Please sign in to post.

Seville and Barcelona

Posted by (Pacific Northwest) on

Hey everyone!

So my wife and children and myself are heading to Spain in March 2016. My wife did a study abroad in Seville in 2005 and wants to see it again we also want to see Barcelona (she says she doesn't really need to see Madrid again and I really want to see Barcelona as well...so....). Our thoughts right now are that we should still fly in and out of Madrid because it is more central and we can get a non-stop flight from Miami (which is preferable since we'll have two little ones with us). So here are our current thoughts:

-Fly into Madrid and take the train to Seville
-Spend a few days in Seville
-Transition to Toledo and spend a few days
-Transition to Barcelona and spend a few days
-Transition back to Madrid for one night to catch our flight out.

We originally wanted to go to Granada instead of Toledo but looking at the train connections it just doesn't seem doable (we can't see doing an 8 hour train trip with two kids under 4 - the 8 hour flights are going to be testy enough! Plus we don't want to waste an entire day of our trip on the train). We would also like to avoid a car rental to save on cost - though this might be a wash with the train tickets, I'm not sure.

So...first, is there a better option than Toledo? (Seville and Barcelona are pretty much non-negotiable, but with a strong case, we might be persuaded - not that it's your job to convince us of anything :P).

Second, is doing all this by train just adding too much cost? Is a car more economical? From what I can tell, our kids are likely to ride free on the train, so I'm not sure. But I know we don't want to be driving in cities, so a car would only be used to get from point A to point B which makes me think it wouldn't be worth it, unless we decided to stay somewhere more rural.

Any thoughts from experienced travelers in Spain would be greatly appreciated!

:D
Cary

Posted by
347 posts

I should add that after I posted this, I looked at Kayak to see if doing an open-jaw from Miami to Madrid and then Barcelona to Miami was feasible and it came back as basically the same price as round trip, so we will probably go that route for air travel since we know we want to start in Seville and end in Barcelona. But any thoughts about Toledo or other places we might want to stay (that is between Seville and Barcelona - ie not something that would also be an 8 hour train ride) would be helpful.

Posted by
7175 posts

How many nights total are you looking to spend in Spain? This would work best with 2 young kids....
Fly into Madrid, then train to Sevilla, then fly to Barcelona, before flying home.
Toledo as a day from Madrid and Cordoba as a day from Sevilla.
Vueling have cheaper fares Sevilla to Barcelona, and are part of the BA/Iberia group.
Book your train Madrid to Sevilla in advance with renfe.com to get the best fare.

Posted by
16348 posts

Actually, if you arrive in Madrid, it is an easy trip by AVE train to Sevilla. The back to Madrid and short trip to Toledo. From Toledo, a 30-minute train ride to Madrid, then transfer there for Barcelona, 2.5 hours. No need at all for flights, whi he take so much time with security, etc.

Sevilla, Toledo and Barcelona are in our mind a great trip. In Toledo, look at this place :

http://casadelosmozarabes.com/?lang=en

They have apartments that will accommodate a family of four, , all in a 14th century building that has been beautifully renovated.

Posted by
15591 posts

What are your exact travel dates? Semana Santa (Holy Week) is March 20-27 and Seville will be very crowded (and high season prices) - not the best time to sightseeing with small children. There will be big celebrations in other Andalusians cities on some days.

If you rent a car, you could pick it up on your way out of Seville, drive to Granada and then return the car in Toledo. Currently the train service to Granada is disrupted because they're improving the tracks, so trains only go as far as Antequera and Renfe provides buses from there to Granada. No one can say when the work will be finish. I think completeion was originally scheduled for this month, now it appears it won't be finished before November. The bus does not add much travel time and appears to be an easy transfer to the train.

Another thought is to stay in Cordoba instead of Toledo. It's less than an hour by train from Seville and there are direct trains to Barcelona that take under 5 hours.You have to transfer trains in Madrid to get to/from Toledo. It would also be easy to fit Granada in, there are frequent trains and buses to/from Cordoba.

Posted by
169 posts

We live in Miami too, and found it easy to find reasonable airfares flying into once city and out of the other. If you want to see Toledo, you would want to fly into Madrid. On our last trip, we arrived in Madrid, spent the night and then headed for Toledo for 3 days. It's a very short train ride. From Toledo our next destination was Seville - and you have to take the train back to Madrid to get to Seville. We were able to time our train connection so we would arrive at Atocha station and then connect with the train to Seville which departed 90 minutes later. That way we avoided any additional nights or time in Madrid. We also returned to Miami from Seville.

However, if you want to skip Madrid (and Toledo) you could fly into or out of Seville and Barcelona. There are any number of day trips or overnights you could do from either city. We loved visiting Girona (from Barcelona) which also is a very short train ride.

In the two times we visited Spain, we just found it easier to travel by train. It's convenient and easy, and you avoid the hassle and expense of looking for parking and drop off fees of renting in once city and returning to another.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.