Having loved Barcelona, Toledo, Girona, and Andalusia. ( Madrid less ), I am thinking of an off-season trip to San Sebastián, Bilbao, Valencia. We would fly from NY and betweenBilbao and Valencia. We won’t rent a car.
Can someone please suggest sequence and other ideas to make this happenin10-12 days?
Thanks so much!
First I would try all of the parameters--into Bilbao and out of Valencia and vice versa. Order should not matter much unless there are festivals or something happening in either place.
If it were my trip, I would do one coast or the other--a triangle from Valencia to Zaragoza and Tarragona and back would be nice--and the Basque region is packed with attractions and has efficient transport, particularly along the coast but also to inland places of note like Pamplona.
With only twelve days I would visit one coast or the other, not both of them.
What do you mean by "off-season"? The Basque Country tends to be cool and overcast even in the summer. It's a great place to go then, when most of the rest of Spain is likely to range from too hot to perishingly hot. It wouldn't be my choice very far off season if I had limited time available.
Thank you. I am thinking of April or May. How is wether usually then?
I have visited various areas of Europe many times in late May. It is not off-season, but it is not typically terribly crowded (depends on where you go of course) and the weather is most often superb (with the usual caveats). If you detest warm weather, you might prefer April, but I have a bias that April means more rain (not verified with extensive research), but certainly cooler enough that I prefer May.
April and May will offer nice temperatures in the Basque Country, somewhere between 14 to 22ºC, around 60-70sF, late May being of course warmer and early April cooler. There´s no "rainy season" here, weather is unpredictable, you never know. We may have the four seasons in one day. But a beautiful green and mountainous area!
And, of course, it does not rain every day!!!
Consider visiting San Sebastian, Bilbao and other great places in the Basque region. Also, consider crossing the border into France and exploring the small Basque region there as well as the Bordeaux and Carcassonne region.
Another alternative is to do the Basque region then move to Galacia in the NW of Spain and do Santiago de Compostela as well as other places.
