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Itinerary & Transportation Suggestions, Please

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My husband & I are traveling to Spain for the first time in September. We will fly from Atlanta into Barcelona and out of Bilbao 2 weeks later. Right now we only have 4 nights reserved in Barcelona. We will reserve our last 2 nights in Bilbao. Between those two locations we would like to go to Girona, Zaragoza, Olite, and the Cinco Villas. We were thinking we’d train to Girona then to Zaragoza and make that a home base. We would rent a car there and do day trips to the villages in the countryside. When traveling, we usually split our time between small towns and big cities.

We are in our early 60s & are fairly fit. We enjoy a few museums & cathedrals, small villages, food, wine, and walking to explore an area.

-Does this plan sound reasonable?
-Is it easy to train from Girona to Zaragoza?

-Should we plan a couple of nights in Madrid? Then back to Zaragoza to rent the car and countryside?

-Should we return the car in Zaragoza or drive to San Sabastian for return? Would we then be able to train to Bilbao?

All suggestions and advice is greatly appreciated!

Posted by
518 posts

Girona to Zaragoza is about 2.5hr by train. Zaragoza is a very interesting city and well worth visiting and a good place to pick up a car. That said I would not use it as a base to do day trips with a car. Instead head out to a smaller town/pueblo easier to drive into/out of. We stayed in Olite 4 nites and loved it. Estella, Artajona, Sos del Rey, Ujue, St Martin de Unx and Javier are all within reach and worthy. Lumbier is a narrow canyon great for walking. There is much to do in the area.

https://www.visitnavarra.es/en/lumbier-arbaiun-limestone-gorges

Olite is a small pueblo but it does have a Parador.

Drive to Bilbao to drop the car.

Brad

Posted by
7843 posts

Reads like Brad and I had similar visits in the Cinco Villas area. We spent 3 nights in each SOS Del Rey Católico and Olite and a 2 nights each in Santo Domingo de la Calzada and Zaragoza. We stayed at the Paradors in SOS Del Rey Católico, Olite, and Santo Domingo de la Calzada and took day trips from them. There isn’t much to Sádaba, but its castle is nice to walk around.

The Foz de Lumbier made for a nice break and can be an easy or difficult walk depending which route you take. One needs a car to reach it.

There is so much to see in that area and plenty of small villages worth visiting. On our 2022 trip we spent the majority of our 24 days in Aragón and La Rioja. We had a rental car the entire trip.

As a side note, the center of Olite is a restricted driving area, but there are a few free lots just outside the restricted area.

Posted by
57 posts

Thank you both for your responses!
We prefer smaller towns and villages so all these suggestions will be very helpful in guiding our research.

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