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Flying from Barcelona to Granada, 14 -day trip, depart Madrid ; itinerary questions

Posted by (Minneapolis) on

My husband and I have booked a 14 day trip. We have booked a flight into Barcelona, and depart from Madrid. (end of September, early October 2017). Have followed Rick's advice in terms of a 14- day trip, but have switched things around a bit. Want to fly from Barcelona to Granada (instead of taking train, to save time), and from Granada rent a car to go to the Andalusian hill towns (Ronda and Arcos). Then drive to Sevilla for 2 nights, with possible day trip to Cordoba, and take the AVE train to Toledo for 1 night before heading to Madrid at end of trip (3 nights in Madrid, as we leave early from there on departure day). Have many questions, which follow. Here is our itinerary thus far:

  1. Arrive Barcelona @ 2:15 pm. (4 nights Barcelona)
  2. Fly to Granada (2 nights Granada)
  3. Rent car from Granada, drive to Ronda (I night in Ronda)
  4. Drive to Arcos (stops at Grazelema & Zahara) to Arcos ( 1 night Arcos)
  5. Drive to Sevilla, drop off car. (2 nights Sevilla); possible day trip to Cordoba?
  6. Sevilla, AVE train to Toledo (via Madrid) (1 night Toledo)
  7. Train or bus to Madrid (3 nights Madrid)
  8. Fly out 11:00 am. from Madrid

My questions are:
Advice on:

1) Flying from Barcelona to Granada (reliable airlines? amount of time--1 - 2 hours I believe?) We are willing to pay a price to get there--what tips?

2) Renting a car from Granada for the Andulusian area (Ronda, Arcos,
etc.) Where best from Granada to do this?

3) Where best to drop off car when arriving at Sevilla? I've heard the Santa Justa train
station?

4) Is Cordoba worth a day trip from Sevilla given that we
only have 2 nights in Sevilla?

5) Is one night in Toledo enough? It's never enough, but we could make it a day trip and spent 4
nights in Madrid instead??

Help! I know we are doing a lot, but we're fairly used to moving around.
But any advice is welcome!

Posted by
7175 posts

1) I think Vueling is the only operator (but you will probably also see a codeshare with parent company Iberia).

4) & 5) I would do Toledo from Madrid which would allow you to do Cordoba from Sevilla.

Arrive in Barcelona (4 nights)
Fly to Granada (2 nights)
(Pick up car)
Drive to Ronda (1 night)
Drive via Grazelema & Zahara to Arcos (1 night)
Drive to Sevilla (3 nights)
(Drop off car)
-with a day trip to Cordoba
Train to Madrid (3 nights)
-with a day trip to Toledo
Depart from Madrid

Posted by
513 posts

This itinerary seems to have one or two too many stops for my way of travelling - I try to never have one night stays and I avoid, as much as possible, two night stays also. But if you follow what David has laid out for you it may be just doable.

Posted by
248 posts

As I recall from looking at that trip going the other way, Vueling flys direct, Iberia via Madrid. With Vueling be prepared for the price to go up everytime you take another step in the booking process (or thats the way it seemed to me).

Posted by
189 posts

Thank you for your suggestions and information! Greg, I absolutely agree about avoiding one and two night stops where possible-- I know this from my own previous experience, so your comments are a good reminder. So David, your suggested changes to my itinerary make a lot of sense---I am making them now! Thank you!

My concern is not having quite enough time in Toledo, as it seems highly touted by some--but I am interested in the museums in Madrid so don't mind more time there. The one-nighters in the hill towns are, well, one-nighters, but I don't see how to get around that, and we'll have flexibility with a car down there in terms of being on our own schedule, so hopefully that will be okay.

My main concern now still revolves around the flight from Barcelona to Granada...I seem to recall some postings of people having a bad experience with Vueling. If that is the only airline, does anyone have experience with that particular flight?

Posted by
27142 posts

I do not like the original plan of taking the train from Seville to Madrid, changing to another train for the trip to Toledo, and spending only one night in Toledo. I love Toledo, but that would not be worth it to me. I'd spend all those nights in Madrid. If you plan to take in the Madrid art museums, I would drop Toledo completely (or, actually, I'd drop the Arcos stop and go to Toledo). I agree that you just don't have enough time for all of these places.

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