Our family is traveling to Spain at Christmas. We will be there about 8 days, arriving on Dec 24. We could fly into Malaga, Madrid or Barcelona. We would like to see the Alhambra and spend 2 days in Valencia, and otherwise are pretty open. I am sorry this is so general, but we aren't really sure how to make this work. We also realize that everything will probably be closed on Christmas Day. Any sugggestions? Thanks for your help.

You can fly to Barcelona, then Valencia, go to Granada and finally fly back from Malaga and skip Madrid this time. And it's even too much for 8 days That could be, 3 days Barcelona, 2 days Valencia , 2 days Granada and you have one left to travel between Valencia and Granada , it's about 6 hours by train.

Fly into Malaga and get out of Malaga by hire car ASAP. Cordoba Seville, Granada and Ronda are in pretty easy reach by car, all are well worth a visit imo.

I answered your other post, but this one includes Malaga, which changes things. If the 2 locations you are interested in are Granada and Valencia, then I agree with Kenderina, including the order. If you get in on the 24 to BCN, spend 3 days there getting over jet lag, seeing the festivities, and enjoying the city. On the 27 you can take an early morning train to Valencia, arriving around 9, giving you that day and the next to see the city. On the 29 head down to Granada and spend 2 days there, then head to Malaga to go home.

If you reverse the order, though, you will be in BCN on New Year's Eve, which is potentially fun if you make plans.

Thanks for the help. We have now decided that doing all of this is too much. We will divide the time between Barcelona and Valencia. We now have to work on what to do in these two cities. Thanks!

Jeno- I posted my hot list on my "moving back to Barcelona" thread, and those are my strongest recommendations. Valencia is also a wonderful place (lincasanova from this board lives there) and there was recently a good thread about what to do there. . . I am glad to hear you are doing less travel. I think that is wise. My first Spanish Christmas was spent in Valencia and I will never forget that warm and wonderful time.

Thanks for all of your help. We finally decided that my husband and I will go to Valencia by ourselves first and then meet our family in Barcelona where we have rented an apartment for 9 days. The other way was too much running around. Now we can really enjoy Barcelona. The fact that things would be closed around Christmas also made us think we needed more time in Barcelona.