My wife and I are traveling to Spain for our 25th wedding anniversary. We are dropping off our daughter in Valencia, so our trip starts there.
As we have only 1 week, please recommend the top destinations starting from Valencia. We are particulary interested in shrines as well.
Thanks.
This is just one of many itineraries you could do. Note that with only 7 days the itinerary below is pushing it, it amounts to a blitz approach, you may want to eliminate at least one of these four or do some different itinerary:Madrid 2 days & 2 nightsToledo (1 hr south of Madrid) 1 full day & 2 nightsSevilla 2 nightsGranada 1 full dayLet's see what others say (Norm, Nancy, Michelle, others?)
I like Kent recommendation's but I would offer an alternative that may work out (you didn't say if you had made return flight reservations yet). I would just see 3 places after Valencia. Madrid 3 nights, Toledo or Segovia 1 night, Barcelona 3 nights. You could fly out of Barcelona so no backtracking...
If you need a second "base" I would pick Madrid. You can definitely go on a lot of day trips such as Toledo, Segovia, etc.
I personally LOVED Segovia!! If you go to www.maribelsguides.com Maribel has some great tips on where to go, and how to get there. The bus from Madrid to Segovia took a few hours, and we were back by dinner (9 pm). Segovia had one of the best roast piggy I've eaten.... definitely worth going for that.
Have you considered staying at a paradores?
www.parador.es I didn't get to stay in one, but my friend stayed in 2, and raved about them. Now I wished I took the detour off the beaten path to experience staying in one.
I don't remember going to any shines (must have drank too much sangria) but I do remember a lot of castles and palaces!
I'd vote for Kent's itinerary. I can't go this year, so I will now go and pout. Have a wonderful trip!
Hmmm....a week's not a long time, but here goes. IMHO, not much to see in Valencia itself, so I would book a cheap flight on Vueling to Sevilla, spend two days there, then take the fast train to Cordoba for a night, then onto Madrid for the rest of your stay. As has already been noted, there are at least two major day trips you can make out of Madrid....Segovia and Toledo....and Madrid itself is a fascinating city, worth a couple of days on its own. Barcelona, for me, is too much an "international" city to visit in such a limited time frame...that might be kept for later. That's about all you'll have time for, but it should whet your appetite to return for a longer period of time. For accommodations that aren't too expensive, look for "hostals," similar to pensiones elsewhere...clean, comfortable (usually) family run hotels that are good value. Don't forget, they may only be listed as two stars....but that's a reflection of the services they offer (no on-site restaurant, etc) rather than the quality of the accommodations.
Many thanks for the suggestions. Per the various suggestions, our draft second honeymoon itinerary is as follows. Please advise if there are any glitches you see in this. We'd love to see Sevilla, Cordova, or Granada but seems that the train rides would chew up big portions of our time.
Friday 20th, arrive Valencia
Sat mid-day fly to Madrid (we already have a RT MAD-VLC ticket)
Sun in Madrid
Mon day trip to Avila (or overnight there?)
Tue day trip to Toledo (or overnight there?)
Wed: return to US (our reservation already booked with frequent flier miles)
Thanks again.
Re: Toledo. Definitely stay here overnight. There is a completely different feeling/atmosphere at
night when all the day trippers leave. We loved it at night.
