14 Days Of Spain Self Guided Tour Itinerary

If you want to go to any of these places in Barcelona, you should buy the tickets in advance to avoid long lines. You do not need to buy the tickets now except for Camp Nou (a soccer/football thing); the others don't sell out super early (unlike the Alhambra).

La Sagrada Familia
Palau de la Musica Catalana (requires a tour)
Parc Guell
Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Casa Batllo
Picasso Museum
Camp Nou

The length of that list makes short visits to Barcelona very challenging. I hope you don't want to see a lot of those places, because it will be difficult to figure out how to schedule things. Also note that most of those sights cost over €20, so I would be very cautious about buying tickets in advance for my arrival day. I'm always brain-dead that day and unable to accomplish more than walking around outside, trying to stay awake.

I did not find a need to buy any Madrid tickets early, but others have seen lines of some consequence at the Prado and the Palacio Real.

I haven't been to Seville recently.

It's possible that a train will be faster than a bus for the Granada-Ronda leg, but I haven't searched for the bus schedule. There's a 6:45 AM train that gets you to Ronda at 9:17.

Thank you. Segrada Familia and Park Guill is a must, as for the rest it would be a bonus. Picasso Museum is a no need as i am not an art fan.

Yes, will get to Ronda from Granada by train.:)

Anyone knows which area should i stay in those town?

Since you don't have a lot of time, I would try to stay within walking distance of some of the things you want to see, though Barcelona and Madrid both have efficient subway systems as well as buses. In Barcelona, I think the area around Placa Catalunya is very convenient, but there will be price and size-of-room trade-offs in that neighborhood.

Your itinerary looks to be well-thought-out. While the order of the cities you’ll visit for the most part avoids backtracking, there is still a great deal of moving about. If at each stop/city you have as many things planned to visit as you have cities to visit, you’ll really be on the go . Have you allowed time for those invariable serendipitous happenings that result in one lingering at a place longer than one thought? Your time in Madrid seems particularly brief.

Your flight Barcelona to Granada will eat up a big part of the day (arguably, maybe 5+ hours) and you leave early the next day on a bus or train. On to Seville, are you planning a “day-trip” to Cordoba from Seville? It appears this is an hour each way. To avoid two trips Seville/Cordoba, and, as I recall, go back through Cordoba on the train from Seville to Madrid, you might have one less day in Seville and then go to Cordoba with a partial day and night stay before taking the train to Madrid (perhaps leaving Cordoba later than you would Seville).

On to lodging: Of the cities you list, we’ve only been to Barcelona (two 1-day soirees while in port on a cruise, and a third time which was a 4 day and night visit). We’ll be returning there in October and we’ll stay in the same hotel we stayed at last time. It is not a RS boutique kind of place; on the contrary, It is a big, minimalist NH hotel west of the center city just off the Avinguda Diagonal. I’ve posed elsewhere on the RS Forum how fond we are of the buses in Barcelona. They are clean, run on schedule, and cover a vast area of the city. Seven bus routes run along the Diagonal near the hotel and we can walk less than 5 minutes and get a bus to just about anywhere in the city (or if one prefers, to a Metro station).

Since you’ll be coming from or going to the train station in Madrid five times (once upon arrival and out and back twice), you might consider a hotel within walking distance of the Atocha Station if for no other reason than to reduce the number of taxi trips.

Your visit is quite ambitious, hope you enjoy every minute.

Hi. Ive checked that flight to granada from barcelona only took an hour and a half, why do you say it 5 hours? Also on the same note, will be there any border control/passport control for the domestic flights?

Do you mean that i should get to cordoba for a night instead of returning to seville for madrid?

The flight time does not include any of the following unavoidable steps:

Packing up
Checking out of the hotel
Getting to the airport
Being at the airport early for security screening (probably 2 hours? Check the airline's website)
Taxiing and de-planing at the destination
Waiting for luggage if you aren't doing carry-on only.
Getting transportation to your new hotel
Checking into the new hotel

So, yes, 5 hours is actually probably an underestimate. This is why we often warn people not to expect to do too much sightseeing on any day they are changing hotels. The hours just seem to evaporate.

There will be no immigration control within Spain under normal circumstances.

