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First Trip to Spain - 11 Days

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Hello all! Thank you in advance for your help and any advice you can offer.

My husband and I will be visiting Spain for the first time at the end of April/beginning of May and will be there for 11 nights. We are frequent travelers and prefer to keep our trips to 3-4 cities, so that we can explore each place in depth and at a more leisurely pace.
I am trying to decide between two itineraries:

Barcelona 3 nights --> Zaragoza 3 nights --> Madrid 5 nights (with day trips to Toledo and/or Segovia)

or Madrid 4 nights (day trip to Toledo or Segovia) --> Sevilla 3 nights --> Granada 3 nights --> back to Madrid 1 night.

I was initially leaning towards the first itinerary, but now I'm wondering if I should leave Barcelona and Zaragoza for a future trip with some other western cities. Any insights or potential pitfalls we're missing would be so appreciated!

Posted by
5333 posts

Tough one!
I like the simplicity of the first for a city break type of trip (I have Zaragoza on my own list). Because Andalucia has so many attractions (partly because it is better known, but still), I like the idea of a trip devoted to just that region, so you can include Cordoba and the white villages, etc.
One thing that might help is envisioning your next trip. For example, if I ever fly into Barcelona, it will be for rural Catalonia. What else did you have in mind for pairing with those? ("western cities"?)
Madrid is so often on all Spain itineraries as a jumping off point, so it will make a repeat appearance at some point.

Posted by
7308 posts

I like the first option. Not many people visit Zaragoza one their first trip to Spain.

Posted by
1275 posts

I vote itinerary 2. Probably because I also made the decision to save Barcelona for a future trip when I made my first (several) trips to Madrid and elsewhere in Spain.

One other personal preference (mine - perhaps not yours or others!) comment - I was in Granada for 3 nights in spring 2024 like you are considering - I really enjoyed having two full days to explore.

I think you can't lose with either choice - especially if you see this as a first, but not last visit to Spain!

Enjoy!!

Posted by
1074 posts

Both solid itineraries. I’d vote 2, though I haven’t been to Barcelona or Zaragoza so definitely biased. I thought the differences between Sevilla and Granada were interesting, aside from their top notch sights. I dunno, I feel like Barcelona is just kind of a slam dunk and that you could go anytime. Grenada takes a little planning, and can be extra rewarding in that way.

Your schedule is solid. If you can, stopping in Cordoba en route from/to Madrid is easy. Or it makes for an excellent and convenient day trip from Sevilla.

Posted by
456 posts

We combined Barcelona and Zaragoza into a wonderful trip (via LaGuardia) to the Basque country and enjoyed both. But, of your two options, I would vote for #2 with the inclusion of Segovia and Cordoba. You could easily take a night from Madrid and/or Granada. Whatever you choose, enjoy!

Posted by
58 posts

I would go with the second option.

Sevilla could be literally my favorite city in Europe. You get these amazing historic places to visit in a city that isn't totally overwhelmed by tourists AND it has some of the best food in the world AND it's affordable.

I'm not going to say Barcelona has gotten too touristy, but it can get very crowded with cruise ship tourists at certain times. You can feel in certain areas that the ratio of authentic life of the city to tourism has crossed a barrier where it feels artificial. Obviously there are amazing places like Venice with that problem. Zaragoza is kind of the opposite. Very few people go there as tourists and I've never been. I'm sure there's plenty to see and do, but it could feel like whiplash, too tourist to not touristy enough.

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