lifelist

Hello all,

I'm planning my itinerary to Spain for this summer. Here's the general plan:

4 Nights Barcelona (1 day is an arrival day in the evening)
4 Nights Madrid (Includes day trip to Segovia)
1 Night Toledo
1 Night Cordoba
2 Nights Seville
2 Nights Granada

Figure 3 days for travel days, which makes this a 17 day trip.

Questions:

1) Comments on the allocation of time? No special interests - just general tourism - museums, historical sites, some cultural stuff, etc.

2) I can either start in Barcelona or start from Granada - any comments on order of the itinerary? Ideally, I'd like this as efficient as possible, minizing travel time between cities. I figure I can do all of the travel via train or bus.

danon

some like staying in Toledo over night, but a day is enough to see the place ( same for Cordoba).
I would give Barcelona a bit more time since you are
arriving late and may be jet-lagged the next day.

mikelg

It´s a very classical itinerary and there are hundreds of posts with info on these cities and this type of very common itinerary for Spain.

Echnaton

In summer?

Cordoba, Sevilla and Granada will be extremely hot (imagine a day in July at 3 p.m. in a telephone cell in Los Angeles!). And do not expect a/c in attractions, shops, restaurants. And make sure that at least your hotels have a/c.

primeranoche

I recommend that you see Cordoba as a daytrip from Sevilla.

If I had a chance to start in Granada, I would go for it unless you are coming from America and are going to be jet lagged. If you are going to be really tired from your flight, it's best not to attempt the Alhambra until you are well-rested, so I would start with the 4 days in Barcelona, which for me would be the right amount of time.

I also think you can successfully visit Toledo as a day trip, but you might enjoy a super-quiet night there after the wild fun nights of modern Madrid if you don't mind moving around so much.

I hope you will take a night tour of the Alhambra, tour the interior of the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, and the Goya ceiling in the Ermita de San Antonio del la Florida in Madrid.

Have a marvelous time. Sounds like you will.

danon

Echaton makes a good point, i was in Spain one August - Andalucia was hot like hell.

kja

I think your itinerary looks good. Unlike many others, I found more than enough to keep my happily busy for two days in both Toledo and Cordoba, and I particularly enjoyed the ambience in Toledo after day-trippers left. So if you don't mind moving around, I think the idea of overnight stays in each location makes sense.

yorkshire

Which month in summer? June--okay. August--I would seriously reconsider.

Egbert

Seville needs 3 nights. Getting around the country will be exhausting. If you're going in July or August Andalucia is extraordinarily hot. I really mean it. In that case I would go to Barcelona, San Sebastian, Santander, Asturias and Galicia. Actually I would probably skip Barcelona and spend the entire trip on the north coast.

danon

for the first time visitors to Spain going only to the North does not make much sense..

suec1

I don't like to do alot of packing / unpacking. I would do Toledo as a day trip from Madrid, easily done, and you can stop in Cordoba on your way to or from Seville. There is a station to store luggage. Have a wonderful trip!

yorkshire

I don't see why that would be the case danon. Though I have not been to the north yet, Spain has so much to offer and is much more than Andalucia. If I were traveling in summer I would definitely take that into consideration. Not only is it the heat, there is also the numerous closed restaurants, etc., as Spaniards flee the cities.

danon

the North is lovely ( the beaches ARE crowded in the summer) but it is not what the first time tourists expect to see in Spain.
I have visited both, I keep going back to Barcelona and Madrid for the art, architecture, and the love of big cities.
I would not go to Andalucia in the summer, but when I did, I was 30 years old and the heath was not that much of a problem
as it would be now.

yorkshire

I agree, as long as one knows what to expect! And point taken about the north coast being crowded as well. With a city trip, the OP would have the refuge of all of the museums, etc. But we'll have to see what they say when they return.

MiamiBeachMomma

How hot are we taking? Hotter than Miami in the summer?? We are considering an August trip to Europe and haven't settled on a country.

yorkshire

You can peruse past temps at wunderground.com. But it is not just temps to consider, also crowds, etc. You have to travel when you can, but for example:
In Sevilla, August 2009:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/...lyHistory.html

I'm a southern gal that likes heat and humidity, but I don't want to spend my leisure time in 100 degree heat.

lifelist

Thanks for the advice. I'm going in June/July. I checked the link to historical temperatures, and it looks like it makes sense to start in Granada and head north, climate-wise. There's a 7 degree difference in average temperature between end of June and beginning of July - 90 degrees avg end of June, 97 degrees avg first week of July. Looks like the temps really start to spike in July.

Question: is it humid or a dry heat? Btw, I'm used to business trips to Singapore (try 95 degrees with 95% humidity), so the temps shouldn't be a problem for me.

If I do Granada first, then I'd add a night to Granada for the travel day and take away one night from Barcelona.

I'm thinking of keeping the one-nighters in Toledo and Cordoba because I like to photograph cities at the edges of the day, and I'd rather spend mid-day traveling. I travel pretty light, so packing takes all of 15 minutes for me.

yorkshire

Well with that settled, back to the itinerary. Good idea to visit Andalucia first and move north. It is a brisk pace, but if that is what you like, the only complication is that you cannot go on public transportation from Cordoba to Toledo, you have to visit Toledo from Madrid. (Every other place well linked.)
I think you will like having an overnight in Cordoba. It is easy to day trip so many do, but I found it underrated.

greg

How are you planning end the trip after Granada? If you are planning to backtrack to Madrid, then this routing eliminates Barcelona-Madrid train ride and the backtracking.

4 Nights Barcelona (1 day is an arrival day in the evening)
fly Vueling to Granada
2 Nights Granada
2 Nights Seville
1 Night Cordoba
1 Night Toledo
4 Nights Madrid (Includes day trip to Segovia)

danon

Greg has a good idea ( Vuleling: B-G, we did the same)
I would not take time from Barcelona for Granada.