Spain Itinerary For Oct 2019
 

Hi, we have just got back from 16 nights of SI New Zealand. It was a wonderful trip with a good itinerary input from fodorites. We are very grateful for all the help and comments when we were trying to create an itinerary for NZ.

Now, we are trying to create an itinerary of roughly 18 nights in Spain for next Oct. We are from Malaysia , in our 50's and 60's, have traveled 3 times to Western and Eastern Europe in the past 10 years with each trip lasting 3 weeks to a month. We prefer a leisurely pace, and prefer to travel using public transportation as we are not comfortable driving in Europe . We generally like to visit historical sites, people watching and just enjoying the vibe and ambiance of a new place. We are not much into museum though we did visit Uffizi and Louvre. This will be our first trip to Spain.
Below is our 18 nights itinerary. Feel free to comment as nothing is booked yet.

Day 1-4-- -fly into Barcelona (4 nights).
Day 5-6 Barcelona to Cordoba by direct train in the morning . Stay 2 nights in Cordoba.
Day 7-8 -- -Cordoba to Granada by Alsa bus. Stay 2 nights in Granada
Day 9-10-- Granada to Ronda by regional train. Stay 2 nights in Ronda.
Day 11-14- Ronda to Seville by train or bus. Stay 4 nights at Seville with a day trip to Arcos de la Fontera by train to Jerez and bus to Arcos.
Day 15-18- Seville to Madrid by train. Stay 4 nights in Madrid with day trips to Segovia and Toledo.
Day 19-- Depart Madrid for home.

Looking forward to comments and help from fodorites.

Mei.

Looks good to me and you could move a few things around but hey not bad. I might also review chances of visiting Malaga, Cadiz.

Spain is delightful! Just a few comments:

Your time in Barcelona is quite short, particularly as you will be getting over jet lag while there.

2 nights in Granada really gives you 1 day there, which is about right for seeing the Alhambra. If you want to see any of Granada’s other treasures, you might need another night there.

2 nights is a lot for Ronda. And while Ronda is beautiful, it isn’t on the same tier as your other chosen locations IMO. If you need to cut time anywhere, Ronda might be the place to consider skipping.

It isn’t clear to me that you will have time for two day trips while in Sevilla, but of course, you can decide once there.

While many people visit Toledo as a day trip, I thought it well worth 2 full days. And as with Sevilla, it isn’t clear to me that your time in Madrid is sufficient to allow two day trips.

I did an October trip to Spain this year, but only had 15 nights. You can click on my name to see my trip report (with pictures), Might give you some ideas.

I think you've got a pretty good plan, but I'm going to agree with kja on Ronda. We drove through a couple of hill towns and spent an afternoon in Ronda, and found that to be just fine for seeing the pueblos blancos. If you are going to take a day trip to Arcos, via Jerez, and you aren't renting car, I'd cut out Ronda and add that time elsewhere. Perhaps one each for Cordoba and Granada?

If you aren't into museums, you might also want to consider taking a night from Madrid and spending it in Toledo. We did Toledo as a daytrip, due to some logistics issues not applicable to your trip, but if I had it to do over again, I'd prefer to spend a night (or two) in Toledo, as the town has so many day trippers that it's a different place at night (probably could say the same of Cordoba).

I agree with kja and twk that you have a good itinerary. I might tweak it a bit. We visited all of your destinations except for Ronda so I don't have firsthand experience there. I loved Madrid and we had 4 nights in Madrid, exclusive of Toledo, but we spent a lot of time in 2 outstanding museums, the Prado and Reina Sofia. Also enjoyed the Royal Palace and Retiro Park and wandering around. Since you don't love museums, perhaps you could delete a night from Madrid and spend one night (or two) in Toledo as kja and twk suggest. It is a gorgeous city that is very, very crowded during the day with tour buses. It is so much more enjoyable at night after the daytrippers have left. And Toledo lit up at night is beautiful.

So you could do one of the following:

• take one night from Madrid and spend one night in Toledo.
• Take a night from Ronda to spend a second night in Toledo.
• Or take a night from Ronda to add it to Barcelona.
• Or spend 4 nights in Madrid with one day trip (to Segovia) AND take a night from Ronda to spend one night in Toledo.

We spent 4 nights in Seville and enjoyed every minute of it. Seville is a gorgeous city. Not sure you have time for day trips.

I like that you are spending 2 nights in Cordoba. It was one of our favorite destinations.

i hope I haven't confused you too much.

