I need advice; Spain in August.
 

Hello everyone,

Well, we have almost finished planning our summer vacation. We decided to spend 17 nights in Spain and we need your advice on one part of our trip.

We are a family of four with two teenage sons. Our flights are in and out of Madrid (we will be spending the last 4 nights of our trip in Madrid) and we will be renting a car as soon as we land and driving to our first destination.

We are spending 4 nights in Trujillo (Extremadura), 4 nights in Seville and 4 nights in Madrid. For the remaining 5 nights (which is between Seville and Madrid), we are considering the following:

Nerja
Cartagena
Valencia

This part of our trip is more for relaxation and some beach time but we would also like to be in a place that has things to see and a that has a good nightlife as well. We do not mind driving so the distance between Seville and any of the above destinations is not a factor in our decision.

Your help is much appreciated.


Andrea

Valencia is a beautiful city with fantastic beaches.

Valencia is a wondrous old-world city in its center with a great cathedral and yes awesome beaches. Never been to the others but I think Valencia is special for both interests.

If Valencia is your last stop before Madrid, why not drop the car there and just get the AVE back to Madrid? It's quicker than driving and you won't have to drive in Madrid (which is NUTS). No need for a car in Madrid because the Metro will go basically wherever you want and if it doesn't, the Cercanias will.

Nab nice discounted tickets at www.renfe.com - for Valencia to Madrid - give your kids a taste of Europe's modern high-speed trains.

Nerja: look up sewage in the sea.

Another vote for Valencia! Your family might enjoy the City of Arts and Sciences - check it out.
http://www.cac.es/

Cartagena not very interesting. Valencia's your best bet. From Seville try to stop in Cordoba and Granada, if you haven't been there before. And, yes, take the train to Madrid from Valencia.

Nix the four nights in Trujillo (if you can) and replace it with one night in Oropesa( Parador) followed by three nights three nights in Merida.

Trujillo is interesting but you can see all there is to see in half a day.
From Oropesa to Merida take the road through Guadalupe. Stop there for a few hours.

Merida is full young people and families out in the evening. It is a wonderful place.

Near Merida there are two easy hikes, one to the ruins of the castle in Alange and another to the castle in Medelin (birthplace of Cortez)

Mark

If you do keep the car after Valencia, you might want to do a castle tour before Madrid.

Stop in Alarcón.. then detour to Belmonte.. or take a very short detour to the small town of Uclés to see a monastery and typical small town in the middle of nowhere, but seen from the highway. (A3)

Towns outside madrid worth stopping at
Aranjuez
Alcalá de Henares ( tons of storks and Cervantes' birth place and house)

The best route from Granada to Valencia is not necessarily a coastal route. www.viamichelin dot com is a great tool.

Hate to be a naysayer but have you looked at the wether in Spain - esp southern Spain - in August?

Make sure your hotels have strong AC, good pools, and don't plan on sightseeing in the afternoons, when temps can easily top 100.

As for cities - can only agree that Merida is a wonderful one. Great Roman ruins to explore - we loved it.

I spent about a week in Extremadura this past February and loved the region. I dont see Cáceres mentioned , its a gorgeous old city with a very nice Parador. We spent 3 nights there, visited Trujillo as a day trip. Agree with others , 3 days in Trujillo way too much.
Also agree about Mérida, very interesting, great Roman ruins too.

Valencia really isn't on the road between Sevilla and Madrid. It's at least a 6-1/2 hour drive in bright sunny weather. or a 1-1/2 hour flight. The train only runs through Madrid.

Hi,

The reason we chose Trujillo is this will be our first stop after landing in Madrid after a long flight. We wanted a good base to see the region and both Merida and Caceres are both only about 30 to 50 minutes away. We will be spending a day in Trujillo and the other two days exploring the region, spending a few hours in the evenings in Merida and/or Caceres for dinner.

This way, we only have to check in and check out once and our hotel in Trujillo has a nice pool as well.

There is a direct AVE train from Sevilla to Valencia. I've taken it and didn't go through madrid ( if this was what you were referring to):

You'll LOVE Extremadura. My husband was quite impressed with the little known wines he was offered.

