Possible Spain trip - what would you do?
 

Okay ...

We are in the beginning stages of planning a trip with our daughter who will be 17 at time of travel. We were going to go on a cruise in July but for a variety of reasons have decided against it... we are looking at Italy (we have been once) or Spain. We are traveling on FF miles and the flights to Italy are a bit of a drag (many stops and long travel time) I can fly to Madrid direct from DFW for economy super saver miles and get all 3 tickets for a total of 150,000 miles in "economy plus" (no idea how much better that will be than regular economy have never used it). I have another thread for the Italy trip but thought I would get some ideas to propose to my daughter... she is not a hearty traveler and on both trips to Europe we ended up seeking medical attention - once in Florence and once in Paris. Yikes.
Recently, I had to leave our vacation in Cabo after a hospital stay and an early flight home to have emergency gallbladder removal. :( I am still home recovering and Vicodin is my friend so please forgive any strange sentences or typos :))

When: May 2014 May 5-19 in and out of Madrid

Where: Spain

Who: 57 year old husband, 46 year old me and 17 year old daughter

Why: a graduation present combined with her 16 year birthday "trip/gift" (It was delayed to combine the two events)

Flying on FF miles in and out of DFW to Madrid

Would like to spend May 10-17 @ http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...-beach-resort/ - we have a Marriott time share that I have a good chance of swapping for that property.

Would LOVE to either do a day trip or over night to Morrocco during that week... (possible??)

So we arrive in Madrid on May 6 @ 10:05 am....

May 6 - 10 - Open? - Thoughts? We are not really "big" city people (Preferred Florence over Rome for example - don't hate us!) Seville looks amazing to me... Ronda as well...

May 17 - 19 (could spend the last few nights in Madrid?) flight leaves @ 1;00 pm on May 19th...

Dream a little with me so I can help our daughter have a wonderful trip that falls within our budget... I really want it to be special for her and know this might not be her "first choice" but feel it could be a wonderful experience.

Let's start with, will you rent a car in Marbella? We did a time share exchange in that area, so I will have more comments later BUT IMO it would be best to have a car. Most time shares are not superconvenient to public transportation, not sure I would want to plan a trip there if not renting a car. That is the one and only trip to Europe when we rented a car and then we had a minor accident but I will have some positve comments about that trip to post.

Sue - I was thinking of taking the train from Madrid to Seville staying a night or two in Seville and and perhaps renting a car there... going to Ronda and then onto the timeshare...It looks like a 2.5 hour drive...
Having the car during our week at the timeshare and then driving back to Seville and taking the train back to Madrid.

We are in the very beginning stages of deciding... so are open to suggestions/thoughts.

That looks like a lovely property. It's been a few years but when we stayed in Marbella we did an easy day trip to Gibraltar, which I highly recommend. We also did a day trip to Granada to tour the Alhambra. It was a long day but doable, especially since you have such nice accommodations awaiting you back in Marbella.

We looked into going to Morocco but there was some international incident and the Spanish travel agent we were booking the travel through recommended that as Americans we not go. We didn't. I've still got Morocco on my list of places to visit.

I'm hoping this trip is nicer to you than your Cabo trip!

Momdd - your trip plan sounds similsr to ours - we took the train to Sevilla, rented a car, stopped by Ronda and on to the time share. We returned the car to Malaga as there was an AVE train from there (this was about 10 years ago). Like Sharona, we did a day trip to Gibraltar which was great! and a bus tour to Alhambra. We also wanted to go by some other white villages - parking can be a bit of a challenge in some places, not at your timeshare, but just remember this region / villages developed long before cars and there will be limited parking and narrow streets.

I'd suggest a stop or daytrip to Cordoba and the Mezquita / mosque there. Also I thought the Alcazar in Seville was an excellent example of the moorish architecture and if you see that, the Alhambra could be skipped (this will generate some controversy, I'm sure, but I've seen both and IMO they are quite a bit alike.)

I enjoyed Marbella - yes it is quite commercialized and there are as many signs for "bangers and mash" in the area as paella BUT for a 17 year old, it will be a good mix of "not too strange" and exposre to Spain (esp. if you add Seville, Cordoba, and Madrid). I'd pass on Morocco though, again my opinion, or go with a tour, but it would just be too crowded with too many voices vying for my attention and money.