Looks cool - I would take bus Ronda to Seville rather than train as bus goes more direct and goes thru some of the iconic White Villages of Andalusia. And I agree with kja about Ronda being a nice photo op of the gorgeous gorge bisecting the old and new towns. But just an average town - nice but maube spend one day elsewhere. Anyway trains - book long-distance trains ASAP on Spanaish Railways site - Renfe - Spanish Railways site - book early to get limited in number discounted tickets. www.seat61.com has very prudent content on booking your own trains at a discount - including alternative sites with similar fares that many find easier than the Renfe site (based on comments on Fodor's) - general info like 1st v 2nd class check www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts.

Just to be clear, I thought Ronda far more than a "photo op"-- it has some interesting museums and neighborhoods worth roaming. My point was just that it isn't in the same league as the other places you are considering.

Hi, thanks for the comments. We have a fascination with pueblo blancos from pictures viewed online, hence the decision to visit Ronda and Arcos. We are fine with visiting Ronda for a night and we can skip Arcos day trip and spend the all the time in Seville if we find enough to keep us interested. We are assuming that for the day trip to Arcos via Jerez, we can buy train and bus tickets last minute, so will decide when we are at Seville.

For the extra night cut from Ronda, should we allocate it to Granada or Madrid ? We have decided to stay a night in Toledo from Seville before proceeding to Madrid for 3 nights with a day trip to Segovia (very keen on). That will leave us with only 1.5 days in Madrid counting in travelling time from Toledo to Madrid. Which is recommended, extra night at Granada or Madrid ?

The itinerary will be as follow:
Barcelona (4n)
Cordoba (2n )
Granada (2n ) or 3?
Ronda (1n)
Seville (4n) with possible day trip to Arcos .
Toledo (1n)
Madrid (3n ) or 4 ? with day trip to Segovia.


Are we going to encounter a lot of problem getting around for not knowing a word of Spanish ? So far on all our trips to Europe, we are able to get by with just English except for some minor problem in France during our 2 visits there. I understand that very little English is spoken especially in Andalusia.
Thanks.

Mei

Your trip is in 295 days.
Learn five Spanish words a day, include some verbs and a couple of conjugations.
By October you should know enough to read a menu (including the local specialties), count to a hundred, ask politely for an extra towel.

In high tourist areas you'll be ok, but you don't want to have to eat in Macdonalds all the time, so learn the top 40 phrases. Trains will be ok but buses will not have English speakers naturally.

It really depends on your interests! As already mentioned, the Alhambra itself can take a full day, and thus require 2 nights in Granada. Have you determined whether there are other things you want to see there? I did -- enough to make me wish I'd given Granada more than 3 nights! But others feel very differently, and only you and your research can provide an answer.

I would point out that Madrid is among the easiest places for international travelers to visit while in Spain, and so it is much easier to include on future trips. Finding a way to include another day in Granada on another trip would likely be much more complicated. Just something to consider.

I didn't have trouble, although I did at least learn a few civilities and would encourage you to do that -- it is always appreciated! If you go beyond the basic terms of courtesy, I'd focus NOT on food terms, but on asking and receiving directions and expressing (and understanding) common travel-related concerns (things like "at what time" or "which bus goes to X" -- and note that even if bus drivers don't speak English, saying the name of a town or place as a clear question has always gotten me a clear yes or no answer, and almost always, an indication of when I should get off). Most guidebooks have a section on local specialties and another on translating food terms, or you can probably get an app for that. I ate eating extremely well in all the places I've visited in Spain and I've done so without an app.

Thanks kja for easing our mind. As Malaysians, we are not exposed to European language at all. At our age, will be difficult to learn but common phrases should be useful. Anyway using app is a good idea.

Will try to add an extra night to our itinerary to make it 19 nights so as not to short change Madrid. Unlikely that we will be able to afford another trip to Spain as there are still many places in Europe we haven't covered yet. The 🇲🇾 ringgit is just too weak, Rm 4.80 to 1 euro making traveling to EU very expensive. Flight tickets are expensive too, more than 4k ringgit per round trip ticket. 😅

Anyway, thanks 🙏to all fodorites for taking the trouble to read and gave suggestions. Really appreciate it. Will post again when have more questions.

Mei😀

If you can add a day, I don't think you'll regret it. Enjoy!

kja - sorry for putting my words in your mouth and I was agreeing with you about Ronda in general - my fault since I am not a big museum fan and spend whole day in Ronda and that was more than enough.

@ PalenQ: Apology accepted.