Resurrecting Spain Trip
 

Attempting to resurrect a twice cancelled first trip to Spain.

Original itinrary included:
Granada - part of 2 days (for Alhambra)
Seville - most of 3 days plus Cordoba and Carmona day trips
Madrid - most of 3 days plus Toledo day trip and possibly an overnight to Salamanca.

Thinking of adding 1 day, dropping Salamanca and adding most of 3 days in Barcelona.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Hi Maribel!! Yes trying it again.

Yeah, Myer!!
3 times charm! If you add Barcelona, I'd drop Salamanca, save for later, and fly to Bcn. Glad you're trying this again.

Myer--- I am rooting for you!!

Agree w/Maribel; head out to Barcelona and do Salamanca on a combination return trip to Northern Spain. When are you going? what's the hotel situation?

P.S. In 2001, I had to canceled a trip to Rome twice (tickets in hand and all). Three times was the charm; had a great time when Mom & I finally went in 11/02. Go for it! :-D

Hi Maribel and Maira,

Boy, attracted the experts in a hurry.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Haven't done anything yet. I'm shooting for the end of May first half of June to go for 14 days excluding leaving days.

Myer-- would you consider moving the trip up so that it would fall around the San Isidro Festivities. That is a great time to be in Spain, specially Madrid.

Maira,

Who's San Isidro?

I always try for weather that's a bit too warm rather than a bit too cool.

A year ago first half of May in Rome and Sorrento we were very lucky the weather was perfect. 5 degrees cooler and it would have been too much.

I'm a former Montréaler who has been living in South Flroida for 10 years (not retired).

Originally thinking of late May, now First half of June.

Hi Meyer,
San Isidro is the patron saint of Madrid, the saint of the peasants or the workers, and the feast day, May 15, is celebrated most heavily in the working quarters of the city, like Lavapies and La Latina, and they are special concerts held on the Plaza Mayor and in Las Vistillas and dances of the "chotis", the traditional Madrid dance. Old Madrid, the Madrid of the Hapsburgs, is a very lively quarter of the city then!
The days before and afterwards are also part of the celebration, and there's a month long bullfight feria called San Isidro as well that runs into the first of June.

read about it here:
spainforvisitors.com/archive/features/aa042901a.htm

Maira and Maribel,

You guys must know everything there is to know about Spain!!! Or maybe everything worth knowing.

On another topic. Since I'm thinking of adding Barcelona, I've started to do some reading and I'm becoming dangerous.

I'm getting the feeling that other than day trips around Madrid, there's much more wandering to do in Barcelona.

Am I correct? Should I try to allocate more time to Barcelona than Madrid?

We aren't really museum goers other than the obligatory one (in Paris we've been to the Louvre and d'Orsay and even skipped both on our last trip to Paris).

We like to just wander around the sights and the streets. In Rome we walked most of the city center each day we were there and had a great time.

Myer,
I think there is more "wandering" to do in Barcelona at least in the sense that you need to travel more ground to see the sights, as they're quite spread out all over the city.
I always recommend that first time visitors let the handy, easy to use, foolproof Bus Turistic do their initial sightseeing for them. It's the "hop on/hop off" bus that efficiently takes you around to everything there is noteworthy to see in Bcn. It's divided into a northern and southern route, blue and red, that you can do either in 1 full day or in two. I'd do the Bus Turistic self tour first to get my bearings then return to those places or areas that really captivate. There's plenty of great strolling, aimless wandering, to do in the Modernist architecture-packed Eixample district and in the atmospheric Barri Gotic and the newly hip Soho type El Borne quarter.

Another school of thought says that you might be better to limit your first visit to Madrid (+ day trips) and the large region of Andalucia only, where there's certainly an abundance of treasures to see and plenty of places to wander, then do Barcelona and the rest of Catalunya (Costa Brava & Pyrenees), really a very different land, complete with its own language, traditions, culture, cuisine, on a second Spain visit.
But it sounds like you want to cover a lot of ground on this trip, true?

I think I know how Myer feels. I started out with Madrid- Seville-Granada and back to Madrid, but I started to think about (just in the last hour) Barcelona - Granada - Seville by plane. Believe it or not, the costs are about equal. I have been to Madrid before and now I am going back with my family that is not into museums either. The only "bad"thing about the Barcelona trip is that (a) we miss Toledo and (b) with Madrid, we start on a familiar path (which for us is good as our family usually takes a day or two to recover from jet lag). As usual, Maribel probably has the right idea about leaving Barcelona for another trip entirely.

