We will be spending four nights in Barcelona at beginning of our ten day trip and three or four nights in Madrid at the end. We want to experience a location with a Moorish influence. Should we fly from Barcelona to Granada and take the train to Madrid or take a train from Barcelona to Cordoba and travel by train to Madrid? Either way we will only have two or possibly three nights in either Cordoba or Granada.
I am wary of adding air travel to an already tight itinerary.
Thank you for any helping planning. We are traveling in early April.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2681 posts
Madrid is the hub of the Spanish high-speed train system and to get to Granada or Cordoba from Barcelona by train, you will first need to travel to Madrid.
I would start buying your train tickets now as they will only get more expensive the longer you wait. www.TheTrainline.com will show an overview of what is available. You then can buy them directly at www.Iryo.eu/en or www.Renfe.com
You might want to check out the Moorish ALJAFERIA PALACE in Zaragoza, where all high-speed trains between Barcelona and Madrid make a stop. The massive palace was built around 1050 AD by the Moorish ruler. Zaragoza, the capital of Aragon, also has other Moorish and Mudejar historical architecture.
The ALJAFERIA Palace is less than one mile from the Zaragoza-Delicias train station.
Posted by
Washington DC
28965 posts
Both Cordoba and Granada are great destinations. With your tight schedule, I might tilt toward Cordoba since it's a 34-minute train trip from Madrid. Although I really liked spending 3 nights in Toledo, it would also be possible to spend all your non-Barcelona nights in Madrid and take day trips to Toledo and Segovia.
The trains between Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba, Toledo and Granada can all sell out--though they won't necessarily do so. It would be risky to wait until you're in Spain to buy your tickets, aside from the fact that you'd be paying higher prices for everything except Madrid-Toledo-Madrid.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you for replying. Decided on Barcelona to Cordoba and then to Madrid. Weighed time to get to/from airports vs. ease and comfort of train and made my choice. I know this is not the most efficient use of our time but flying for me is not as easy as when I was younger. I heeded the advice and bought tickets already.