2 to 3 weeks in Spain - Car vs. Rail

I would recommend a minimum of 4 nights, 5 would be better, in Barcelona. Firstly, you need to get over jetlag in Barcelona. Secondly, there are many interesting and cultural sights in Barcelona, and many of them require timed entry advance reservations. Which means that you might not be able to get back-to-back reservations, requiring a few hours to kill in between sights. Of course, wandering aimlessly and exploring neighborhoods in between sights is fun but it means it may take you longer to see the sights you want to see.

I would spend at least 2 nights in Granada. Be sure to get your Alhambra tickets well in advance.

I would spend at least 4 nights in Seville, without doing a daytrip, because Seville is another city with a great number of interesting historical and cultural sights. Seville is a lovely city for wandering with its beautiful architecture, plazas, fountains, parks, etc.

I see you don't have Cordoba on your itinerary. Is there a reason for this? I would add 2 nights to Cordoba, another very interesting and beautiful city that boasts the Mezquita. My personal preference is to spend a night or two in Cordoba, and not to visit as a daytrip from Seville, which a lot of people do. I don't think you will fully appreciate Cordoba if you visit as a daytrip.

I hope you realize that San Sebastian is not a daytrip from Zaragoza. And I assume you realize you can't do all of those daytrips you mention. You would do only one daytrip from Seville, or Zaragoza, for example, right?

My wife and I visited some of those cities in Sep 2023, travelling by train, bus, and rental car -- whichever worked best for the route. Specifics are in our trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-spain-aug-sep-seville-ronda-granada-cordoba-madrid

Thank you Geoff B & kmkwoo for your advice !!

I will make some adjustments to my itinerary and then reply with that itinerary and additional questions !!

Thank you for your patience.. I will correct my mistakes as well as incorporate advice and additional research !!

Cheers !

Kmkwoo,

Regarding your question about " day trips ".. Those destinations would be as overnights and we will most likely need to eliminate some of those based on time constraints and other factors..

Cheers !!

Skip Tangiers
Do not miss Toledo, my favorite city in Spain, it was the capital until 500 years ago and is a well preserved medieval city.
Also, do a day trip from Madrid to Segovia to see the 1800 year old intact Roman aqueduct.
The Basque Country is great, but not sure you have enough time.

Other than the Picos de Europa, you could do your trip via train. We always get a rental car because we seldom visit large cities any more since we’ve been to the ones we had an interest in and now focus on smaller towns, villages, hamlets, and nature areas in a smaller geographic area. We also make stops in out of the way locations between our lodging locations.

How many days you need in each depends on what you want to see and do. A place that I feel merits one or two days, others may feel merits and entire week.

Parking in the cities is a nightmare. Consider renting a car for the travel between Madrid and Sevilla. Wander the countryside there. The high speed train from Barcelona and Madrid is fast fast fast and not expensive if tickets booked early 8 weeks or more. Parking in Sevilla and other Andalusia towns was ranked by the number of beers we needed. It was that challenging. This was 20 years ago so who knows what it is like now. Another option is also take the high speed train from Madrid south, then rent a car from Granada up the coast to Barcelona.

Our journey would stop at the following points:
Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Seville ( possible side trips from Granada or Seville could include Ronda, Cadiz, Gibraltar and Tangiers ), Madrid, Zaragoza ( possible side trips from Zaragoza could include Oviedo, Santander, Picos de Europa, and San Sebastian ) and returning to Barcelona...

To me, your interests would seem to lean way more towards non-city stops than towards staying in cities. Are you really wanting to stay in the bigger cities and then radiate out - by train (easy but less efficient) or car (parking & driving in cities!) - or would you consider making a bunch of smaller outside the limits of big cities stays instead?

Personally, I like the cities you're listing and have visited many of them, but from a "hiking, cycling, kayaking, scenery" perspective, for the most part, they're mostly walking, city biking, non-kayaking, and full of architectural scenery but not "epic" scenery.

IOW, I envision the Swiss Alps or the Italian Dolomites or the French Pyrenees for your hiking, cycling, kayaking, scenery list, even though I really enjoy the other stuff I'd be doing in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, etc..

I greatly appreciate the recent advice form Geova, Jaime, Jojo and Tom !!!

We will continue to conduct additional research and then add a reply to receive additional advice to fine-tune our journey..!

Cheers !!

With your interests, I would slow the itinerary down and not try to cover almost all of Spain in one loop.

Since you prefer nature, coastlines, hiking, scenery, photography and food over museums, I would cut some city stops and give more time to northern Spain: Picos de Europa, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque coast.

I would keep Barcelona, Granada and Seville, use Madrid mainly as a short logistical stop, and skip Tangier and probably Gibraltar unless they are very important to you. Valencia and Zaragoza are nice, but I would not prioritize them over the north for this kind of trip.

For your travel style, fewer cities and more time in nature/coastal areas would make the trip much better.

Thank you Afina100 for the great suggestions !!

Cheers !!

@ Afina 100,

Taking into consideration that we are working with approx. 3 weeks, we will be eliminating some of the "destinations" for overnights..

To Be Continued !!

Cheers !!!