My husband and I arrive in Barcelona May 16 and depart May 26th. We will be travel south to visit friends we met traveling in Nepal a few years ago. They live in Valencia. We will rent a car in Barcelona.

What would your trip look like??

It is a long trip from Barcelona to Nepal, at least two nights.

I would spend a few days in Barcelona and then take a train to Valencia. I have never traveled that route simply because there seemed to be nothing of great note between the two cities.

I am sure there are a few things here or there, but it is worth losing time in either Barcelona or Valencia?

Our friends that live in Valencia,Spain we met on our trip to Nepal and Bhutan 4 years ago.

We want to travel from Barcelona to Valencia and then maybe onto Granada,Sevilla and cordoba.

We have 9 days to travel.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Which airport will you be leaving from? Also Barcelona?

Rental drop offs are not expensive in Sspain so I would look into flying back from Sevilla to BCN once your travelling is done, (or whatever southern city you end up in).

Further traveling from valencia is the only justification for the car, although, with webfares and discounts, it should be CHEAPER to train to Valencia, than FLY anyway.

(Huge tolls on the Barcelona-Valencia road.. see www.mappy.com)

The Estrella fare (which you can buy on the phone as U.S. credit cards don't work) or if your friends can find webfares..would be the ideal solution.

www.renfe.es

Then rent the car leaving Valencia.

We are flying in and out of Barcelona,we are using miles so I am not able to change our flights w/o a penalty....unless you think flying out of a city in the south would be worth a $300 fee??

I will check with our friends about renting a car in Valencia and taking the train from Barcelona.

What would be a suggested itinerary if I had to arrive and depart from Barcelona?

train to VLC.

car to granada,(5 hrs from VLC, perhaps stopping overnight at Orihuela at http://www.hotelpalaciodetudemir.comor near granada at the cave houses in guadix) then on to cordoba, sevilla area.

possible visits ( not in order)

nerja
ronda
antequera
carmona
úbeda/baeza

There are plenty of posts about andalucia, where you can stop as often as you like, and take as long or short as you like.

then fly back to BCN from sevilla. flights starting from 38 euros.

You don't have the time to do all that. Prioritize/ask your friends to meet you in Seville, so you can vist with them while doing some sightseeing. Typically you need at least to weeks if you want to do Barcelona and also visit several cities in Southern Spain. Fly BCN-Seville. Otherwise, these 9 days are going to be a blur in your memory.

Depends on your travel "style" but it may be an idea to leave Barcelona for the end - and not for your jet-lagged first day.
There are fast trains every hour, leaving from Barcelona-Sants station to Valencia. Trains do that trip in 3 to 3 1/2 hours - which is hard to beat by car.
You get to Sants station easily from the airport with a direct train.

I was just giving a variety of ideas/towns for them to look up. no way could anyone see it ALL in that time frame, but those are some of the more popular towns people tend to write about.

I certainly could easily spend a couple days with friends, then drive around Andalucia for a few days and then fly back to barcelona with no problem.

May 16- train to VLC
16, 17, 18 VLC

19th, 20th Guadix (coffee stop)Granada

21, 22, 23,Cordoba Sevilla/Carmona

24-25 fly to Bcn.
26-depart

Whatever you end up doing, this is an excellent time of year, especially if you get lucky with dry weather. It should be almost perfect!

lincasanova- I was not referring to your message at all; the OP has no time to cover Barcelona, drive to Valencia, visit with friends, on to Sevilla, Cordova, and Granada, drive back to Barcelona. To attempt to do all that in 9 days is insane.

thank you for all of the help...it sounds like flying and the train is the best mode of transportation. I will begin my research! We won't have much of jet lag as we are spending 9 days in England before we fly to Spain. We have a friend we will being spending time with in London and then onto Spain. We planned for a longer trip but had to cut back a bit because of the economy. We will have at least one nights lodging with our friends in Valencia...I need to check out schedules and rates for the train and flying...Again Thank you!I will check back in after doing a little homework now!I have a good starting point. Patti

p.s. I always like good suggestions for restaurants and lodging.We may not book any rooms in advance so we are not so pinned down...thoughts on that??