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Driving tour of Spain

Hi.
We are currently planning a driving tour of Spain, arriving September 17th, 2018 through October 16th, 2018. We will be spending two days in Barcelona inbound and three on the outbound side. The Barcelona hotels have been booked and confirmed, however we have concerns for the days (and nights) in between.

We had hoped to leave the hotel bookings open, as we assumed this would allow us to travel wherever the mood took us.....although we do have a rough itinerary outlined. Our initial plan was to delay looking/booking any hotel until the day before it was needed, but now we are not sure if this is such a good idea.

We can of course pre-book hotels for the entire tour but this almost locks us into a firm and fixed schedule. Is it feasible to delay finding / booking a hotel until the last minute (24 hours), to allow greater flexibility? Our current intended route is as follows.......................
Barcelona /Zaragoza / Madrid / Cordoba / Seville / Cadiz / Granada / Benidorm / Valencia / Barcelona.

Thanks and Regards

Posted by
11575 posts

I would have hotels booked at least for Madrid, Sevilla, Granada.

Posted by
5542 posts

Benidorm? Why on Earth do you want to go to Benidorm?

Posted by
7163 posts

For the time of year you’re going, you should have no problem winging it in any of the places you mentioned, especially since all but one is a decent sized city. As my wife and I have done on a couple trips to southern Spain when we were winging it, we’d reserve 24 hours ahead once we did have an idea where we’d be. On other trips we found a place when we were reasy to stop. Some smaller town hotels will close after the tourist season ends (mid to late September), so you may need to start looking a little earlier in the day. Hopefully you’ll visit some of the smaller town en route. There are a lot of nice places to visit outside of the big cities.

Posted by
7175 posts

Rather than drive to Sevilla and back, I would advise the train as a more efficient choice for the return journey.

Arrive in Barcelona (2 nights)
Drive to Valencia (2 nights)
Drive to Granada (2 nights)
Drive to Nerja (2 nights)
Drive to Ronda (2 nights)
Drive to Seville (5 nights)
Train to Cordoba (2 nights)
Train to Madrid (5 nights)
Train to Zaragoza (2 nights)
Train to Barcelona (5 nights)

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for the various replies.

Benidorm. I don't think that we actually intend visiting Benidorm. We used it mainly as a reference point. That being said, it could change if we get a hankering for fish and chips with mushy peas.

Advanced hotel bookings. Noted, thanks. Leaving the bookings open will provide the flexibility that we are looking for.

Train. I like the idea of train travel but that would defeat the object of a driving trip. I appreciate the effort with the response.