3 Months in Spain & France - Winter

The amount of time you have for each city is what most people can do for their entire European vacation. You are very fortunate. I would go insane with 16 days in Barcelona, most definitely not my favorite city, but if you have that much time to spare why not, you can become a local.

My wife and I both retired about 3 years ago. Instead of 2-3 trips shorter month-long trips per year (and the airfare cost of that), we are going to try a 4 month stay from January thru April (3 months in Shengen, 1 month in UK). Escape the snowbanks of Northern MN.

But, yeah, that's one of my worries - Too long/too short in any one place . . .

Where is your 2027 trip?

Brad

February in London
March in Haarlem
April 1-15 in Copenhagen

I personally would try to add time in one or two other places in southern France… Lyon… Beaune, etc to balance the large amount of time in Spain. Also the side trips can make or break these things so thinking how you would fill 10-14 days anywhere will be important- El Escorial, Toledo, Jerez, Arcos de la Frontera, Ronda, etc. Have fun.

So Far, I have the following day trips sketched out:
Madrid: Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca/Cuenca
Seville: Cordoba
Malaga: Rhonda
Montpellier: Sete, Narbonne, Beziers
Avignon: So, so many...

And, yeah, I have been considering cutting some time in Barcelona/Madrid, and en-route to Paris, either heading in the direction of Lyon to the east, or Bordeaux to the west. Just not sure as I haven't been to those cities before . . .

Maybe reduce the cities with over 10-day stays and add Nice?

Nice is where I originally planned on starting (Nice to Aix to Avignon to Montpellier, then to Spain). But there seemed to be so much to do in the Nice area, that I worried about short-changing Spain in order to stay within my 90 days.

Good suggestions - I am going to revisit the idea of starting in Nice. How many days would you guys give Nice, if you wanted to see Eze, Menton, Antibes, etc? 10 days?

What a great trip you are planning!

We spend up to three months yearly in Europe, predominantly in Andalusia and Valencia, as well as Italy, and struggle with choosing which cities to visit and for how long within the confines of the Schengen zone.

Too short or too long in any one place is indeed the question. If you spend too short a time, then it’s not the slow travel that you seem to prefer. Too long, and you miss out on other destinations.

Your itinerary looks good, but I would cut out quite a few nights in both Barcelona and Madrid to allow for other places. It seems Spain is the main reason for your trip, with France at the end. It looks like you don’t want to short change Spain, and this adjustment will also give you plenty of time in Nice.

If you lessen the nights in Barcelona and Madrid, you might consider a stay in a white Andalusian village like Vejer de la Frontera, which is an easy drive from Seville. Also, how about Cádiz?

I’m always mindful of not booking the full 90 days in the Schengen zone, just in case!!

All the insights from you guys are so helpful, especially since this will be our first time in Spain. I think we’ll look at trimming Madrid back to 10 days, and Barcelona to 7, and give those days to Nice.

Which 3 months? I would go with starting in mid/late January, unless you want to enjoy the Xmas markets and decorations.

My personal preferences after several 3 week visits to Spain:

Madrid is a large city, not much in the way of "old town" vibe. There are 3 top notch art museums in Madrid, focused mainly on European painting, and a palace worth several hours. One of my faves was the Naval Museum. It is convenient for day trips. I haven't gone to any of the day trips you listed except Toledo and there I spent 2 nights. Toledo sounds like a place you would enjoy, with lots of medieval lanes and buildings and history. It is hilly (san-francisco-hilly). Going for a day would definitely short-change it. I would consider taking days from here for a 2-3 night stay in Toledo, and at least 2-3 more for another destination. I don't travel light, so I left my luggage at the Madrid train station and just took an overnight bag to Toledo.

It would be easy to spend a week or more in Sevilla, but it's not convenient for day trips. OTOH Cordoba is definitely worth several nights. It has the best preserved medieval center I've seen in Andalucia and it's a joy to wander in the evenings. There are lots of small museums to explore, focused on cultural heritage, history, gardens, and more. And there's the Mezquita!! I've spent 2-3 nights there and each time I left wishing I'd had more time.

7 days each in Granada and Malaga seem like overkill to me. I ran out of sights in Granada after 3 days and while I loved Malaga, there's not much to enjoy along the coast, if you're thinking of day trips. However, I would happily spend a week in Ronda with a car (I've done 3-4 days there twice) with day trips to visit other hill towns. I'd pick up a car in Sevilla and drop it in Granada.

I could see a minimum of a week in Valencia. I was there for a few days for Las Fallas - which was crazy with tourists and celebrations. If you are ready for an experience plan to be there around March 15-19.

