Help with 11 day Spain itinerary

First, read this article about the Renfe website. That will help. The sooner you buy tickets, the cheaper they are. Barcelona to Sevilla is a toss-up between flying and training. The train takes 5.5 hours and is very comfortable. You'll probably save an hour or so if you fly, but then you have all the hassles of getting to/from the airport, security, and often there are very low carry-on limits, so you may have to check bags, and then wait for them on arrival. Trains from Sevilla to Madrid go through Cordoba. So you can take a morning train to Cordoba, stow luggage at the bus station across the street, spend the day sightseeing, then take an evening train to Madrid. Or you can stay overnight in Cordoba. I think Cordoba is much better in the evenings than Sevilla - it's quieter, more "romantic." The only trains to Toledo are from Madrid (around 30 minute trip). Since there are many day-trippers from Madrid, it's a much better experience to stay overnight. If you have a lot of luggage, you can store it at the Madrid train station and just take an overnight bag. Take note of the train schedule, it's used mainly by commuters and tourists, so on weekends there are no early morning trains (no commuters) and there are no late night trains. If you have an afternoon or evening flight out of Madrid, you could spend your last night in Toledo.

Madrid . . . What are your interests? Madrid is basically an 18th century city with world-class art museums and a pretty good palace. So, if you really like painting, you'll want to spend 2 days seeing the major art museums, Prado (pretty much everything to the mid-19th century) then the Thyssen (picks up where the Prado stops, Impressionists mostly) and the Reina Sofia for what comes after the Thyssen's collections. If that's not your thing, you may only want to spend a day in Madrid, getting an overview and seeing one or two sights. Your other cities have a lot more history and are more interesting.

Given your limited time of just 10 nights I would do something like this to maximise sightseeing.

June
01. Arrive Barcelona - 4 nights
05. Fly to Sevilla - 3 nights
06. Day by train to Cordoba
07. Sevilla sights
08. Train to Madrid - 3 nights
09. Madrid sights
10. Day by train to Toledo
11. Depart Madrid

Vueling has direct flights from Barcelona to Sevilla on June 5th departing at 09:05 and 10:05

Thank you for the reply and helpful information. As far as advice on Madrid, I keep wondering if we will need 3 nights there as our family is not really into art or museums. My kids, ages 12 and 17 have expressed interests in soccer stadium tours, bull fight, Sagrada Familia and just sort of "taking all of it in". We like to keep busy and have a bit of downtime but not a whole lot. My husband and I have traveled extensively through Europe but this will be my kids first time. The only reason that we chose this itinerary is because we got flights that were way too good to pass up and I have always wanted them to see Europe as they really love history.

With that being said, I am certainly open to any and all advice you may have. My husband noticed that flights from Barcelona to Rome then back to Madrid were $177pp. He suggested that we do Barcelona for 4 nights fly to Rome and stay for 3-4 nights and then back to Madrid for 2-3 nights. He suggested this because our favorite trip was seeing the colliseum, Sistine chapel etc and that is something that our kids would love to see as well. You are probably thinking "you should have just booked Italy". The flights for that were more than triple and not in our budget. It seems as though travel through Spain by train is pretty costly so price wise, that option would work but not sure if it sounds totally ridiculous.

Another point I'd like to add is that some of our favorite memories are renting a car for a day and exploring on our own. We would love to incorporate this if possible (probably only if we stuck to just Spain) but seems others have not been to keen on advising this?? We did this last year in the south of France and it was fantastic. Some of my kids best memories are when we rented a car and explored Maui, Hawaii on our own for 12 hours!

So basically at this point, I have a flight into Barcelona on June 1 and we have rented an apartment there for 4 nights and we have a departing flight out of Madrid on June 11th. If we stay in Spain, I think after all my research we have narrowed it down to Barcelona, Cordoba, Seville, and Madrid. Keeping in mind our families interests and our willingness to be open for pretty much anything within reason at this point, do you have any other advice? If we keep the Spain itinerary, You both have certainly helped me with that planning.

