Hello Fodorites!
My SO and I are planning a trip in May 26-June 6, 2023 for my birthday . Can you please recommend how many days to spend in each city? We’re not fan of museums, we love culture and food.
Madrid-Valencia-San Sebastian-Bilbao
open to any suggestions on what city to see

May 26-Arrive Madrid from LAX
June 6-Depart Bilbao to LAX

Much appreciated for your help

Hi, and firstly, welcome to Fodors! What a great idea for a holiday, especially one to celebrate a birthday.

When you were looking at the cities you have chosen, did you work out how many nights and days you have in total and how long it was going to take you to get from one place to another? as a very minimum every time you move it will take half a day out of your holiday, and if you are going to fly [Valencia to San Sebastian?] it might well be longer depending on flight times. I work out that you have 12 nights and 11 days which is not very much time for 4 places. I suggest dropping at least one [Valencia is sadly the obvious one to leave out] which will give you more time for the others.

annhig, Thanks so much for your response to my query. I’m researching the Spain forum here and I’m reading some posts about how many days to spend in each city. I’m thinking of dropping San Sebastián and keeping Valencia. My tentative plan is:

Madrid -4 nights (includes arrival)
Valencia-3 nights
Bilbao- 3 nights

Is that reasonable? Pls guide me

Okay so dropping Valencia out on the itinerary.
instead
Madrid
Segovia
Pamplona
San Sebastian
Bilbao - fly out to LAX

how many days should be spent on each city?
appreciate your response

OK, Annhig's point, which I agree with, is that you only have time for 3 locations to visit. If you arrive the 26th and depart on the 6th, you shouldn't count your arrival and departure days for sightseeing. You really only have 10 days for sightseeing and it takes a good half day to travel between locations.

What about the locations you are picking appeals to you? What do you want to see and do in Spain? For example, are you a museum lover, foodie, shopper, history buff? We can make some suggestions if you give an idea what appeals to you.

ktravel yes 10 days. I’ve research the distance between San Sebastián and Bilbao. It’s 5hrs by train. So we’re dropping SS from our itinerary concentrating on 4 cities below
Madrid
Segovia
Pamplona
Bilbao

We love food and culture not much museums.
Thanks all for your input

If you're not fans of museums I think you've picked the wrong cities.

Madrid is home to a group of famous museums. Bilbao the Guggenheim.

Adding more cities to your list doesn't make it easier. it just means you'll visit more train stations.

I've always enjoyed Valencia but it's strange you've chosen to skip Barcelona.

You can take the bus from Bilbao to San Sebastian - maybe go as a day trip? The bus takes less than 90 minutes.

Hi Nick,
We’ve been to Barcelona and the Andalucia Region in 2019. So what cities do you suggest?

Since food is a big interest:

Madrid with possible day trip to Segovia.

What is your interest in Pamplona, just out of curiosity.

San Sebastian with possible day trips to Bilbao, Hondarrabia; and possibly Getaria; the latter for foo, and if you are interested in fashion.

Interested in food can mean a lot of things. Do you want to meander around food markets? Buy foods to bring home? Restaurants: What is your budget and taste? Are you planning to visit the world-renowned food "temples" in the Basque region? Have you booked any restaurant reservations yet? You are already probably too late for some of the most famous places but there are so many, many more. I would book almost restaurants (not bars, since you cannot reserve most of these) in advance of arrival, if you have a list of places you want to try.

To get an idea of your travel style and tastes, where did you visit in Andalucia and for how long?

ekscrunchy Hi eks! Actually I’ve come across your trip report and getting tons of ideas from it. Day trip from Madrid to Segovia is on the list

Pamplona-Bilbao-San Sebastián are dropped from the cities we’d like to see since we don’t have enough time.

we’re back to Valencia because it’s a short trip distance from Madrid. We’ve decided we’re flying out of Madrid instead.

Yes, we love food markets. Local, authentic, $100 budget/meal plus local wine. Small villages, old town

We’ve visited Granada - 2 nights, Seville-3 nights and Cordoba-1 night

ok, things have obviously moved on since I posted my first post on this thread. Do I understand that you are now looking at just Madrid and Valencia? If you are flying into and out of Madrid, the most efficient way of organising your time is to go straight from Madrid to Valencia, spend 4-5 nights there, and then get the train back to Madrid to finish your trip. That means that at the end of your stay you are not hurrying back to Madrid to catch your flight or ending up with just one night there at the end.

