Road trip from Barcelona to Madrid
 

My family and I would like to cruise from Barcelona to Madrid in the spring for a chance to soak in some smaller spanish towns. From what I have read the middle section between the two cities may not be the most beautiful and that maybe the towns around the cities themselves might have more charm to offer as well as some interesting sites. We have 2 nights allocated and wanted to spend them in 2 different towns. Also, we are not so worried about the potential of a longer drive in between. Any thoughts?
Thanks!

How long do you have dedicated to Madrid and Barcelona? If you only have 2 nights to play with then I'd probably just take the train between the cities and use the 2 nights in a town closer to the base.

What time in the Spring is your trip?

Our trip lasts 10 days and we were thinking of spending 2 of them on the road. We will be traveling mid May.
Thanks!

Oh and we will be flying into Barcelona and out of Madrid :)

There are several possibilities. To start, you can take a two-day drive through Aragon, Navarra and the Rioja, before finally ending up in Madrid.

That part of Spain is not one of my favorites. I think you would be better served by visiting some of the smaller towns as day trips from either Barcelona or Madrid.

I did that drive last fall in the opposite direction, but had 3 nights to play with. Barcelona-Terres de l'Ebre, Teruel, Albarrecin, Cuenca, Madrid.
2 nights could be a bit stressing, not because of the distance but if you want scenic drives you will use mostly winding roads through the mountains along the coast and to Cuenca. And that eats up a lot of time while making not much progress.
When we did it, we thought we had "enough" of scenic mountain roads when we got from Cuenca to Teruel. So we cheated a bit and used the motorway between Tortosa and Teruel (via Castelló), which is somewhat of a detour but much faster and stressless driving than the direct roads.

One possible itinerary could look like this:

DAY1

Barcelona (C32 motorway) to
AP-7 motorway to
Reus (N420)
Mora d'Ebre (C12) - see the Ebro river valley, Miravet castle, vineyards & wineries
Benifallet, then local roads C43, T333, T330, A231, A1414 till you hit N232
This leg sounds more complicated than it is. You could work in a stopover at Horta de Sant Joan where Picasso did many of his paintings and they have a small museum, with copies of those shown with pictures from the original sites.
N232 to Morella (overnight Morella, beautiful walled town)

DAY 2
Morella-Teruel via CV12, CV120, A226
Quick walk through the city center with its famous Mudejar towers. Have lunch (if it's already 2pm) or save that for
Albarracín (via N234, A1512)
Cuenca (via the only "mountain pass road" from Albarracín), road numbering changes 2-3 times, but Cuenca is always signposted and the "main route"
Overnight Cuenca (visit famous old town with hanging houses either at night - which will look magical, or also next morning for taking more pictures)

DAY 3
Continue visit of Cuenca, or backtrack a few kilometers to visit Ciudad Encantada, the Enchanted City (rock formations) which you probably passed after closing hours on Day 2.
Drive to Madrid via motorways only in 2hrs

As I said, the driving in mere kilometers per day is no big deal but you will have a slow average per day, especially when you stop here and there to take pictures, visit a winery, take a look at a castle, and so on..
If you are not familiar with stick shift driving, I'd get an automatic as you probably will change gears a zillion times.

A trip we did.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...d-zaragoza.cfm

Honestly with only 10 days I'd focus on Barcelona and Madrid. You have just enough for these cities and a daytrip (maybe 2) from each. In ouldn't give up Toledo and Girona (form example) to drive between Madrid and Barcelona - which is what you'd be doing.

We drove it - once. IMHO, your time would be better spent seeing Toledo, Segovia or Sevilla, rather than two days in a car where, again only my opinion, the scenery is not terribly note worthy.

Thank you everyone! All of this was helpful in making out trip decisions!
Happy Travels!
Morgan