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Any suggestions for my Itenerary?

I'm including the very little activities I have so you can see timing.

Sun, 5/28/2017 Madrid Arrive at 6:25 am, attend church at 9 or 11am

Mon, 5/29/2017 Madrid

Tues, 5/30/2017 Madrid LDS temple till around 10am

Wed, 5/31/2017 Toledo

Thur, 6/1/2017 Cordoba

Fri, 6/2/2017 Granada

Sat, 6/3/2017 Granada

Sun, 6/4/2017 church till around 11:30am then overnight in Ronda

Mon, 6/5/2017 Arcos

Tues, 6/6/2017 Sevilla

Wed, 6/7/2017 Sevilla

Thur, 6/8/2017 Madrid

Fri, 6/9/2017 Plane at 12:30pm

Concerns/questions:

I have a 15 yo son who is very active. While he will be good with "old" buildings for awhile, he wants to have fun as well. A zipline did sound fun to him. He enjoyed a speed boat on another trip of ours. He loves racing up stairs, but if that was all he could do he would get bored after too many towns. So I need to find something exciting for him to do in this itinerary.

We take it easier on Sundays. Not so much buying things. More, relaxing walks or things like that.

How is the travel between these cities? Better to switch any of them?

Posted by
7 posts

Reading over this I think I need to be more clear. I'm not really looking for suggestions of things to do. More of if what I have sounds like a good mix of places to visit and if there are things for my son to do. Would you suggest visiting somewhere else instead? I'm not interested in Barcelona at this point.

Posted by
7175 posts

I would head to Cordoba on arrival, leaving your Madrid nights consolidated before departure.
You would have possible Sunday church services in the Mezquita, Córdoba and the Seville Cathedral.

Sun, 5/28/2017 Arrive Madrid at 6:25am. Direct to Cordoba (2N)
Mon, 5/29/2017 Cordoba
Tues, 5/30/2017 Granada (2N)
Wed, 5/31/2017 Granada
Thur, 6/1/2017 Ronda (1N)
Fri, 6/2/2017 Arcos (1N)
Sat, 6/3/2017 Sevilla (3N)
Sun, 6/4/2017 Sevilla
Mon, 6/5/2017 Sevilla - day to Jerez ??
Tues, 6/6/2017 Madrid (3N)
Wed, 6/7/2017 Madrid
Thur, 6/8/2017 Madrid - day to Toledo
Fri, 6/9/2017 Depart Madrid at 12:30pm.

Posted by
7 posts

I like that idea. I have few concerns though.

We will already have been traveling doe 24 hours at that point so I am concerned about taking on a couple more hours. How much time should I allow between the plane touching down and getting the train?

Does the train run to Cordoba on Sundays? I've been trying to check for closer dates because it doesn't have it available for the day I want it yet. I'm not sure if the tickets are sold out for the dates I am checking, if I have the right stations or if the train just doesn't run on Sundays from the airport to Cordoba.

The church I would most want to attend in Cordoba is at Av Conde de Vallellano 9 11, CORDOBA, CORDOBA 14004 at 10:30am. Is there any hope of doing that? It looks like it would be pretty tight and we would have to hope that our flight wouldn't come in late.

Posted by
26829 posts

No, I don't think there's a rail connection that would get you to Cordoba in time. But you could do this:

  • Get to the Puerta de Atocha rail station (by train, bus, or taxi as you prefer).
  • Check your luggage at the station and buy your train ticket to Cordoba for either the 11 AM or 2 PM departure.
  • Go to the temple in Madrid.
  • Return to Atocha Station, retrieve your luggage and depart for Cordoba.

I do agree, though, that if you will have been flying for 24 hours by the time you reach Madrid, you will be exhausted unless you are those lucky, and unusual, people who can sleep on trains [edit: I meant planes, obviously!]. But the thing is: There's a good chance that you will not be able to check in at a Madrid hotel until considerably after you leave the temple anyway, so it might not be all that much worse to hop on a train to Cordoba.

Posted by
7 posts

Thank you for those ideas. I forgot to talk to my husband about it all last night before we went to bed and I have been waiting for him to be available to talk.

Meanwhile I remembered that we have some frequent flier miles that we haven't been able to use in other places because of expensive fuel charges so I checked out using it from Madrid to Cordoba the day we arrive. No go.

Then I tried Seville to Madrid the day we are leaving, using the plan I originally thought of. It gets us there for very little miles and $12 each plus gets us to the airport at 8am that morning. Besides an early morning is there any reason NOT to go this route?

Posted by
26829 posts

Yes, there's a reason not to do it. If something goes wrong with that Seville-Madrid flight, you may miss your transatlantic return flight and have to buy two $$$ replacement tickets. It would certainly not be worth the risk to me. It's not a long train ride from Seville to Madrid, so it's not like you're avoiding an unpleasant, day-long train ride. You can hop on the train late in the afternoon or early in the evening and still get to Madrid for dinner (if you can tolerate the very late Spanish dinner hour, that is).

It is always best (though of course people occasionally break this rule) to spend the night before your return flight near your departure airport. My rule is always to be close enough that I could afford to take a taxi to the airport in the event something awkward (like a transit strike) happens.

Posted by
7 posts

So is Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Ronda, Arcos and Sevilla a good mix of places? My concern is with the 15yo. Will they all start to be the same to him?

I shared a picture from this blog: http://www.anepiceducation.com/things-to-do-in-cuenca-spain/ (2nd picture under " Save & Share on Pinterest!" and he really thought that would be good. Is there anything like this in the areas I have listed?

I know Toledo has a zipline that he is interested in.

Posted by
26829 posts

Aah, Cuenca. Really striking town. It's actually very accessible from Madrid by fast train (AVE). It takes less than an hour each way. You can check the schedule on the Renfe website. It would be key, however, to keep on top of ticket availability for the selected travel date. You can probably spend as little as about 30 euros each for the roundtrip, but waiting till the last minute would cause the fare to escalate to 70 euros each (or even to 120 euros if all the Turista/2nd-class tickets are sold out).

I wouldn't normally consider the possibility of 2 day-trips with such a short stay in Madrid, but with a 15-year-old boy, the Big 3 art museums may not be key sights.

I don't have any children, so I'm afraid I can't be of much help on teenager-friendly sights in general.