Spain Itinerary
 

Going to Spain and wondering if anyone can help with an itinerary. We will be flying into Madrid and out through Barcelona. And we will be there for 12 days. Would love to see Seville. Any other recommendations or "must see's" Northern Spain or Southern Spain. One better then the other? Any help would be much appreiciated!

Well, count on staying at least 3 days in Barcelona to make it worth your while, and also count on 3 days for Madrid, with a side trip to Toledo. I would allow an extra 4-5 days for Andalucia. Stay in Sevlille and take daytrips to Cordoba and Granada.

Alternatively, and depending on what you're looking for, a trip through the Basque country can be very rewarding (Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastian, Guernica)

I'd start in Madrid, take the AVE to Seville, and then take a flight to Barcelona. Flights in Spain can be surprisingly cheap.

Questions:

Will you be renting a car? Do you like city activities? Or rural? Beaches?

Be a bit more precise & we can help you more.

Ian

We did 12 days in spain last spring - flew into madrid for 2 days; then took the AVE to seville; 4 days there, drove to Malaga/Granada for 3 days and flew on iberia to barcelona for 3nights/4 days and then flew to Madrid and out to the states. Sevilla was my personal favorite followed closely by barca. Granada and the alhambra were OK - a lot of hype in my humble opinion. We did madrid quickly - prado, palace, lots of walking. It was around easter.

Thanks for your insites. We are not adverse to renting a car. We have done so in both Italy and Ireland, so we are a bit accustomed to driving in Europe. We enjoy cities but also like getting outside and seeing some of the countryside. My husband is quite interested in wine, not sure there is some way to see any of the wine regions. Beaches are nice as well, but wouldn't need to spend more then 2 days at the beach. Does this help at all? Also, anyone have any opinions on how many days in Madrid? We will arrive early Saturday morning and get going as soon as we get there. Should we plan on heading to our next destination on Monday or Tuesday morning?

I'd say your first decision is: North (Green Spain) or South (Brown Spain).

In 12 days, you can see & do a lot but you don't want to travel too fast that you don't enjoy it.

In June we flew into Madrid & went south - Almagro (sleepy town), Jaen (stunning vistas), Granada (Alhambra), Sevilla (Jewish Quarter), Nerja (beach) & back to Madrid (museums) by car. Search on my name & read my trip report. It was my best planned trip yet. It was a good mix of different activities.

In 12 days, I would plan on 4 major places to see. 2 - 3 nights Madrid at the start. 2 nights Barcelona at the end. In the middle - train to Sevilla maybe? Then rent & drive north slowly - Granada 1 night - maybe Jaen 1 night - beach somewhere for 2 nights - either south or Valencia-Sitges area (Penedes wine region just inland from Sitges - home of Torres) to end in Barcelona.

Lots of choices for you to investigate.

Btw tell your husband that wine is cheap & good in Spain. Great Riojas everywhere for 17-20 Euro. Yum, yum.

Ian

The Penedes and Cava wine regions are right next to Barcelona. Freixenet and Codorniu have winery tours. The Codorniu building in particular is really nice and worth the visit, and the Cava is not bad at all!

Thanks so much. I know my Husband will be happy to know he can possible visit some wineries. Do you lean toward brown Spain or Green Spain for any reason?

We went south this time for the Moorish architecture Alhambra, Alcazar etc.

The northeast (where we had gone numerous yrs ago) is greener - trees, fields & more medieval.

Ian

If you're flying into Madrid, you're going to be so close to some great places, I think you should consider checking them out--esp. Segovia and Toledo, but also Avila and Salamanca. You could do them as day trips from Madrid, but I think you'd be better off staying overnight...check out Parador.es.

Seville is great and so is Barcelona. IMO to try to do "green Spain" while flying into Madrid and out of Barcelona would be just too much for this trip--save that for another trip and enjoy Madrid and the nearby places, Seville (and nearby places) and Barcelona. You'll be plenty busy with these (and happy too.)

After doing some more research, I agree with the idea of saving green Spain for another time. Just to much to see! Right now we have planned 3 nights in Madrid and 2 in Sevilla. Hopefully we can fit in a day trip during our stay in Madrid, but will play that by ear for now. We have been toying with the idea of trying to fit a Morocco day trip in during our travels. Anyone ever done that? Is it worth it? Sounds interesting from what I have been reading. We plan to fly to Barcelona from either Granda or Malaga. Not sure yet. Still need to firm up that part of the trip.

When plannning our 11-day southern Spain trip, threads from "Maribel" were invaluable. I would suggest reading some of her excellent advice.

Seville was our favorite city and spent 3 days and felt we could spend a week at least, also enjoyed the Alhambra, and driving through the "white towns" of Southern Spain. Nerja was a nice beach town. Madrid was not as enjoyable as Seville for us.

We traveled the southern area so I can't offer anything for the northern area including Barcelona. That is our next trip to Spain!

Have fun planning and check out Maribel's threads -- she is must-read when planning a Spain trip.

Thanks for the advice BeachGirl. Do I search for posts by "Maribel" on this site, or is there some other website out there?

Although Maribel has many posts that you can do a search for, she was nice enough to make a website with all her Spain info. www.maribelsguides.com
Check out www.madridman.com also.

Another vote for Maribel's guides. We used several of her restaurant suggestions in Sevilla & Madrid & she was bang on.

I agree with Beachgirl, we much preferred Sevilla. Madrid is a big busy city. Nice to see, but we wouldn't rush back.

BTW Beachgirl, I finally stumbled across your trip report - sorry I missed it - sounds like you had a great time.

Ian