Spain Itinerary
 

So how's this? This will be a trip for the end of May, leaving from Washington, DC. My major issue is how best (in terms of convenience versus economics) to arrive, get between, and leave Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona. Maybe I should end in Madrid instead of Barcelona?<BR><BR>Day 1 - Arrive in Seville (better to book a flight from DC to Seville or arrive in Madrid and take the train?)<BR>Days 2-5 - Seville with day trips to Granada and Cordoba<BR>Day 6 - Arrive around midday in Madrid via train<BR>Days 7-9 - Madrid, overnight train to Barcelona?<BR>Day 10 - Arrive Barcelona in the morning<BR>Days 11-13 - Barcelona<BR>Day 14 - Fly out of Barcelona?<BR><BR>I've asked a friend who lived in Seville for a while and she seemed to think that doing day trips to Granada and Cordoba would be fine. Thoughts on how much time I'm spending in each place?

I think that it is easier to fly to Seville.The cost of the taxi from Madrid airport to the train statin and the cost of the train to Seville is fairly expensive. We flew to Seville last spring and the connections through Madrid were great.My daughter took the train from Madrid and it was a very long day. Granada will be a long day trip. It is about three hours by bus from Seville and just visiting the Alhambra is a long day. It you can swing a night in granada it is well worth it. Have a great trip. Patrick

yeh, grenada would be a long day trip from seville but doable. grenada is cold and about 2 1/2 hours away from seville via the bus. <BR><BR>since your doing so many hotel and city changes it might be good to stick to a day trip to grenada from seville. <BR><BR>very good itinerary!

Have you priced the difference in airfare when arriving in one city and leaving from another vs. round trip? I think this may answer your question about your final departure point.<BR><BR>You will have to go through Madrid to get to Seville; instead of making that connection and then traveling hours to Granada and back, how about flying from Madrid straight to Granada? See the city<BR>(info at http://www.granada.org/turismo/Data/INGLES/fset2.html<BR>spend the night on the Alhambra hill and rest up from your flight, then take an early morning tour of the Alhambra and the afternoon train to Seville. I think you will save half a day's travel this way.<BR><BR>Good luck! You are going at a fabulous time of year.

Thanks for the suggestions. When I checked yesterday, an open jaw flight into Seville and out of Barcelona was twice as expensive as rountrip out of Madrid. I assume the latter will always be cheaper but I thought maybe the price on the open jaw would come down. I can't believe it would be that much more expensive. <BR><BR>I don't think I want to spend my first day in Spain in a place that I'll only be for one day, i.e., Granada. I'll be jetlagged and I'd like to be alert when I go. However, I might consider going from Seville to a night in Granada to Madrid to Barcelona.

Vita -- we're doing almost the same itinerary in May also. We're flying round-trip to Madrid, taking the AVE high-speed train to Sevilla for 3 days then a bus to Granada for two days. From Granada, we're taking a bus to Malaga where we'll catch a flight (Spanair) to Barcelona.<BR>We're flying back to Madrid on Spanair on our last day to catch our flight back home. I've researched all the times and costs for all the interim travel and it works out much cheaper than an open-jaw ticket. They have $79 intra-Spain flight passes available on europebyair.com.

Angela, did you get a non-stop direct flight from Granada to Barcelona on Spanair or are you flying via Madrid, Gran Canaria or somewhere else?<BR><BR>The reason I ask is that I've been looking at non-stop direct flights from Granada to Barcelona and I thought the only option was to fly Iberia.

No, we have to take a bus from Granada to Malaga to get a non-stop flight to Barcelona. From the bus schedule, it looks to be a 1hr 45min. ride for under 8 euro.

What's the ballpark fare for the high speed train from Madrid to Seville?

Usually 64 Euros for second class one way, though a couple of trains are 57 Euros. See www.renfe.es.

I found when shopping for flights to Spain that Sevilla was what made the fares more expensive, not the open jaw option. We are flying into Madrid and out of Barcelona, and this was no more expensive than R/T Madrid. (Though ultimately, I ended up booking this ticket w/miles.)<BR><BR>We are doing a similar itineray, with a couple of more days, so spending two nights in Granada. We'll be taking the AVE Madrid to Sevilla, bus or train Sevilla to Granada, and fly Granada to Barcelona (about 200E one way on Iberia, unfortunately, but since the main flight was &quot;free&quot;....)

Lesli, you have a similar itinerary to mine. Just checked Iberia today and found that the roundtrip non-stop fare from Granada to Barcelona is cheaper than the one-way fare by about 35 Euro. If you haven't booked your flight yet, you might just book the roundtrip and throw away the second leg.

Hi, Leslie -<BR><BR>Thanks for the tip re the Iberia flight! I have not booked it yet, since I've been balking at the fare. Think I will follow your advice and book as a round trip; I'll play around with days of the week for the hypothetical return and see if that makes any further difference.

Lesli, book the return leg for Sunday, or at least you need to pretend to have a Saturday overnight when you book. That seemed to reduce the price considerably.<BR><BR>However, I know that you're going later than I am. Last month, Iberia had a fare sale - had to ticket by the end of January and complete travel by end of February. The roundtrip fares were about 125 Euro. I don't know if a sale like this will be repeated, but in regard to the other fare, today was the first time that I had ever seen a lower fare.