I think that's a great deal on the FF tickets for RT Madrid, I'd definitely go for that if nonstop. Two weeks is a good time to do a lot. I think it will be getting pretty hot in Seville by that time, but bearable. I like the idea of just going to Seville to start, as you will have to end up in Madrid, anyway for the flight home. I didn't do that much when down in Seville as I didn't have a car, just spent some time there and went to Cordoba one day (great place) by train, and another day to Jerez de Frontera by bus. They have a famous equestrian school there, which has a public show around noon, as I recall. So none of those places are that big, if you rent a car, I think you have plenty to do down there for at least 9 days. I'd head back to Madrid by AVE and spend at least 3 days there, probably.

This is the info on the equestrian school in Jerez de Frontera http://www.realescuela.org/ing/home.htm

go into Calendar of Events to see everything they have.

Haven't been to Morocco, not sure if you have the time for that, but of course, anything is possible, depends what you want to do down there. I didn't realize it's only about 3.5 hrs from Seville by bus, although not to Casablanca, of course:
http://gospain.about.com/od/bustrave...To-Morocco.htm

here is a tour company http://www.solchasers.com/tours-to-m...m-seville.aspx

Sue - what time share did you stay at? I am hoping we can land the Marriott - we have "preference" since we are swapping a Marriott property but always good to have other alternatives!

Good to know about the AVE train from Malaga as well. I am only at the very start of planning and hoping to excite dd about Spain over Italy... I think it would be fabulous and the easier travel will make for a more enjoyable time... the flights to Italy on miles are a bit hellish... 19 plus hours of travel time... vs. the 9 and 11 hours... a massive difference...

Alcazar in Seville is on the list -

Dd loves to cook and is interested in a cooking class in Italy so I am searching for an alternative in Spain to get her excited about.

Good tips about the parking...yikes.

Will have to check out Gibraltar -

Sharona - I hope our trip is better too :)) Would not be hard to beat a 4 hour enjoyable time in Cabo followed by days in bed and then the hospital there - oh my!

Morroco is of interest for the cultural experience but I will have to look more into it - we would have to go with a tour from what I have read... for a few different reasons.

Christina - we were posting at the same time - thank you for the information and the link to the equestrian school! I will also check out the tour to Morocco.

I have no advice for you, but if it were me I'd do the Spanish trip, simply to avoid the horrible trip you have to take to get to Italy.
It sounds like a great holiday, with some relaxation time built in too.

Hope you are feeling better, at least all the planning is keeping you occupied :).

Hetismij1 - no kidding.... I am a wuss when it comes to airtravel and am just having serious reservations about that much travel time for a 2 week trip :(

The non-stop flight to Madrid earns huge bonus points... and I think we will have an amazing time in Spain in May and yes, it is nice to be planning... better than the hours of Netflix :))

On our recent trip via United/Canada Air the seats labeled "economy plus" were what used to be called "exit row." Looks to me like they have begun charging a premium for what we used to get for free if we booked far enough in advance.

Momdd - I don't remember the name of the time share, I don't think it was a Marriott but I think there was one nearby. There are many in that area, some in the hills and some nearer the coast - I would expect the Marriott to be very nice! Ours was about a two block walk from the beach - which was great, very broad, nice sand, boardwalk and alot of beachside restaurants that I just loved.

I would suggest doing a little research on Spanish food (if you are not familiar with it, not the same as Mexican). My first visit to Spain was with a 17 year old daughter and she was a bit put off at first by the food, but really, there is ALOT of delicious food in Spain. Again, as I mentioned we ate at the beachside restuarants and the seafood there - gamba al ojillo (shrimp in olive oil with garlic) and we had a delicious whole fish baked in a salt crust that is one of the best bites I've ever had! Another dish that I just love is roast suckling pig or lamb, but these would probably be better in Madrid. May should be just a great time to go - some lovely flowers and probably very nice beach weather. IMO Italy and Spain are both amazing countries for art, food and culture - enjoy Spain in May and God-willling you'll get to Italy on another trip.

I highly recommend that you go to www.maribelsguides.com and print out her very helpful fuides to places you'll visit such as Sevilla, Madrid. We planned most of a month long trip to Spain using them. Send an email to her with questions such as cooking classes.

