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Open-ended: Whence from Zaragoza Spain, August

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Mid-60s, retired USA couple, experienced travelers to Europe and elsewhere, fit for age, wide range of travel interests (like cultural, historical, and natural points of interest), dislike crowds, willing to drive, happy to focus on less-famous, under-appreciated locales and to move less to see more.

We’ve booked a week’s lodging in Zaragoza, Spain for the second week of August 2026 (yes 2026) to coincide with a solar eclipse. Nothing else booked. We would generally avoid August in Europe and instead travel off-peak, but my requests to reschedule the eclipse have gone unanswered. So I’m looking for ideas on what else to do while over there. We could easily spend about a month total, and put Zaragoza in the beginning, middle, or end.

Madrid seems worthwhile, especially the Prado (my wife’s Spanish travels have reached only Barcelona, Girona, Cadaques, and surrounds; I breezed through Madrid rail-passing decades ago but misread the Prado’s hours.). Maybe stop in Iceland again (to tour the Westfjords, having circled the rest). Maybe another small Spanish city along the lines of Girona, meaning intact historic features and otherwise attractive, but under-visited— maybe Valencia?

But really we’re wide-open, including destinations that would require additional flights or call for a train transfer (although she doesn’t sleep well on trains, so daytime scenic preferred). A quiet but beautiful place in the Balearic Islands? Sardinia?

I know this is open-ended and I’ll need to do my own research to flesh out a trip; just hoping to brainstorm general ideas here.

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7376 posts

It would be easy to spend a month in the Aragón, Zaragoza, and La Rioja areas. Not liking crowds and not being averse to renting a vehicle, consider visiting any number of small towns seldom visited by most tourists. As part of a longer trip a couple years ago, in that area we based ourselves out of Teruel, Zaragoza, Olite, SOS del Rey Católico, and Santo Domingo de la Calzada. From those locations we took day trips to smaller villages and towns.

Posted by
28689 posts

Jaimeelsabio has had a great deal more experience in Spain than I have, and he has driven. I've only used public transportation.

I can vouch for Teruel, though, as a comparatively untouristy but very interesting city. It's on the slow rail line running from Zaragoza to Valencia but it's really too long a trip to make Teruel a practical day trip from Zaragoza. A car would be better. With a few days you could add on Albarracin, which is very problematic without a car because the once-a-day bus schedule requires you to spend the night and still gives you much less than 24 hours in the town. It should be possible to get to Cuenca from that area with a car. Otherwise, Cuenca is readily accessible by express train, being positioned on the line connecting Madrid and Valencia.

I love Spain and could easily spend many, many months there at a time (I've done 3 months on one trip and 1-1/2 on another), but the summer is beastly hot in most of the country. Zaragoza is probably not going to be pleasant; it certainly wasn't for me. Be sure you choose lodging with reliable air conditioning, and don't be tempted by the likely good deal offered by the Eurostars at the train/bus station. It's located in a food desert.

I'd urge you to focus a lot of your time along and near the north coast, between the Basque Country and Galicia. There are many interesting destinations there, and the weather is nearly always coolish and overcast if you don't drift too far from the coast. You could cross the border into the French Basque Country as well, if you wanted to. The only seriously touristy places of any size along that coast are San Sebastian and Santiago de Compostela. In the case of the latter, the city is full of pilgrims rather than traditional tourists.

The Pyrenees should also be great. I've seen very little of that area, which is best visited by car.

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