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Early stages of planning Spain itinerary

Posted by (New Jersey, USA) on

Hi all;

We are in the early stages of planning our first trip to Spain. We are thinking about May/June of next year and 10-20 days. We have flexibility on this. We can easily fly in/out of Madrid or Barcelona from Newark, NJ. We are not carry-on only people.

As you look at this plan we have a couple of questions.

Is this the best route to see these 4 locations?

Other than our convenience, is there any reason to do it in the reverse direction?

Do you see any issues with our decisions on intercity transportation?

Is there a particular day trip from Barcelona that you would highly recommend?

Any other comments?

Thanks in advance

George

Day 1 Arrive Madrid, light sightseeing

Day 2 Madrid sightseeing

Day 3 Madrid sightseeing

Day 4 Day trip to Toledo

Day 5 Travel to Seville by high speed train

Day 6 Seville sightseeing

Day 7 Seville sightseeing

Day 8 Day trip to Cordoba from Seville

Day 9 Private transfer to Granada with a 2 hour stop in Ronda (daytrip.com)

Day 10 Granada sightseeing.

Day 11 Fly Granada to Barcelona

Day 12 Barcelona sightseeing

Day 13 Barcelona sightseeing

Day 14 Daytrip from Barcelona ??

Day 15 Barcelona sightseeing

Day 16 Fly home from Barcelona

Posted by
103 posts

I can recommend two daytrips from Barcelona: Girona and Tarragona. Each is easily reached via train. Girona offers more medieval sites and Tarragona offers more Roman era sites. Another option is to take the train to Sitges or another beach town near Barcelona.

Posted by
82 posts

From Barcelona, we enjoyed the Dali Museum in Figueres. Easy to get to by public transport and fun.
I'd skip the 2 hour stopover in Ronda with Daytrip. We had a great experience with Daytrip for private transfer, but regretted our 2 hour stop. Expensive day, and not enough time to see very much. I'd probably just take the train from Sevilla to Granada and spend the extra time in Granada. There's more to see in Granada besides the Alhambra.

Posted by
348 posts

What about starting flying into Barcelona, the fly to Granada, your crazy Ronda stop over, Sevilla, Madrid, fly out from Madrid? I think arguably it's nicer for the transit to get easier and simpler over the course of the trip.

Posted by
1167 posts

Could you manage an overnight in Cordoba?
It's such a lovely little city with so much to see.

Posted by
39 posts

It sounds like a lovely trip.

Since Cordoba is on the high speed train route from Madrid to Sevilla, your day trip to Cordoba could also be done as part of your Madrid to Sevilla travel day. It's about 1 hour 45 minutes from Madrid to Cordoba, and 1 hour from Cordoba to Seville.

There are a couple of highly rated luggage storage places near the station. Your call on whether dealing with the luggage storage on route, and potentially getting an earlier start from Madrid, is worth it versus backtracking from Sevilla on another day.

We really enjoyed Cordoba and would like to return some day to spend more time.

Posted by
115 posts

Thank you all for the insights and suggestions. They certainly help with our planning.

Posted by
16165 posts

I agree with NYtraveler - skip Ronda. You won't get much out of a 2 hour visit and you pretty much waste a day. If you can add a couple days, both Toledo and Cordoba are worth at least an overnight stay.

Look at the Barcelona official tourism website for lots of ideas for sightseeing in the city and day trips.

Posted by
1942 posts

I agree with Chani..skip Ronda.

Instead of Daytrip I would ask your hotel first about transfers.

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