My husband and I have a 10-day travel window in mid-March. We are thinking of a trip to Spain. (I recently planned and booked our travel on a similar trip in England, with London as a home-base and day trips by train.) I speak passable Spanish and feel comfortable doing this again. We are thinking of 4 nights in Madrid, and 4 in Barcelona, with day trips out from the cities 3-4 of the days. Any suggestions? Better to fly into and out of the same city? (We are 62 but comfortably walked 5-8 miles per day on our England trip.)
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
5581 posts
I would watch some of the RS tv show videos for Spain to see what interests you. Madrid is a lovely city, but compared to other cities, it holds little interest to me, EXCEPT, there are some lovely day trips that you can take from Madrid. Toledo is a half hour a way from Madrid and is fantastic, but for me, I'd want to stay over for a night or two. Segovia is another wonderful day trip. Barcelona and the Catalon areas of Spain are visually stunning and culturally very interesting. I could spend just 10 days there. Beyond Barcelona, there is Montserrat, Girona, Figures, Cadaques, Besalu and more. If after your research, you still think you'd like to do Madrid and Barcelona, I'd first consider adding a day to Barcelona area and then yes, fly into one city and out of the other.
I'll throw out another area, mid-March would be a good time of year for Andalusia (Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada)
Posted by
7667 posts
If I had to pick two cities in Spain to split between 8-9 days, I would go with Madrid (also day trips to Segovia and Toledo) and Seville.
Barcelona would be my third choice then Granada.
Posted by
Washington DC
27112 posts
Aside from the art museums I don't find Madrid to be one of Spain's most architecturally interesting cities, but it has a bunch of really good day-trips. However, it is likely to be quite a bit cooler than Barcelona in March. You can find actual, day-by-day historical weather stats at timeanddate.com. I suggest looking at the stats for the last five years.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you want to see Barcelona and Madrid on the same trip, it's definitely better NOT to fly in and out of the same city.
You want an "open jaw" flight, into Madrid and out of Barcelona (or vice versa), on one ticket. This is usually much cheaper than two one-way tickets. To find these flights, use the "multi city" or "multiple destinations" option on Kayak, Google Flights, airline websites, etc. Sometimes it's hidden (for instance, on United's website it's under "Advanced Search," under the rest of the search box).
Do check prices for both options. When I went in September 2015, for no clear reason it was $80 cheaper to fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona than the reverse. Since I had no other reason to favor one starting city over the other, that's how I did it.
To get between the two cities, the fastest and easiest way is the AVE (high speed train). These tickets are much cheaper booked a few months in advance; if you wait the price can triple and some runs can even sell out. However, they can be tricky to buy. When you're ready, look at the tips from rail guru The Man In Seat 61: https://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm
When you say "with day trips out from the cities 3-4 of our days," it sounds like you don't have much interest in seeing the cities themselves. Is this correct? If you do want to see them, the cities themselves will each take 3-4 days at a minimum. If you don't want to focus on the cities, you will have to be very selective (particularly in Barcelona).
Rick's Spain book will have lots of helpful details for planning your trip. You will want to supplement it with other books. For instance, Rick doesn't discuss Girona, which many of us feel is a very worthwhile day trip (or longer) from Barcelona.