Best 8 days in Spain - is Valencia worth a visit?

Carla,

I'd love to see the Alhambra but it is too long of a journey there and back. Any ideas?

Have you considered flying directly to Granada?

When is your trip?
How many nights will you have in Spain, eight or nine?

Definitely but not if you only have 8 days & never been to Spain!

Believe me, you will be back, so saving Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba for next time makes perfect sense. Make it easy for yourselves, and minimise transit times, by simply splitting your time between Madrid and Barcelona.

I'm not a Valencia fan and found nothing special about it. It's just another large city. On my first trip to Spain there are any number of nicer places to visit.

Unsure if you are including days of arrival and departure in your eight days, but you can easilly create a wonderful journey by:
staying in Madrid three days and use one day for a day trip to Toledo
Take the AVE to barcelona
Spend remainder of time in Barcelona with potential of one or tow day trips
The public transportation in both cities is convenient, inexpensive and provides extensive range of coverage.

Eight days is about right for just Madrid and Barcelona. I have been to Spain twice and Valencia never occurred to me. That said, the Google images suggest it might have some appeal. Still, resist the temptation to add stuff on. It's better to spend time in fewer places but enjoy them more fully. There are lots of great day trips out of Madrid, too. You could spend the whole eight days there and still wish you had more time.

With only 8 days you want to choose among the very best Spain has. In my opinion that is Barcelona, Madrid/Toledo, Seville, Granada, and Cordoba for the mesquita (note that I have not been to northern Spain/Santiago/Basque country so can't say what in that region would be best). From there it's a matter of what draws you most

My first visit I flew into Madrid and spent one night, then on to Seville (4 with day to Córdoba) then 3 in Granada and flew home from there. Flying home from Granada entailed a very early morning flight to Madrid, then direct back to Chicago. Easy. I did it this way because I was fascinated by Andalucia so prioritized it. My next trip was Madrid/Toledo/Segovia/Barcelona.

As someone that does love Valencia, I would recommend against it for this trip. Eight days will more than fill your time in Madrid and Barcelona. Not to mention potential daytrips from both cities.

I also think you'd be best to focus on those two cities and not be distracted by ideas of getting to Granada. A future trip to Andalucia will be in the works as soon as you get home from Madrid and Barcelona because you will love it so much. And that is a region best done as a trip in itself.

I would work in a daytrip or overnight to Toledo (30 minutes outside Madrid). It has a taste of the Moorish architecture found in Andalucia and will give you a third cultural exposure including Madrid and Barcelona (all three are so very different). Be sure to see the less popular sights that were built by Moorish craftsmen: the two synagogues and the mosque turned into a church.

I have roughly 10 days to stay in Spain and want to do it right. It sounds like Madrid is nice, but I don't need to spend a lot of time there? Barcelona would require what, 4 days? 3? I don't want to do a ton of touristy things, but do want to see the most important sites. What other cities or day trips are a must see?

My husband and I stayed for a week at a home in Valencia (through AirBnB) last fall. We loved it. One day we walked the river bed that is now converted into a park, leading to the City of Arts and Sciences and then we returned at night. I'm into medieval cities and cobblestone streets, but our visit to the City of Arts and Sciences was a highlight of our 6 week trip. The modern architecture is most interesting in daylight and then to see it reflecting in the pools at night is a real mind bender, a whole different experience. The architect said he designed the series of buildings to resemble a whale. We ate dinner al fresca at the restaurant under the opera house. I think Valencia is a worth an overnight stop between Madrid and Barcelona for that alone:)

We took a train from Nice to Barcelona, which was spectacular, as the train hugged the coastline all the way. We spent 2 full days in Barcelona then trained it up to San Sebastian, northern part, for one night. Trained to Madrid for 2.5 days as we spent the morning in San Sebastian, which is a beach town and beautiful. Trained it to Malaga on the Costa de Sol for 1.75 days, taking a Bus Tour to see Granada to see Alhambra . We trained it to Seville, stopping in Cordoba on the way. We were able to leave our luggage opposite the train station in Cordoba. From Seville we took at bus to Portugal to see the Algarve. If you only have 8 days, I would cut out Seville and have my last night in Cordoba. We personally preferred Cordoba to Granada as our tour guide in Granada spoke poor English and while Cordoba Mosque was on a smaller scale than Alhambra
it was interesting, easy to get around ourselves, as was the township. I even talked my husband into buying tiles in Cordoba of our house number and our last name followed by , meaning street. The trains in Spain were great. Each time we stayed close to the station. Our favourite city was definitely Barcelona followed by Cordoba and San Sebastian. Of course Madrid is a must. I did not think Spain would be so special, but it really is worth visiting and the people and food are great. Cutting our Seville this is an 8 days trip. If I had to cut anything it would Malaga on the Costa de Sol. Coming from Australia we preferred San Sebastian. We arrived at 1 pm and left for Madrid at 2 pm the next day. We took a lovely stroll around the place and loved it. If you have more time got to Seville and I would also go to Cadiz at the very bottom of Spain. It is considered the oldest city in Europe, but I did not know that when I planned our trip. We have had two trips around Europe. The first time was for 105 days and included UK and Ireland. From Australia it is a long way. Most of our trip, except for Ireland was completed by train. Our second trip we flew into Istanbul and went to Gallipoli for a day - a must for Australians and New Zealanders. We took a cruise to Athens then flew into Italy then trained all around it. From there we went to Nice then onto Spain and Portugal. That trip was 95 weeks. If you have never used trains they were wonderful in all countries.

I am planning for Valencia as well, majorly for the Art & Science center, which I am pretty intrigued about. Looks like 3-4 days are needed to see everything at Valencia.

Kglance109, it would be better for you to start your own thread. That way, when someone responds, you'll be notified by email. As it stands, those notifications are going to go to Carla.