Greetings Travelers! Seeking advice and wisdom for Spain travel in September 2022. We have a few "adventures" firmly planned but need to fill in the blanks! We will roundtrip from Miami. Our two adventures are: 1. Bike trip from Girona-Barcelona Sept 3-9th. We meet the group on 9/3 @9:00 am. 2. Sailing Mallorca from Sept 17-24th. This is where I need help!! We would like to spend a few days in Barcelona and I was going to do that at the end of the trip but the festival Le Merce is from 9/21-9/25 and don't want to be in that area during the festival. We would like to explore Bilbao and San Sebastian.
One idea:
1. Miami to Barcelona on 8/31. Land 9/1.
2. 9/1-9/2 explore Barcelona. (I would rather take train upon Barcelona arrival to Girona and recover from jet lag)
Take afternoon train to Girona. Hotel overnight.
3. 9/3 meet biking group @ 9:00 am
4. 9/9 Bike trip ends in Barcelona.
From here we have few options:
a. spend few days touring Barcelona 9/9-9/11
OR
b. Fly or Train to Bilbao or San Sebastian
6. tour around those two cities for few days
7. Train or Fly back to Barcelona on 9/15 and tour Barcelona
(OR fly directly from BIO to PMI on 9/16 (just to be safe for sailing "cast off" on 9/17)
8. Fly Barcelona to Mallorca on 9/17 for sailing trip.
Appreciate feedback and suggestions. Many thanks!
Posted by
Washington DC
28120 posts
There's very little time between your (probably jetlagged and sleep-deprived) arrival on 9/1 and your tour start time of 9 AM on 9/3. There's more than enough to fill a day in Girona, so I'd agree with heading right there.
So that gives you 6 or 7 days to split between Barcelona and the Basque Country, depending on flight schedules from Bilbao to Palma. Skyscanner.com shows two morning non-stops and one evening non-stop on 9/16. I wouldn't risk the evening non-stop since you're meeting a cruise unless the latter has a late-afternoon departure on 9/17.
I don't know what to tell you about splitting those 6-7 days. Barcelona is worth every bit of it. So is the Basque Country, though four nights might be enough for just Bilbao and San Sebastian if you didn't want to see anything else in the area..
You mentioned wanting to avoid La Merce, but dates for the festival almost totally overlap your Balearic cruise. Do you mean you could potentially remain in Spain for some time after the cruise? If so, the answer seems to be: Spend the pre-cruise time in Barcelona, then fly from Palma to Bilbao after the cruise.
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4181 posts
festival Le Merce is from 9/21-9/25 and don't want to be in that area during the festival.
If you are averse to large gatherings of people, you should know that Sept 11th is the National Day of Catalonia, especially celebrated in Barcelona with large demonstrations, just need to Google images of "La Diada" to know what I mean. Might toss a wrench into your highly structured plans... or might not if Covid-19 is still a thing come September.