stevefrat

Hello-

My wife and I will be traveling to Spain in early March. We've already booked our flights, an apartment in Barcelona, and our hotels in Madrid and Sevilla. We will fly into Barcelona on Friday, March 3. We've rented an apartment in Eixample (about a block from Passeig de Gracia, 4 blocks from Placa Catalunya) for 5 nights. We will the fly from Barcelona to Sevilla, and stay for 3 nights (Hotel Becquer). We plan to take AVE from Sevilla to Madrid, and stay for another 3 nights (Hotel Plaza Mayor). We will fly back to Philadelphia from Madrid.

In Barcelona, we know we want to do all things Gaudi and the Picasso Museum. In Sevilla, the Cathedral/Giralda and Alcazar our on our list. In Madrid, we plan to visit the Prado, Thyssen, Reina-Sofia, and and Palacio Real.

So, my question for all of you is what else would you recommend seeing in the 3 cities we plan to visit? Which restaurants would you recommend? Is there a particular bar we just have to spend some time? Any help you can provide is most appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

stevefrat

Oh, a few more details. I'm 30, my wife's 26. We live and work in the city of Philadelphia. We enjoy night life, and while I wouldn't describe ourselves as "foodies," we do enjoy excellent meals while we're on vacation. To give you an idea, we've budgeted 90 euros per day for dinner and 20 euros per day for lunch between the two of us.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again,
Steve

lincasanova

to help your budget, you could think of having your large meal at lunch time where you will find numerous fixed price menus for 8-15 euros.
then have your tapas or lighter meal some evenings.

i have a thread about my seville trip but must dig to find it. it is from last february.

we enjoyed casa de la memoria, and you could really go twice because the shows are different every evening and quite enjoyable in a lovely interior patio.

i would also encourage you to splurge the 30 euros for the carriage ride around sevilla as sson as you get there to get your bearings and a feel for the place.

there is a great half price happy hour at the casas de la juderia hotel bar which usually has music also.

also do not miss the hotel alfonso X111 for some deserved opulence for a drink or coffee. it is a charming setting.

for a fun meal in madrid, if you are in this area,i like "septimo" on diego de leon, near calle serrano ( shopping area) and up a bit from the american embassy. it is a nice atmosphere, reasonably priced, and not the typical menu. also open in morning for cake and coffee.

see about exhibits at the national library. they are usually quite good. also, "La fundacion March" has great exhibits and occasional recitals.

you will get lots of good info here by just search for restaurants, activities, or just the city name. all the pertinent posts will come up.

enjoy your trip. sounds great.

bevief

My daughter and I spent a week in Barcelona last year and had a great time. All things Gaudi are wonderful. Don't miss the Roman ruins under the Palace and if possible, take a day trip out to MonSarrat via the train and tram--well worth the day. Be worned--Spaniards eat LATE. Don't even think about dinner until 9 or 10 pm. What i didn't find were any good local crafts--first time I didn't come back with a lot of stuff. hope this helps.

artlover

This sounds like a great trip. In Barcelona I enjoyed the Miro Museum even more than the Picasso--the setting was fabulous, especially if you can be there around sunset. Also, for excellent, inexpensive food (and a young crowd) I recommend La Dolca Herminia--2 blocks towards Ramblas from Palau del la Musica at Magdalenes. If you can get a tour (or go to a concert) at Palau del la Musica--do--we didn't but my daughter did and we plan to next trip.

In Seville, go to a flamenco show. We went at Los Gallos, which was fabulous, but there are other good ones as well (our hotel got us tickets).

You could probably do a day-trip from Madrid to either Toledo or Segovia--both are fabulous, and while I like Madrid, I LOVED both Tolego and Segovia. If you go to Segovia, go to dinner at Narizotas and splurge on "the left foot" (menu at www.narizotas.net).

Have a great trip!

NEDSIRELAND

You'll be in Barcelona on a Sunday: if the weather cooperates, go to Parc Guell, a Gaudi Spectacular. Likewise for Madrid (Retiro Park), but for a different reason. Along the main Paseo in the Park (from the Puerta de Alcala) street Performers do their thing. They don't tend to be agressive like in N.Y. Washington Square or San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf. We sat and enjoyed a Cantaor de Flamenco for about 15-minutes.

Visit the Park at Plaza de Oriente and learn a bit of history from Statues of the Visigoth Kings of Spain (Wamba is my favorite).

Consider cutting your Barcelona stay and adding to your Madrid stay to allow time for visiting Toledo and/or Segovia on daytrips from Madrid.

Chadbee

Are you going to have a rental car in Sevilla? If so you can visit Italica and Carmona (both have Roman ruins and are less than 30 minutes outside Sevilla). If you want to venture out of Sevilla take the A376 into Ronda, bout an hour's drive. A beautiful town up in the mountains, famous for the first bull ring in Southern Spain and also a bridge that spans an extremely deep gorge and also has a prison built into it.

Myer

We were in Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada and Madrid last year.

While I wasn't inside the Hotel Becquer (we passed walking across the street), I'm glad we stayed at Casas de la Juderia and it's location.

Hotel Becquer is located on a busy downtown type street.

The Flamenco we went to the the Memoria 5 minutes from the Juderia hotel. Not a tourist show with drinks, etc. A great one hour exhibition.

ascl

My husband and I spent a week in Barcelona this past August. Definitely take a day trip to Montserrat if you can. 1hour by train-very easy to get to. This was my husband's favorite part of the trip.

Our restaurant recommendations:
Can Culleretes for great Catalan food at very reasonable prices and charming atmosphere. Carrer d'en Quintana 5 in Barric Gotic

Cerveceria Catalana for tapas - a very popular spot. Again, for what we felt was very reasonable. We had dinner there twice and the total bill came out to €20-30 for 5-6 plates of tapas. Carrer de Mallorca 236 in L'Exiample.