The Marriott in Marbella is very nice. Stayed there for 2 nights. Right on the beach.

In Ronda, there is a great 3-hour sunrise horseback ride down in the gorge. Beautiful views of the bridge and town from below. Worth an overnight stay! (There are probably shorter rides available later in the day.)

On our recent trip via United/Canada Air the seats labeled "economy plus" were what used to be called "exit row.">

Jaja - I suspected as much...there is an exit row though on the plane that is not listed as economy plus...it is actually called "Main cabin" extra - and it appears they have retrofitted some planes. DH is gold and they are letting gold members have access till the end of 2013 (Usually reserved for platinum or paying passengers) http://boardingarea.com/aadvantagege...-plus-seating/

or:
http://crankyflier.com/2012/03/06/am...my-comfort-er/

It appears to be about 6' inches more leg room...we will take it... :)

As I am recovering at home from the gallbladder surgery I am trying to take care of some long over due home projects (that I need to outsource) I am having the carpets cleaned and the man is from Madrid - has been living in Texas for 3 years - and has a rottie (we have a year old rottie) ... perhaps Spain is fate :)

Sue - thanks for the input! I was wondering about the Spanish food... we were underwhelmed (gasp!) with the food in Paris (I know... don't hate on us!) so I was wondering about the Spanish tapas etc...

<In Ronda, there is a great 3-hour sunrise horseback ride down in the gorge. Beautiful views of the bridge and town from below. Worth an overnight stay! (There are probably shorter rides available later in the day.)>

This sounds truly amazing!!! I will google and see if I can find it... I LOVE to horse back ride & so does dd.

Glad the resort was nice - I have put my request in and we shall see :)

Happy I will check out that link! Thank you!

Well, not sure they are still in business. The link in this thread doesn't work for me:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...g-in-ronda.cfm

You could try emailing the Ronda tourist bureau.

thanks Joan - I did a search and saw that as well - I will keep searching - pershaps there is something similar...

DD came home and we talked - while Italy was her first choice, she was gracious and understanding and thankful for any trip... and will get excited now the fun of planning :)

So many amazing hotels in Spain - wow!

The food in Seville is a lot better than Madrid, but I still wasn't crazy about either. Too much heavy stuff, like fried fish. I went to some famous fish place in Seville and I could barely eat the fried fish, it was disgusting to me. And a lot of stuff was really salty.

The stuff I did like in Seville was a lot of spinach with pine nuts so I could get some veggies, and great gazpacho. Okay coffee, also.

There are so many British tourists to the Costa del Sol that there are tons of pubs in the area. You'll be able to find something familiar if you don't care for the local food.

We don't really eat fried food in general... I will have to look into the food...and pick places...she is a "pescatarian"... eats a lot of fish and veggies but no meat...

Sharona I have read that Costa del Sol is full of British Tourists...

We spent a month a few years back touring Andalucia and loved every bit of it. Our daughter, a college junior in Alicante at the time, joined us for long weekends. I highly recommend finding a way to Granada. We found Granada, the Alhambra, and our hotel, Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol, a highlight in a trip of highlights. The hotel is on a hill just below the Alhambra, making it easy to go back and forth.

We are not "big city" people either, but we all enjoyed our time in Sevilla. We took part in all the sights as well as several flamenco shows, and enjoyed walking around just as much. You can take a day trip to Cordoba, and you should. We spent 2 nights there. I remember the food we had in Cordoba as some of the best the entire trip.

My husband and I were on our own in Ronda, and were not impressed. Perhaps because it was quite cold (late October) and windy, perhaps because I had a recurrance of bronchitis which plagued me the entire trip. We found Grazelima (sp?) far more to our taste. However, it might be a bit too quiet for a 17 year old.

Enjoy your trip!

In the 13 days (as I figur e you have - you can do either Mardrid and south or Madrid and north.

You seem headed for the south - so I would instead fly into Malaga so you can start you trip in Marbella and relax at the beginning of the trip. Then see what you want in the area and head north to Madrid and fly north from there. This shouldn;t cost any more (multi-destination tickets) and will avoid the waste of an extra day from Madrid.

If you want to spend a day in Morocco I would do a quick tour - to make life simple and spend the bulk of your time in Andalusia. You don;t have much time for that and Madrid and will need to rush major sight in seville, cordoba and granada - esp if yuo want to see any of the smaller towns.