How many nights you spend in each place depends on what you want to do in each place - how many day trips you'd like to make from each for example.

$100 for how many people, or each person?

I thought Valencia had one of the best, most beautiful food markets in Spain.

I wrote a report on where I ate in Valencia; let me know if that is the one you read. If you can't find it, I will try to, and post it here for you.
If you want to get off the tourist track, and are interested in sampling food that you will not see in many other areas of Spain, I would highly recommend CASA JOMI in the barrio of Nazaret in Valencia. Their specialty is cured and air-dried fish, a very expensive delicacy in other parts of Spain but reasonable here. I recommend this only if you have an adventurous palate and are open to trying new foods. Look up "mojama," for example, and read to see if that would interest you. I'm not sure much English is spoken, but you can bring some kind of translation tool for your phone, or just indicate you want to try a sampling of their specialties. That is what we did and I still remember the experience. Do noto pay attention to TA posters who think they were ripped off because there might not be printed menus...I can assure you that they are not out to rip anyone off. This is an old-fashioned place that was a sailor's bar (Nazaret was a sailor's barrio) and is known for the type of food I described. It is very plain, no atmosphere in fhe form of decor but loads of atmosphere in the surroundings and the other patrons. The long-time owner died recently, setting off much mourning among local devotees. I think I posted about that at the end of the trip report I mentioned, above.

If you want to get away from tourist mobs in Madrid, stay away from the area around Sol, and take your tapas in the barrio to the east of Retiro Park, not in La Latina, south of Plaza Mayor. I mean, see the Plaza, but for tapas, go elsewhere, to Retiro...EAST of the park.
Instead of Segovia, or in addition to Segovia, see if you can visit the small town of Sepulveda, famous throughout the country for roast suckling lamb. Few foreign tourists when we were there. Bus or taxi/driver from Segovia.

annhig Hi Ann! I would definitely consider your advice.

ekscrunchy
Thank you so much for the recommendations!!
$100-$150/meal for 2 persons is our budget.

Appreciate you all!! 😘👍

ekscrunchy can you recommend a fine dining restaurant in Madrid to celebrate a birthday? Splurge $200-300 I guess for 2

When in Valencia , you might wish to stop at Las Arenas ..a luxury hotel on one of many beautiful beaches.
Next to the hotel are several restaurant , right by the boardwalk.

Is that with or without wine? Do you prefer traditional or contemporary? Prefer meat,or fish, or both, or veg?

Anything you do not like? If you don't mind answering those questions, I will get back to you tomorrow...going to bed to read soon!

On another current thread, I recommended a restaurant I'd wanted to try for a long time and just got to last month: LA MANDUCA DE AZAGRA. It is a family-run restaurant featuring the food of the region of Navarra. Very handsome, sleek modern rooms with smartly dressed patrons.
Look on that other thread (you will find it, there are not many from this week or last about Spain/Madrid).

If you want very contemporary, cutting edge on a stretch of street (Calle Ponzano,in Chamberi) with a crowd more local than touristy, , you might like SALA DESPIECE. It's night and day from MANDUCA DE AZAGRA, but very cool with great, inventive dishes and you can get out for less $$$ than MANDUCA, I think. But you have to sit either along the bar or at small, high-top tables, so the atmosphere is hip, rather than luxurious. YOu can wear jeans. Unlike most of the places on this street, this one draws some tourists as well as locals.

You need to book ahead at both....(Manduca does not take online bookings; have your hotel phone, and SALA has an online booking form) as I said, take a look at their websites, and photos online, and I can return tomorrow with more....see if either of those appeals.

Also, from another, earlier trip, we really liked LUA but I think now it is tasting menu only. Also in Chamberi.

Where will you be staying?

danon I am excited to check it out! Appreciate the recommendation!

ekscrunchy
it will be traditional. Preferably meat & seafood, and would want to dress up for the occasion.
Where will we stay?
One more question I would want to ask. Wheee can we stay centrally? Near markets and restaurants? Budget $200/night
Thanks so much!