rishisma

Hi,
My wife and I are planning a trip to Spain for 10 days in October from Oct 4-13th. We're flying into Madrid on Oct 4th and have to leave there on the 13th. I would like to include in my trip: Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba, and some time in the beachy areas I've read about in the Costa del Sol region. I've noticed that flying from MAD to Sevilla is cheaper than train or driving, but the rest of the time I would like to drive. I need advice regarding how much time to spend in each city and in what order. Here's my preliminary schedule.

Oct
4 - Madrid
5 - Toledo morning, Madrid Afternoon
6 - Fly to Sevilla
7 - Sevilla and day trip?
8 - Leave Sevilla to drive to Cordoba and Malaga, Stay in resort near ocean
9 - Malaga to Gibraltar for day trip to Morocco
10 - leave Malaga and drive to Valencia
11 - ferry to Ibiza
12 - fly out of Valencia to Madrid
13 - Fly out of Madrid home.....

Yes, truly an American European tour schedule, but we're in our late 20's and I'm ambitious enough to do it. Let me know what you think...
Thanks,
Rishi

ira

Hi Rishi,

You are as crazy as you are ambitious.

You are going to see Toledo in 1/2 day?

You will do Seville AND a day trip in 1 1/2 days?

etc, etc, etc.

Unless your sole purpose is to able to say, "I've been there", I suggest you rethink this trip.

crazymina

I'm all for fly by travel, but I'd have to say...

No.

If the fatigue doesn't kill you, your wife just might, for hauling her around so fast.

Flying from Madrid to Sevilla may be cheaper, but I think time is more your issue. The high speed train takes a couple of hours. I don't know how long ahead of time you will have to check in for a flight in spain. It may be faster.

Ibiza? Morocco? I'd X those for now.

You can pretty much call the 4th and 13th a loss, as those are flying days. So you have 8 days for what I counted are 7 places on your wish list. Really logistically challenging.

There are lots of Spain advisors on this board, and I'm sure you'll get better advice from them...

mdv

Whew! too fast and too muchmoving around..I would select one area (North or South) and just travel there. By the way, I flew from Madrid to Seville and highly recommend it. Cheaper , faster, and the train route is not that scenic.

Maribel

Yipes!!! All of this is simply not doable in 9 nights.

Ditto to what Ira, crazymina and mdv have told you. I completely concur. With only 9 days (and first one will be somewhat lost due to jet lag) concentrate on Andalucia ONLY.
Don't even try to load in Valencia-Ibiza. And skip Morocco and Gibralter.

I'd save Madrid for last. To save time I'd fly directly upon landing to Seville.

then Seville (with AVE day hop up to Cordoba)--White Towns-Granada.

If you want to include a bit of the coast, from Granada zip down to Salobreña or west to Nerja,
or from Ronda, zip down (40 min.) to very busy, saturated Puerto Banús-Marbella for the late 20s nightlife.

Maribel

Make that "Gibraltar", but still skip it anyway.
On a clear day you might even get a glimpse of it from the adorable white hill town of Gaucín.

rishisma

Thanks for the advice.
I've curbed my elation of going and now come up with the following taking your opinions into account. I really would like to stay in Madrid for a day or two starting out because I don't want to get on another plane. So here goes:

Oct
4 - Madrid
5 - Madrid
6 - Fly to Sevilla - Sevilla Day
7 - Sevilla Day
8 - Ave Cordoba back to Sevilla
9 - Pickup car and scenic drive through to Granda and then to a costal town of Puerto Banús-Marbella
10 - Stay in Puerto Banús-Marbella or go to another costal town
11 - Costal Town =>Sevilla
12 - Sevilla =Madrid in AM and to Toledo in afternoon.
13 - Fly out of Madrid home..

Do you think the temperature will still be warm enough in the first week of October. With the summer I read about in the newspaper, I would assume so.
Thanks again for the honest comments.

