Looking for travel tips for 8 day trip to Spain starting Dec 18 2023

So you're departing from the US/Canada on December 17 and arriving in Barcelona on December 18? That gives you just seven full, hopefully not-too-jetlagged days in Spain. One or more of you may well be zombies on your arrival day. I think trying to visit Barcelona, Madrid and Cordoba (much less also including Seville) in seven days is pushing it too much. Remember, this is December and days will be quite short.

Is your return flight from Barcelona, or did you buy multi-city tickets into Barcelona and out of Madrid?

Much as I love Andalucia, I'd stick to Barcelona and Madrid on such a short trip. If you must stop in a third city, Zaragoza is interesting and right on the fast rail line between Barcelona and Madrid. The Moorish palace in Zaragoza will give you a look at Mudejar architecture without going as far as Cordoba/Seville. You could leave Barcelona early on the day you choose (not as early as December 20!), spend most of the day in Zaragoza after dropping your bags off at a storage facility, then continue on to Madrid in the evening.

It's not just the extra time on the train required to push on to Cordoba (about 2 hr. from Madrid each way) and Seville (close to 1 hr. from Cordoba each way) I'm concerned about; you need to consider also the time required to check into and out of hotels and get yourselves to and from train stations. If you try to hit four cities in the course of only seven days, you will have only four days when you aren't heading off to another city (only three days if you're flying home from Barcelona). That will make it difficult to settle in anywhere and get some feeling for the country.

Think about what you're proposing to do on December 20 if you base in Cordoba and day-trip to Seville: You'll have to get from your hotel to the train station, spend at least 5 hours on a train (maybe changing trains in Madrid), find your way to your hotel in Cordoba and check in. You'll then have just a few hours to see a bit of the city. The next day, December 21, you'll get up and return to the train station for the trip to Seville (about 1 hour). You'll rush to see as much as you can in Seville in less than one full day before heading back to the train station for the return trip to Cordoba. Then on December 22 you'll be back at the train station again for the trip to Madrid, where you'll have less than two full days to see the capital of Spain.

Most rail passes do not include city transit, but you can generally buy a day pass for city transit if you're using it enough to justify that. I believe there are usability issues with the Spain rail pass--something about not being able to make the necessary seat reservations until you arrive in Spain. All the trains you'll be taking except the local to Montserrat will require seat reservations. Trains with mandatory seat reservations can sell out, and that does happen in Spain. I trust that if other posters think I'm misremembering the rail-pass reservation situation, they will let you know soon.

You're traveling in eight days and during a time when many others will also be looking for tickets. You should check availability and fares now to see how things look. Ouigo and Iryo entered the Spanish market recently and I have not taken any of their trains. You can easily see the travel time on the various schedule websites, but I don't think you'll find much difference between them. There may be some variation in fares, which could be significant when you're buying four tickets. Check to be sure there aren't any problematic luggage restrictions.

I don't think you'll have enough time to get good value from a Barcelona city pass even if there's one that is theoretically useful. You've mentioned food; it would be a shame to go to Spain and not have any restaurant meals. That will cut into your sightseeing time, as will the side trip to Montserrat, which leaves just 1-1/2 days in Barcelona.

Out of space. To be continued.

Continuing:

Spain is very, very fond of ham. There are plenty of foods appropriate for vegetarians and vegans, but ham shows up as a flavoring in some vegetable dishes, so you must always ask questions rather than making assumptions. I'm not a vegetarian and I like ham, but I was surprised one day to buy what I thought was a goat-cheese salad and find ham lurking under the cheese.

I have a vague recollection that Rick mentions the oranges on the trees in Seville are given to the poor and are not free fruit for passers-by. However, that's something I read a long time ago.

If you truly must press on to Andalucia, the logical thing to do in this case is to stay in Cordoba and take a day trip to Seville. Doing the reverse would mean making an extra round-trip from Seville to Cordoba, which you definitely cannot afford to do. On a more typical visit to Andalucia, I'd recommend staying in Seville since it's the larger of the two cities and requires a lot more time to see in full. In this case, however, the city where you sleep is going to have at best a half-day of your time because of the long rail trip from Barcelona.

Spain has good buses to supplement its rail network, but the trains connecting the places you've mentioned (not including Montserrat and Altamira) are very fast. Buses can't compete on speed between Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba and Seville or between Madrid and Toledo. You can't afford to take buses.

Forget Altamira; it's way up in northern Spain and a slow trip from either Madrid or Barcelona. I love Toledo but you don't have time for all the places you're considering. You could, barely, include Barcelona, Madrid and a side-trip to Toledo. For me, even Barcelona/Madrid/Toledo/Cordoba would be too much. It doesn't help that Toledo is on a spur railway line connected to Madrid, so traveling from Toledo farther south to Cordoba requires a trip back north to Madrid and a change of trains there.

Also forget Granada. You are trying to do way too much. Spain is a large country. You won't get much out of your trip if you spend so much time sitting on trains and traveling between hotels and train stations.

Barcelona is a tricky city to manage in blitz mode. The most popular tourist sights have long ticket lines that must be avoided. That means you have to buy your timed-entry tickets online in advance, which requires you to guess how much of a gap to leave between stops. That's not an easy thing to do and is likely to leave you with some dead time here and there. You cannot assume you will get into each sight at the time shown on your ticket, which further complicates matters. You may find some of the places you want to see have sparse ticket availability (I haven't checked), constraining your ability to put together an efficient sightseeing schedule. The fewer cities you try to include in this trip, the less frustrating it's going to be.

These are the difficult sights in Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Mila/La Pedrera, Casa Batllo, Picasso Museum and Palau de la Musica Catalana. The issue with the latter is that the English-language tours can sell out.

One more thing about Montserrat: I'm not sure December is a good time to go. I haven't been up there, but one thing people like to do is some walking. Because of the elevation, I imagine it could be a good bit cooler than Barcelona itself.

Although Madrid is south of Barcelona, it is usually chillier in the winter.

I’m sure you’ll be able to find the Roscón de Reyes (a cake) in many places. Look it up online so you know it when you see it. I’m not sure what you intend to get out of a manchego cheese experience. You can buy it in the states and at any grocery store in Spain. It is frequently served with Serrano or Ibérico ham which you don’t eat.

The oranges on many of the trees should be left alone unless you’ve been given permission to pick them. In many places the oranges are not sweet and have a bitter taste to them. Those ones, if picked, are used to make marmalade.