I wouldn't take one day from Barcelona. There is so much to see and do and a dozen or more good day trips. Check out the options at the official TI website

France I haven't been to Montpelier or Avignon. My impression was that Avignon is better in spring and may be subject to the mistrals in winter. I did spend 2 days in Marseilles and enjoyed it much more than I'd expected, before moving on to Nice for almost a week in mid-March. Nice and the coastal towns were great, sunny, not too hot, not too crowded. It's easy to take day trips by train to all the towns along the coast from Cannes to Menton.

Looks like a great trip.
Presumably, you haave taken into account the 90 days in any rolling 180 in Schengen.

Consider visiting other areas like The Basque Country at the western border of Spain and France, as well as the Bordeaux area of France.
Also, you could include several days in Portugal, visiting the Lisbon area, as well as Porto and the Douro River Valley.
For sure do day trips to Toledo and Segovia from Madrid.

Thanks Chani, for all of the helpful advice. Sounds like we should consider a couple of days each in cordoba and Toledo, rather than day trips. And as for timing, we would likely start in the first week of January, and leave Schengen at the end of March.

I think you may be brave with - as I add it up - 88 partial or full days in the Schengen area. At the end of March one late winter storm could throw you into a pickle..

Remember to budget extra time for EES (and maybe ETIAS by then) and get your ETA for the UK before travel.

We’re headed for Belgium, Czechia and Slovenia in about 3 weeks, which will be our first time through EES, and so we’ll see how things go with EES. Better safe than sorry with Schengen, for sure.

They keep delaying ETIAS, but I’d guess they have to finally roll it out sometime next year…

As a slow traveller too, I found it easy to spend 8 nights in Granada and 10 in Malaga (on a second trip) without getting bored. There's a lot to see in Seville but I found it a stressful place for a longer stay because it is so busy. I'd certainly spend 3 of the 14 nights in Cordoba instead. Madrid is fantastic and a good place to start your trip in winter because plenty to do if the weather isn't great. With 7 nights we hardly scratched the surface. Toledo deserves three nights. I too don't like Barcelona so 16 nights would be too many, there are just so many tourists there, it's overwhelming. Personally I wouldn't try to add Nice. There is so much to see from Provence heading east that it's worth keeping for a future trip??
This was our (shorter) 2025 winter trip:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2025/05/spain-in-winter-madrid-toledo-sevilla.html

I will add a plug for Cadiz, either as a one day short train ride from Sevila or for a few nights.

In June 2025 we spent 13 nights in Cadiz and were not bored once. A nice car rental trip was Cadiz to Jerez de la Frontera, Arcos de la Frontera, Zahara de la Sierra, and Ronda, and return (in one day). Any of those small towns could be a worthy overnight stay.

Another car trip was southeast to Gibraltar (which was meh) and return (in one day). But the best part for me on that trip was Baelo Claudia, one of Andalucia´s most significant and well-preserved Roman archeological sites. The extensive ruins are situated on the Costa de la Luz, some 15km north of Tarifa, by the small town of Bolonia and its beautiful beach. Very history nerd-worthy!

Thanks for the link, Tinac! You have a seriously great blog there, with lots of important travel details and very good writing. Well done.
Cadiz, Jerez and Girona look great, and with all the excellent advice here, we are going to adjust accordingly to add more cities with shorter stays. Working on it now . . .

It's a work in progress, but here's the adjusted itinerary, trying to take into account the excellent suggestions above -

8 Nights in Madrid
5 Nights in Toledo
6 Nights in Cordoba
8 Nights in Seville
6 Nights in Cadiz (with Jerez day trip)
5 Nights in Rhonda
6 Nights in Malaga
6 Nights in Granada
5 Nights in Alicante
7 Nights in Valencia
6 Nights in Barcelona
5 Nights in Girona
9 Nights in Montpellier
3 Nights in Paris then out of Schengen.

Thx to everyone. Ron

Thanks Ronald, I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time

The amount of time you need in each place should be determined by what you want to see in each place. With the amount of time you have you should be able to see everything in each of the places on your list. Consider possible day trips for each city/town before heading over so you don’t need to figure it out once you’re in country.

That much time in any of the places isn’t my travel style, but I’m sure you will have a good time.

Agree with @jaimeelsabio that the time you have allocated to each location seems, at least for our travel style, a lot!! A few suggestions: take sidetrips from Madrid to Avila, Segovia and/or Toledo; spend several days in Cordoba; visit the wonderful Basque country; tour the fabulous La Rioja wine region; from Malaga, walk the El Caminito del Rey; from Barcelona visit the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres. All wonderful!