Hi everyone...will be going to Spain for 12 days in late May-early June. Need help on planning out itinerary. Will be arriving and departing from Madrid. Would like to visit Seville, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Figueras, and Bilbao. Would like to stay in Madrid and Barcelona for 3 days each, which leaves me with 6 days to visit the other cities. What's the best way to get to all these places? Where should I start? Should I rent a car? or do it via train? plane? bus? Or all of the above Thanks for your help!!

Try the discussion boards at madridman.com (not limited to Madrid) as well as this board, which will likely yield a lot of good info!

If you have not yet bought your plane tickets, do yourself a favor and get them open-jaw. I flew into Madrid and out of Barcelona.

Sevilla is further south from Madrid, and you will want to fly from there to BCN or Bilbao to save time.

Spain is very large, and I think you are trying to see too many placesthat are two spread out geographically in only 12 days, as you will spend a lot of time traveling from one city to the next.

Ack! Should really use that preview feature....

That should read "too" spread out....

Leaving yourself 6 days to visit all those other cities is much to busy. You could easily spend 3-4 days in Seville alone, which is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I personally would spend my last 6 days in Andalucia, renting a car and exploring the white villages near Ronda and the seacoast, and winding up in Seville where you could dump the car and catch the high speed train back to Madrid to fly out. You may also want to look into flying out of Malaga, which usually doesn't add to the cost of the flight.

Agree with zootsi that you are trying to do way too many places for 12 days (including or exlusing travel to Spain?) For 12 days 3 places is plenty. Otherwise half you time wil be in airports and train stations (almost identical worldwide) rather than Spain itself. I would do Barcelona, Madrid and Seville (with possible day trips to Granada or Cordoba).

Michele,

Leslie had a great idea about the open jaw ticket, which is what I did, but I am assuming you already have your tickets. If you do, I'd suggest this:

3 days in Madrid

Train to Sevilla (stop in Cordoba on the way to see the Mezquita) - 3 days in Sevilla

Skip Gibraltar

Fly from Sevilla to Barcelona (can get cheap flights on www.iberia.com or www.spanair.com).

Immediately take the train or bus to Figueres (136km from Barcelona), spend 2 days there.

Back to Barcelona - 4 days there, with possible day trips to Sitges and Monserrat.

That's your 12 days. Bilboa is northern Spain not near anything else, and Gibraltar is too far south to try on this trip.

These are just my opinions, of course, but I think it would work out pretty well.

Hope this helps.

Karen

Oh! I forgot. The morning of the day you are returning home, you would fly from Barcelona to Madrid. It's an hour flight.

Karen

Spent ten days in spain a year ago with 3 days each in madrid, barcelona, and sevella, knowing this I would switch to 1 day madrid, 3 days sevella, and 5 days barcelona.

I just got back from spain and spent 4 days in Barcelona and 4 in Seville. I think 3 would be fine in each city as we had seen everything in 3 days.

Michele12 writes: "Hi everyone...will be going to Spain for 12 days in late May-early June. Need help on planning out itinerary. ... "
If you're just planning to visit major cities, you'll be OK relying on Public Transportation. May 30 is Pentecost Sunday and the height of the feria del Campo highlighted by a pilgrimage to el Santuario de la Virgen del Rocio (near Sevilla).

Forget about Gibraltar!

You can have a meaningful Madrid visit (and either Toledo or Segovia) in about 3-days. Barcelona: 2-days.
You can catch a Continental-Auto MotorCoach Madrid-Bilbao (about 5.5 hours) from Madrid's Avda. de America Intercambiador.
You can fly Madrid-Barcelona or Madrid-Bilbao on SpanAir.

I personally would include a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela this Jubilee Year. But that's just me.

This past Sept I took the bus from Madrid to Bilbao, which was fine. Went specifically to see the Guggenheim and i was not disappointed, I loved it. After 2 days in Bilbao i rented a car (pre-arranged) and drove to Tossa da Mar (stopped one night in Jaca) I spent a few days in Tossa, and took a day trip to Figueres (Dali Museum). Drove back to Madrid via Cuenca, where i stayed at the Posada San Jose which is an unbelievably fantastic place. I would recommend Cuenca as a destination. Then met up with my husband and drive up to Segovia for a few days. We had been to Barcelona before, and did not want to stay in big cities, Madrid was for business. Most of my trip was driving solo, and i didn't feel at all apprehensive (though i 've heard some bad stories.) I limited my trip to the North and had a great time. Have fun!

Hi, we just got back from Spain. I agree with the other writers who advised you to get an open jaw ticket. However, if you already have the ticket and don't want to spend any extra changing it, flying in & out of Madrid is okay. Heres what I would do. Spend 2 days total in Madrid. 1 day seeing all the Museums and that side of the city. The other day, either next or at the end of the trip spend at the palace and walking around old Madrid (around Plaza Mayor). Take a bus or tour to Toledo as a daytrip from Madrid. On the 4th morning, take the AVE train to Sevilla, getting off in Cordoba to spend a few hours seeing the Mezquita and just walking around the town. Have a late lunch and finish the AVE train ride to Sevilla. Spend days 5 & 6 there and then rent a car and drive to Ronda (up in the mountains) , spend the day and night. Day 8 drive to Granada to see the Alcazar or go to Gilbraltor (the Rock) or drive to some of the jet set towns like Marbella on the Costa del sol. From whereever you spend that day & night, get rid of the car on day 9 and take the train or fly to Barcelona where you spend your last 3 days. I know some people will argue its too much, but its really not and you get to see and experience so much. I want to go back!

THANK YOU for all your suggestions!! I've altered my itinerary a bit based. Please let me know what you think about the following...how does this look? I've eliminated some cities.
25-May Madrid - Seville
26-May Seville
27-May Seville - Granada
28-May Granada - Costa del Sol
29-May Costa del Sol
30-May Costa del Sol - Barcelona
31-May Barcelona
1-Jun Barcelona
2-Jun Barcelona - Bilbao
3-Jun Bilbao - Madrid
4-Jun Madrid (day trip to Toledo)
5-Jun Madrid

Hi michele

I think you are trying to do too much. I would choose north or south, not both. And remember you can always do north when you go to France. You only need to spend the day in Granada so try and get an early train there from seville and a late, overnight train out. If you go by your most recent itinerary, you will be shattered and spend most of your time on the road.

If you are flying within Spain and using Iberia, call to confirm ticket the day before or arrive early (2 hours) in the airport. When I was there, our pre-booked flight (online) got cancelled and rescheduled to another flight. Luckily it was an earlier flight than what I've booked. The lines were long with Iberia. I did not see a long line with Spanair though.

MN