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Questions about our itinerary

Posted by on

I've watched all the videos and read the posts and I am still confused over what to do! Any feedback would be appreciated.

We are a group of 5 friends celebrating our 50th in Spain, timing has to be mid to late October, so we thought of starting in Madrid & going into Andalucia to have good weather (we are Canadian so "good" is subjective). With limited time, my question is about itinerary (we like good food, good wine - I know premiere wine regions are not in this area), old towns and activity. I was thinking:

Day 1 - arrive in Madrid mid day, stay three nights (this would give us 2.5 days in Madrid). We are thinking a private walking tour, the Prado museum, the Palace, Centro de Arte Reine Sofia, the Plaza Mayor, the big park - stopping for tapas etc along the way. I think the group will only have patience for a couple of cathedrals. Is 2.5 days enough? Is it too much?

Day 4 - Transfer to Seville (possibly do a wine tour on the way as part of the transfer, have been looking into this) or take the train. Stay 3 nights in Seville

Day 7 - Transfer to Cadiz, stay 2 nights

Day 9 - Transfer to Madrid via train for last night in Madrid/early flight home on Day 10

My questions are:

  • If we want to do a wine tour, I have seen some out of Madrid, most go north and it's an 8 hour day, but that would really only leave us 1.5 days in Madrid then. Is that too little? I am thinking we will do walking tour and sightsee. Are there any nice winery/vineyard experiences in the Andalucian area? I know La Mancha is a big but supposedly not great wine district, but would that be a better use of limited time?

  • Are we better to divide up the trip just between Madrid & Seville and do more day trips from Seville? I know Cadiz is possible for a daytrip, we just thought maybe it would be nice to stay by the beach and be able to experience a smaller town like this at night (so we can drink wine/have dinner without having to drive back to Seville). Knowing that we are staying in Madrid & Seville, if we do another brief stop, is Cadiz a good option in mid to late October?

*Also - we would love to get scooters and drive through the country. Is there an area in the regions we are looking at that it would be particularly scenic to do so, where we are on smaller roads that are safer on a scooter? It would be possible to to drive to a smaller town and rent a scooter from there too, as long as there is a shop there.

Thank you

Posted by
8718 posts

I strongly advise you to NOT miss Toledo, it is amazing. It is just south of Madrid and you can do it on a day trip from Madrid.

You have divided your time between Madrid, Seville and Cadiz. I recommend eliminating Cadiz and add Toledo and Cordoba to your itinerary. Cordoba is between Madrid and Seville.

Posted by
57 posts

I would skip the wine tour out of Madrid. It's a long day, and probably not worth it and besides, 1-1/2 days does not leave you nearly enough time to explore Madrid. 2-1/2 days does not really leave you enough time to do everything you have on your wish list, but it's more doable. We did a full day wine tour in another part of Spain and while we enjoyed it, we would have preferred not using the day on this and spending more time exploring around where we were situated.
If it were my trip, I'd skip Cadiz and split the time between Sevilla and Madrid, maybe taking a day trip out of Madrid to Toledo or Segovia. Or maybe do a daytrip to Cordoba from Sevilla or spend a night there. If you love good food and good wine, the food scene is amazing in Madrid. It's good in Sevilla, too, but even better in Madrid, IMO. We took a private sherry and tapas tour in Sevilla that was really fun. That type of thing could be really fun to do with your group without spending an entire day of your short trip in transit to wineries.

Posted by
7526 posts

The big park is Retiro Park. If you are only going to visit one cathedral, then visit the one in Sevilla.

Neither Madrid nor Sevilla are in wine country. If you like sherry, then take a tour from Sevilla to Jerez de la Frontera. Another option would be, rather than staying in Cádiz it might be easier to spend the nights in Jerez and day trip over to Cádiz.

With limited time in Madrid consider visiting either the Prado or Reina Sofía, not both. If the main reason to visit the Reina Sofía is to see Picasso’s Guernica, consider the free admission evening or Sunday hours.

Unless you need a guide to provide information, there’s no reason you can’t create you own walking route. The main part of Madrid is easy to walk around with many of the bars in the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol area. If walking maybe break it into two parts; Plaza Mayor down to Retiro park and the museums, and, Plaza Mayor up to the Royal Palace and over to the Plaza de España and Gran Vía.

Personally, I’d scrap the scooter idea if you’re referring to a small moped type scooter. If you had a longer trip and were visiting very small towns, then using a scooter to tour the area might be fine if you can find a few small villages in close proximity. While there is little traffic on many of the back roads, many of those roads don’t have shoulders.

Posted by
28902 posts

You didn't ask, but you'll need to book the Alcazar and Cathedral in Seville ahead of time. The ticket lines are usually very long, and they're outdoors, open to the elements.

Posted by
2 posts

Did you check flights out of Malaga instead of going back to Madrid for the return flight? We were pleasurably surprised to see that the NYC area had non-stop flights of out Malaga. Good luck and enjoy!

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you to everyone who responded (sorry it's taken me a week, busy work week). This is all super helpful and looks like I will be rejigging per your comments. Also - amazing advice about Malaga flight, thank you!!!!

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