4 nights in Sevilla? You know is quite hot +40 during August in Seville?

I would change Cartagena or Valencia and go to Cadiz, Tarifa, Malaga and back to Madrid.

If someone spend 17 days in Spain is a must to visita La Alhambra.

I think you will have enough of big city with madrid for a few days,
Valencia is interesting but I would not call it relaxing.
If you want to relax then Nerja or other beach spot will be better.

Someone suggested to drop your car in valencia and take the train.
While the train impressive speed will drop you in Madrid in 90 minutes. the drive takes about 4 hours.
You will have to carry your luggage around the stations and you will loose your flexibility to stop by during the trip.

Rgds

"You know is quite hot +40 during August in Seville?"

For the next ten days all but one are predicted to be over 100F (mostly well over). August will almost certainly be as bad if not worse. I would be going north from Madrid, not south, but it's your trip. (BTW, Madrid is almost as hot.)

Got back from Madrid and area about 3 weeks ago.
was over 95F everyday in Madrid and getting hotter.
Was 105 F in Toledo.

In southern part of Spain right now it is 100-107 F.

In August you can bet it will be hotter.

Are you saying you want to drive Madrid to Trujillo after a flight? Will you not be jet lagged?

PS I love the predictions of the unpredictable. (weather)

True about the unpredictable weather. One of my loveliest times in Madrid weather-wise was in August 2006, go figure!

Hi,

Thanks so much everyone for your advice and recommendations.

We decided on Valencia for the 5 nights. We have always wanted to go there and now is our chance. It may be farther from Seville than the rest of the other areas mentioned but we think it may be an undiscovered gem that many people travelling to Spain do not consider seeing. The other places mentioned all sound so nice but Valencia has everything we want. Relaxing to us is having interesting things to see and do with the option of just relaxing at a nice beach when we want.

As well, we have decided to split our time in Extremadura to 3 nights in Trujillo (with a day trip to Merida) and 1 night in Caseres, which is on the way to our next destination of Seville.

Also, the distance between Madrid and Trujillo is only about 250km (or about 155 miles), so very doable, even after a long flight (we land at 11 in the morning Madrid time).

We also considered using the AVE trains between Seville and Valencia and Valencia and Madrid, and aside from the extra costs over having the car, it would leave us less flexibility to stop and see sites along the way.

Finally, the heat is not going to be a bother for us. We actually enjoy the heat (we are from Canada, by the way) so it is not a consideration for us at all.


Andrea

"the heat is not going to be a bother for us"

Absolutely.

It may be 105oF but it is the driest heat I have experienced. We are in Seville for the last week in August and will combine it with a stay on the Costa de la Luz which has some great beaches, particularly for surfing.

Coping with neat is a necessity. If you try to live your life to a normal regime you'll be very lonely. Get up late, shop/sight see until noon, sleep hibernate or lunch until 6pm but don't be ready to eat dinner until 11pm.

Make a dinner reservation in Andalucia at 7pm and you'll have a few tourists holding The Lonely Planet for company.

***Also, the distance between Madrid and Trujillo is only about 250km (or about 155 miles), so very doable, even after a long flight (we land at 11 in the morning Madrid time).****
I hope you are right. But you have to allow time to get through the airport, time to get to the car, load up etc.
Driving and navigating through Madrid's very heavy traffic is not the best way to start a vacation IMHO. Good luck with that.

Airballoon.. you will find excellent city hotel prices in Valencia in August. It is only high season at the beach. The hotels near the science center area or palacio de congresos will allow you to most likely always find free on street parking overnight. Many residents leave..so there is usually plenty of street parking. Plus these areas are calmer than central downtown square and old town.

Hotel Sorolla palace, melia palacio congresos, Eurostars, the Acqua hotels, Illunion and several other 4* should offer what you want.many have pools.

If you use trivago you can put filters of happy faces satisfaction plus swimming pool and see what comes up. I took a look for arbitrary dates and many of the nice hotels with pools were under $60

Artsy beach town to stop before Valencia is Altea.Beautiful scenic drive is the mountain road between Javea and Denia if you come from the coast after Alicante.

