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Easter in Spain - impact on choosing destinations

Hi all - We’re looking at celebrating our 10 year anniversary in Spain next year, April 13-24, which would fall over Easter. We’ve been once before and visited Madrid, Segovia, Sevilla, and Granada. I absolutely want to spend 5 days in Barcelona. This leaves 5 days elsewhere. The best flights for us on these dates have us going in through Madrid and out through Barcelona.

I’m currently considering two options before our time in Barcelona. This time will fall directly during the Easter holiday and I’m wondering if we’d have any issues doing standard touristy stuff in either location?

First option - Mallorca. Spend time in Palma and the northern part of the island, and do some hiking. We’d fly here immediately from Madrid. I suppose Easter can’t cancel hiking so there’s always that. What’s Palma like during Easter?

Second option - spend a couple days in Toledo and then somewhere else. I’m interested in Zaragoza. Or a combination of pretty little places like Rupit, Peratallada, etc. It looks like Toledo typically has a lot of Easter related activites?

I’d definitely appreciate any insight you can give me. We could adjust our time to avoid Easter but then we’d miss celebrating our actual anniversary in Spain so that would be a bummer. Departing a week later means we’d be flying on our anniversary and that’s not how I really want to spend it…but in the end I don’t want to book a timeline that’s problematic, either. Thanks so much!

Posted by
4180 posts

On account of the current pandemic it's still not clear how this coming Semana Santa will be impacted, the last two have been effectively cancelled. However most of the places you list are typically not very impacted by Semana Santa (compared to other parts of Spain like Andalucia) even in the normal year and you should have no issues doing standard touristy stuff, but Toledo may be the only exception.

I like the option of visiting Mallorca, should be ok weather then, but probably not swimming weather.

Zaragoza is also a great option, and quite underrated in my opinion, it has Semana Santa festivities, but not on the scale of Andalucía, might be a good option to just get a taste of Semana Santa in Spain.

Posted by
28102 posts

If you decide to head north immediately and stay in that area until you fly home from Barcelona, I can recommend time in Girona. It's worth a couple of nights so you'd have a full day there, but most people probably treat it as a day trip from Barcelona.

Posted by
3075 posts

This is obviously dependent on your travel style, me personally, I hate having to pack&unpack too often or wasting too much time on trains and plains.... so I tend to "group" my visits.

In this context, if you're staying in Barcelona I'd strongly consider remaining in Catalonia for the other five days doing day escapades. There are literally a ton of places to visit at less than 2-3h from Barcelona, many of which you can do by train/bus. And if you are willing to rent a car then your choices are multiplied by a zillion.

Should you want to explore this, let us know a bit more about your preferences and interests and I am sure we can come up with enticing proposals.

And just to wet your appetite
https://cmsmultimedia.catalunya.com/mds/multimedia/485420/
https://cmsmultimedia.catalunya.com/mds/multimedia/485918/
https://cmsmultimedia.catalunya.com/mds/multimedia/541692/
https://cmsmultimedia.catalunya.com/mds/multimedia/541693/

Enjoy!

Posted by
1560 posts

Suggest you land in Madrid and immediately connect to Toledo to spend several days. Then travel to Barcelona and follow Enric's guidance for the menu of opportunities is vast and rewarding. Barcelona's public transport system is wonderful and offers connections to a train system enhancing the range of your travels. Highly recommend renting an apartment within the exiample district.

Posted by
4180 posts

If you end up going to Girona, know that they have some pretty interesting Semana Santa festivities up there too, including a large procession of fully armored Roman legionaries, I think that's on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Posted by
677 posts

Carlos, thanks for the input on Semana Santa. It sounds like we should be ok wherever we choose.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions so far! I’m honestly really leaning towards going to Mallorca. The natural beauty of the island coupled with the charming towns like Soller and Deia and Valldemossa just scream romance to me. The hiking looks incredible there. We’ve never been anywhere similar so it would be a very different experience for us. Closest place I can think of that we’ve explored is the Cinque Terre.

As far as our personal interests go, we love architecture, history, castles, ruins, food, wine, hiking, museums and more. My top highlight from our first trip to Spain was the Alhambra. I love moorish architecture; the Alhambra blew me away. Another favorite experience was flamenco in Sevilla; it gave me goosebumps. Just wow. Looking forward to returning to Spain and exploring new corners of the country!