Sorry to sound a bit crazy and I appreciate all of your help!

Check out the Camp Nou Experience in Barcelona. I think this is something that needs to be pre-booked. I believe you'd enjoy the tourist office's Barri Gotic walking tour. I think the cost is 16 euros per person. You get to see some of the oldest streets in the city and pick up a bit of historical background.

Your trip is very short. The last thing I'd want to do is add two flights so I could squeeze in Rome. Airports offer no sightseeing opportunities and chew up a lot of time. Leave Italy for another trip when you can score a great airfare to Milan or Rome.

Since you mentioned the Sistine Chapel: Note also that (probably since your visit) the Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museums have become massively over-crowded to the point that visitors are urged (here and in guidebooks) to book $$$ early-access tours so they can see the Chapel and at least part of the Museums before the public opening time. Such a tour would probably cost your family $300 - $500. Are you prepared to pay that on top of the flight costs?

Given your interests, I don't think you need much time in Madrid. In part of a day you could walk around the Plaza Mayor area and stop at the San Miguel Market for a meal of tapas. The huge (and free) Retiro Park is near Atocha Station if you need time in a green space. A quirky possibility would be the (free) Temple of Debod, which was moved to Spain from Egypt. It's closed Monday. Unfortunately, it's not right downtown.

Segovia makes a great day-trip from Madrid. I think the aqueduct would be a hit with your children, and the historic area is very pretty and nice for general wandering. I love Toledo, but I think in this case Segovia may be a better choice. You can get to Segovia in about half an hour on an AVANT train for a round-trip cost of 10.30 euros. (Children might be lower; I don't know about that.) AVANT fares do not increase as your travel date approaches, so this can be a last-minute decision.

There are times when it would be nice to have a car--as for the white villages in Andalucía, but your time is so short that I think you'll have all you can do to take in a few Spanish cities. You could omit Andalucía and visit some smaller towns around Barcelona or Madrid, but Andalucía is a classic area. I haven't been to Andalucía recently and can't offer any suggestions there.

@acraven- I was sort of thinking that about Italy but wanted to check it out for my husbands sake. I know that we will have more than enough to do in Spain. I have taken note of your suggestions, thanks again!

I will visit the renfe website this weekend to explore booking train tickets. I think we will take a train from Barcelona to Seville just to avoid an airport and also my kids will enjoy this. From Seville, train to Madrid with overnight stop in Cordoba. Day trip from Madrid to Toledo or Segovia by train. I get confused as to how to best book these train tickets, as a pass or single? i live in Florida where we have no public transportation and my husband usually takes charge of this when we travel. I am trying to book this as a bit of surprise for him so any advice is appreciated!

I think point-to-point tickets will be your cheapest option, but do try to get settled on your itinerary soon, because the cost of tickets on the fast trains will increase as your travel date approaches. There are only so many bargain-priced tickets, and other folks will snap them up. You must, however, be sure about the date and departure you want, because the cheap tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable.

I'd consider making the overnight stop on the trip from Barcelona south toward Seville rather than on the northbound Seville-Madrid trip unless there's a timing-related reason to do otherwise (museum closing days, etc.). That will break up what would be your longest travel leg. I like trains and am happy to sit on one and use the time to read my guidebook, but the fact is that much of the countryside between Barcelona and Madrid is unexciting; it may or may not get better as you go from Madrid to Cordoba. I think by the time you've covered the ground from Barcelona to Cordoba, you may be ready to get off the train.

On the Renfe website, look for the small-text "Welcome" near the top of the screen. That's how you change the language to English. There's a TripAdvisor post with detailed instructions for buying Renfe tickets online, as you want to do. Others here have recommended it frequently. If you run into problems, make a separate post with something like "Buying Renfe Tickets Online" in the title, and I'm sure someone can assist you.

@acraven- My original thought was to stop at Cordoba on way from Barcelona to Seville, si we could break up the trip. I was told that would be out of the way and that it is directly on the way from Seville to Madrid. Is this not true?

also @ acraven. I fly into Barcelona and out of Madrid FYI