Hi, we are now planning our road trip around North-East Spain that hopefully will take place next year at the beginning of May. During our previous visit we stayed in Barcelona and Madrid and then drove to Salamanca, Segovia, Toledo, Baeza/Ubeda, Cordoba, Seville, Ronda and Granada. We are all active adults, usually start our days very early and like to explore new places on foot or by driving. Please give us your thoughts on the following tentative itinerary. Thank you.
Day 1: arriving El Prat mid-day - drive to Girona (night);
Day 2: Girona – Besalu – Castellfollit De la Roca - Girona (n);
Day 3: Girona –– Vic – Lleida (n);
Day 4: Lleida – Alquezar - Huesca (n);
Day 5: Huesca – Loarre – Sos del Rey Catolico - Pamplona (n);
Day 6: Pamplona – San Sebastian – Pamplona (n);
or alternatively (weather-dependent);
Day 6: Pamplona – any combination of Puente la Reina – Estella – Artajona - Olite – Pamplona (n);
Day 7: Pamplona –Vitoria (n);
Day 8: Vitoria – Bilbao – Vitoria (n);
Day 9: Vitoria – Frias – Burgos (n);
Day 10: Burgos – Tudela – Zaragoza (n);
Day 11: Zaragoza – Albarracin – Teruel (n);
Day 12: Teruel – Valencia (n);
Day 13: Valencia – Peniscola – Tarragona (n);
Day 14: Tarragona – El Prat - flight home
Posted by
Washington DC
28105 posts
To me that is a mind-blowing pace. However, I am a public-transportation-dependent traveler who likes art museums and always wants to walk every street in a town's historic district. In addition, there are a number of small places on your list where--freed from the tyranny of bus/train schedules--you probably don't need a great deal of time. But still, I fear this trip is going to be one big blur.
Girona is one of my favorite places and I'm not sure you'll actually have much time to see it. The historic area is quite large and there are two churches of importance, a good museum and a walkable wall.
I am not much of a fan of Pamplona and it wouldn't be my choice for a 2-night stay, but I'm not looking at a map at the moment and will concede that it may be a logical option. I'd drop Pamplona and spend more time in Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastian. The first two have large historic areas that take time to see, as well as multiple museums. If your weather comment indicates a desire for beach time, I think you are highly unlikely to be that lucky in May. Even in mid-summer the Basque Country tends to be cool and overcast. On many midsummer days I saw almost no one in the water.
In the absence of a compelling desire to see a specific local sight in Puente la Reina and/or Estella (I know they're on the pilgrimage route), I'd swap out either or both for the hill town of Laguardia.
I haven't been to Valencia yet, but it appears you won't really have much time to sightsee in the city. I imagine you'll spend a lot of time navigating to your lodgings, so I'd consider skipping it on this trip and staying in a smaller town thst would be logistically simpler.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
acraven, thank you very much. You actually mentioned a couple of stops about which we still have our doubts. First is that we do love beaches and food but we are not primarily looking for these things on our trip to Spain. At the same time we are looking for a good weather in order to stay outside, take pictures and be able to walk places. Therefore, we are thinking to skip San Sebastian may be in favor of historic places around Pamplona, like Olite. And secondly, just like you said, we are still not sure about going to such major city as Valencia for one day and night. We just thought about it since it is kind of on the way and I read that the historic area is relatively small. We can definitely skip it and stick to small historic towns in Teruel province, like Morella and Calaceite on our way to Tarragona. Thank you again
Posted by
Washington DC
28105 posts
May is simply not beach weather on the north coast of Spain. Even mid-summer isn't always beach weather. There were some surfers out while I was in San Sebastian. They were about the only people in the water. They were wearing wet suits. A few days later it was warmer and sunnier, and I saw some people actually in the water, but not many.
Teruel itself is architecturally stunning. Mudejar towers. Early-20th century stuff. Lots to see, including a striking exterior staircase on the way from the train station to the historic area. Don't cut your time there short.
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
Northern Spanish weather can be unpredictable in early May. If you have any flexibility, I would push the trip back a month.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Jennifer, thank you very much for your suggestion. We are actually tied to our schedule. Until I realized that the weather on the Mediterranean coast in Spain is not the best in mid-May, I even wanted to go further west to Cantabria and Asturias. Now we are trying to stick to inland and, if the weather is not too bad, we will be just doing day trips to San Sebastian and Bilbao. Otherwise we will be just exploring historic places around Vitoria, Burgos, Zaragoza and Teruel.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
acraven, following your advice we looked up both, Teruel town and Teruel province and are very exited to explore both in case if the weather pushes us out of Basque Country. Thank you.