Spain Itinerary Help
 

Hi, I realize this is a cramped itinerary, but please give us some help. We will land in Barcelona in May, spending 3 nights there. We want to go to Andalusia next for 8 nights. What train should we take and which city would be best to start in, Seville, Cordoba or Grenada? What would be the best order of cities and how should we travel between the 3 cities, car or public transportation? We then need to travel by train to Madrid where we will fly home from. Do we need to book trains now? Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help. Joan

Are you sure this itinerary will suit your interests? 3 nights -- essentially 2 days, part of which will be spent with jetlag -- is exceedingly little for Barcelona. The combination of Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada can easily take 10 full days for a surface-level visit. And you basically have no time for Madrid -- but perhaps that doesn't interest you.

Trains for most of it. Perhaps a flight from Barcelona to Andalusia. No car, which will simply be an impediment for this itineary.

Which order to visit the cities of Andalusia depends on what, exactly, you want to see (some things in Spain are closed part of Sunday and all of Monday, not to mention long mid-day closures) and when you can get reservations for the Alhambra.

Good luck!

Hi,

You should take a direct train(saving you the hassle of changing trains in Madrid) from Barcelona to Sevilla or Granada, but I recommend to get off in Cordoba first since this is the closest city of the 3 and it still takes close to 5 hours.

It doesn't really matter in which order you see the cities and the best way to travel is by train.

You can't book train tickets more than 2-3 months in advance, so don't even start looking(other than for schedules) before February.

https://www.seat61.com/Europe-when-d...kings-open.htm

Please note correct spelling: GrAnada and not GrEnada - which is the Caribbean island the USA invaded in 1983.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...et-mix-up.html

Thank you. I've started looking at the train and air schedules. Do you think a 5 day rail pass would be better than individual train tickets? Any recommendations for hotels in the low to mid range price in these areas? Thanks again.

"Do you think a 5 day rail pass would be better than individual train tickets?"

Most likely it'll be more expensive than buying point to point tickets at least a couple of weeks in advance.

You don't need a 5 day railpass, since you're going to make only 4 trips:

Barcelona - Cordoba, Cordoba - Granada, Granada - Sevilla, Sevilla - Madrid

A 4 day One Country Spain Pass would be enough for this, but this costs 196 EUR for 2nd class(2nd class is called Turista in Spain)

This is roughly 50€/trip.

Cordoba - Granada and Granada - Sevilla are relatively short journeys and cost around 30-50€ even on short notice.

Barcelona - Cordoba and Sevilla - Madrid may cost 100€ or more on short notice, but book tickets a few weeks in advance(the sooner the better, but you can't book more than 2-3 months in advance) and you can get tickets for around 40 - 70€.

Once your travel dates are fixed and you're within the 60 days booking window price your journeys and compare the total ticket costs with the price of the railpass. Remember to add mandatory seat reservation fees on top of the railpass price! 10€ for top of the range AVE high-speed trains, and a bit less for lower category trains.

https://www.seat61.com/InterRail-and...uide.htm#Spain

I would fly from Barcelona to Granada. Then it doesn't matter whether you go to Cordoba or Seville. The high speed train leaves from both cities to get you back to Barcelona.