Help! Need Itinerary advice for Sept 25- Oct 13

Take it in pieces. First decide how long you would like to spend in Barcelona--make a list of what things you want to see. Once you can subtract that, you'll know how much time you have to work with. Do you have a Catalonia guide book? I think regional guides are a must when planning to visit smaller towns.
Are you interested in renting a car, or do you prefer to stick to public transport--that makes a tremendous difference.
I'm pescatarian and you will have absolutely no trouble eating well.

Thanks for the reply and advice. I am ok with renting a car for a leg of our trip if it makes sense but from all I have read its a major pain in the cities. We arrive at like 8AM. Since we will be exhausted and cannot check into a hotel until evening I am thinking about just catching a regional plan to Seville on the first day while we are already at the airport and then working my way back to Barcelona. Finishing the trip with like 5 nights in Barcelona.

Hi from Wisconsin,
Here are two little places next to each other, Tremp and Talarn. We stayed in Talarn and did day trips into the mountains. There are plenty of castles. Talarn had a very interesting selection of restaurants, especially Ca la Lola. You will certainly need to rent a car to get there and around.

wayne iNWI

Correct--I was referring to the "quaint quiet towns" part--in this case only once you depart Sevilla.
Your plan is fine and you just need to flesh it out--a lot of it will probably be better served by train. Once you start adding in Andalucia, there are so many appealing important stops, and public transport is really excellent. You could do a side loop with a car to explore some smaller villages. See hiking options outside Granada and Ronda for example.
So, now it really depends on how much of Andalucia you wish to see. You could spend the entire time there and not see it all, then fly back to Barcelona. Or, you could pick up a car outside Sevilla and select some stops en route to Barcelona.
I like to stick to a smaller area, so I'd get my fill of Barcelona and then head to the north coast, then up to the Pyrenees. You are spoiled for choice it is just time to make some selections as to what appeals to you the most.

Any thoughts on the weather this time of year? Would it be better to spend the first part of my trip in the North and as it gets cooler mover South if will it not be to hot in late Sept? I keep hearing how hot it is in the South

I would not worry about late September.

Hi Gene,

first, just a heads up that the 25th is the last day of the Merce fiestas in Barcelona. I've never been so can't really say, but I would guess that at the airport you'll be okay, but if you wanted to stay in Barcelona that night, you might have difficulties.

Instead of flying to Seville, how about going to Zaragoza. You can take the AVE. Zaragoza is underrated, and if you search the forum you will find most people find staying 2 or 3 nights worth it. From there you could rent a car.

Olite is close and you could stop there, many people like it. If you want to go a quaint town near by, try Ujue/Uxue.

Continuing on, go to Logroño or La Rioja (autonomous community) or to La Rioja Alavesa. Sept 21 is San Mateos, the wine harvest festival, so by the time you arrive the harvest should be done. You may have difficulties in visiting some wineries as it is a very busy time for them. It is also a very pretty time to see the vines starting to turn color.

From La Rioja head up to Bilbao. Again if you search the forum, you will find that many people recommend Bilbao and compare it favorably to visiting San Sebastian.

You can close the loop going back through Pamplona, to Zaragoza. Leave the car and train back to Barcelona for a few days visit. The 12th is another big fiesta, the Pilar, and it starts a few days before, but you shouldn't have any problem dropping the car off at the AVE station.

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Thanks so much for the suggestion. I will certainly look closely at this option!

We had a wonderful trip to Barcelona and the Basque country in September, 2019. We (four seniors) moved around a lot, and quickly, which others do not recommend but we loved it!

Day 1 - Flew into Barcelona from the US and drove directly to Zaragoza.

Day 2 - Visited Laguardia, tasting/lunch at Bodega Baigorri, then to Vittoria-Gastiez

Day 3 - To Bilbao

Day 4 - To San Sebastion via Guernica and Getaria

Day 5 - San Sebastion

Day 6 - To Hondaribbia via Chillida Leku

Day 7 - Day drive to French Basque towns back to Hondaribbia

Day 8 - To Bayonne, FR via St. Jean de Luz and Biarritz

Day 9 - To Carcassone, FR

Day 10 - To Figueres, FR (Dali Museum) and Barcelona

Days 11-13 Barcelona

Day 14 - Back to US

Hi Gene, La Merce , Catalunya’s massive block party celebration in Barcelona, runs this year from September 21- 24. If arriving on the 25th you should be OK getting a hotel, but it’s still a good idea to reserve soon for Barcelona for the first few nights after arriving in Spain, if that’s still your plan.
Try consolidator www.AutoEurope.com for car rentals. They discount what’s offered by the big car rental companies.
I’ve planned 10 nights in September in Catalunya with 5 in Barcelona then 4 in tiny TOSSA DE MAR—a coastal town with its own castle.
While in Tossa De Mar, seeing the medieval old towns of GIRONA ( BTW— Girona has “ El Celler de Can Roca” the restaurant run by three brothers which Michelin named “best restaurant in the world” in recent years) and the tiny ancient village of BESALU.
Then to Madrid and SAN SEBASTIAN in the Basque Country. HONDARIBBIA ( a hit with Rick Steves) for a couple nights before visiting the Basque villages of AINHOA, ESPELETTE, and SARE just over the border in France before driving to the ancient village of OLITE and overnighting in the Parador de Olite— the castle that once-upon-a-time was the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre which began in the year 824.
La Rioja, the famous heart of Spain’s wine country, is about an hour drive from Olite. One of the vintners in the small village of ELTZIEGO (aka “Elciego”) who owns the Riscal winery, wanted to enlist architect Frank O. Gehry to design a hotel for him. He invited Gehry to the vineyard and poured him a vintage 1929 wine from the year of Gehry’s birth. The gesture—if not the wine—must have impressed Gehry because he agreed to design the hotel which opened in 2006 at a cost of $70 million. Today it is the luxury hotel and spa named “Hotel Marques de Riscal” and is little over an hour’s drive from the area’s more famous Frank O.Gehry building— the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum.
A website that helped me figure out some of the driving routes and interesting stops is www.Wanderlog.com. It’s a fantastic website that reveals road trip points-of-interest with reviews, maps and photos contributed by travelers who have been to them. All you do is plug in the starting and ending locations of your drive each day and it tells you all the points of interest in the drive route.

Have a great Trip!

6 nights Barcelona
3 Sitges
5 Valencia
3 Zaragoza
1 Barcelona

thanks so much for the wonderful suggestions!