Merida

I plan on visiting in a few weeks. Here's a site that might be useful:
http://davidsbeenhere.com/2014/01/28/what-see-do-merida-spain/

I absolutely love Extremadura! The Roman Theater in Mérida is beautiful. It is still used today for concerts and performances. If you decide to go see if there are any shows that coincide with your travel dates. if you have a particular interest in Roman ruins there are many there to see. Whether or not you go depends on your overall itinerary and means of transportation. I would suggest visiting this area by car although bus and rail travel in Spain is efficient and comfortable and reasonably priced. The roads were excellent. We spent almost a full day there siteseeing at the Roman ruins but did not have enough time to see the Museum of Roman Art. I would think you could stay one night there but I personally would not stay two nights in Mérida. The modern city did not impress me. The must see sites there are the Roman ruins. We were travelling with Spanish friends and stayed several nights at my friend's small hometown in Extremadura and also one night in Trujillo. Extremadura has many beautiful places to explore and if you have a car and have the time, look into driving west from Madrid to Guadalupe and/or Trujillo and/or Cáceres and then south to Mérida and onward to Sevilla. I personally would take days from Madrid to fit in a visit to these places which are not as well known as many of the other commonly visited tourist destinations. Are you planning to go to Córdoba? My problem would be narrowing down all the wonderful choices. Just prioritize what meets your interest and what is doable for you.

Pat,

We love Roman ruins. And that really would be the only reason to visit Merida.

We are planning a month in Spain in the spring of 2018. We want to stay five to seven nights each in in Barcelonia, Madrid, and Seville. We want to do two or three day trips from each. We are planning on one or two nights maybe three in Granada. We are considering overnights in a couple but by no means all of: Toledo, Cordoba, Arcos de la Frontera, Jerez de la Frontera, and Ronda. We may get to visit Barcelona in the fall of 2017, in which case we won't revisit it in 2018 and we will have more time. It's amazing how easy it is to fill a month.

We won't be driving, so if we do Merida, it will take us almost four hours to get there from Madrid and another four to get to Seville. So to actually see the Roman sights I'm guessing we'd have to arrive late the first night and either leave late on the second afternoon or early on the morning after the second night. Could you have filled a whole day there?

We know about Italica, and maybe we should just do it as a daytrip from Seville and leave Merida for another trip, but the ruins at Merida look both impressive and uncrowded.

Going, please let me know what you think when you get back. Lonely Planet Spain has a good Merida entry too.

What a wonderful month you are going to have. Caceres and Merida are amongst the few places in Spain I have yet to visit. The journey described by Pat above is similar to one I have in mind for the future.

For you I would break my trip into 6 modules of 5 days each (in this order) ...
Barcelona
Madrid
Salamanca, Caceres, Merida (driving)
Sevilla
Jerez, Arcos, Ronda (driving)
Granada and Córdoba

David, Thank you so much for Caceres. That's obviously where we should overnight. And we may end up spending three or four rather than two nights.

I just reread, noticing that you were not going to get a car. Sorry, I must have had driving in my head from Pat's post. Trains are not great cross country in Spain, but you will find buses connect the out of the way places.

Oh, wow, did that bring back a memory. We loved Merida. The audio guide for the ruins was exceptional and there is an excellent museum there as well. If there is any chance to see an evening performance, I expect that would be magical.

Trujillo and Ciudad Rodrigo are other interesting Extremadura cities, but the latter is closer to Salamanca than to Caceres.

Love Merida and the ruins. As others have stated Trujillo is also very nice. Avoid extremadura during the summer months as it is terribly hot.