As for food, it's OK most places, good in quite a few, but you need to be selective and and be prepared for olives coming out of your ears I swear every time yuo sit down someone puts a plate of olives in front of you (I don;t care for them) even on a park bench).

And if you are tempted by a change in cuisine - consider very carefully , We tried a highly reco'd chinese restaurant - and it was definitely Spanish version of chinese - not anything like you get in NYC (at least a closer approximation in many places). And I never saw olives in chinese food before.

NY - ha! I hate olives but dd and dh like them :)

There are no direct flights from DFW to Marbella (I think there are from NYC) So we would have to change planes in Madrid - we may take the train straight to Seville from Madrid - it seems to be 2.5 hours? It might be relaxing ?

We are going to focus on the south - no Barcelona on this trip and I am not sure we will spend much time in Madrid...

DD and dh really want to see Morocco so I am seeing what that might look like... I don't read anything good about the day trip to Tangier... I grew up in San Diego and have no interest in seeing a city compared over and over to tijuana.

You are correct - we only have 13 nights - land @ 10:00 am on the 6th and fly home on the 12th.

I have a little time to work it all out... but things do book up fast...

In Seville, try the convent cookies!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g1...ts.Dulces.html

I did this last year in a couple of central Spain towns. And plan to do it again this year in NW Spain... it makes a good office treat and story when you get back. And, I carried some around with me for snacks during the day.

That is cool Joan!! :) I will have to do it!

Talked to dh and booked the tickets! I am delighted & DD is now getting excited..we looked online at different images and things to do in Southern Spain :)

$166.00 - 150,000 miles - 3 round trip tickets non-stop DFW to Madrid! Yippeee!!!

I will start a new thread for the planning :)

Why a new thread? There is already so much info on this thread for you and others

This will work :) I just was not sure the title was right for the details of the trip

I suggest Gibraltar is a waste of time unless you guys have never been to the UK and want a taster. If you go to Morocco (and I would) then fly to Marrakesh (do not catch ferry to Casablanca or Tangier, the movies either were not shot there or they have gone a long way down hill since)

Marrakesh is sort of Arabia light, so while you do have to haggle there is very little pressure to buy or give alms. Hop over to the Africa forum to get some ideas.

Despite the haggling it is very easy to catch the bus from outside the airport to the centre of town and walk around from there. If you need to stay a night, either book into an international hotel or a Kasbar hotel either zone is walkable from the centre.

We also did a day trip to Granada to tour the Alhambra. It was a long day but doable, especially since you have such nice accommodations awaiting you back in Marbella. >>

if the budget stretches, I'd suggest an over night in Granada, possibly going there straight from Madrid so as to be able to do the night-time tour of the Nasrid palaces, as well as a day-time visit to the Alhambra and Generelife.

I would suggest this:

May 6 - Arrive Madrid - get train to Granada, stay night. Do night-time tour and then tour the next day. Drive to Cordoba, stay Cordoba.

May 7 - explore Cordoba. pm drive to Seville. Stay Seville.

May 8 - stay Seville

May 9 - drive to Marbella via Ronda.

May 10-17 - Marbella

May 18 - train to Madrid. explore Madrid

May 19 - go home.

That puts you in Madrid at the end of your trip for going home.

Thanks Ann & Bill.

One thing I wanted to mention is that when I booked our FF miles tickets - I put in 3 travelers at first and it did not show availability for non-stop from DFW. I put in 2 people - and there was availability - put those on hold - went back in and searched for one ticket and there was availability.... so the seats were there - it just did not want to release three to one reservation...which I thought was odd..so we have two record locators- I will call and have them linked but just a heads up...occasionally you have to work the system :)

I will have to check the train schedule for Madrid to Granada.

I am open to spending the night & yes, have the budget to do so - the FF tickets and the week timeshare help with that. We will stay on points in Madrid most likely at a Marriott property...

I need to explore Morrocco as it seems to be high on both DD and Dh list... As the resident travel planner sometimes I have to bring bad news that things just won't work into a plan.. but we shall see!

Hi, we are planning a trip around the same time so I have been reading your posts with great interest! How lucky to have 2 weeks! We have 10 days & there is so much to see!! I will also be booking FF flyer tickets though not non-stop from Boston unfortunately - thought I will try your trick & see if I get better results. Thanks for sharing!

