We arrive in Madrid for six nights next month. We have never been to Spain and are very active and would like to get as much as we can out of our limited time. My question is would you stay all 6 nights in Madrid with side trips or would you attempt to split between Madrid, and say Barcelona?
Recommended itineraries appreciated.
Thank you!
When you say you "arrive in Madrid for six night" does that mean you will arrive off a long flight (ie from North America or someplace else that typically requires an overnight flight)? is this "6 night in Spain" part of a larger trip to Europe, or are you going to fly to Europe and just spend 6 nights there before returning home?
Assuming that you land in Madrid after an exhausting overnight flight, you'll have five really usable days to play with. The arrival day will probably find at least one of you seriously sleep-deprived and jetlagged. The usual suggestions for the first day would be either to walk around outdoors in the sun (Retiro Park and the botanical garden are near Atocha rail station) or hop on a train to get to your other destination if you plan two separate hotel stays, intending to return to Madrid for the last few days of your trip.
To me, five days is borderline enough for Barcelona by itself. I would definitely not split my time between Barcelona and Madrid. Madrid has 3 really obvious side-trips (Toledo, Segovia, Cuenca), and Cordoba would also be doable. So even if you don't have much interest in Madrid's three large art museums or the Palacio Real, there's enough to do while staying in the city to fill all of your time.
Cuenca and Cordoba are far enough away that you need to use the very fast AVE train to reach them. Fares on those trains vary, with the cheapest tickets usually selling out long before the travel date. Last-minute tickets to either of those cities can be painfully expensive, so much so that you might consider them too costly for just a day-trip. So the first thing to do is look at ticket availability and fares to those two places (if they interest you) and see whether cheap tickets are still available on one of the days you plan to be in Madrid. For this, you should use the Renfe website. Understand that the fares you see today to Cuenca and Cordoba could be higher tomorrow. If you have trouble buying tickets from Renfe, try paying with PayPal, or buy from trainline.eu or loco2.com. Do not buy from RailEurope (usually much higher prices). Round-trip tickets will probably be somewhat cheaper than two one-way tickets.
For me, Toledo is the clear #1 day-trip from Madrid (actually worth more than one day). I'd rank Cordoba above Cuenca; perhaps they would be tied if you are interested in modern art. Cuenca has a couple of quite nice modern-art museums to go along with its extremely picturesque medieval district.
If the prospect of making a slew of day-trips is unappealing, you could spend a night or two in one of the other cities I've mentioned. That's the most you would want to do if you are big art fans and expect to spend a lot of time in Madrid's museums. My first choice for a second overnight stop would be Toledo. My second choice (subject to availability of a reasonable train fare) would be Cordoba.
First, lets add time to your journey by dumping your USA based tummy clock and getting onto local cultural eating time (LCCT). Doing so means you will be able to participate in the culture as locals live it. Start by eating a few tapas around 5 to 6 then holding out for the main meal at 9 p.m.. Make the adjustment on the first day of your travels. While you await dinner stroll through a neighborhood and watch it come to life as families come into the plazas to socialize. We enjoy making this adjustment as the experience of eating on local time has lead to being in the moment around locals.
Madrid has a relatively small Old Town geographic area amidst a large city. For our taste, which is not focused upon museums, we found two days in Madrid sufficient. Barcelona is a huge menu offering a wide variety of experiences and offers a totally different aspect of Spanish/Catalonia history. I sense you desire to be active in your sight visiting so will offer you a different route to travel. Arrive in Madrid (probably early morning?) and continue the journey same day via train to Seville. Yep a long day of travel, but the AVE high speed train offers a pleasant comfortable mode of transport and a 2 1/2 hour nap. Stay two nights in Seville to gain an old feel culture of Spain. On your return to Madrid stop at Cordoba for a day visit. This is easy to do in hopping off and on the train with a convenient place to store your luggage. Cordoba adds an experience not to be found in other parts of Spain. BTW, with a short number of days and multiple destinations, be sure and bring a minimum amount of luggage (a carry on each). A little bit of packing sacrifice greatly enhances the mobility of your journey. BTW, our best self given trip gifts are the clothing purchases made while in country to meet the needs of our journey ("Where did you get that beautiful blouse/scarf/shoes? Oh, I picked it up in Seville"). From Cordoba continue your trip to Madrid where you will spend the remaining days. You should have the opportunity to make at least one day trip of your choice, Toledo is nice. Keep in mind the days are becoming shorter in day light and Madrid has a high elevation so it will chill sooner than most of Spain.
Hi David,
Yes...we are flying from the US and only spending 6 nights in Spain flying into Madrid and then returning home from Madrid. Not optimal, but all the time we could afford at this time.
Thank you in advance for your advice.
SlowSpoke
Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies Marbleskies and acraven! Great ideas and tips we can use.