Maribel

rishisma,
More sane but not quite there yet

From Seville you can't drive EAST to Granada, see the Alhambra/Generalife and Cathedral/Royal Chapel plus other sights there in an afternoon then drive 1 hr. down to the coast and backtrack WEST all the way to Marbella (another hr.) in one day! Not possible!
Distance/time are way, way too much.

Buy a Michelin regional map #578 or go to
www.viamichelin.com to get the driving distance/time. You'll see what I mean....

Ditto to the Seville back to Madrid (fly? drive? train?) then to Toledo in the afternoon. Please don't attempt!!!
Toledo isn't easy to breeze in and out of.
1 hr. by train/bus from Madrid, 1 hr. back, plus time spent there-a full day can pass by easily, unless you just want to see it from afar, from across the river!

Take another stab at this. Have to have 1 night in Granada.

Weather should be nice, by the way.

artlover

Yes, this sounds much more doable, but I'd add one major addition--unless you've already seen Alhambra, if you plan to be in Granada anyway, make sure you leave time for it (and get tickets on the Internet in advance to save time in line and to be certain you get them.)

InvisibleTraveler

One delay or missed connection and even your revised schedule collapses like a house of cards.

Trains to Toledo from Madrid are not as frequent as you may like, and a quick trip there and back can take six hours if you only spend two hours seeing the old part of the city. Save it for another time, spend more time in Madrid.

suze

I'm no Spain expert, but even your 2nd itinerary is material for "The Amazing Race".

As someone else mentioned, your 1st and last days basically must be subtracted. So we're counting 8 days to see things.

As also suggested, check a map and the distances to drive, and times to travel on a train. Realistically, not just how they look at a glance.

"Ambitious" is one thing, but physically impossible is another.

Have either of you been to Europe before?? If yes, and you have succeeded at this pace of touring, then disregard my comments.

Kindly, Susan

rex

I would urge reality-testing by posting the question also on www.madridman.com - - not just for Madrid.

Best wishes,

Rex

Maribel

rishisma,
What time does your flight home leave from Madrid on Oct. 13? This determins where you can spend your last night.

stevej0620

As long as you can be flexible with your schedule, try an overambitous schedule rather than a less ambitious schedule. I always get jet lag so bad anyway that I can't sleep for several days so go go go I say!
I liked the driving a lot but I didn't expect the steep charges on the toll roads!
I wasn't as keen on the beach areas, to be honest, but I live in So California so it could be spoiled.
Barcelona and the old quarter was my favorite place in Spain, FWIW...
Hey if you go out to nightclubs, beware

stevej0620

oops hit the button too early..
Beware of going out too early! Their discos have really really late hours. We showed up at midnight and there was no one there! Around two or three it was really jumping! So no wonder they take their siestas!
You will have a great time.
Hope you like red wine!

zwho

Hi, I was like you and wanted to see as much as we could while we were in Spain. Even so with 9 or 10 days you have to edit your trip somewhat. We flew into Malaga and used that as a base for the first week, where you can easily do and I highly recommend day trips to Marbella and the jet set areas around it. Ronda, it was one of my favorites, just for the drive. We also went to Gibraltor for the day. Don't even try to fit in Morocco. Nerja and a little town near it called Frigiliana were a great day trip as was, hanging around Malaga one afternoon and evening. The last town we saw as a day trip was Grenada. We drove to Sevilla and dropped off our car and spent 2 days there. On the way to Madrid on the AVE train we spent the morning and afternoon in Cordoba and were in Madrid by late afternoon of that day. We ran out of time and couldn't see Toledo, but hopefully we can go back and do More of Madrid, Toledo and a few towns near there.

rishisma

Thanks for all the advice. Lots to think about. I'm still hashing the trip back and yes, I'm trying to be overambitious and flexible if I end up having a transportation nightmare. I'll post my finalized itinerary here. Maribel, Could you forward me a copy of your Madrid and Seville files and any other files that may seem appropriate?