Madrid April 11-17 Semana Santa/itinerary help/budget travel

I fear I'm going to be Debbie Downer, sorry about that.

Barcelona is very much an expensive cross-country train trip. It's a great city and that may be an option - to spend your week in that area, which pretty much ignores Semana Santa so prices and crowds are less, though you are going during a very busy week, with locals and many people from elsewhere in Europe on vacation and traveling. I looked at prices on renfe.com (the official website) and the only "cheap" tickets are a 9-hour slow train is €40+ each way (leaves at 9 am so you lose a full day's sightseeing . . . twice). There's also a journey of about 6 hours for under €60 to Barcelona, €70 returning to Madrid. Those are promo prices and if you don't snag one now, they'll sell out and the full fare is over €90.

Sevilla is the most popular destination for Semana Santa. It's also one of the two weeks of highest season tourism prices. Check websites for hostel beds. The best sites I've found are hostelworld.com and hostelz.com. I just looked on the latter and there are a few dorm room beds available during the week, with prices starting around €55-60 for Friday/Saturday. Thursday night is the biggest night of Semana Santa, so prices before Friday night are a lot higher (and not many beds left. If you spend Sat/Sun nights in Sevilla, prices are back down to reasonable rates and you'll still be able to see the sights and maybe a procession or two. You can still buy promo fare tickets from Madrid to Sevilla for the weekend as low as €42. BUT the trains from Sevilla to Madrid on Monday are filling up (some are sold out already) and the cheapest promo fare still available is €64. If you want to go to Sevilla, you need to book a dorm bed and trains ASAP.

Toledo is 1/2 hour from Madrid by train. The train costs €13. There are also Semana Santa celebrations there - not sure how big, how many or which days, except Thursday night (with midnight processions that last until dawn). Look for hostel beds.

Cordoba is between Sevilla and Madrid. Their celebrations are more low-key so prices are lower and there may be more room availablity. Check it out. You could day trip from Cordoba to Sevilla. It's about 45 minutes on the high-speed or almost twice that on the slower (and cheaper - €14 each way) trains.

As Chani points out, for Semana Santa you will need to act swiftly, and be prepared to pay for the privilege. Cordoba may be a less costly option for Thu/Fri nights. Easter celebrations are more subdued in Barcelona.

3 nights (Mon-Wed) in Sevilla
2 nights (Thu-Fri) in Cordoba
3 nights (Sat-Mon) in Madrid

Toledo as a day trip from Madrid remains an option.

Chani, thanks so much for your reply! No Debbie Downer here - whatever I end up doing, at least I won't be at work :) I wouldn't be TOO upset at missing Barcelona, as there's so much else to see! I can always leave that as an option for the future. I did notice some of the hostel rates were surprisingly high! I was confused at first, but now I know why!

David, I will definitely take a look into that itinerary, thanks for your suggestion!

I do want to experience Semana Santa, but it's not necessary for me to plan my whole trip around it if it means I'll have to greatly inconvenience myself. I'm wondering whether the crowds in Sevilla during Semana Santa are anything like Mardi Gras in New Orleans.. I hope not! If it's a MUST SEE, I'll brave the crowds. Aside from that, I'd really love to get a feel of REAL España and not the tourist version. There are so many options, I wish I had a whole month there!

Wander, I love your attitude!

Do some browsing on this website to learn more about Semana Santa in Andalucia. You should definitely plan on spending a day/night in Sevilla. Wed and Thurs there will be processions in the afternoon and evening. The processions start at various places in the city, wend their way along a specified route to the Cathedral, then return to their origin on a somewhat different route. The processions move very slowly and take anywhere from 6 to 10 hours each, so there's usually more than one at a time. Thursday night is the Madruga - the processions begin at midnight or thereafter and last until dawn. You could possibly take an evening train from Cordoba to Sevilla (after a nap), have dinner and watch the processions, then take a train back to Cordoba sometime on Friday. Or day-trip on Wednesday - but possibly when you consider the cost of the round-trip train, you might as well pay the premium to sleep in Sevilla. I was in Cordoba on Easter Sunday, but I forgot to watch the morning procession, got sidetracked at a museum. You'll have time to see some of the sights as well.

As David said, the important thing is to book rooms ASAP, then train tickets. Read this article on the Renfe site. It's the best and most comprehensive information available.

Wanderlust, if you run into issues purchasing train tickets on the Renfe site, trainline.com is another option. Prices are the same and they don't charge extra fees.

For Semana Santa, this might give you an idea how busy it will be:
http://www.dangerous-business.com/2011/04/guest-post-5-steps-to-survive-sevilles-holy-week/

I think there is also an app with Semanta Santa schedules, try searching for "Cofrades".

You guys are a wealth of information. Thank you! I'm so overwhelmed right now - when I travel, I usually just show up to a place and figure it out from there. It appears this trip requires quite a bit of planning, which I'm not used to. The idea of having to book ahead for train tickets is new to me. I have very limited time for planning, so this is a bit stressful!

Ashley - reading that blog has me really concerned about those crowds! On the one hand, this will be the only time I will ever be in Spain for Semana Santa, so I should want to experience it in Sevilla, right? But on the other hand, I hate crowds and tourists! (I know, the irony..). I'm worried it'll be so crowded I won't be able to see anything or be able to grab a quick drink at a bar!

