dianaanahi0111

My husband and I are spending approximately 2 weeks in Spain at the beginning of October (14 days, 13 nights), and we need help with our itinerary. We are flying into Barcelona and flying out of Madrid. I realize that may be a mistake, but we can't change our flight schedule anymore. After Barcelona, we want to explore Seville and Granada. How would you get from Barcelona to Seville or Granada? And then I'd like to spend around 5 days in either Barcelona or Madrid. Which city should I allocate those 5 days to? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

TDudette

Welcome, dianaanahi0111! My main interest is art so the Madrid TR below leans that way:

Madrid and London

In Barcelona, we concentrated on the Gaudi architecture, Ramblas, CaixaForum, and Chocolate factory. We missed the music hall.

I wanted at least 5 days in Madrid! Please let everyone know where you end up.
No help with Seville and Granada, but others can say. In general, I love trains.

danon

[QUOTE=dianaanahi0111;17524918]My husband and I are spending approximately 2 weeks in Spain at the beginning of October (14 days, 13 nights), and we need help with our itinerary. We are flying into Barcelona and flying out of Madrid. I realize that may be a mistake, but we can't change our flight schedule anymore. After Barcelona, we want to explore Seville and Granada. How would you get from Barcelona to Seville or Granada? And then I'd like to spend around 5 days in either Barcelona or Madrid. Which city should I allocate those 5 days to? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance![/QUOTE

You can fly Vueling. from Barcelona to either Granada or Seville, train between the two cities ,and train to Madrid from either G or S.

KarenWoo

Firstly 13 nights gives you 12 full days for sightseeing, not 14 days. You can't count your departure day from your home city or the day you depart for home. Those are not sightseeing days. And you are smart to fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid because then you don't have to backtrack to Barcelona, which is wasting time. I recommend flying from Barcelona to Granada, then take the train to Seville, and the train to Madrid. You have omitted wonderful Cordoba from your itinerary. I realize you don't have a lot of time but it would be nice if you could visit Cordoba, even for a day if you can't stay overnight.. You could visit Cordoba on your way from Seville to Madrid.

A possible itinerary could be:
Barcelona - 5 nights (Barcelona is a large city with many sites that you might need advance reservations for. Additionally, you need a day to get over jet lag, so Barcelona makes the most sense to allocate 5 nights for.)
Granada - 2 nights
Seville - 3 or 4 nights
Madrid - 2 or 3 nights

Madrid deserves more nights, especially if you like art, but Seville is beautiful and I think 3 nights is a minimum for Seville but 4 is better.
This is the link to my trip report. You might find it helpful. It includes Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, and Seville.

OUR 2-WEEK SPANISH JOURNEY: MADRID, TOLEDO, AND ANDALUCIA!

dianaanahi0111

Thank you for your thoughts on the trip. Based on the responses I've received, I think I will try to spend at least 3 days in Madrid. My husband and I love museums and would love the time to explore some of them.

dianaanahi0111

Thank you, @danon! We will fly from Barcelona to Seville.

dianaanahi0111

Dear KarenWoo,

I found your response incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for your detailed response. I especially enjoyed reading your trip report. It seems like you had a wonderful time in Spain.

After reading your report, I want to include Cordoba in our itinerary. Would you suggest staying in Cordoba overnight? Our itinerary would look like this:

Barcelona: 4 nights.
Seville- 4 nights (we are flying to Seville instead of Granada because flights are cheaper to Seville)
Cordoba- 1 night
Granada- 2 nights
Madrid- 2 nights

Thoughts? Thank you again for your thoughtful responses.

mjs

I would not move from Seville to Cordova, it wastes time. Cordova is a 45min train ride from Seville and you can do a day trip. Give Madrid 3 nights.

danon

I agree. Madrid is a great city, in addition to having some of the best art museums in Europe.

KarenWoo

If you had more time, I would definitely spend a night or two in Cordoba. But you don't have a lot of time, so in your case, it might make sense to visit Cordoba as a daytrip from Seville. And then you could add that extra night to Madrid so that you have 3 nights instead of 2 nights. In another post, I notice you mention that you really like art museums, and Madrid has some outstanding art museums.

OTOH, with your current itinerary, you would take the train from Seville to Cordoba and spend one night there. It's only a 45-minute train ride so you could get there early in the day. Then from Cordoba the next morning, you would take the train to Granada, which is about a 2.5 hour train ride. So it's a logical routing with train rides that aren't very long. I understand mjs's advice to visit Cordoba as a daytrip from Seville, but daytrips can be tiring, too. If you were to do this, you should try to get an evening train back to Seville so you can enjoy Cordoba in the evening when the Mezquita is illuminated. The only problem that I see with spending a night in Cordoba is that you only have 2 nights in Madrid. I personally don't think it's a waste of time to spend the night in Cordoba. But everyone has their own travel style and preferences. So perhaps you should do a bit more research to see which place interests you the most - Madrid or Cordoba.

If you decide not to stay overnight in Cordoba, I definitely think you should visit as a daytrip. My philosophy is that, even though I think a person would enjoy Cordoba more by spending a night there, I also think that seeing Cordoba as a daytrip is certainly better than not seeing it at all.

