Feedback on Rick Steves itinerary for "My Way® Spain in 11 Days"

That itinerary is way too aggressive for me. There's just one full day and one partial, jet-lagged day in Barcelona; I have a hard time imagining less than four full days there. You've allocated two nights to Madrid (less than two days) and have no realistic chance to see Toledo. You're never in one place for more than 2 nights, and you have two one-night stops--six hotels in ten days. Have you really traveled at that pace in Europe previously, over such a distance?

At least on a bus tour, as you noted, you wouldn't have to worry about driving, parking, etc. If you were tired you could both doze on the bus. But I wouldn't buy that trip as a bus tour, either.

It would not be logical to fly between Barcelona and Madrid; a train would be faster. I think a train would also be faster than driving from Madrid to Cordoba.

If I had ten nights in Spain, I wouldn't try to cover destinations stretching from Barcelona to Andalucía. I'd drop Barcelona (though I love it) and probably add both nights to Madrid, using them for day-trips by train to two of Toledo/Segovia/Cuenca. That change still leaves me unhappy with the constant hotel-changing going on during the rest of the trip, so I'd see Cordoba as a day-trip from Seville, spending three nights there. If you want to fly out of Seville, the route could be Madrid (with day-trips)-Granada-Ronda-Seville (with Cordoba day-trip).

Barcelona, in conjunction with other attractive stops in Catalunya, will more than a fill a future 10-day trip. That's what I'd do, anyway.

Skipping the drive to Ronda will give you something much more manageable.

Thu - Land in Barcelona (3)
Sun - Fly to Granada (2)
Tue - Train to Sevilla (3)
Fri - Train via Cordoba to Madrid (3)
Mon - Fly out of Madrid to USA

Well if you only have a week. I think most tours (including Rick's) try to cram in too much in too short a time in their efforts to provide the most bang for the buck. I don't know if Barcelona would be worth it with basically one day there - you could do Sagrada and stroll Las Ramblas I guess. I'd drop Madrid and distribute the nights elsewhere. You could do city to city via train/bus and not have to deal with parking and get down time. Although if you are a fan of flying I think there are direct flights Barcelona - Granada or Seville.

I’ll agree with the too aggressive for the time you have and the geographical separation between locations. My wife and I are not “tour” people because we like to visit places at our pace rather than at a tour operator’s pace. It’s disappointing when you want to stay longer at a location and having to leave because the bus is leaving. Also, with tours, some meals are included and it may be a place you don’t want to eat at and you may not want to eat with others on the tour. Some people prefer tours because it suits their comfort level. When referring to tours I say, you visit places but don’t experience them. My personal opinion is you’ll experience more seeing things on your own.

The main difference between your itinerary and Rick's is taking Rick's 3rd night in Madrid (the one that facilitates a daytrip to Toledo) and moving it to a one-night stop at Cordoba. Either one is a great town to visit, but we give higher priority to Toledo, as well as to minimizing one-night stops. Many tour members will arrive at least one night early in Barcelona, to have however much time they want there. Staying an extra night in Sevilla also makes it easy enough to day trip to Cordoba without moving hotels. Or you can see it for a partial day while traveling south by train (with of course trade-offs in the time you have at the next destination).

As you know from your research into the My Way Tour, all of your sightseeing time and lunches and dinners are on your own, so you avoid the concerns that Jaime has above about regular tours.

Thank you Laura
I hadn't thought of tour people arriving early at Barcelona - duh!
My son & wife want to join us in Madrid and then stay longer. I didn't say that in my original post but I see that I should, because suggestions to skip Madrid don't work out unless my son meets us at the other city.

In the Rick Steves tour, it seems, they skip Cordoba. Yet 'everyone' loves the mezquita + and I guess that would justify more than a few hours there. Right? or Not necessary?

In Rick's At a Glance section and suggested itinerary for 3 weeks, Cordoba gets an opinionated rating of 1 star, out of a range of 0 to 3. Everyone does love the Mezquita, and you could probably fit in the Syangogue, too, since it's small, but nothing else is classed as a must-see. You'll see other great Moorish architecture at the palaces in Granada and Seville. There's always too much to see, so if any of your party can stay longer in Spain, then I hope they do.

