Kindly seeking itinerary check and suggestions for an upcoming Spanish trip

Hello Gav:

This looks like a great trip. However, I am afraid that you may stretch yourselves too thin and cover too much ground. I suggest cutting Valencia and perhaps even the Basque region. Northern Spain will likely be rainy in Nov. I was in Lisbon and the Algarve last Nov and it rained most of the time. Northern Spain is further to the north.

Also, how are you getting from Seville to Lisbon? Land transit takes quite a while.

Barcelona to Valencia by train is straight forward. Valencia to Grenada is not - 6+ hours and thru Madrid. Maybe skip Valencia and fly Barcelona to Grenada. Substitute time in Cordoba for magnificent "Mesquita" and evening activities. Can you fly out of Madrid? How determined are you about Valencia? San Sebastian?

Yes, Valencia to Granada is annoying. It's either a very long bus ride (albeit on a comfortable bus; just hope the driver does take the supposedly-mandatory comfort stops) or a slightly less long train ride with a transfer in Madrid.

I'd agree that November is a sub-optimal time for the Basque country, which tends to be overcast or rainy and coolish even in the middle of summer. Furthermore, there's a lot of travel time involved in getting there and away, and you'll only have a little more than a day. It's really not a good use of your time. Plus I hate to see anyone go to that region and not see Bilbao, which a lot of us like more than San Sebastian.

Salamanca is too far from Madrid to be a half-day trip. You wouldn't even be able to leave the train station before you had to get back on a train. While you could do it in a day, it wouldn't be a full day because of the travel time, especially given that the first fast train of the day doesn't leave Madrid until 10:14 AM and only gets to Salamanca at 12:05 PM. Salamanca has a large historic area as well as the university to see; I don't see a day trip there as a good idea.

There are few ground transportation links between Spain and Portugal. Porto to Salamanca won't work unless you get yourself somewhere near the border (I don't know where), rustle up a taxi to take you to a convenient town on the Spanish side with bus service, and then find a way to get to Salamanca--which I'm guessing might mean two more buses. Believe me, you don't want to do that on a trip of this length. Unless you fly, the only really practical places to get across the border are in the north between Porto and Galicia (the area where Santiago de Compostela is located) and in the south (via bus) between Seville and Faro or some other Algarve town.

I can understand why you want to include a few stops in Portugal on this trip; that's what practically everyone thinks they want to do when they have over two weeks available, but that way lies frustration. Don't do it. There's plenty to see in Spain. Three nights isn't long enough for Barcelona if you're interested in the modernista architecture there (you really need 5 since it's your first stop and you may be brain-dead on your arrival day). Three nights in Madrid with day trips to Segovia, Avila and Toledo means only a few hours in Madrid. You haven't mentioned the lovely destination of Cordoba, which you can see without anything like the travel time required to get to Portugal (or San Sebastian).

For the reasons acraven stated about getting to/from Portugal, I too would skip it and allocate those days to other locations in Spain. While I understand wanting to see most of the country, 26 days will pass very quickly.

Lucky you for having 26 days to spend in Spain! Why did you book your flights in and out of Barcelona? I don't know if it's too late to change without a penalty, but open-jaw (multi-city) would have been a better choice. Such as into Barcelona and home from Madrid; or into Barcelona and home from Lisbon.

Regarding including Portugal, you can fly via TAP Airlines from Seville to Lisbon. However, I wouldn't do this for only 5 nights in Portugal, and I wouldn't do this unless you could fly home from Lisbon. Backtracking to Barcelona just doesn't make any sense. I think you would find this trip exhausting. I understand the desire to see Portugal since you are coming all the way from Australia. The only way I would do this is if you are willing to fly from Seville to Lisbon, spend 7 nights in Portugal, and fly home from Lisbon. With 7 nights, you could spend 5 nights in Lisbon and 2 nights in Sintra. Or you could include Porto instead of Sintra if the routing works. Such as, can you fly home from Porto? Or fly from Seville to Porto? Then visit Lisbon and fly home from Lisbon.

