First may I say we LOVE the forum! Nothing beats the kind of grassroots information we’ve gotten here.
A little background…
My husband and I are planning a five week trip to Spain in early September of 2021. Though we are both in our late 60s we are extremely active and have traveled a fair amount. We love art, music, archeological sites, farmers markets, and especially small traditional towns. This will be our fourth trip to Spain. In 2018 we spent a great deal of time in Madrid, Barcelona and Granada so wanted this trip to focus on smaller places.
As many of these areas are new to us we would appreciate your input. Particularly if it seems too rushed.
The itinerary so far looks something like this:
9/9 land in Madrid 9:10 a.m. take Train to Segovia for 2 nights
Question: (since there are two trains involved is it possible to take a taxi to Madrid-Chamartin then catch direct train to Segovia Guiomar?) to save a bit of time. I looked into Jayride but it’s too pricey!
9/11 train to Santiago de Compostela (arrive mid day/ pick up rental car)
9/11-9/14 Santiago 3 nights (visit Finisterra & Musial one day)
9/14 depart am for 6-9 hr drive (stop at Puente Viesgo) to Bilbao
9/14-9/18 Bilbao/San Sebastian 4 nights
9/18 depart Bilbao early a.m. for Girona (6.5 hr drive)
9/18-9/23 Girona 5 nights (1.5 hr drive) return car to BARC 9/21 train back to evening in Girona
Devoting the last two of the five days to Girona here are some of the other towns we’d like to visit while in the area.
Question: what makes sense time wise without overloading ourselves?
Rupit
Tossa de Mar
Cadaques
Maybe Peratallada 1/2 day, Cadaqués 1/2 day
Another day split between Besalú to Castellfollit de la Roca to Rupit
Third day, Pals to Peratallada to Begur or Tossa de Mar
9/21 At the end of the 3rd day return car to BARC then take fast train back to Girona
9/22-23 Girona 9/23 train at end of day to Barcelona
9/23-9/26 Barcelona 3 nights
(arr. eve. 9/23 dep. early am 9/26)
9/26 early flight to Sevilla 4 nights
9/29 pick up rental car (9/30 visit Italica)
9/30 drive to Ronda
10/4 Ronda 4 nights
Question: using Ronda as a base, what towns are a must and how much time should we allow?
Arcos de la Frontera
Setenil de las Bodegas
Zahara
Grazalema
10/4 a.m. drive to Cordoba Return car stay 5 nights
10/9 am train to Toledo 4 nights
10/13 Train to MAD airport Toledo > MAD 1.5 hr train/subway
Thoughts?