<$4200 per week> equals some 3000€/week. hmmm

Two people could spend much less than that and still travel like kings and queens in Spain.

The best way to start the day all around Spain is with breakfast in a local bar. Expect to pay some 4€ each for a sandwich/pan con tomate, fresh orange juice and a coffee and lots of local atmosphere. Ten times more interesting and much more affordable than breakfast in most hotels.

Do as most people in Spain and have your main meal at lunch-time from about 1.30pm. Then most restaurants put up a great value three course menu del día with drinks included. If you go where the locals go, you can excepct to pay some 8-12€/person.

You could of course spend much money if you sit down for another three course meal at night, but then I would rather suggest to go for tapas and raciones/media raciones (portions/half portions). It's fun, flexible and you get to taste a great variety of food. Find one place or do a tapas tour and walk from place to place. The two of you can have a long night among locals with plenty of food, wine and some great Spanish brandy for some 40-50€. At night, it's also a great idea to go for the soup or stew of the day. This is something most local places takes very seriously, and you could have a hearty sopa or cocido from heaven for some 4-5€.

The food/drink section would then be some 80-90€/day for two if you have both breakfast, lunch and dinner out.

Theater/concert tickets are often surprisingly low, public transport is cheap and efficient and taxis are very affordable. For many years we've payed all from 5 to 25€ to see the finest flamenco artists in the world (the tourist oriented places are much more expensive), and even in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona a taxi ride seldom comes to more than 6-7€ within the central areas. Free entrance to even many of the most famous museums at certain periodes of the week or day.

My wife and I have stayed in centrally located perfectly fine hotel standard places (private bathroom, 24 desk, tv, AC, safe) all over Spain every year since the late eighties. In today's prices we have almost never payed more than 100€/night.

Three meals in good quality and local favourite restaurants/tapas bars pr. day, a concert or a museum every second day, normal use of metro/bus/taxi and perfectly fine central accomodation would then be some 220€/day or 1500€ ($2000)/week.

Short accomodation and restaurant/tapas bar examples in Madrid and Sevilla.

Madrid:
Persal, right in the middle of everything: http://www.booking.com/hotel/es/persalmadrid.en.html
Casa Marta, close to the Opera and the Royal palace: http://gastronomyblog.com/2010/07/01/casa-marta-madrid/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...ta-Madrid.html

Sevilla:
Hostal Museo in the central and local atmosphere San Vicente district and next door to the Fine Arts Museum: http://www.booking.com/hotel/es/hostal-museo.en.html
More than a century old Bodegas Diaz Salazar in C/García de Vinuesa, 20 close to the Cathedral: http://www.minube.com/fotos/rincon/1...slideshow-mode
http://www.bodegasdiazsalazar.com/

@kimhe thanks for info! That is exactly what we are looking for-- a local experience! I'd rather try the smaller places than hotel restaurants. I think the point of traveling is to get a feel for what the local culture is all about! As far as the shows/theaters, where is the best place to purchase tickets? Is this something we should do ahed of time?

When it comes to the Bienal de Flamenco in Sevilla in September/October you should buy tickets months in advance, at least for the major performances. They usually start to sell in the spring, and it will eventually be possible to buy tickets online through these sites:
http://www.labienal.com/
http://www.flamenco-world.com/

Look out for out of this world dancer Rocío Molina. The premiere of her new show at the 2014 Bienal will for sure be a major highlight. http://www.rociomolina.net/

Here you buy tickets online to all kinds of theater/concert events all around Spain:
http://www.generaltickets.com/
http://www.entradas.com/entradas/inicio.do
http://www.ticketmaster.es/nav/en/index.html

Apart from this, I can recommend Café Central as the best jazz club in Madrid, new great both Spanish and international artists every week, entrance 16€. Great atmosphere and good food also: http://www.cafecentralmadrid.com/

Real deal flamenco every night in Sevilla at intimate Casa de la Memória. Even if this is very popular with tourists, many of the young artists here tour the greatest stages and have also paricipated in the Bienal. No drinks, no food, just flamenco. Entrance 15€.
http://casadelamemoria.es/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...Andalucia.html

Sevilla and Granada are very romantic places. I don't think of Spain and France as beach destinations. The beaches in the U.S. are a lot better. Having said that Nice is a very nice place that time of year and San Sebastian is one of my favorite places on the planet July through September. If you get some sunny days it will be fantastic. They can get a lot of rain there though. The beaches in Southern Spain aren't as beautiful as Northern Spain but the ones around Cadiz are pretty nice. Maybe a combo of Sevilla, Granada and Cadiz would be nice. I could also imagine a week in Paris and a week in Barcelona too. My mind is wandering now.