I disagree with previous comments about "too aggressive" itinerary and the negative aspects of tours vs. doing it on your own. We thought we weren't "tour people" until we did our first RS tour. Now we are planning our 4th. If you want to see a good sampling of Spain and get a feel for its culture, I think you would enjoy the My Way . Sure, you could always feel you don't have enough time in the big cities but you will see the highlights. And, really the small towns give you another experience but often 2 nights are enough.
Our experience has been that we see much more and waste a lot less time when we have the local guides giving us tours. The walking tours by a local can't be beat. We truly believe we experience a lot more and learn more when we travel with guides.
Also we have done 2 "my Way" tours and the only time that isn't spent voluntarily with the group is on the bus.

Really, having someone else planning your accommodations and transportation is a nice relaxing way to travel. RS tours always have enough "down time" for you to venture out on your own.
Lois
12/1/17

You've raised several issues that, while interlinked, are separate.

1) Escorted tour vs. My Way tour vs. do it yourself. There are pros and cons to each approach. But be careful - many people will have strong opinions on things they have not done. I'm in this category myself - I don't think I'd like an escorted tour, but I've never taken one. I am struck, however, by the number of people on this forum who have traveled independently, and still love Rick's escorted tours.

2) How to see Spain in a short time. It's a large country, with three main areas of interest for first timer visitors - Barcelona and around, Madrid and around, and Andalucia. On the one hand, Barcelona to Madrid and Madrid to Seville are each only 3 hours by high speed trains, so these regions are easy to connect. On the other hand, there's lots to see in each of the three, so on a short trip, you can chose between doing a taste of all three, or just doing one or two with a bit more breathing room.

If you do want to see all three in 10 nights, you'll do better with some form of tour, for the reasons you mentioned - it takes care of the logistics, so you can be more efficient.

And I also leave on a Thursday and return on a Monday (10 nights in Europe) - works great for me! However, I take two of these trips a year. So, I always plan to see just a small area on each trip. For my four trips to Spain so far: my first trip (1995) was Madrid and Barcelona. My second trip (2006) was Andalucia (overnights in Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and then one night in Malaga to get the flight home). My third trip (2015) was Madrid, Toledo, and Barcelona (not only had it been 20 years, but I made some mistakes on the first trip and corrected them). And my fourth trip (2017) was Basque country of France and Spain.

What were my mistakes on that first trip?

1) I was in Madrid over a long holiday weekend but didn't know it. May 1 is a Europe-wide holiday, and May 2 is a local holiday. I only realized what I was missing when the holiday ended (as I was leaving) and felt the difference when everyone came back.
2) I saw the Prado my first, jet-lagged day. On my second trip, I deliberately waited until my last Madrid day to go to the Prado. Much better - not only was I fully awake, but after the Prado, all art will seem second-best, so I saved the best for last.
3) I went to Toledo on a Monday - when lots of things there are closed. For my second trip, I stayed over a Tuesday night.

Harold - I like your comments at the bottom about the Prado and jet lag ...

My main concern was "am I moving too fast". The RS tour was mentioned in that I thought it validated by speed.
I think I'll be short-changing Barcelona the most. Yet, I don't know if I'll ever be back to Spain, so I'm willing to go for a short time, and re-visit another time, if/when I'm sorry for having short-changed it. (?)

Evan, if you decide to do a quick visit to Barcelona, you'll really need to do your homework to avoid spending a truly painful amount of your time waiting in ticket lines. You can have a good visit to Barcelona by just walking around historic areas like the Barri Gotic, seeing modernista architecture from the outside and perhaps visiting one or more museums other than the Picasso.

If you want to go inside the top sights, you'll be smart to get tickets in advance. That's tricky on a short trip, because you'll be trying to pack stuff in and will have to guess how much time you'll spend at each sight, then how long it will take to get to the next one. Because of its extreme popularity and the typical need to book quite a lot in advance, Barcelona is one of the most difficult cities for short-term visitors to see.

I do have one suggestion for a great modernista sight that up until now has been so lightly visited that advance purchase of tickets has not been required: the Sant Pau Modernista site. That official website seems very short on enticing photos, but the place itself is magnficent. You can Google for Sant Pau photos and see what I mean.