We will end a cruise in Barcelona. We want to spend a few days in Barcelona and maybe a few days in Madrid. We need to fly from one of those cities to either Rome or (preferably) Palermo.
So.....do we sleep in Barcelona the whole time and do day trips to Madrid, etc? Flying to Palermo from Barcelona? Or is flying from Madrid to Palermo easier to plan?
Thank you.
Check flight options around Europe at www.skyscanner.com.
Most people don't daytrip between Barcelona and Madrid as the train ride is 2.5 - 3 hours each way.
Madrid is really too large a city to be a day-trip destination from Barcelona. You can take a look at the train schedule on the Renfe website. The shortest trip is 2-1/2 hours on the AVE. Both Barcelona and Madrid have rather large main stations, so you'd need to allow time at the beginning of each leg to find your way to the correct platform. And once you reach the end of the train ride, you still need to get to the sights you want to see or back to your hotel. All in all, I'd expect the round-trip to take about 8 hours.
If you decide you do want to spend a few nights in Madrid, you'll save a great deal of money on the AVE tickets by making the purchase very early. Buying on the day of the trip could cost you 120 euros each, or perhaps even more. That's one-way. Buying at the beginning of the sales period would probably save you more than 50% of that cost.
Madrid is a good destination for people who are interested in its three important art museums and/or the Palacio Real and those who have the time to take in some of the really wonderful surrounding cities (Toledo, Segovia and Cuenca being my favorites). If you aren't much interested in art, I don't think it makes sense to go to Madrid in order to head right out of town to other cities. Barcelona, frankly, is more immediately engaging for most tourists. If you want to see a different city, you can reach the charming Girona in about an hour. Or you could venture to Montserrat. Enric created a special thread no long ago in which he goes into considerable detail about visiting Montserrat.
To check flights from Spain to Sicily, I suggest using skyscanner.com/
Edited to add: The Catania airport has more flights than Palermo. Some travelers fly into one and out of the other in order to eliminate some backtracking. I randomly checked the month of April 2017 and found that there are some non-stops into both Catania and Palermo from both Barcelona and Madrid (not necessarily every day). Fares vary a lot, so check your planned travel date right away.
Read all the airline's rules carefully to avoid really unpleasant surprises like baggage fees and departures from an airport that may be nowhere near the city you're in.
When is your trip, and how much time will you have in Sicily?
I would advise against day tripping from one to the other. If you have time ...
- Spend 3-4 nights in Barcelona
- Take an AVE train to Madrid
- Spend 3-4 nights in Madrid (possible day trip to Toledo)
- Fly to Palermo via connection in Barcelona with Vueling, or Rome with Alitalia.
Madrid as a day trip from Barcelona would be crazy (and probably really expensive). The best plan depends upon how many days total you have. If you can spend three nights in Barcelona and three nights in Madrid, then do that. having said that. each is worth three full days minimum (without day trips). Madrid is great even if you are not into art, but if you are into art then it's one of the great art cities of Europe. I will be in the minority here in saying overall I prefer Madrid to Barcelona. People tend to have a picture of Barcelona as if there is Moderisme architecture on every street corner, but those buildings are few and far between. The Picasso Museum is good but it's one artist for a limited time span, and otherwise it's not a great art city. The city museum in Barcelona, and Parc Guell, Casa Bottlo and/or Casa Mila are all great. Sagrada Familia did not knock my socks off, too much scaffolding when I was there (September 2005), maybe it's better now. The Barri Gothic in Barcelona is nice except late when it becomes creepy, and the cathedral is underrated. the Ramblas is a big scene, packed with tourists. Day trip from Barcelona to Montserrat is great but not with just a few days. For overall authentic urban vibe, Madrid hands down. Madrid has the three great art museums, Parque de Buen Retiro, Palacio Real, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor. Just a really compact easy to do city that is the NYC of Spain. The day trips to El Escorial, Toledo, Segovia are of the charts great but don't just do day trips and miss Madrid.
According to this wiki page (scroll down to the table listing airlines) Iberia and RyanAir have "seasonal" flights between Madrid and Palermo and Vueling has regularly scheduled flights from Barcelona.
VS, your experience at La Sagrada Familia is pretty dated. I'll bet in 2005 they didn't have very many of the beautiful stained-glass windows installed. You're right that work continues on the church, so there's potential to encounter an area that's partitioned off, at least down at floor level. There was at least one of those when I visited in August. But that's not unique to that particular church. I felt sightlines were much more affected by construction inside Leon's magnificent cathedral. Still glad I saw both.
As for modernista sites, the Modernisme Route lists about 115 sites in Barcelona. I found that I appreciated them all the more because they were not all in one place.
I'm not anti-Madrid and would have enjoyed an extra day or two there. But it's a much newer city than Barcelona with, to my mind, less varied sights. And I do like art. It was the Palacio Real that left me cold.
