Hi,

I recently posted about choosing to visit either Barcelona or Madrid. After doing a bit of research, I have now realized that I would like to see both! Travel time between the two (by train) is 5 and a half hours.
Does two full days in Barcelona, followed by a day taking the train to Madrid and then two full days in Madrid sound feasable, and enjoyable? Or am I trying to cram in too much?

This is how my trip looks so far:
London 5.5 days (including day of arrival in Europe)
Paris 5.5 days
Venice 2.5 days
Rome 5.5 days
Barcelona 2.5 days
Madrid 2.5 Days
(the half days are travel days)

Thanks for all opinions!

I'll let you know. But I'm not going to Madrid until January 18 and Barcelona the beginning of March. We once went to Yosemite Park from San Fran. It took a 4 hour train ride to and 4 hour train ride back and I'd do it again because we never got back. How about a night train, then you won't miss the daylight hours.

I suggest you fly from Barcelona to Madrid. Fares very often are well below 40e.

Look at the websites for Iberia, Vueling and SpanAir.

www.rumbo.es will look at all three at once.

Maybe an extra day in Barcelona would be good. Any chance of taking one off london or are your flights booked?
As nessundorma says - FLY between Barcelona and Madrid to save your precious time. Try air europa too.

Thanks for all the advice so far!

I haven't booked any flights within Europe as I am still considering all the options. I actually heard that Madrid is not that nice ...... any opinions on that?

IMO Madrid does not have as much of a "wow" factor as Barcelona unless you are a major art fan - it has a least three major art museums. Retiro Park is nice, the Royal Palace, the Plaza Mayor and tapas in Plaza Santa Ana - these are the main tourist "must sees" in Madrid. If you were spending some time in Madrid you could add day trips to Toledo, Segovia and maybe the Escorial. But Barcelona is the more interesting city to me - the Gaudi sites, the old city, all the interesting architecture....I'd suggest you just go ahead and spend the 5 days there. There are some nice daytrips nearby too if you want to get out of the city for a day but I'd take the time and just enjoy Barcelona instead of short changing it just to fit in Madrid.

I spent a week in Madrid and enjoyed myself. With that much time one can see the big three museums, do day trips to Toledo, Segovia, El Escorial, etc. However, if you cut out the day trips then two full days in Madrid can be quite fun.

My concern with splitting your time between the two is Barcelona. I haven't been yet, but in reading all the things to do for my 5 days there next month, I keep thinking I don't have enough days to see & do it all. My philosophy is that it's better to do one place well then two where you miss a lot, so if it were me I'd just do Barcelona.

I'd then try my hardest to get back to Spain to do Madrid & Sevilla (an easy AVE ride away) together. Although Madrid's nice, I could live without having seen it. But Sevilla!!!!