Portugal depends on how long in total you have for your trip. I think that Lisbon is a fantastic city (and very different to Spain) but it is quite far, I made the trip a few years ago from Madrid and it was a 10 hour overnight train journey. As far as I know (i stand to be corrected) but the Ave connecting Spain to Portugal is still under construction.
I would suggest that when you are south in sevilla you should check out Cordoba or Granada.
Come to Granada and see why the Alhambra is the most visited monument in spain http://granadainsider.com/magazine/a...ed-Monument%3F

I personally do not think that the euro pass is a great option, unless you are planning on moving around every couple of days it would be better to buy tickets on demand, the bus network is also very comfortable and very affordable. alsa.es covers a lot of the routes that you might need.

Thanks GranadaInsider for your suggestions. I will definitely check out Alhambra in Granada. I am just gathering suggestions and ideas for my travel in March 2012 and in reply to "danon" my visit will be 3 weeks but I am hoping to spend 4 days in Portugal. This is not final by any means I just want to have a brief visit to Portugal while i am in Spain so i could plan for a longer trip to both countries in future if i really enjoy it. What do you suggest? Would Lisbon or Farro be a good first visit?

thanks so much for your suggestions.

I find Sevilla and Barcelona both to be really fascinating cities, much more than Madrid. Granadinsider is right on the money! The Alhambra is a wonderful place, as is the Mezquita in Córdoba.

The Alcazar in Sevilla is also beautiful, but the Alhambra is simply stunning.

The Gaudi architecture and other modernisme buildings make Barcelona my favorite Spanish city, I think, though it's not an easy choice to make because there are so many fascinating cities and villages in Spain. Toledo has its attractions and is certainly worth a day trip.

There is a very nice night train called "Lusitânia Trenhotel" from Madrid to Lisbon and back This is a Portuguese link; if you want to buy online for travel originating in Spain use RENFE.com

Good thing about this train is that it saves on 2 hotel nights and allows full day sightseeing at both origin and destination
http://cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgnex...007b01a8c0RCRD

As far as Spain is concerned I would also consider visiting Cordoba & Granada when in Sevilla.

May we ask why you are considering Portugal? There is so much to see in Spain - once you get there you won't want to leave!

I agree not to bother with Portugal. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to visit, but I think it would need it's own trip.

As others said there is tons to see in Spain. I am also a big fan of Barcelona. Also, lots of easy day trips can be taken from both Barcelona and Madrid, so there are many possibilities.

Download Maribel's guide (www.maribelsguides.com). They contain lots of really great and useful information.

We did something similar to what you are planning. We flew from the US into Madrid, spent a few nights there, we did the day trip to Toledo (bus), and then from Madrid we took the AVE down to Seville (FYI orange juice there is AMAZING among other things) then we did some day trips from there, most have been mentioned, Cordoba, Granada, Ronde etc. We also went to Jerez good port/sherry region if you're into that. We never did get into Portugal though.

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful insight and suggestions we may have to skip Portugal this time round since it is our first trip to Europe I think staying in one country would be wise and MFNYC is right Portugal needs it's own trip. I will definitely concentrate on

Madrid Toledo
Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Ronde
Barcelona and surrounding areas

I think the above cities would be a great introduction to Spain. Is it pretty easy to get around Spain since we will be relying on train and bus rather than car. Would staying at one city and branch out our visit as day trip better than taking our lugages with us and move around as we go. Say we stay in Madrid and make day trips, stay in Seville and make day trips and stay in Barcelona and make day trips? If anyone know of reasonable and safe accommodations while in Spain please let us know. Thanks again to all who took the time to respond to my posting any suggestions and advices are very much appreciated.

For this type of itinerary, it is usually more efficient to fly in Madrid, and come back from Barcelona (or the other way depending on where you are coming from.) Here is one way to connect Andalucia to Barcelona.

Fly-in Madrid, day trip to Toledo.
AVE to Sevilla, day trip to Cordoba.
Train/bus to Granada
Fly Vueling Granada-Barcelona
Fly-home from Barcelona

I would spend 2 nights in Granada - it's way too long IMHO for a daytrip from Sevilla (3 hours each way).

As a first pass, I'd allot 5 days in Madrid visiting both Toledo and Segovia as daytrips, 5 days in Barcelona with a daytrip to Girona (my personal favorite daytrip), 4 days in Sevilla with a daytrip to Girona, 2 days in Ronda and 2 in Granada. These are my personal minimums given you have 3 weeks. This is 18 days so you could add another city (Malaga, for example) or add days to the existing itinerary (I could spend a week in Sevilla easily).


If you could rent a car between Sevilla and Granada it would give you time to explore the white villages using Ronda as your base. If you don't have a car this itinerary is still doable.

Sevilla is spectacular. Here are some tips I posted the other day about the Triana district, just across the river from the Cathedral etc.

--
Triana is wonderful. When it comes to flamenco bars, apart from Casa Anselma I would recommend El Rejoneo on riverfront Calle Betis (C/ Betis, 33). Often Samara Amador, the flamenco singer daughter of living legend dancer Manuela Carrasco, gets into action here. No need to come before midninght. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPZT3ADgWsw

And if you want to see first class flamenco performers, go to Casa de la Memória in the Santa Cruz district. Popular with tourists, but it's definitely the real deal. Pastora Galván have danced here once a week for a long time. She made her definitive breakthrough as one of the absolute finest bailaoras of our time during the last Bienal de flamenco in Sevilla (the world's largest and most prestigious flamenco festival) some months ago. Also many other great talents, not only dancers but also singers and guitarists. The program is updated here:
http://www.casadelamemoria.es/eventos.htm

The finest flamenco artists in the world perform in the city on a regular basis. Great theaters in Sevilla. Updates on concerts here, and there are big things happening in the months ahead: http://www.deflamenco.com/agenda/events.jsp?barrio=5

In the warm months, a drink and some tapas along the riverside in one of the many bars in Calle Betis is a good option. http://www.sevilla5.com/activities/goingout/betis.html

Lots of great restaurants and tapas bars in Triana. For example innovative Puratasca: http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletap...ory/puratasca/
Or traditional Casa Cuesta: http://www.casacuesta.net/index2.htm

Here are more very well informed suggestions about places to eat in Triana:
http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletap...urants/triana/
http://www.exploreseville.com/tapas-bars.htm#triana

But my favourites in town would be on the other side of the river, in the San Lorenzo district north of the more touristy Santa Cruz area.
Eslava: http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletapas/category/eslava/
Bodegas dos de Mayo: http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletap...omment-page-1/

I also love El Cairo in Calle Reyes Católicos, 13, just across the Triana bridge (Puente Isabel/Puente de Triana). Excellent paella tapas at lunchtime (at the bar), and great local atmosphere: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...Andalusia.html

Cathy, Greg and kimhe have said it all. Take their advice for a great trip.

Thanks for all the great ideas i will definitely plan my trip around all your suggestions I started looking into all those great suggestions I feel a lot more comfortable now with my pending trip. I will definitely try out the Tapas bar as suggested by Kimhe and the Casa de la Memoria in the Santa Cruz district.