Spain and ?
 

My husband, son and I are planning a 10-14 day trip to visit our daughter who is working in Madrid. We want to see Spain, but would like to fit in another country. Not sure if we are over planning. I gpgave not been to Spain so I am thinking we could almost spend the entire trip there. Opinions?

When is your trip, what month?

You could easily spend a lot longer than that in Spain. What time of year are you going? This makes a big difference - since the south becomes incredibly hot in the summer (average high of 100 and possibly up to 120).

>> I am thinking we could almost spend the entire trip there<<

Yep -- easily. Or Spain and a bit of Portugal.

I spent 10 days in Spain in April and didn't see half of the country. I saw Madrid, Granada and Sevilla

My take is to spend all the time in Spain. There are so many different regions, cuisines and culture in the one country.

The hub around Madrid is great and easily accessible as day trips on high speed trains.. Toledo and Segovia. Then high speed train to Sevilla. Fly to Barcelona from there and out of Spain from there if you have not already bought your ticket. Otherwise, decide between Andalucia and Barcelona. Perhaps your daughter has a preference. Andalucia is the most "folkloric"part of Spain, IMO.

Why do you want to fit in another country? Spain has an incredible wealth of regions that differ from each other in uncountable ways -- at least as many as the differences between Spain and another country.

You might want to do a bit more research....

With just 10 to 14 days, you have to decide whether to go south or north from Madrid.

This decision also depends on the time of year.

From November to April, you can go to Andalusia (which is unbearably hot in summer and most places do not have A/C) and dip into Morocco (Tanger) for a quite different country.

Or you can go northwards to Barcelona and the Costa Brava and do an excursion into France, the Pyrenees, the picturesque small towns Ceret and Collioure or even to the medieval walled city Carcassonne.

Stay in Spain.

Yes, stay in Spain.
It takes 5 weeks to see the highlights of Spain.
Spend 6 days in seeing the central part and another 5 days seeing Seville and Andalusia.

Spain is a big country with many worthwhile things to see. Just in Andalusia, the three biggest treasures, Seville, Córdoba and Granada could easily take 6 days. Add 3 or 4 to Madrid with day trips to Toledo and Segovia, or even overnights there, and 10 days are done. Barcelona or San Sebastián will take the rest of the time. There are many, many other wonderful things in Spain. Those are just a few highlights.

Ditto: what month?
And of course a dip into France could be nice if you are close, and likewise Portugal, but of course you could easily fill your time in Spain. What have you identified as your priorities for this trip?

here's another vote for Spain + Spain. loads to see and do, wonderful food and drink, great cultural centres and it's not that expensive.

Yes, Spain
A big country with many regional differences :architecture, geography, history, language..etc

Yes, Spain + Spain :) While geographically, it isn't a huge country, due to the history of the autonomous regions combined with geography, Spain is a very diverse place. In addition to the places mentioned so far, there is also Galcia, which is another region of Spain that is well worth a visit, and is very different from other areas of Spain.

I am planning a trip like this in 2018 and looked at a lot of options, and have independently come to the conclusion that sticking solely to Spain is probably your best option. Part of the reason is that cross border transportation options to/from France or Portugal are not that great, unless you are very facile on low-cost European airlines, and want to fly from, say, Toulouse France to central Spain.

I will observe (totally unfiltered) that Rick Steves highly recommends a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco by taking the ferry from the small town of Terifa, Spain. (West of Gibraltar). He suggests many will poo-poo this idea as "Tangiers is not the real Morocco" to which he replies, "yes, but it still isn't Europe" and is nice as a day trip.

Easy jet, Madrid- Lisbon ,50 or so euros, an hour flight...

yeah, that could work.