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9 days in Barcelona, Granada, Ronda, Seville, Cordoba... but what about Toledo?!

Posted by on

Hi all! I'm a recent college grad and got a great job, so I am treating my parents to a trip to Spain over the winter holidays. I already purchased flights - in Barcelona, out Madrid.

Here's our itinerary so far...
12/26 Fly into Barcelona (3 nights)

12/27 Barcelona

12/28 Barcelona

12/29 Barcelona, fly to Granada (2 nights)

12/30 Granada - Alhambra

12/31 Pick up car, drive through Ronda/White Hill Towns, end in Seville (3 nights)

1/1 Seville

1/2 Seville

1/3 Train to Cordoba, most of the day there, then train to Madrid (1 night)

1/4 Fly out of Madrid

Now, I don't think my parents would be able to afford coming back to Spain again, and I would really love for them to see Toledo and the Prado Museum in Madrid. Would you suggest that I try to squeeze these in, and if so, which part of my current itinerary would you cut or shorten?

Thanks so much everyone! :)

Posted by
27109 posts

You can't get blood out of turnip. I think you've squeezed all you can, and you're already extremely short on time in Barcelona. At this point I believe it comes down to a choice between Cordoba, Toledo or spending that day in Madrid. The fact that you have to travel to Madrid and then head back south to reach Toledo sort of takes Toledo off the table. So: Cordoba or a day in Madrid.

Madrid is easy to get to on a second trip to Spain; Cordoba is a bit harder, and it's on the way from Seville to the Madrid airport. You can arguably do a better job of seeing Cordoba in one day than Madrid. Madrid's going to need a re-visit anyway.

Weatherwise, Cordoba has a major advantage; it is 15-20 degrees warmer than Madrid, on average, in December and January.

So I'd lean toward sticking with Cordoba.

Posted by
3902 posts

Personally I would do something along these lines:
-Barcelona (3 nights)
fly to
-Granada (2 nights)
drive to (stopping in Córdoba for the Mezquita)
-Sevilla (2 nights)
train to
-Madrid (2 nights)

This way you're traveling in Andalucia more efficiently. I would drop Ronda/White Hill Towns, since your parents will probably not be back in Spain, I feel there are more important things to see in Madrid.

For Madrid, I would highly recommend the Museo Nacional Del Prado, one of the great art museums of the world. With your time constraint, I would also drop Toledo and just focus on Madrid.

While this itinerary is far from ideal, I think that with it you will be able to squeeze as much out of your vacation without going crazy... it is a vacation after all :)

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