<i>Nerja: look up sewage in the sea.</i>

Stay out of the water. Problem solved.

Unless you have friends/relatives there, want to see the caverns, or want a dirt cheap full English breakfast, there is nothing really special about Nerja. That being said, there is a fabulous paella place on the beach called Ayo. All you can eat.

<<Driving and navigating through Madrid's very heavy traffic is not the best way to start a vacation IMHO. Good luck with that.>>

Last year we landed in Madrid at 08:30, were in the car at 09:25. We would have been in the car sooner, but we checked in a cooler. Arrived in Oropesa (about 150 kms) in time for early lunch.

For the life of me I can't understand the obsession with trains.

Mark

AirBalloon, enjoy the hot, sunny weather in Spain. We're neighbors in upstate NY, where it's currently 64 degrees and raining. We're off to Madrid next week and looking forward to sunshine and heat, too!

Hi,

We are in Montreal, so as many of you know, winter ended just a few days ago (lol). We are really craving the heat (even 45 degree heat).

As well, if you look at the cost of train travel, it makes so much more sense to to have a car and have the flexibility that trains just cannot offer. As well, every time we have landed at a major hub in Europe that we have not visited before, we almost always rent a car and drive to our first destination, which sometimes can be longer than the 250km from Madrid and Trujillo. This way, we can leave the city we have our return flights from to the end and not waste a day checking-in to an airport hotel the night before we leave.

One more question:

Cadiz/Costa de la Luz or Valencia?

We were thinking it may be a good idea to stay the 5 nights in Jerez de la Frontera and drive to many of the beaches near there, which are only about 10 to 15 km away. We have also thought about staying in Cadiz as well. Maybe even splitting the 5 nights between the two?

I know I said we made a decision, but the more we research, the more we love to plan. I think we should just disconnect our wi-fi.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much for all of your help.

Andrea

"if you look at the cost of train travel, it makes so much more sense to to have a car and have the flexibility that trains just cannot offer."

Like most generalizations, not always true on the cost issue (obviously true regarding flexibility). More often true for a family of four certainly, but rarely true for solo travelers. Where are you checking prices? I just paid 10 CHF (about 11 USD) for Zurich to Como. Also requires someone willing to drive. I drive all the time at home, it is a big relief to go to Europe and not have to.

Andrea - I agree with you about the cost of train travel and flexibility. We don't ever want to tie ourselves down to taking a particular train on a particular day in order to get cheaper tickets.
You haven't mentioned whether you've already visited Cordoba and Granada. If not, that would be a reason to go to Valencia - to stop to see them on the way there. If your real interest is the beach, as you've said you're from Montreal, and you've seen them, then I'd head for Jerez and Cadiz and the beaches.

http://www.lavistademedina.com/

Great place and location.

Cadiz is a bit like the set of Pirates of the Caribbean at times.

The AVE trains are not cheap when travelling from Seville to Valencia or Valencia to Madrid (the routes we are taking). Of course, as a solo traveller, taking a train wouldl be less expensive, but for a family, it is cheaper renting a car, with the added bonus of having much greater flexibility. Anyways, we love driving, especially in Europe.

Should we stay the 5 nights in Jerez or split it with Cadiz, or spend the 5 nights in Cadiz alone.

Thanks so much.

Andrea

Jerez probably has a better location if you are planning on day trips. Cadiz would add to your daily driving time.

I would suggest building in some flexibility into your schedule, especially at the tail end of your vacation.

Mark

Cádiz is known for fabulous light, great beaches, the freshest seafood, Jerez/Manzanilla wines (Sanlucar de Barrameda), and it's a cradle of flamenco culture. Tons of history, Cádiz is 3100 year old Phoenician Gadir (probably the oldest city in Europe) and seat of the liberal 1812 constitucion (La Pepa).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33JUrGwZQLY

Some general info:
http://www.andalucia.com/cities/cadiz.htm
http://www.malagaweb.com/andalucia/cadiz/

A couple of informative articles: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...at-drink-guide
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...ool-Cadiz.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...ral-guide.html