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