jppc39

Hi everyone,



I am planning a trip with two friends for the summer of 2020. We are looking to spend about 12-14 days traveling around Spain. We plan to start in Barcelona and head south. I am looking for recommendations of must-see sites/cities as we descend South from Barcelona.



A few things to consider:

• We do not want to rent a car and prefer to take the train
• I would love to stop at a winery or do a winery excursion from a city.
• Can anyone recommend a Morocco detour? What point would be best to depart from Spain to do this?
• If we do not go to Morocco we are thinking of doing Portugal. Any recommendations here? Is Lisbon worth it? Or Porto?

Any recommendations would be great. I have only been to Spain once and only visited Madrid-Toledo for four days.

kja

12-14 days is exceedingly little for Spain, not to mention adding on Portugal or Morocco.

What is a "must see" depends on you and your interests.

I would urge you to get a good guidebook or two.
I would also urge you to read threads on this forum tagged for Spain, including both planning threads and trip reports.

Once you have a better idea of your options, I'm sure Fodorites will be willing to answer your questions.

Good luck!

neckervd

Barcelona is a good starting point for Morocco. There are direct flights from Barcelona to almost all Moroccan airports (except Oujda, Agadir, Ouarzazate and Layoune).
But 12-14 days is the absolute minimum for a somewhat decent visit of Morocco

thursdaysd

Pick one country, or at most Spain plus Lisbon. Be aware that southern Spain will be VERY HOT in the summer. You might be happier going north from Barcelona and exploring the Basque country.

KarenWoo

I love Andalucia but I hesitate to recommend it in the summer. As thursdaysd states, southern Spain is VERY HOT in the summer. We were there in September 2017, (mid September to very early October), and all the places we visited were in the 80's, but Seville was 90 - 95F, and this was at the very end of September. It is common to have temps in the 90's to low 100's during the summer months. When I was planning our trip, I remember reading trip reports from people who were in Andalucia during the summer months, and they wrote about being dripping in sweat after being outside for only 10 minutes. If you do visit Andalucia, I suggest finding hotels that have pools and definitely air conditioning. You need to start sightseeing early in the morning, and get some respite from the heat during the afternoon. Then go out again in the evening.

I agree that going north from Barcelona is a good suggestion. You could visit the Costa Brava, which is north of Barcelona. It's beautiful! Girona is a wonderful small medieval city, and there are beautiful villages along the coast. Cadaques is very pretty. I know you can take a train to Girona. I believe there is bus service from Girona, but I don't know how frequent or convenient it is. We had a rental car.

MmePerdu

Consider just Spain, heading west from Barcelona to the northwestern coast for better weather. There are a couple of recent threads that I've been following as I'm considering Northern Spain myself, including Madrid. Here's one with lots of good information from a couple of experts, have a look:

https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/feedback-for-northern-spain-itinerary-1675483/

jppc39

Thank you for the feedback.

We have made a few changes and I still am looking for more suggestions. The plan is now to focus on Nothern Spain. We will spend about four days in Barcelona and then go to San Sebastian for a few days. Once we get to San Sebastian, we will rent a car and head West towards Portgual and end in Porto. Can anyone recommend another city between San Sebestian and Porto worth stopping in?

What we have decided to focus on is a balance between urban life and time for relaxation near water (San Sebastian). Also, if anyone could recommend a winery in Northern Spain, I would gladly take suggestions.

kja

If you haven't been to Barcelona before, note that 4 days might not be enough for all its highlights. Of course, it depends on what, exactly, you want to do. You would do well to think through your priorities in advance -- and take note that many things in Spain are closed on part of Sunday, all of Monday and for a very long mid-day break every day.

If you haven't already seen it, you might find some useful information about Barcelona and other parts of northern Spain (including San Sebastian and other cities) in my trip report:
Four Awesome Weeks in the North of Spain and Catalunya

thursdaysd

Leon, Santiago, Salamanca....

For my 2015 visit to Leon and Salamanca go here and put the cities in the search box: https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com/

MmePerdu

There are a number of places mentioned in the thread linked above in response #6. Bilbao & Burgos are in the plan for my next visit.

kja

AND places mentioned in the threads mentioned in responses # 8 and # 9!

BTW, MmePerdu, Bilbao & Burgos are each delightful, IMO.

MmePerdu

I've been following the first, had not read the others which I have no doubt are also good sources.

I'm hoping to arrive in Santander by ferry from Portsmouth, proceed to see Frank Gehry's masterpiece, then spend a few days in Burgos which sounds like my kind of place. Then on to Madrid which I drove through with a friend without stopping in 1966 on our way from Paris to Rota & through sheer neglect never got back. The only photo of Madrid I have is black & white taken out the passenger window of a man driving a donkey cart in the middle city traffic which I thought was astonishing. I remember the moment clearly. Funny what we remember. Probably fewer donkeys in the city these days.

kja

@ MmePerdu: There's more to Santander than the ferry port and more to Bilbao than the Guggenheim -- I'm sure you'll do some research before committing to specific plans. And I agree that Burgos is a delight! For these locations, you might want to check my trip report. Or not! Alas, I think you are correct about the likelihood of seeing a donkey cart near Madrid -- though I can imagine enjoying some time trying, day after day, to see if I could spot one! What a memory

@ jppc39: Please forgive the digression!

MmePerdu

Kja, what would we do without you. Your suggestion seems to be that because my plan may differ from one you might make that I must have done no research. But I gave no indication of the allocation of days for Santander or Bilbao. Sometimes first thoughts are best just left as thoughts.

Digressions can be more interesting than the rest. Or not.

kja

@ MmePerdu: My sincere apologies. I should, indeed, have left my thoughts as thoughts. Rather than digging myself into an even deeper hole, I will simply say that I am genuinely sorry.