Seville or Barcelona for a month

Personally, I would never wish to stay for a whole month a one place.

I lived in Germany for four years and did learn a lot about the country, but don't think staying a month over a week or two would make any difference.

Plan your touring and make the most of your trip. You could spend a week in Barcelona, a week in Madrid, a week in Seville and another week in Granada.

I can't really intervene in this conversation because I will certainly be veeeeery biased.

Should you consider my home city, please do ask whatever you want... I'll do my best to help out :)

I think you'd have a lot of quite hot days in Seville during the month of May; you'd have better odds of pleasant weather in Barcelona.

Here are actual, day-by-day weather statistics for Seville in May of this year. I'd recommend looking at additional years as well. Use the pull-down box to change the month and year displayed.

Seville weather May 2023

They're both great cities. I'd give Barcelona the advantage in art museums. Seville's obviously better for mudejar architecture, while Barcelona has a wealth of wackadoodle Art Nouveau architecture.

Girona, north of Barcelona, has a flower festival in May. I'm traveling right now and don't have access to my notes on other things that might be going on that month.

Personally I can’t imagine being in one place for a month unless I was working there. It would take about a week to see the sights, but after that one would have little to do to occupy one’s time. If you take day trips, you may as well go for a couple days. If you’re intent on a month in either place, both are nice to visit and there is no bad choice. Both cities are magnets for tourists and are welcoming.

Valencia, best of both worlds

Carlos, ssshhhhhhh!!!!!!
Valenica is already becoming too well known.

Love both, no wrong answers (except Carlos suggestion ;) )

https://www.barcelona-life.com/barcelona/may

https://sevillecityguide.com/events-seville.html

Suggest Mid April to Mid May offers better opportunities for both locales

Are you traveling solo?
What activities do you consider create the best opportunity for a wonderful journey?
Have you previously been to Spain?

We have spent two weeks plus in each (May and October) and created wonderful travel experiences. Our travel style prefers a more sedate pace and Seville fulfilled that pace. We booked apartments and accepted there would be overnight trips where we would pay for a hotel without checking out of the apartment. The ease of carrying a small overnight bag justified the expense. We did not stay in central tourist zones in either location and enjoyed being in a non-tourist environment.

The bigger menu is found in Barcelona and definitely take Enric up on the offer to learn from his life long passion for Catalunya. Forthrightly, Barcelona is still our favorite destination (even with all the growth and associated impacts). So many ez to access destinations form Barcelona.

Seville also offers an array of near by experiences available via train and bus.

You have a lot of homework to conduct, but a great task to undertake.

I’m thinking I was wondering which city is the most welcoming to tourists who just want to hang out with locals. I’ve traveled a lot and want a different experience of just living in a place and enjoying the opportunity to just be there for the month.

My first thought is that a big city is not a place to go to feel like a local. Maybe Enric or Carlos has a suggestion for a small town or a non-tourist area to stay in.

If you want to enjoy tourist activities, Barcelona would be my hands-down recommendation. Aside from all the sights in the city, there are a dozen or more good day trips and lovely beaches. Sevilla has much to recommend it, but very few day trips.

Acraven is certainly correct about the weather. And Valencia is probably similar to Barcelona. Is there a reason to choose May over another month? My visits have all been in February-March - the weather was mostly sunny, never very cold and never ever too hot. With fewer tourists, you are more likely to find locals to talk to.

My goodness. The dismissiveness of staying put for longer than a week! As I always say about this forum, everyone has an opinion -- and it doesn't always synch with others...

I find there are tourists and there are travelers.

Tourists -- and I was one in Spain and Portgual this summer -- move between cities every few days, seeking out the unique and then moving on. They get up every morning with a low-level hum of urgency to see something suggested in the guidebooks and by people on this forum. They can't decide if they should stroll and gawk at people and architecture or walk briskly between this cathedral and that castle because they have timed-entry tickets. They want to see EVERYTHING the town offers, and they've got a schedule to keep. That's what we did this summer, and we loved our trip.

Travelers park it -- and get to know the barista at a favorite coffee shop, the butcher who suggests a special cut when a traveler comes in the third time in a week, the lady who sits in the park every afternoon with her pooch and feeds the birds, the bartender at the corner pub and the regulars who go there every day... They get to know the place AND the people. In fact, they may even get a new friend or two rather than "friend" someone. And they do that by spend more time in a place than a tourist might.

For example, we had an extended stay in a Tuscan town a few years back. My son-in-law and I strolled to the pub for an afternoon quaff. One of the regulars smiled a relatively toothless smile as we sat down. He came over to us, and said enthusiastically, "TRUMP!" I broke out the Google Translate on the cell phone and we stumbled through a discussion of American politics. We bought each other a beer every time we saw each other after that.

To your question, we really enjoyed Sevilla -- perhaps our favorite stop this past summer. And we got to know Barcelona a bit because we spent a week there. As tourists, we felt welcome in both places. In fact, we found people throughout the Iberian Peninsula to be welcoming. (If you find people in your own town welcoming, you'll find people welcoming whevere you go! If you find people in your town to not be welcoming they probably won't be wherever you go.)

As another pointed out above, Barcelona is a big city that broadly offers more than Sevilla... Maybe consider living outside of Barcelona (or Sevilla, for that matter). We have a friend who coaches the Barcelona Dragons (part of the American football league in Europe). We were staying in Barcelona, and the Dragons play in a venue at the end of the S Line. I fantasized living in neighborhoods all along that train line while we rode to the game. You could also stay in a coastal location north or south of Barcelona and be a 20-minute train-ride to Placa Catalyuna.

My guess is that whichever place you pick - Barcelona or Sevilla - your dreams will be fulfilled and the stories and experiences that you'll have to share afterwards will be fantastic.

Toss a coin and celebrate that you get to choose!

dbrehm53, we LOVE the idea of staying for a month!

We were in Aix-en-Provence in 2021 for a month and adored it. I have a trip report on this forum somewhere :) It was a slower pace, markets, strolling, exercising in the local park, shopping the sales, our favorite morning place for croissants, our favorite afternoon cafe for a Kir, bus rides to other towns in the area. It was truly a slice of heaven!

This year we are headed to Seville for the same. We will be there for about three weeks and are spending week 4 between Granada and Madrid. We love immersing ourselves in the culture of a European town.