Do you have frequent flier airline tickets to get there? Since you are on a tight budget, I would check into all transportation options once there, that could eat up a lot of it. We have had great luck with Easy Jet and Ryannair but they have very specific and quirky routes sometimes.

Have you been to Europe before? If not, I would vote for flying into Paris, spending a few days there, Easy Jet to Nice, renting a car and spend a few days based in a smaller town down there, turning in your car and then continuing on to Spain for the remainder and flying out of there. Then you will be spending your early days and warmer weather in France.

We are part of the minority that in our our early travels, liked to spend 2 or 3 full days in places and loved combining very different areas and sized cities each trip. You have to decide if you want more experiences or want to relax and savor more specific locations. I love your combination of France and Spain, very different history, energy and flavor! Congratulations!

@Coral22 we are with you. It's so expensive to get over to Europe, we'd like to be able to do a little of Spain and France. After all the advice and diving into the travel books, we are tentatively thinking of flying into Paris and then flying to Barcelona for the second part of the trip, leaving from there. Depending on how planning goes it may be nice to have a pit stop in Nice for a few days.

I have been to Europe before. I've been to Germany, Italy and Austria. It was a fantastic trip for 11 days. The memorable part for me was seeing an opera in Verona, under the night sky. It was perfect! We sat on the big granite slates amongst all the Italians (who sang along), packed our picnic of fresh cold cuts and wines from the small market, and our 'neighbors' handed us some extra candles to join in the opening of the opera with lights. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it! It was amazing!

I have always dreamed of going to Paris. I think my fear is the limited amount of French I speak, mixed in with a terrible accent, and rumors of the French being rude has kept me from making that trip thus far. I'm hoping that if they see you put forth an effort to speak they will go a little easy on me! Haha

@egbert -- I will have to look more into Sans Sebastion. I will have to check if there are trains/flights and distance driving from paris, but perhaps that could be an option instead of Nice.

Thanks all again! Such a huge help!

Alicia,

Do not hesitate to go to Paris because you are not fluent in French! I have been there many times over the past 30 years, have been treated politely by nearly everyone I have met and I speak only a little French. (The rudest person I have met traveling was an airline employee at JFK and he was American.) DH and I have had wonderful encounters with French people as we attempt to converse in French. Sometimes people have continued to speak French to us with some English and helped us learn new words and expressions. Please do not let some old stereotype keep you from visiting a place you have dreamt about.

If you do go to Paris and want a taste of another country you might take a high-speed train to Belgium. We enjoyed a four-night stay in Bruges that we combined with London last year. Bruges would be easy to reach from Paris and is a small charming town.

As others have said, moving around will increase costs and will also limit your sightseeing time. You could easily spend 10 days in Paris and do a day trip or two by train.

It's probably easier to get by in Paris than in Spain, in general, if you don't know the local language, so I don't understand that argument as they are both foreign languages. Of course, it is easy enough to get by in English in the major cities in Spain, also. NOt to mention Italy, of course, where they speak a foreign language (I hear).

Some people can be rude anywhere, I have a friend from an Italian family (just one or two generations back when they immigrated), and he knows Italian somewhat, and said he was surprised how rude a lot of people were in some places in Italy he visited, such as some people on a train. But who knows what your experience will be. There are certainly some poepl in Spain who aren't exactly warm and cozy, either.

Seville is still hot in September, highs in the 90s (30s Celsius). Depends on your tolerance for heat.

Paris!!! Yes, yes, yes! What a romantic and delightful beginning! I felt giddy there, surrounded by the charm, language and history. We have been there 4 times and NEVER encountered any rudeness. If you attempt the language, are thankful and complimentary, they treat you well.(We only speak English.)

We loved staying in Villefranche:
http://www.kiechle.com/area/index.ht...nche/index.htm
If you have a confident driver, it is so fun to visit the small towns in the area, including Eze. The vistas are gorgeous and eating dinner on the water's edge and shopping in the weekend market was so fabulous. I think the weather would be perfect.

You could Easy Jet from Paris to Nice, pick up a car, return it in Nice to Easy Jet to Barcelona and finish your Spain segment. Easy Jet is very reasonable but I am not familiar with the train fares and they could be better.