I have another suggestion so I hope I am not confusing you more. I love, love Seville. We spent 4 nights there and I could have used an extra night. However, you could spend 3 nights in Seville (which is the absolute minimum), and take that extra night and add it to Madrid, and still spend 1 night in Cordoba. So possibly something like this:

Barcelona - 4 nights
Seville - 3 nights
Cordoba - 1 night
Granada - 2 nights
Madrid - 3 nights

OR
Barcelona - 4 nights
Seville - 4 nights (with a daytrip to Cordoba)
Granada - 2 nights
Madrid - 3 nights

OR your current itinerary.

dianaanahi0111

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your suggestions. My husband and I are taking them to heart. We are leaning towards staying 3 nights in Seville and one night in Cordoba. So our itinerary would look something like this:

Barcelona - 4 nights
Seville - 3 nights
Cordoba - 1 night
Granada - 2 nights
Madrid - 3 nights

My husband and I debated whether to make Cordoba a day trip, but we think that a day trip will also be tiring and we want to see Cordoba at night. Thank you all so much for your suggestions!

michaelpianko

That will work ok if you skip some of the museums I saw like the museum of the Americas and the Joaquin Sorolla Museum, both in Madrid. I spent 4 nights in Seville, 2 in Granada, 2 in Cordoba, 5 in Madrid but that included a day trip to Toledo. In Cordoba I took a a day trip to the Castle of Almodovar del Rio before going on to Madrid, but you are skipping the castle. I didn't make time for Barcelona. Not that you should change your trip to what I did. I liked the Thysun Bornemiszma art museum more that the Prado but maybe because the the Thysun Bornemiszma had more old landscape paintings. I didn't make time for Barcelona. Yeah I know my observation isn't that useful and you are only adding an extra city and skipping some museums I saw.

dianaanahi0111

Thank you for your suggestions. If I could change our flight tickets, I think my schedule in Spain would look more like yours. But since we are flying into Barcelona and out of Madrid, it doesn't make sense to do that. There are so many things to do and experience in Spain, that I think we will be back.

Besalu

In my opinion this route is fine:
Barcelona - 4 nights
Seville - 3 nights
Cordoba - 1 night
Granada - 2 nights
Madrid - 3 nights

If you like museums I recommend the following museums in Barcelona:
MNAC. With magnificent views from the building and the best collection of Romanesque art in the peninsula.
MUHBA. The city's history museum with the remains of the Roman city underground.
Museu de la ciència. Science museum super interactive and full of updated proposals.
Museu d'Història de Catalunya. Basic to understand the history of Catalonia since its first settlers. Very didactic, with several recreations and quiet.
Museu marítim de Barcelona. It gives the possibility to visit the magnificent building of the royal shipyards. There is a scale reproduction of a galleon.
Monestir de Pedralbes. The Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes is a monumental complex of Gothic style that is very worthwhile.
Disseny Hub Barcelona. Interesting current museum proposal that brings together what were previously several museums: fashion museum, ceramics, design, furniture and graphic arts.

I think they all have excellent museographic and museological proposals, they are not very crowded (the most crowded is the MNAC, since it is the national museum) and you can understand better the history and culture of Catalonia. I would not visit the Chocolate Museum, the MOCO or even the Picasso Museum. In the last case not because I consider not worth it ,but because it is absolutely overcrowded.

dianaanahi0111

Hi Besalu,

Thank you for your feedback and for your recommendations. I know I won't have time to visit them all, but I will try to visit at least two of them. There's so much to see and so little time!

I have an additional question. Would you add an additional night to the Seville stay? So the itinerary would look like the following:

Barcelona- 3 nights
Seville- 4 nights
Cordoba-1 night
Granada-2 nights
Madrid- 3 nights

Everyone on this forum seems to love Seville, so I am wondering if I should stay there 4 nights instead of 3. Thank you and I look forward to your feedback.

danon

suggestions are based on personal preferences. I prefer spending time in big cities like Barcelona and Madrid, many other posters love smaller , more atmospheric places.
As you know, travel time and connections between cities, checking in and out of hotels etc can take a good part of your day. Perhaps looking into the time you have to spend on the “ move” and selecting what you absolutely “ must see” would give you a better idea.

KarenWoo

While I would prefer 4 nights in Seville, 3 nights in Barcelona is not nearly enough. Barcelona is much larger than Seville with lots of great sites. You will be getting over jet lag in Barcelona, so you really won’t see much on your arrival day. You probably won’t even appreciate what little you do see. I think it would be a mistake to take a night away from Barcelona. You might feel very frustrated with what little time you have there.

We spent 6 nights in Barcelona and we didn’t see everything. I like to have a well-balanced trip with time to see some important sites and also have time to wander and explore interesting neighborhoods. Also, don’t forget that 3 nights essentially gives you 2 full days.

Good luck with your planning. It’s fun but can be stressful, too, trying to figure out the best itinerary.

dianaanahi0111

Hi KarenWoo,

Thank you for your invaluable feedback. I will stick with 4 days in Barcelona. Thank you!

maitaitom

Here is my 2015 trip report to Spain. We flew into Barcelona and out of Madrid (a good plan). We also stopped in Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba and Toledo in between. Below is the trip report with lots of photos. We also flew from Barcelona to Granada. I agree with Karen Woo's schedule. Hopefully this report will give you some ideas.

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/spain-2015/

TDudette

Lots of great info and fun in maitaitom's TR, dianaanahi0111.