There are some suggestions I would make to the Spanish portion of your trip. I would spend 5 nights in Seville (without daytrips) which is a beautiful city with so many important historical and cultural sights. We had 4 nights in Seville but I wish we had an extra night. And Seville is a lovely city for exploring with its gorgeous architecture, plazas, parks, and fountains.

I would definitely spend 2 or 3 nights in Cordoba. You really won't get the feel for Cordoba or experience its ambiance with only a daytrip. Cordoba has many wonderful sights in addition to the Mezquita, and is another wonderful city for exploring with its narrow lanes, white-washed buildings, patios, and flowers.

Right now you will have only one day in Madrid. That's really not enough and is too rushed. I think you will be exhausted with 2 daytrips. Do you enjoy art? Madrid has some outstanding art museums, and other interesting sights, too.

I would spend 1 or 2 nights in Toledo. If we visited Toledo as a daytrip, honestly, I think I would have walked away thinking it's ok. You really need to spend a few days here to appreciate its history and ambiance. Toledo during the day is packed with tour buses. It's so much nicer at night when the daytrippers have left and the city is illuminated.

Six nights is great for Barcelona but I would put it all at the beginning of your trip especially if you can change your flights to open-jaw.

Thanks kmkwoo, and everyone else. Really appreciate your take.

The reason we're commencing/ending in Barcelona is because we have a family member there (an Aussie), so we want to catch up with them at the start and at the end, without wearing out our welcome. Otherwise agree with your take on multi-city, and perhaps in hindsight, that would have been wiser. The distance factors are increasingly apparent. We just have to make the most of what we have. If it means a flight back to BCN, we will do so.

Wow, 5 days dedicated to Seville? We were considering days trips from there to Ronda, Cordoba and perhaps Jerez, however now a little unsure now. In fact, after having a chat, we're reconsidering a few things and maybe just picking two or three centres in which to base ourselves for closer, yet outlying areas. Granada is 1 or 2 on our list. Any suggestions other than Madrid and Seville, perhaps a nice coastal experience? Does not have to be a big centre, but perhaps off the main tourist trails and still serviceable by rail?

We've decided to stick to trains (predominantly), buses second preference, and flying (where required, back to departure point).

Again, really appreciate your help.

Kindly, Gav

Regarding Seville, at the very least, I would spend 3 full days in Seville and one day for a daytrip. If you don't want to spend a few nights in Cordoba, then visit Cordoba as a daytrip from Seville. There really is a lot to see and do in Seville, and as I mentioned earlier, it's a beautiful city for wandering and exploring.

And keep in mind that you don't have to decide in advance if you want to take daytrips. You could plan on one daytrip (to Cordoba), and then see if you like Seville enough to spend the rest of the days in Seville. If your interest is lagging, you could always decide to take another daytrip when you are there.

I have to agree with acraven. When we were planning our Spain trip we thought we’re going to include Portugal. After all, we had 3 weeks, plenty of time. When looking at the various cities, then adding in transportation time, we ended up visiting just Spain. Our itinerary was
Barcelona 3
Madrid 6
Granada 3
Seville 4
Cordoba 3
Toledo 3
We had plenty to see and do and could have stayed longer in Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona. Of course, Toledo can definitely be done as a day trip from Madrid. The train from Madrid to Barcelona was very fast and a lovely ride.
Our trip was October 2022. We are finally going to Portugal this September for 2 weeks.
Whatever you decide, have a fabulous trip.

A last-minute decision on visiting Cordoba comes with two risks: The rail fare could be quite high (check renfe.com to see what fares look like for travel today or tomorrow on the fast trains), and some of the trains could be sold out. That does happen in Spain. Cordoba is important enough that I'd want to make sure of seeing it, so I'd be willing to commit to the trip by buying the train tickets in advance.

There are beaches near Barcelona. Once you get to Madrid and Andalucia, the main stops aren't particularly near the coast.

Yes, I agree with planning ahead for a daytrip to Cordoba. That's why I suggested to plan for a Cordoba daytrip but maybe the others could be decided on when Gav is there. If they plan on 3 daytrips in advance (ie book reservations), that gives them about 1.5 days in Seville which isn't nearly enough. And I think daytrips can be tiring, too, especially 3 daytrips.

Sensational advice everyone.
Again, really appreciated.
Gav