Seeking Suggestions for Spain 1 Week Early April Trip

I may be a bit biased, but I would say that the "fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona" idea sounds like a good plan. I would do something like this:

Fly in to Madrid
Madrid (3 nights) - day trip to Segovia (or Toledo)
AVE high speed train to
Barcelona (4 nights) - day trip to Montserrat Monastery (or Girona)
Fly out of Barcelona

Of course, if you are more into classical art galleries, you can take a day from Barcelona and add it to Madrid. BTW, what are your guys' interests, sightseeing wise? We may be able to give you more specific advice.

Hi Carlos,
Thanks for the suggestion. We did end up booking for that open jaw flight, and look forward to visiting Spain for the first time. As for interests, we do enjoy the standard tourist stuff: museums, good food (mixture of reasonable and extravagant), scenic walks.

You'll probably need to buy tickets in advance if you want to visit any of these extremely popular sights in Barcelona. No advance ticket may mean that you stand in line for an hour or more and then find out all the tickets are gone. In most cases the tickets are for a specific entry time, which makes putting together an itinerary something of a challenge. I suggest picking your top three sights (if you're interested in at least three of the following) and hitting one first thing each morning. That will leave you with a big chunk of the day for doing other things. Some of the sights are open until at least 8 PM, so you can squeeze in extra sightseeing in the evening.

La Sagrada Familia
Parc Guell
Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Casa Batllo
Picasso Museum (expect a total mob scene here)
Palau de la Musica Catalana (another option is to attend a performance)

There are many other interesting sights in Barcelona that do not require advance purchase of tickets (and are probably also cheaper), but it seems that most posters on this forum are interested in quite a few of the places I've listed.

I'd spend half the time in Madrid and then half in Barcelona. It's a shame you did all big cities this time as I'd have spent time Granada to see the Alhambra and left Barcelona for next time. I'd also start picking hotels now if you know where you want to stay.

As the PP pointed out, you need to book your tickets in Barcelona now if you want to go to the Gaudi sites otherwise, you stand a good chance of not getting in to Sagrada Familia or his other houses. I would also take a walking tour in both cities to see the sights since you don't have much time on your own.

As for what to see, get a good guidebook and pick what you find interesting.

Very different advice based solely on my personal tastes and experiences. History is big on my list, especially pre-1500 history (preferably older).

Totally agree with flying into Madrid and home from Barcelona, or reverse (even if it means catching a Vueling, or similar, hop from Barcelona to Madrid to start the trip home). Madrid airport has a ton of walking so give yourself plenty of time to get around.

I don't agree with spending any significant time in Madrid. Madrid, IMO, is one of the worst places to visit in Europe. Why? It's very expensive by Spanish standards (only Barcelona is as expensive). It has high crime rates (again only comparable in Spain to Barcelona). Most importantly, to me, it has no history, no old center, no significant archaeology or architecture. It's also some of the coldest weather in Spain and might be quite cold when you arrive. IMO the best sight in Madrid is El Prado but that doesn't take three days to see. In fact, El Prado is walking distance from the train station where you would get off a train from Toledo and board a train to Barcelona. You could plan a morning or afternoon for the Prado and lunch. I also liked Temple Debod, a gift from Egypt. There are specialty museums to suit particular tastes but they aren't really world class places.

If it were me, I'd immediately take a train to Toledo and spend two nights there. Toledo is essentially the old center Madrid is missing. It was the capital of Spain until Phillip II moved the capital to Madrid in 1560. Madrid isn't any more historic than Baltimore. Toledo is an amazing medieval town as well as having less crime, lower costs and better food than Madrid.

If you want, rent a car and see Segovia. Segovia is nice because it has a castle, old center and aqueduct all within walking distance. A very short drive outside town is a Templar church from the 600's. If you want to go a little further, you could do a loop of Valladolid, Salamanca, Zamora and castles Penafiel, La Mota and Coca and get a flavor of Spain during the Reconquista days (this area was the heart of Castilian Spain).

Also on the train line to Barcelona is Zaragosa. The center is worth a look around and might be worth one or two hours getting off the train to add a stop on your trip without going too far out of the way. I had a great Semana Santa experience there (their processions are amazing) but Easter won't be until later in 2019.

You would probably need a car to see Pamplona. It's an okay city made famous by it's July San Fermin festival. Just south of Pamplona by car is Olite Castle. IMO it's one of the nicest castle visits in Europe. It's a good mix of restored and ruins. Restored enough to climb stairs and towers but not furnished and roped off. The audio guide that comes with the entry gives you an idea what it was like when the Kings of Navarre spent part of their year there (Navarre was part of Spain and France).

Barcelona is a completely different city. It's the capital of Catalon. People don't consider themselves Spanish (similar to the Basque on the north coast). I think a day of seeing Modernist sights and a day to explore the Barri Gothic are a pretty good use of time. I wouldn't expect beach weather but you might want to go north of town for a day to see the Costa Brava, Girona or Figueres. If so, look at Rick's guide for options to get there. I chose a day at Montserrat. It was okay but too cold to hike around.

I'm not a reservations person but it's not a bad idea. Parc Guell is open, no ticket or reservation needed. Sagrada Familia was packed even during the first week of April. You won't be there for Semana Santa, which is good. Barcelona does virtually nothing for Easter (unlike the rest of Spain).

I'm not big on modern history but I read Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell, before my trip. It's an autobiography of his time in the Spanish Civil War and good reading to gain understanding of the time.

