Need suggestions

We too were looking for 1 extra city to go to last summer during our long 5 week, 2 city trip. We'd been to a lot of cities (and smaller villages) and have many favorites. With so many possibilities, we decided to see where the best airfares were from our city where we were spending the longest time, 3 weeks. We looked up possibilities on skyscanner.com using London as our From and Everywhere as our To. We came up with a nice list of nonstop flights for very inexpensive prices and booked one at the airline's website.

I didn't see London on your list and I definitely think that hits all your marks for interests for your multigenerational group. Have fun with your planning.

EDIT: Husband says maybe not London for food and wine interests. His choice would be Vienna. He says you can follow the Hapsburg connection and try the many heuriger for food and wine.

Easy train journeys between each of these city pairs. Choose one before heading to Barcelona.
1) Amsterdam and Berlin
2) Munich and Prague
3) Vienna and Budapest

Thanks for suggestions!

I really don't understand why you'd take the train from Barcelona to anywhere but Paris or Madrid.
If you go on Wikipedia and look at Barcelona Airport, you can see all the places Vueling Airlines goes non-stop out of Barcelona. They go to virtually any place in Europe you'll ever want to go--and to many cities you've never even heard of. Vueling doesn't go Budapest-Budapest, but that's served by Wizz Air.
Put me in for a flight to Budapest and then a train into Vienna.

What about a week in southwestern France - specifically, the Dordogne? One of the most beautiful parts of France (IMHO), amazing history and art, and the food is fabulous. We visited the area as a combination with Barcelona several years ago. We took the train to over the border, picked up a rental car, then visited Carcassonne and some of the Cathar castles on the way to the Sarlat. To end our trip, we took the train to Paris for our last several days.

I really appreciate all the responses. We have decided to spend all of our time in Spain. My daughter really wants to see a Bosch painting that is in Madrid and after that we are going to head over to San Sebastian before heading to Barcelona. We haven't decided if we might stop in any other cities en route from Madrid and finishing Barcelona. Thanks again :)

Great art museums in Madrid, she'll love them. I also recommend a day trip to Toledo to see some wonderful El Greco's in situ.

I 2nd the rec to see the El Greco's in Toledo. I didn't really enjoy the town, but those paintings are amazing. The Bosch is fantastic too.

-Matt

Tracy,

Given the specifics of your group with "One of us is an art major, some of us are history buffs and some of us just love taking in beautiful buildings, sceneries, cathedrals, food and wine", the first thought that crossed my mind was Florence. There's more than enough art to keep the art lovers busy, as well as beautiful Cathedrals, scenery and especially food and wine. There are also some good day trip possibilities from there (Siena, Lucca, or even the Cinque Terre if you don't mind a long day). Finally, I believe there are very easy direct flights from FLR to BCN using Vueling.

Seems like a good fit for all the criteria you mentioned.

Good choice (probably) for Spain, with some caveats. First, remember that Barcelona isn'r really part of Spain (just ask anyone who lives there - they'll tell you!). It's also more distant from "the rest of Spain" (the part you want to see) than you expect. That can be addressed with a cheap flight or high speed train, but Barcelona is different.

The "other" part of Spain - what you imagine when you think of Spain - is Andalucia. That's the good stuff.

You didn't mention what time of year you are going. Hopefully it's not June-August, because it gets quite hot and uncomfortable in Andalucia in the summer months. It also gets pretty crowded in the main tourist spots - like Toldeo. YES, go to Toledo, but DO NOT do Toledo as a day trip - especially in the hottest time of the year. Everyone does Toledo as a day trip, and guess what? From 10 am to 4 pm, it's shoulder-to-shoulder crowded in the streets and not a very good experience. Go and spend the night. In the morning hours before the day-tirppers arrive and in the afternoon after they've left, the city is wonderful, and a completely different experience than at mid-day when you have to oil your body to squeeze between the tour groups. Everyone I know who went to Toledo as a day trip was disappointed. Everyone I know who stayed the night thought it was one of the highlights of their trip.

By the way, "that Bosh painting" is amazing and worth spending some time with.

Have fun.

We are going in April of 2016. We are actually taking a cruise that starts in Barcelona and wanted to spend a week somewhere before the cruise starts. We are going to be purchasing out plane tickets fairly soon..the only thing we know for sure at this point is we are flying into Madrid and out of Barcelona. I think I am mostly concerned about how far we go from Madrid..at least in the opposite direction of Barcelona..I don't want to spend 3 of my 7 days traveling..I think right now we are looking at Madrid. We still have some time to finalize what cities we visit between Madrid and Barcelona..I really appreciate getting input from you guys on this forum..I like hearing suggestions that I might not have thought of :)

"the only thing we know for sure at this point is we are flying into Madrid and out of Barcelona"

If you want to see Andalucia, fly into Seville instead of Madrid. You'll have to change planes, but then you avoid backtracking.

If you will be taking trains from Seville to Cordoba to Madrid to Barcelona, buy these in advance for best fares. The TripAvisor guide to buying train tickets in Spain is invaluable: http://tinyurl.com/cu48wk5