Maribel, jparis, et al,

I started thinking about how I could fit Barcelona in with a future trip and it wasn't working.

While we've been to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Switzerland and Italy several times each, Italy is special for us. Some photos at www.travelwalks.com (non-commercial).

I think the next trip might be the towns of Tuscany and Umbria. I've never driven a car in Europe. Always by train.

That would put Barcelona somewhere in the future.

We can get a lot done in a couple of weeks without rushing.

I'm still tinkering with clock-wise or counter-clock-wise but it could look something like:

Arrive in Madrid. Spend 4 days including a day trip to Toledo. Other than wandering the streets and sights (Plaza Mayor, Retiro, etc) visit the Palace, Prado and Rastro market.

Train to Seville (either last evening in Madrid or the next morning). Five days in Seville including day trips to Cordoba and Carmona unless we feel we must stay in Seville an extra day and skip Carmona.

Train to Granada either last evening in Seville or the next morning. First day wandering and second for the Alhambra. I'm almost tempted to go to Granada the last evening in Seville and go to the Alhambra the next day, leaving for Barcelona that evening (either fly or sleeper train).

That would really rush Granada and I'm not sure we should do that. Depending upon how we do it, we'll either have 3 or 4 days in Barcelona.

I'm pretty good with maps, streets and directions. Other than scale, I pretty much know where everything is before I've ever been somewhere. That way there isn't much time spent not knowing which way to go. We can then spend our time walking around.

Then again, we could go in the other direction.

How does all this sound if you're able to understand what I wrote?

Myer: I have only been to Madrid so I can only comment on time to spend there, but I will say I understand your desire to see as much as possible. I personally think you've left enough time to be settled in each area, and that Barcelona is definitely do-able. When planning a trip, it's always with some trepidation that you'll miss something or not enjoy something and stay too long. I think that if you really want to do Barcelona in this trip, you absolutely can, just realize that there might be things you'll have wanted to stay at longer (i.e. Granada) but it was a small sacrifice in order to see Barcelona, which you seem to really want to do.

Myer - I just wanted to top your thread and say thank you for asking these questions!

I am planning a trip to Spain with my sister and brother-in-law for February, and we are having similar discussions about what to cover.

They can only spend 8 days, whereas I plan to stay for anywhere between 11 and 14 days. For their part, we will either do a Madrid/Barcelona split with day trips, or a Madrid/Seville/Granada split with others in between.

Whichever route we take together, once they leave, I will do the other part myself. So all of these things you are trying to work out are a big help to me!

I'm sure once we hash out a plan (should be in the next few weeks), I'll be posting to get feedback on my itinerary!
Happy travels,
Karen

Karen,

As you can see by the heading Maira and Maribel have been with me through several cancellations. I almost feel like I want to get it done for them.

First Spain trip was scheduled for 9/26/01 and I couldn't get my wife to go after 9/11. The second attempt in May of this year was cancelled due to other issues.

The first trip had Marbella area and no Barcelona. The second had no Marbella area and no Barcelona.

Now I'm tinkering with including Barcelona.

I guess that's part of the planning.

Myer--- I am so looking forward to your trip report on Spain!!! :-D

I think your itinerary is very good. You do know by our past conversations that I prefer to drive, which really opens up quite a bit of possibilities in Spain, a country with plenty undiscovered, off the beaten path gems.

Glad Maribel provided you with the San Isidro's info. Something to consider, right? Maribel suggested a book on Northern Spain, which I just got on the mail (on top of the pile of Books to Read this Winter). I will suggest to you a book I read years ago called Travelers' Tales: Spain. Great collection of interesting stories as told by noted travelers to Spain-- great read.

You probably know this, but for some reason, during February airlines have great rates for April-May travel to Spain. Something to consider. Have fun planning!!

Maira, Maribel et al,

What do you think of squeezing (rushing) Granada (to 1 day instead of 2) to include only the Alhambra and add an extra day to Barcelona to make it 4 instead of 3?

Thanks for all the help.

Hope its OK to tag on my question to this thread! My question is Barcelona - how many days do you suggest? I am planning a trip for late May - we have two weeks and plan to fly into Barcelona then head on to France (Colliure, Arles, Paris) and I'm debating how many nites to start out with in Barcelona. Also we think that we want to do Figueras as a day trip from Barcelona - is that a pretty easy do? We are train travelers, not drivers. Thanks! SueC1

Hi Myer,
The only way I personally would do Granada with just one overnight would be to train to Granada on your 5th Seville afternoon, arriving for a stroll around the city, taxi up to the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín for those stunning Alhambra sunset views, then early dinner, then get the earliest (8:30 a.m.) reservation for the Alhambra (reserve at www.alhambratickets.com), spend the entire morning and early afternoon at the Alhambra and the Generalife gardens, then late afternoon 6:55 p.m. plane to Barcelona. I wouldn't do that overnight train.

