Trip to North Spain
 

We are thinking of traveling to Barcelona and North Spain in October. Any suggestions on where to go and what to see.

How much time?
What are your interests?

Are you thinking Basque COuntry or Galicia?

Aduchamp1 - We are palnning 2 weeks trip. We were thinking Basque Country but will be interested to hear about Galicia as well

Take a look at:
http://www.maribelsguides.com/

Our trip report to Northern Spain:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34448802

Northern Spain is wonderful!

October in the north (Catalunya, Aragon, Navarra, La Rioja, the Basque lands, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia) can be great with the changing weather and the fall harvest. Maribel's Guides to Barcelona and the País Vasco should provide you with a enough information to get started in planning your adventure.

Thanks Marija and Robert. Another question is if 2 weeks will also allow for trip to Lisbon, or we need all this time for north Spain?

I would concentrate on the north of Spain, but if you want to do a two-day trip to Lisbon, you can fly from San Sebastian-Donostia (via Madrid), Oviedo (via Madrid), or Barcelona (direct) on TAP Portugal (http://www.flytap.com/).

We were in the Basque country about 12 years ago and it was amazing! We drove north from Madrid through Seguenza and Segovia to Rioja and Olite and Pamplona (could be out of order - it's been a while), through the Ronscesvalles Mountain pass in the Pyrenees (scary but gorgeous) to St. Jean de Port in France for a night (gorgeous little town, Basque French), east to Pau and then back down to Lleida and Barcelona. We never made it to the Western part of the Spanish Basque country, but def saw a bit of it on our way to Pamplona and it was amazing to see and hear the Euskedi (Basque) language. Very different from the rest of Spain, although each region has its own character. I'd go back there in a heartbeat. Have a great time!

Annie

I too would stay in the north of Spain. If you have time you can visit some of the towns in northern Portugal but I think Lisbon is one of the least interesting European capitals.

Our favorite towns in Portugal are too spread our for your trip-Sintra, Evora and Braga.

Just the food in San Sebastian is worth two days. Santander and Santilla are charming towns and Santiago and the area around the city is worth three days. You can wave to the Guggenheim as you pass through Bilbao.

Aduchamp1, you certainly give short-shift to Bilbao. Too bad!

Robert, I called Sara from Scan EastWest Travel regarding our trip to North Spain. She was very appreciative of the referral and asked for your last name so she can identify you

I've already talked with Sara about you. She's handled a lot of our flights over the years.

Thank you, Robert. I take it that you were happy with Sara's services?

Did you book only international flights, or other services as well?

Thanks,
Hanna

Just the flights. We have a lot of contacts in Spain for everything else.

We have made that trip several times. Usually it is something like this--land in Barcelona; drive north and lunch at Restaurant Boix in Martinet de la Cerdanya; 2 nights in Andorra so can go shopping and go to Caldea www.caldea.ad, or something like that.
Then, we drive through the Pyrenees on the French side to the Basque region of Spain. Have tapas in San Sebastian. See the Guggenheim museum. Have lunch at Restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian--will be memorable. There is a marvelous B & B where we stay, but the name is slipping my mind right now.