We (2 couples) will be traveling to Spain next August 19-Sept. 3. We arrive in Barcelona on the 19th AM and plan to spend 4 nights there. Then our plan is to tour Andalusia and fly home from Madrid. Yes, we are aware of the hot weather in Andalusia at that time of the year and will plan accordingly. Here is our current itinerary but could use some advice to tweak it more:
Aug 19-23: 4 nights in Barcelona, staying in or near Gothic center;
Aug 23-26: 3 nights in Alicante, either taking high speed train or fly from Barcelona to Alicante;
Aug 26-28: 2 nights in Granada, renting car from Alicante and dropping it off in Madrid when we arrive there on Sept 1;
Aug 28-30: 2 nights in Seville;
Aug 30-31: 1 night in Cordoba;
Aug 31-Sept 1: 1 night in Toledo;
Sept 1-3: 2 nights in Madrid; overnight flight back home on the 3rd
One of our party needs some beach time and not as keen on so much sight seeing, which is why we compromised with 3 nights in Alicante, but I would like to propose cutting it to 2 nights and adding the extra night in either Seville or Cordoba. I’m thinking either Seville and build a relaxing, low key day there or Cordoba to avoid consecutive one night stays. We will have a car from Alicante to Madrid, so that will cut down on travel time between cities.