Excited_Confused - that is great!
Do you have any idea where in Spain you are considering?
How many seats are you trying to get? They are released for the beginning of May so start hunting :)

I checked & I can use our points at the Marbella Marriott as well .. Affording more flexibility & the possibility of less than a week study at that resort.. Open to suggestions with this in mind...still want to stay in southern region...

Want to hike, horseback ride(if possible)
Love the smaller villages...
I know it is about 10 months away.. But excited!

mom,

I have good friend who stayed at the Marriott timeshare, they said iit was excellent.

What airline did you book? Premium economy varies greatly. I see you got a great deal so any extra comfort is a bonus.

Ronda is on our list, our neighbors loved it.

Hope you have a wonderful and incident-free trip!

Mom- after a lot of effort I discovered that Ryanair fly to Marrakesh from both Madrid and Sevilla.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/cheap-flight-destinations

so you could fly straight from Madrid to Marrakesh, and from Marrakesh to Sevilla. and if you don't want/need to spend an entire week in Marbella, that gives you far more flexibility for the rest of your trip, thus:


May 6 - Arrive Madrid - fly to Marrakesh

May 7 - Marrakesh.

May 8 - fly to Seville.

May 9 - Seville

May 10 - Drive to Marbella via Ronda

May 11 - Marbella

May 12 - Marbella

May 13 - Marbella

May 14 - Drive to Granada via Malaga

May 15 - Granada

May 16 - Drive to Cordoba, stay Cordoba

May 18 - train to Madrid. explore Madrid

May 19 - go home.

if you could find a place to use your points in Malaga rather than Marbella, that would be even better!

Hi Momddtravel2, this is our first trip to Spain so I think just Barcelona & Madrid. DD (23) only has a week off between finishing the semester & starting clinicals so it will be Sat to Sat, May 10-17th for her. Working on my DS (26) to join us. DH & I can stay on until Tuesday, I am still trying to figure out where we want to spend those extra 3 days. Our mileage is with United, 60,000 per ticket, so you are getting a good deal! Flights are not non-stop but connections aren't bad & still plenty of open partner flights so far.
We may go to Seville for those 3 days. Have heard that Ronda & Cordoba are worth a visit, not enough time for us but you can probably plan on visiting. Morocco sounds really interesting, I was SOOO keen on taking a stopover in Istanbul on the way back from Spain (even though I know it is nowhere on the way) but since those flights are not non-stop either, it doesn't make sense given the time we have. It's just killing me not to take advantage of the stopover we can get in a different city in Europe!

e-c - can I suggest that you start your own thread. as you are throwing Barcelona into the mix and have a shorter trip, there are probably things which apply to your trip and not to this one and vv.

in brief, however, if you only have a week I would strongly advise if you can flying open-jaw [into one place, out of another] which cuts down on the backtracking. you said that you only have time for 2 places - quite right. please resist the temptation to try to cram andalucia into your part of the trip once DD has gone home.

assuming you can get the flights, I would fly into Barcelona, spend 5 nights there [you won't run out of things to do!] then get the train to Madrid, and stay there til DD goes home. once she's gone, continue exploring Madrid with daytrips in the area - Toledo & Segovia are obvious choices.

I got a few guide books today and am digging in!

Ann I appreciate the input and advice! I am sure I will have many more questions as I continue to plan. Unfortunately the marriott property in Malga is not very nice and won't work. :( I will continue to look for a timeshare swap and see about other places to use our points to balance out the budget.

EC - I agree with Ann - I know it is tempting to get a lot in but I can only speak from experience - we have only been to Europe twice - once we were in Paris 2 nights (was supposed to be 3 but got messed up with flight delays), Montreux 2 or 3 (cannot remember), Florence 4 and Rome 5...and we were whopped by Rome (I often wonder if that is why I did not fall is love with Rome...that I was just "done") the next trip we spent 10 nights in an apartment in Paris... it was just a lovelier way to travel... the moving does get tiring and wearing...and at the time I was not working so did not need to come home and get right back to work... I would follow Ann's advice and go to Barcelona and Madrid.

The southern region of Spain is more appealing to us for a variety of reasons and I explained to both dh and dd that if they want to go to Barcelona in the 13 days it really complicates things.