Spain trip
 

Hi- I' ll be traveling with my family (husband.+2 kids) for 3 weeks in April throughout Spain.
I have not finalized my hotel booking but would love to hear any experience in where to stay in Madrid (5days) mid April and Barcelona (4 days). Additionally, is a night train from Barcelona to Paris a good option to visit Paris?

Any advice is very welcome.

Thanks very much!

Hopefully you're not planning on traveling during Holy Week. It can be rather expensive depending on where you're planning on staying.

Many nice areas in Madrid. Near the Plaza Mayor is great for tapas near Cava Baja. Barcelona I like Bari gotic or El Born. Had really good experience at the perfectly located Hotel Colon or it's more inexpensive sister next door the Regencia Colon.

Thanks for the reply Robert and Egbert.
here is my itinerary.
April 13 arriving to Madrid
April 14 Madrid-->museums
April 15 Madrid --> day trip to Toledo
April 16 Madrid
April 17 leaving Madrid AVE train to Malaga (home base for a week (rent a car)
April 18 Malaga to Cordoba
April 19 Malaga to Granada
April 20 Marbella
April 21 Malaga to Sevilla (holy thursday)
april 22 Malaga to Sevilla (good friday)
april 23 malaga to marroco via ferry
april 24 marroco
april 25 marroco to malaga to barcelona via AVE train
april 26 Barcelona
april 27 Barcelona
april 28 Barcelona to paris via night train(sleeper)
april 29 paris
april 30 paris
may 1 paris
may 2 return to NY

I appreciate any advice or critics to the above itinerary
kind regards

Personally I'd cut the time in Morocco and stay longer in Barcelona & Paris. 3 days each for Paris and Barcelona is a little tight. Or find time to spend a couple of nights in Granada vs visiting as a daytrip from Malaga.

It's too bad you won't be staying in Sevilla during Semana Santa. Traveling back and forth on Thursday and Friday will not allow you to see the most famous processionals as they leave in the early morning (starting at midnight) on Good Friday. Is your one week stay in Malaga based in Malaga city? If you are staying in Malaga city I'd spend these days savoring the processionals of Malaga.

I agree with Cathy re: Barcelona and Paris.
The train Malaga-Barcelona takes almost 6 hours.
You can fly Vueling for 35 euros.

Thank you CathyM and Danon for your great suggestions.
We are based in Malaga (time-share). I guess we can adjust the itinerary to one day in Morocco. Instead of a one day trip to Granada, we can stay overnight and fly vs AVE train to Barcelona.
one of my main questions at this time is do you know of any good deals airline/train to Paris?
So far i have a 3 days pass. If we fly from Malaga to Barcelona I only need a 2 day pass.
Appreciate your feedback

Here is a download of information for some of the cities you are visiting. Richard www.maribelsguides.com

Vueling ... 50 euros

http://www.vueling.com/?language=EN

What do you mean about a 3 day pass? Do you mean a rail pass?

thanks Iris and Danon for the info.
in reference to your question CathyM, yes 3 days rail pass.

Railpasses are generally not a good deal when it comes to train travel in Spain. You can usually get a better price when buying tickets in advance on the internet. For example I just purchased a ticket from Madrid to Cordoba for 21.45 euros (regular price 53.70).

Am I missing your train trips?
Madrid to Cordoba
Cordoba to Granada
Malaga to Sevilla
Malaga to Barcelona (quicker and probably less expensive to fly)

Save Morocco for another trip. You won't see much of the country with two nights there. Besides, it is said that Tangiers is to Morocco as Tijuana is to Mexico.

We are inveterate museum goers but I find museums tiring and to go to more than one in a day may be too much.

I too would skip Morocco this trip and slow the trip down a bit and linger a little and enjoy the Spanish life rather than just tourist sites.

And three days in Paris is simply a teaser.

If i was going to marocco i'd drop the ferry and switch to a flight to Marakesh or Rabat, be warmer and nicer.

I agree that I would not spend that many days in Morocco, especially if you were planning into Tangier. But sense you are going to be staying down in Malaga, I highly suggest a trip to Gibraltar. You can go up the Rock of Gibraltar and there are monkeys everywhere. I really enjoyed it and I bet the kids would too. There is also an underground tour under the Rock where they had a miniature city during World War II (or maybe I, I have forgotten). When I was there, we went from Gibraltar to Tarifa, Spain by bus and then caught a ferry to Morocco. The ferry there was fine, but the Ferry back to Tarifa was the scariest moment of my life. I thought the ferry was going to capsize. The sea was VERY rough, and sitting inside the ferry (which was huge), you could see the water coming up over the windows as the boat was rocking that much. The workers were walking around whispering with life jackets and people were crying and getting sick. It wasn't pleasant. So, I'm not saying that this would happen again, but if I were going I would check out flights as well instead of the ferry.

As for the overnight train - I haven't done it from Barcelona to Paris, but I have done an overnight train from Paris to Madrid, and I would definitely recommend it. I slept well, and with the 4 of you, you all can get a cabin to yourselves. The bathrooms are a little icky, but i was comfortable in our room.