Okay then. Forget flight, might as well take the bus. Whats the difference lol, 5 hours too.

... my two cents:

Over the years I've lived in different cities across Europe and beyond. For example, when I did so for a couple of years in London, from the steps of my home in Central London (in EC1A) to my parents in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi in Barcelona, it took me nearly six hours in all... and the flight is merely 2h 20m give or take. And there's no passport control between London and Barcelona!

I concur with Ann, this needs to be taken into account when planning... flying in itself is always faster but has its unavoidable burdens on the ground, so in all, it's not always the fastest choice. And even if it is, the time you spend in the air is just a fraction of the time you'll actually be spending " on" the journey.

a) "might as well take the bus. Whats the difference lol, 5 hours too." Are you sure a bus is five hours as well? It takes around 9 hours to drive in a car and there is no way a coach is going to be faster. I'd definitely fly.

b) How are you at early starts? Currently there is 0720 hours flight departure from Barcelona; that would allow arriving at your Granada hotel some time before 1100 hours (all being well, perhaps nearer 1000hrs). Giving you the rest of the day in the city, plus the next day for the Alhambra.

c) I can recommend Hotel Posada del Toro in Granada. But if it doesn't suit I would stay in that general area. It is close to where the airport bus drops (and the bus to the railway station when you leave), is in walking distance of all the main city centre sights and convenient for the minibus routes up to the Alhambra and Albaicin.

d) And for your Question 4 - we were last in Sevilla in October two years ago. That time, we didn't book anything in advance, and there were queues for both Alcazar (we arrived when it opened, still about 15 minutes wait - later in the day there was a very long queue) and Cathedral (afternoon, about 20 minutes). I think you should consider pre-booking the Alcazar if you don't want to go there early/late.

Thank you for your reply. May i know if i should stay is seville and do a day trip to cordoba or stopover cordoba for 1 night before heading to madrid the next day.

Is there any fast train from cordoba to madrid?

Yes, there is AVE service Sevile-Cordova-Madrid-Barcelona, so along that route the fastest way to travel is definitely by train.

From which station should i take the ave train in seville and which station shd i alight in cordoba?

any other transportation mode from cordoba to madrid. ave train is kinda expensive.

"From which station should i take the ave train in seville and which station shd i alight in cordoba?"

With apologies for seeming brusque, you need to use the RENFE website (or an agent like Trainline), to get a certain answer to such questions. But, I suspect, all Ave trains will use Sevilla Santa Justa and will stop at the only main station in Cordoba, which is just called Cordoba. This is the one you want as it is in walking distance of the walled town, including the Mezquita. There may still be some slower non-Ave services that stop at Sevilla San Bernardo (as well as S Justa), and could be a little cheaper and not much slower. They will arrive at the same Cordoba station.

"any other transportation mode from cordoba to madrid. ave train is kinda expensive"

There is likely a coach (bus) service (run by the Socibus company probably), which would be cheaper, but take much longer.

For October, you should still be able to get discounted tickets for trains. However, it can take a bit of work (worth it).

Step one is to avoid Rail Europe. They do not show all trains, and they mark up tickets that they do sell (sometimes substantially).

For Spanish rail, you should first look at the Renfe website: http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html

Unfortunately, this site is not so easy to use. You will need this tutorial from TripAdvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187514-c80518/Madrid:Spain:Buying.Renfe.Tickets.Online.html

Do follow his advice to use Paypal rather than a credit card, or you'll waste lots of time.

If you can't get Renfe's site to work, people have had easier experiences using sites like Trainline https://www.trainline.eu/ or Loco2 https://loco2.com/ or Petrabax https://www.petrabax.com/#!/trains. The latter two add a small markup, but they start with fair prices.

Thank you!!!

Not sure what your budget is, but I have stayed at Hostal Acapulco in Madrid twice in the last year and really liked it. It is a small, family run hotel which is very conveniently located close to to metro stops. It isn't fancy but is always spotlessly clean and many rooms overlook a quiet plaza. I think I paid 79 euros for a room with three beds and 59 euros for a room with two beds, both with private bathrooms.

Thank you. Hotel option is out as i would like to have a kitchen to cook. So AirBNB is theway to go.