As of right now, I'm looking into some combination of Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba. Coordinating all these trains and hostels ahead of time is quite an undertaking I wasn't prepared for. You never know if you're going to love a place and want to spend more time there (or the reverse), so it's difficult splitting up my time before knowing how I'll feel about those locations..

I was planning a trip to Seville for Semana Santa but decided to change the dates because accomodations were pricey. We were also concerned that we would have to walk through the crowds with our luggage as mentioned in that blog. However, I still wish we could have gone. I think it would be worth experiencing in Seville.

Although I've never been to Toledo, a friend of mine said it is worth going to from Madrid and it's only a half an hour train ride.

The crowds aren't all that bad. They are mostly standing along the procession routes waiting for them. If you are just trying to get somewhere, you can take a detour and there won't be a lot of people. Most of the people you'll see are locals - it felt like they were all outside, either in the procession or watching them. While there's a little pushing once in a while, they are mostly quiet and respectful.

I finally have time to do some planning this weekend.. The only thing I know for sure is that I will NOT be going to Granada - all the tickets to Alhambra are sold out for the month :( I'm looking into overnight buses to/from Madrid and Seville, possibly with a stop in Cordoba - perhaps save money AND use the 6hr 30m ride to sleep. I hadn't considered the bus option before, but I would need to figure out what to do with myself while awaiting the late departures (01:00 from Madrid and Seville) and early arrivals (05:30 in Cordoba, 07:25 in Madrid). Is there anything to do at this early an hour? As far as my backpack, I think I should be able to find luggage lockers at the bus stations for my early arrivals. For my late outbound departures, maybe I'll just bring my backpack with me to a bar..

The late departures will not be an issue. Spain eats dinner extremely late. I don't know about those early-morning arrivals. People who eat dinner from 10 PM to midnight are not likely to be out and about so early. Are you sure it's worth it to subject yourself to an overnight bus? I'd take a daytime bus or not go at all, but I have a perhaps-unnatural hatred of sitting up overnight.

I think you'll find lockers or some sort of luggage-checking facility at the train and/or bus station in each city. I can't promise that there will be vacant lockers during such a peak travel period, and I doubt that a staffed left-luggage facility will be open at times helpful to you. Google will probably find the information you need.

There are other wonderful, affordable day-trips to be made from Madrid besides Toledo (though that is my favorite). There's also Segovia, and I enjoyed several hours walking around the very pretty university town of Alcala de Henares. Others like Avila, but to me it was barely worth 2 hours.

Ok, maybe 5:30am is a bit early haha. I've come up with a plan I think may work, thanks to everyone's help :)

MON - Arrive at airport 21:30. Head into city for the night.
TUE, WED, THU, FRI - Explore Madrid and one or two nearby places (Segovia, Toledo, El Escorial?)
FRI NIGHT (early Sat morning) - Take 01:00 bus to Seville. Arrive Saturday at 07:25.
SAT, SUN - Explore Seville.
MON - Take 08:30 (or 09:00) bus to Cordoba. Arrive in Cordoba 10:30 (or 11:00).
MON NIGHT (early TUE morning): Take 01:00 bus to Madrid Airport. Arrive at 05:30 (or 06:25) to catch 09:25 flight home :)

I usually prefer to see less/do more to really get to know a place, but I know I won't be back anytime in the near future so I'm really trying to see as many beautiful sights as possible :)

Now I have to go book everything!

In your shoes I would prefer to have some or all of my Madrid time at the end of the trip rather than depending on everything to go perfectly on that last-minute bus ride back to make the plane.

I know, not ideal, I would've preferred ending with Madrid as well. I planned it this way due to various factors (eg. avoiding hyper-inflated nightly hostel rates in Seville). I ran into a few problems while booking today - namely, tickets for the cathedral in Seville already being sold out for the weekend! I juggled the schedule a bit and made it work so I could see it on Monday instead. I'll be doing Cordoba on Sunday. It works out though because apparently the Alcazar is closed on Mondays, which is what is the original day I had planned. My goodness, so much juggling!

I'd figure I'd ask this here before starting a new thread (you guys seem to know a lot): Are you allowed to re-enter the cathedral later in the day after you exit? There's a tour of the Cubiertos Catedral at 12:00, but I'd like to enter the cathedral at opening time of 11:00. To take the tour, I believe you have to exit the cathedral and meet the group outside. I'd like to go back inside the cathedral after the cubiertos tour is over.

Same question goes for the Mezquita in Cordoba - its hours are 08:30-09:30, then reopens 14:30-19:00. Usually 08:30-09:30 is free, but their website said that possibly changes for holidays, so I'm assuming I'll need a ticket at that time. I'd like to start at the Mezquita, head to the Alcazar at 09:30, then return to the Mezquita when it opens again at 14:30. Will they let me back in?

Wanderlust - were you able to book a ticket for the Cathedral in Sevilla online using an English website? I was checking it out but only saw Spanish. Thanks.

Ashley - I did it online but it was in Spanish. My Spanish skills are abysmal, but through my various searches I found a posting in a forum that walked me through it. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw it.. Basically, you have to create a user account first, then you can reserve tickets. I couldn't understand part of it so I think I mistakenly chose the option to pay when I got there (which I didn't want to do) so I reserved ANOTHER ticket and was able to pay for that one online. I have no idea how to cancel the previous reservation, and I'm hoping they won't charge me for that other ticket.. I'm finding that most of these Spanish websites are not very user friendly (lots of clicking in circles!), and most don't offer English. I've been using Google Translate when necessary :)

Thanks wanderlust. Have a great trip! :)