Parc Guell is rather large. A big chunk of it is free-access, but the area containing most of the flamboyant architectural elements, called the "Monumental Zone" is ticketed. The tickets are timed. If you just show up at the park (especially on a nice day), you might be in for quite a wait in the ticket line, and you might then be told to come back in 90 minutes, 2 hours, etc. What would you do then? The park is not in the center of the city. At some point later this year, the park is going to shift to a mandatory-prepurchase system; after that date (which I don't remember), tickets will not even be available at the park.

I think it would be nice to know more about the poster. For myself, especially on a first trip, I would limit my time in Madrid. There is so much more history in the other parts of Spain. If I was flying into Madrid, I would immediately go to Toledo for a couple days. Segovia is another place that is so interesting that is a day trip from Madrid. If you love art, Madrid does have a couple world class art museums. Pomplona is not between Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona is a fascinating city as is the Catalan region around it. You absolutely need to prepurchase tickets to the many of the main sights. I wouldn't miss Park Guell (as well as La Sagrada and at least one of the buildings on the Block of Discord) Park Guell does need a ticket to see the really interesting parts.

We went to Spain in October 2017 and I agree with Carlos recommendation. Both Madrid and Barcelona are about the mid-sixties in April with Barcelona a bit warmer. In Madrid, there is so much to see— more than just the Prado, especially if you like art. The Reina Sofia is a small museum with Picasso’s Guernica. I had seen pictures, but I was not prepared for the strong emotional reaction of seeing it in person. The Thyssen museum has additional Picasso and El Greco paintings and fills in the gaps in the Prado’s and REina Sofia’s collections.

While Madrid is welcoming to tourists, it is also a vibrant city with an up & coming food scene. We had some of our best meals in Madrid. We loved the Devour tapas and history tour: we learned much about the tapas scene in Madrid and our guide gave us recommendations to eat beyond the city center. Madrid has a great metro system, so it is easy to explore. Here is the link to the tours: https://madridfoodtour.com/tours/.

In Barcelona, acraven provided a great list of activities. I have been to Barcelona a couple of times (December, February, and September). It is a magical place that deserves time to explore and frankly get away from the maddening crowds. I honestly don’t know how the locals can deal with it. If you go to the Boqueria, go early, it is less crowded. One of the highlights of our trip was taking a cooking class in Barcelona at Cook & Taste: https://www.cookandtaste.net/. We combined that with the market tour where we shopped for our ingredients. I also recommend that you purchase advanced tickets for sites you really want to see to not only avoid crowds, but avoid the potential of not even getting in.

We loved Spain and I hope you enjoy your trip.
Sandy

I agree Sandy, Madrid may not be Rome, but I would not give it such a bad rap.

Madrid isn't any more historic than Baltimore.

I don't know about Baltimore, but Madrid does have old history, it's just not so obvious as in other Spanish cities, if one knows where to look, one can still see ruins of it's ancient Carpetani Celtic settlement, Roman villas, a Visigoth basilica, and parts of the old Moorish walls of Madrid. Madrid actually comes from its Moorish city name "Majrit". One of the more famous Arab astronomer of al-Ándalus was actually born in Madrid in the 9th century - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslama_al-Majriti

While Madrid may not be my favorite city, it definitely merits at least 2-3 days, even without any day trips. The best sight in Madrid is the Prado Art Museum, but also the Reina Sofía and Thyssen galleries are worth it too, if you are really into art. The Palacio Real (Royal Palace) is nice too, it's one of the largest in Europe. I like how every room has a theme and it's adjacent Royal Armoury is very interesting. P.S. The royal palace was built on top of Madrid's 9th-century Moorish Alcázar.

One can also visit the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid (the bad guys lol). Retiro Park and the Mercado San Miguel are worth some time too.

A good thing about Madrid is it's abundance of world class day trips: for Roman Ruins - Segobriga or Segovia, Medieval towns - Toledo or Cuenca, Royal Palaces - El Escorial or Alcázar de Segovia, Old University towns - Alcalá de Henares or Salamanca etc. Unfortunately with only 3 nights, I would say that you could only pick one day trip...

Personally, I think Carlos' first response is the right answer. My version would be to plan three nights in Madrid and consider a day-trip to Toledo on day three. Then morning express train to Barcelona for four nights - given you fly out fairly early on day eight, I wouldn't plan any day-trip here as you will likely find enough to fill your time within the city.

This would give you a chance to see modern, "golden age", medieaval, plus a bit of Roman Spain (in Barcelona) and a tiny bit of Moorish spain in Madrid/Toledo. A nice mix.

All such great responses. Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their advice and experience. We really appreciate it.

The Baltimore jabs made me chuckle. In Baltimore's defense, it is a respectable city if not a world class destination, with plenty of history (I lived there for four years). As it happens, I'm going back there this weekend, and will be meeting up with friends near the original Washington Monument.

Thanks again everyone!

I went twice to Barcelona and once to Madrid before I finally did a trip to Andalucia (Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, Ronda) and I was blown away! Andalucia is all about the passion, the flamenco, the Moorish/Christian architectural marvels, pedestrian cities... Frankly I wish someone had told me to start there... and I guess that is why I am mentioning it to you now even though I am pretty much certain you will stick with the classic Madrid (with Toledo)/Barcelona trip. But maybe someone else is reading this thread, and it might help them to consider Andalucia, especially in March (do not go in June/July/August, the heat is unbearable, and this is coming from someone who kept the thermostat at 76F in the house).