Now that you've added more days, I think you have a very good and doable itinerary! Maira, you and I have talked about this trip so often, I feel like we're family!

suec1,
Forgot to answer your question! I enjoy 4 complete days in Barcelona myself, 3 for the city and 1 for a day trip.

Maribel,

Then again, if 3 full days in Barcelona is enough, we could leave Seville in the morning after 5 days in Seville, spend late afternoon and evening in Granada, then the Alhambra the next morning and to mid-afternoon, and take the 6:55 plane to Barcelona.

My wife and I visited Spain for the first time in February and had a fantastic time. For what it's worth, here is our itinerary:

Barcelona -- We arrived in the city around 9:00 in the morning and began site-seeing immediately. We stayed two nights and flew out around 1:30 PM on our third day, so we had 2 1/2 days there total. Although there were some things we did not have time for, this gave us sufficient time to visit and enjoy the old part of the city, the Ramblas, both cathedrals, various Gaudi homes/museums, the Picasso Museum, and shopping. We particularly enjoyed the late-night cava bars.

Granada -- We were able to find very cheap airfare to Granada from BCN (purchasing a RT ticket was cheaper than one way). We arrived late afternoon, checked into our hotel (the historic and highly-recommended Casa Morisca), and watched the sun set across the way from the Alhambra. We enjoyed the tapas places and bars that evening. The next day, we spent considerable time enjoying the Alhambra and then the other sites in town (including the Cathedral). We then rented a car and drove to Ronda.

Ronda/Andalucia -- We stayed the next two nights at the paradour in Ronda, which was great. Over the next couple days, we explored Ronda and other towns in the area. This is beautiful country and highly recommended. Ronda was a great base.

Sevilla/Cordoba -- We then drove to Sevilla, where we stayed the next two days. We arrived late afternoon, which gave us time to begin exploring the city, grab a great meal, and enjoy spontaneous flamenco late night. The next day, we explored most of the sites and generally enjoyed ourselves walking around the city. After more of the same on our third day, we picked up a car again and left town. On our way out, we stopped at the Roman ruins outside of the city, which were great. We drove first to Cordoba, toured the Mezquita and other sites for about three hours, and began the drive on to Madrid.

Madrid -- One could easily see all of the major highlights of Madrid (the palace/museums) in two days. We reached Madrid with reduced expectations, but we thoroughly enjoyed the city. We also were able to find cheap Real Madrid tickets, which added to our experience. While my wife was working, I did two separate day trips, and I once again rented a car. The first was to Toledo, which is as wonderful as most people describe. Although a car is not needed to visit, it was nice to be able to cross the river and view the town from the hills nearby. The view from the terrace of the paradour across the river is especially great over a glass of wine. My second drive was through the ski area outside of Madrid and to Segovia. Having a car was great here, because there are numerous sites of interest in the area that can be visited. We ultimately spent four nights in Madrid.

Thanks Myer for your trip report.
How did you get tickets for Real Madrid? I would think they are almost impossible now to get, wouldn't you?

Re: Real Madrid tickets

We did not have tickets when we left for Spain, but the concierge at our hotel in Madrid suggested going by the stadium on the afternoon of the match. I do not speak much Spanish, but I was able to purchase two tickets together for slightly more than face value. To be honest, I was not entirely sure where the seats were or whether they were legitimate. To our great surprise, when we entered the stadium, we found that our seats were three rows from the field near midfield. We were able to see Ronaldo, Zidane, and company from only a few yards away, and it was a great experience.

We were probably aided in several ways. We did not work through any sort of ticket broker, and the weather on gameday was terrible. Also, this was a Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund, which might have been easier than a normal league match. [Things may even be harder now that D. Beckham is with Real Madrid.]

The stadium and experience were great. The atmosphere outside before the game was very fun as well, even if one did not have a ticket.

You guys are just a godsend. Wes, we're planning a similar trip to yours, most likely in May of '04. I counted 11 total nights for your itinerary, and we may end up with 14. How'd your itinerary work out for you? Did you feel too rushed?

Also, in retrospect would you recommend renting a car the way you did? I'm thinking about something similar for us, rather than spending so much time on trains.

Thanks for any input any of you have.

Scott

The time I will arrive in Madrid next week will be good if I have a chance to see Real Madrid. How much have you paid ?