lauraduff

Please help! My husband and I are planning a +- 10 day trip to Spain in May of next year. Our tickets are frequent flier and can be into Madrid, Bilbao, Barcelona or Malaga. We would like to see:

1) the Basque/Rioja region - at least 4 days (food & wine)
2) Southern Spain - Seville, Granada - 4-5 days (food, history, architecture)
3) possibly Madrid - only 1-2 days though (city, food, history, architecture)
4) possibly Barcelona (city, architecture)

We originally wanted to just do the Northern & Southern regions, but when I estimated transportation costs (flights and/or trains and/or busses), it was almost $400/person! We are now considering the Northern region exclusively, and I'm sure we could find plenty to do up there. But, that would require a car rental, and I would really like to avoid that - we both want to just relax and not stress about it.

The only "musts" are that we need to end up in Barcelona, Madrid or Malaga, because the next stop on our trip is Prague and those are the only cities I was able to find cheap flights from.

I've been reading trip reports and everyone has great comments & ideas. Please let me know how we can see everything we want to see without spending half our trip in airports!

Thank you!
Laura

pavfec

I don't think that going to Northern and Southern Spain is the best use of the 10 days. I visited Spain last year, and if it were me, I would probably do the Basque/Rioja regions, Madrid and Barcelona.

I'd save Andalusia for another time and make it another 10-day trip on its own.

NEDSIRELAND

You consider transportation cost $400 pp. too high: Motorcoach is your most inexpensive option.

Make Bilbao (Vizcaya, Basque Province) your port of entry. Bus to Madrid on Continental-Auto. Bus Madrid-Sevilla on SociBus/SecorBus. Fly back to BCN from Sevilla: not sure if Vueling does that route but it shouldn't be overly expensive.
Alternative: stay north! Santander is one of my favorite places in Spain and there are a lot of daytrips from there. Bus from there to Barcelona (9-hrs) or Madrid (5.5 hrs). Been there; done that!

Viajero2

Let's just get this off the bat: you can not see all you listed in 10 days (or, at a minimum, it will all be a blur on the 11th day anyway). So, it all comes down to a desicion only you can make: North or South. Either way, May is a great time to visit Madrid, which should be bursting with the Festivities of Isidro (patron Saint of Bullfighting). However, as such, May in Madrid can be noisy and crowded. So, I would fly into Madrid. If you choose the North, tour the region accordingly and fly out of Barcelona. If choosing the South, fly into Madrid, spend 2-3 days and train/bus out to Seville. By the way, I agree w/NED, $400/pp total transportation to complete the itinerary you listed is pretty good, more so considering you are using FF to get to Spain to begin with. If weather is acriteria, May in the North is a bit rainy; in the South is hot and dry.

lauraduff

Thanks for all your imput. I think you're right - I'll stick to the Northern regions for this trip. Should I be worried about driving around up there? Are the roads well marked? We've driven through Mexico and did fairly well, but our Spanish is sketchy at best.

Thanks again!
Laura

mikelg

The roads are excellent and extremely well marked,there is no possibility to go wrong, so donīt worry about it. There are all the ....ways possible (toll..., free...., high...and motor....), all in perfect condition.