My husband and I are planning a trip to Spain in October for about 14 days. We are interested in good food and premium wines, particularly reds (we live in Northern California). We will starting in Barcelona after touring in France. We haven't been to Spain before and are wondering which cities/towns and sights are especially worth seeing south of Barcelona. We have 5 days in Barcelona and maybe another 9-10 days around Spain until flying home from Madrid. We want to taste wine and food of the area and enjoy sights and meet people. People have suggested Valencia, cordoba, Granada, maybe a boat trip to Tangiers for a day before heading to Madrid to fly home. What about Sevilla? How long in each place? How to travel fro place to place, train or car? All suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you

The best food in Spain is in San Sebastian/Donostia.

Whatever you do skip Morocco.

There are many wine regions in Spain.

http://winefolly.com/review/map-of-spain-wine-regions/

Valencia is the home of paella and worth a visit, train is easy.
From there I'd fly to Granada if you can - train was about eight or nine hours.

Granada is charming, buy a drink and you get a free snack (tapas). We lucked into a neighborhood restaurant that was roasting a whole pig on a spit, delicious !

Easy train to Cordoba, again fantastic and cheap food.

Sevilla is amazing for tapas, although you pay a small amount, and there's a fast train to Madrid.

When in Barelona, you can do a fairly easy day trip by public transport to Monserrat where the views are spectacular and the sausages in a bread roll divine.

Segovia is a day trip from Madrid, and said to be roast suckling pig capital of the world (although Bali might dispute that)

Enjoy.

From Barcelona you can visit the Penedès and Priorat wine regions. A guided tour is highly recommend for the Priorat and the red and white from there are excellent.

Since you like reds, I would head to the Rioja and the Ribera del Duero wine regions where you will find an excellent range of outstanding reds and notable whites, some of the best in the world. You will need to plan you visits as the vast majority of bodegas are not open to walk-in traffic like California. You might be interested in reading Maribel's Guide to the Rioja, which includes some information on the Ribera.

October is the end of the harvest season and the rich fall colors in the Rioja and Ribera are spectacular. Northwest of the Ribera you'll find another outstanding wine region, El Bierzo. Although much smaller and not as well know, it produces some outstanding vintages.

Morocco should be held for another trip when you can do it justice.

Tangiers does not reflect very well on the rest of the country.

Spain takes 5 trips of 2 weeks each to see well.

Since you start in Barcelona, and only have 9 days after that, I suggest moving on to Andalusia---Moorish Spain.
See Granada, Cordoba, and Seville and end in Madrid. THta is a very full plate.

People also do not realize how much time they lose moving from place to place.

Skip Tangiers..Unless of course you love to be surrounded by toy camel sellers, touts for restaurants and small, eager little boys with hands out for coins. We did a ship cruise tour and that was bad enough but I would never want to tackle it alone. Can't imagine morroco is really anything like Tangiers. Sort of like Tijuana isn't really like the real Mexico. Segovia is well worth the side trip as is Monsarrat..Try the lovely Cava in this welcoming country.

Agree that Andalusia is the most unique and facianting art of Spain. Nine days would give you a very quick taste - Seville, Cordob and Granada. (We have been twice - once 10 days and once 12 and still have a lot to see. Forget Tangiers.)

Agree with others to skip to Tangiers. Morocco is an amazing country but you want to go when you really have time and not make Tangiers be your only exposure to the country.

I agree with the others who are suggesting spending your time in Andalucia. Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla are the "big 3" of the region and are amazing. We were there for a week and did 2 nights Granada, 2 nights Cordoba and 4 nights in Sevilla. If you just do those three then train is simple and easy. You may want to rent a car to daytrips from those places.

Here are links to our trips to Barcelona and Andalucia, also includes pictures:

Barcelona- http://www.fromhometoroam.com/catego...ope/barcelona/
Andalucia - http://www.fromhometoroam.com/catego...ope/andalucia/

You've gotten some grey input. I'll add that it would almost certainly be very much to your benefit to get a good guide book to Spain. It is a large and diverse country and none of us can say what will really capture your hearts.

"grey input" Really?

What did you do kja, just wake up and come out of the woodwork?

That should have read "great" input. I hate auto-correction features that one doesn't even know exist!

I also hate gratuitous insults. Maybe others know what I mean?

@ Robert2533: "What did you do kja, just wake up and come out of the woodwork?"

I must admit that I don't understand how this comment helps the OP, nor do I see how it advances anyone's understanding of the choices that travelers make when deciding to visit Spain.

Thanks for the suggestions. The wine map is a useful intro for planning.

<i>Whatever you do skip Morocco. </i>

This doesn't seem like good general advice - Marrakesh and Fes and other places seem interesting, but that's a story for another forum - but I agree that popping across the sea for a one-day wander through Tangiers would be a bit of a waste.

Thanks everyone, great ideas. It sounds like Andalusia is where we want to go after Barcelona. And Valencia is a must for paella! Can that be a day trip from Barcelona?
The wine regions are intriguing. Is it best to book a tour or just make an appointment by phone?
Since this is a Marriott stay in Barcelona for five days, are there worthwhile day trips from Barcelona? Do we need a car for that? Are there "must see sights" in Barcelona ?
You all have been very helpful. Thanks again.

Valencia is not a day-trip from Barcelona, but if you're headed to Sevilla, there is one AVE in the morning that only takes 3hr 50min, city center to city center.

You can visit the Penedès CAVA bodegas pretty much on your own by train, but I would highly recommend setting up a guided tour of the Priorat. If you rented a car, you could drive to the Priorat for the day, but finding your way around to the best wineries would be a challenge. I recommend you contact the tourist office in Falset to see about setting up a tour, or take one from Barcelona and forget renting a car.

http://www.dopenedes.cat
http://www.turismepriorat.org/en

There are a number of day-trips you can take from Barcelona; Girona, Tarragona, Figueres, Vic, all of which can be done by train, or you can contact someone like Spanish Trails (http://spanish-trails.com/ ) and join one of their day-trips.