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Best of the best: Day trip or overnight for Toledo vs. Cordoba

Posted by (Oceanside, CA, USA) on

My wife and I are planning a 25 day trip to Spain and Portugal, working our way from landing in Barcelona, traveling through parts of Spain, and on to Portugal with a flight home from Lisbon. We want to include at least a day trip to Toledo from Madrid and a day trip to Córdoba from Seville. But we have heard so much about the benefit of spending at least one night in each of those two towns. If our schedule only permits an overnight in one of those two towns, with a day trip to the other, which overnight would you choose? And, can you get a room for just one night?

Also, to save backtracking, we thought we would fly from Seville to Porto, spend three nights including visiting the Douro Valley, then take the train down to Lisbon for our final five nights before flying home. Is this flight to Porto doable from Seville?

Thanks!

Posted by
2768 posts

I'd go with Cordoba, but it's really dependent on your preferences.

I like Toledo, but it is dominated by day-trip visitors. Once they go home you have the streets basically to yourself. It's beautifully lit up and looks great. This is why many people strongly suggest an overnight. I used to as well, but my most recent visit (in June, not off-season) made me question this. The downside is that Toledo clears out at night to the point of being deserted. I like more energy, but what I call "deserted" you may find "peaceful". To be clear, I am not looking for hopping nightlife - just people out strolling at dusk/after dark, a fair number of cafes with people eating dinner at Spanish time, like 9-11PM. Toledo lacks this.

Cordoba is more of a bigger town outside its tourist attractions and day trippers.

Toledo is more atmospheric at night as far as lighting/architecture, but Cordoba has more of a populated town feel. Which you prefer is up to you.

Posted by
15788 posts

Cordoba is my favorite city in Spain, but with your itinerary Toledo (also wonderful) is the better overnight. It's a 1/2 hour train ride from Madrid so it gets lots of day-trippers. With an overnight you'll have the less busy evening and morning hours there. You can easily stop for the day between Madrid and Sevilla, leaving your luggage at the bus station across the street from the train station.

There are also storage lockers in the Madrid train station, so you could leave most of your stuff there, take an overnight bag to Toledo, then pick up your stuff and continue to Cordoba (2 hours). Then it's about 45 minutes by train to Sevillla.

To find flights, I use two methods. The first is rome2rio.com. For flights, go to the wiki page for the airport. Toward the bottom you'll find a table listing all the airlines and destinations. Check both Porto and Sevilla to see all your options.

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