Madrid - Madrid - 9 days
 

Just bought tickets to go to Spain - we fly in on a Sat morning, and leave the following Sunday. We have to include Malaga ( directive from DH). We love driving, and feel like we see more of the countryside that way. At the same time, while we are not big on museums, we are big on walking around, enjoying local culture, food...and historic sites. Accordingly here is the tentative schedule I am thinking of. Can you please critique -

Saturday - Arrive - 8am Sat Morning . Flight to Barcelona at 11:30am.
Sunday - Day tour of Barcelona
Monday - Pick up rental car; drive to Montserrat. After visit, drive to somewhere near Alhambra. We take a leisurely drive from Montserrat to this place we are yet to decide on. A scenic, casual, drive. However we want to be near enough to Alhambra so that we can then do the Alhambra tour.
Tuesday - Tour Alhambra - spend night in same place
Wednesday - Drive to Malaga.
Thursday - Stay in Malaga.
Friday - Drive to Madrid; return car.
Saturdary - Stay in Madrid
Sunday - Fly out.

What are your thoughts? Look forward to all suggestions.

Thanks,

D

Despite the fact that you love to drive-

Far too many places for 8 days. A car in Spanish cities can be PITA because many old sections were not designed for cars.

Really appreciate the feedback..

What would you recommend? The plan is to park the car while in the city - so get to wherever we are staying near Alhambra, then do a guided tour - so we dont take the car out until it is time to drive to Malaga. Same with Malaga - we park the car, and then dont take it out until it is time to drive to Madrid. Would you say it is still a problem?

Thanks!!!

To visit Montserrat - which I believe you have to either walk up to or take the cable way and drive to anywhere near Granada seems to be a very very long day - Valencia is a neat old town - one of the nicest in Spain I've been too - stop there for the night and head to Granada the next day.

The fastest way Barcelona to Granada (Alhambra) is hardly scenic - most of the interior of Spain is bleak - IME - well not bleak but not all that scenic.

Actually for your wish list trains may be quicker and just as nice - you seem only to be using the car to reach two cities without any time for a casual scenic drive.

First, I agree with Pal's assessment of the drive from the north to the south.

We have rented cars in Spain many, many times and it is because we are going to places that are inconvenient for public transportation. You are going to well trodden places.

You have very limited time. Barcelona is worth much more than a day. That said, I would fly Barcelona to Granada.

Then if you like to drive drive from Granada to Malaga.
It is less than 2 hours or you can take the bus which are modern and comfortable or about the same time by train. They too are modern and comfortable.

Ditch the car and take the AVE from Malaga to MAdrid.

You are trying to fit a LOT into very little time. If Malaga is non-negotiable, consider dropping Barcelona.

If you do keep Barcelona, consider taking public transportation to Montserrat.

Be sure to reserve the Alhambra well in advance. I would recommend spending as long as you can there during the day and then return in the evening for another visit to the Nasrid Palace – two separate tickets.

I would not drive on this trip. A car is unlikely to be an advantage in the places you plan to visit, and could instead by quite an impediment.

Good luck!

Too much in a week.
Skip Barcelona.
Ave from Madrid to Malaga, see Malaga.
Rent car, visit Granada, perhaps some white villages, Seville or Córdoba.
Turn in car. Train to Madrid.
That is all you have time for.

Other option. If it is possible to change, fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid, multi-city tickets, not two one-way.

Yes, I also suggets you skip Barcelona. Concentrate on Madrid, Málaga and Granada. Madrid-Málaga is 2h 30 mins with the high speed AVE train, city center to city center. And Málaga-Granada is 90 mins with the ALSA bus company. Departures all the time.

Good advice above. If you do end up with a car in Granada have a look at Hotel Guadeloupe. It's located across the street from the main entrance to Alhambra and offers discounted parking in the main parking lot (also across the street). Easy to drive to and the hotel was very reasonably priced with nice service.

http://www.hotelguadalupe.es/en/

What time of year are yous going - if in cooler months stick largely to the south - if summer though places like Seville can really boil.

All of our trips to Spain were seven or eight days, always with a car rental. We have yet to set foot in Madrid proper, see Alhambra or visit Barcelona.

Renting a car allows you to get away from the usual Spanish boilerplate type vacation, explore the country, discover new places and create your own itinerary without the tyranny of a train schedule.

I can tell that the parador in Oropesa is great, Guadalupe is worth a stop, Merida is magical, especially in the evening. The art collection of Siguenza Cathedral is spectacular and you don't have to fight hordes to see it.

Zaragoza rocks just as much as Seville and is a heck of a lot cleaner.

You can get to Perdaza only by car.

If you feel the conquistadors were motivated guys Trujillo (Pizarro), and Medellin are worth a stop.


The only night we plan are the first and the last. Anything in between is by chance or whim.

Mark

... that should be Pedraza.

Mark

We have yet to set foot in Madrid proper, see Alhambra or visit Barcelona.

Renting a car allows you to get away from the usual Spanish boilerplate type
____________________
This is one of the more egocentric and uneducated postings I have seen in a long time. It is reverse snobbery at it silliest.

Any trip is as "boilerplate" as you make it.

@IMDoneher

What turned me off Barcelona forever was a fellow passenger on a PHL to MAD flight, wearing cutoff sweatpants and flipflops, proudly displaying his yellow toenails, (by chance, was that you?)

His nose was buried in a Barcelona guidebook.

If that makes a reverse snob, I plead guilty.

Mark

Agree, IMD
some travelers have no interest in spectacular
architecture , Spanish history or
some of the greatest works of art in world.

Nothing to brag about.

What turned me off Barcelona forever was a fellow passenger on a PHL to MAD flight, wearing cutoff sweatpants and flipflops, proudly displaying his yellow toenails, (by chance, was that you?
__________________________________________
No I'm the one who kept on asking you not sneeze on me and to put to put one earpod in your back pocket so you could listen in stereo.

And if that is your criterion for not going to Barcelona, than your comments are inane that originally thought.

Cdnyul,

There are 7 to 9 million visitors a year to Barcelona, and one, badly dressed person (obviously a visitor, not a resident of Barcelona), studying a guidebook, turned you off Barcelona forever!

From the description, he could have been one of my best students. The opportunity to be that influential is so rare, he probably would never have guessed it, so I hope you let him know that he had forever changed your life.

He was reading a guidebook, so was interested in learning something. I hope he saw Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila, Palau de la Musica, Parc Guell, etc., etc., etc. and now carries a bit of Barcelona with him always.

Wow. Thank you so much for your replies. New ideas to mull over now - ditching the car, and considering trains/public transportation. The more I research the south - Seville and Cadiz is calling - and the whitewashed towns. So is Alcazar and of course Alhambra. We are not going until April 2017, so we have some time...I do not want to spend most of our time driving...and want to keep our options open.

I took a bus from Seville to Ronda (a wonderful one-day stop for its physical beauty - divided by a gorge - if nothing else) and the bus went via several white perched villages - stopping for a break in some.

Cadiz was OK but Jerez de la Frontera just before it by train from Seville was great - not for the so-so town but the neat sherry tours and the practice session of the famous Andalusian horses the public can attend.