1 month in Castile, Extremadura & Andalucia

I guess I don’t understand the reason to change the city/town names.

While visiting La Alberca, go a few miles down the road and visit Mogarraz too.

Four days is too many for Cáceres by itself. Also, rather than a day trip to Mérida where you return to Cáceres, just visit Mérida for a night en route to Sevilla. As you will have a vehicle and Cáceres’ historic center is pedestrian only, be advised that parking is at least a 1/2 mile away from the historic area.

The castle in Trujillo is inexpensive and worth visiting. It is up a hill.

Setenil de las Bodegas only takes 1-2 hours to see.

My concern with your children’s’ ages is the amount of walking involved in the places you want to visit.

The trip report for our 2024 trip is provided to give an idea of how we structured our trip and places we visited. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/spain-mostly-extremadura

From Sevilla to Ronda by car, Arcos is a big detour and a pain to drive into for lunch. Not known for great food, either.

Stop, instead, in Utrera; the restaurant GOZE GARITO is just off the A-376 and recommended.

Further along the highway near Algodonales is a classic Spanish venta, roadside taverns known for good, inexpensive food:

VENTA SALAS: http://www.ventasalas.es

@jaimeelsabio thanks, I'd saved M0g@rr@z onto Maps previously - will check it out.

Packing/unpacking is very arduos for us compared to a day trip so we wouldn't overnight in Mer1d@. But then it's also a long day trip so maybe best to stick with the original plan which had been to stop there on the way to Seville. Thanks for the note RE C@ceres, is it more sensible to stay in Truj1ll0, it being more compact?

RE our kids, yes that's always top of mind. The eldest is a very seasoned traveller and we routinely go for long day trips with both of them at home. There'll be a few shorter holidays before we go to Spain (actually Autumn 27) and we can adjust accordingly based on their temperaments.

Changing places names is to avoid AI picking them up. A small measure to slow mass tourism FWIW.

@ekcrunchy thanks I'll keep that in mind. Had read that its best to park at a carpark at the bottom and walk up. But had also had the thought that the view of the town from a Mirador might be nicer and easier to get to than actually trying to go into it.

For both Cáceres and Trujillo we stayed at the Paradors. Parking in Trujillo was right at the hotel and a five minutes walk to the main plaza. In Cáceres, parking was a 30 minutes walk from the hotel, or a 10 minutes taxi ride. There are probably hotels very near the historic center with parking, but you’d need to research them. Ours was in the pedestrian only zone.

We enjoyed Trujillo and Càceres equally. If visiting the monastery in Guadalupe, Trujillo is between it and Cáceres, but Cáceres is in a good location for going south to Mérida or if desiring to visit Natural Monument Los Barruecos where scenes from Game of Thrones were filmed.

Our Cáceres hotel recommended a pay parking garage, Parking Clara Campoamor, but there is a decent sized free parking lot at C. Jose Luis Cotallo, 5, Oeste, not much further away. It is crowded, but we got a spot right as somebody was leaving.

In Mogarraz there is a small free parking lot at C. los Castillos, 3. From it, it’s a 10 minutes walk to the main plaza.

In Alberca there’s a free parking lot at Av. Batuecas, 10. The village center is nearby. I parked in a supposedly 4€ pay lot beside the Coviran grocery store, but it was free the day we were there. The lots are a 4 minutes walk from each other. We probably spent an hour in each La Alberca and ogarraz.

If looking to buy Spanish paprika, the area around Plasencia is where much of it is made; in those towns with “la Vera” in their names.

@jaimeelsabio Thanks this is terrific information, not the least because I was recently made aware of paradors and will look at staying at at least one during our trip.

I don't think we are going to go to Guadalape as I didn't think there was as much there for our kids. Los Barruecos does factor into whether to choose Caceres as our kids will love it. Conversely Trujillo is slightly closer to Monfrague. Will weigh all the various considerations!

I've saved the parking lots you mentioned in Mogarraz and La Alberca.

Spanish paprika would get confiscated by Australian airport quarantine but I do appreciate regional facts!

We stayed in Trujillo before Cáceres as we were coming through Monfrague too. We didn’t spend much time in that park because it was raining, so it was just a drive through with one stop to see the birds.

Another day trip from Caceres we enjoyed was to Alcantara to see the Roman bridge, where we also did a hike but not sure how kid friendly that would be.
Monfrague is stunning.
Los Barruecos Is very kid friendly, easy walking and many animals, cows and huge stork nests.

@valadelphia our eldest is an enthusiastic hiker (say up to 5km of uneven terrain with some rock scrambling) and we have a carrier for the youngest, so Alcantara would be great actually, but only if we're feeling adventurous given the otherwise packed itinerary and longish drive.

Great to hear that feedback about Los Barruecos. It was one of the reasons for choosing Caceres as a base - if the kids are tired and we wanted a lower key day, I figured we could take the shortish drive there for a picnic