amrdia

We are heading to spain in Oct. This is early planning. We would like to visit Barcelona and a southern beacg town. Should we fly between cities? Take train or drive? Does anyone know travel times and if you have been there what would you do? We have one week.
Thanks in advance.

Intrepid

from which particular town/city are you planning to leave from to travel to Barcelona?

amrdia

our options are to fly into bcn or madrid. I prefer the direct flight to bcn and then depart from madrid if seeing the south.

Intrepid

I'd be happy to try to help answer your train questions which is why I asked about a specific town you might have in mind in the Marbella area. If you are concerned about travel between Madrid and Barcelona I would definitely advise looking into flying between those two cities since the train would take several hours and my understanding is the route isn't all that scenic. I agree that flying into Barcelona and then eventually flying out of Madrid if you are first going to visit an area in the south is the best plan.

amrdia

Thank you for your quick reply! My understanding is that it takes 12 hours to go 660 miles on the train from barcelona to Marbella. It seems a flight would be best My understanding is that it is about $100/person. Do you know this to be true? How big of a hassle to fly internally in spain? Are there regular flights? Arrive 2 hours before? Are the airports conveniently located?
Thanks again.

wayno

From having spent a lot of time on the Iberia website, I found that it is easy and inexpensive to take the domestic flight. You can fly to Almeria, Granada or Malaga.

swissgirl

We just returned from Marbella yesterday! Since we live in Geneva, we took Easyjet to Barcelona and spent several days there. From Barcelona, we took a SpanAir flight to Malaga. We found tickets on the SpainAir website for 269 Euros for 4 of us. No hassle in either airports - flights were all on time - definitely recommend it. By the way, in Marbella, we stayed at a brand new hotel called the Gran Hotel Gualdalpin - www.granhotelgualdalpin.com. Beautiful 5 star hotel for 251 Euros per night for the 4 of us. It has two bedrooms,each with own bathroom, a sitting room, a small, fully equipped kitchenette, and a huge terrace with a couch and chair, 4 lounge chairs and dining table and 4 chairs and.... our own jacuzzi. Fabulous, elegantly decorated - beautiful pool and about two blocks from the beach and a 10 minute walk into the old town. Really wonderful - highly recommend this hotel. In Barcelona, we stayed at the Hotel Husa Barcelona. It was a block off of the Place de Cataluyna and had a terrace with a view on the Plaza. It was a large room - 200 Euros for 4, including breakfast. Great location, but the hotel staff was not very friendly, but who cares!
Hope you enjoy your trip as well as we did!

amrdia

Thank you for your advice. I would like to bounce an itinerary off you.
Please keep in mind my wife and I are experienced travelers. We last did Rome,Flor,Pisa, and Venice in 8 days. We are early 40s and are not big art lovers. We like atmosheres and sights.
If we fly into Madrid spend two nights and 3 days, take the high speed train to seville for 2 nights, go to Marbella for 2 nights and then fly Span air to Barcelona for 2 nights and then depart for USA; can we experience enough of the areas for satisfaction?
Your input is greatly appreciated. these are R&R vacations. we rest when we get home!

swissgirl

I have never been to Seville, although it is very high on my list and I have heard wonderful things about it. Your itinerary sounds great to me, provided your days in each city is actually the days in the city and does not include the travel time to get between. Otherwise, I would add at least 2 more days if at all possible as you will be rushed - these cities are really far apart. I like the fast pace and seeing as much as possible on certain trips and then going back to those places I want to explore more on another trip. Many others will disagree but it is really up to you. Be sure to leave time to shop in Barcelona - they have some of the best shopping I have ever seen!