Slight change of plans.........help

Posted by sbowers992 (Washington DC) on 06/15/22 10:39 AM

I think I've spent more time googling this trip than I will actually spend on it!! I finally pulled the trigger on plane tickets and will now be flying in and out of Madrid. I decided to leave Barcelona for another time. Land early am Tuesday Sept 13 and leave Monday Sept. 26. If I'm reading this forum correctly, some attractions are closed on Mondays/Tuesdays?

1. Where should we Not be on Monday/Tuesday?
2. Should we hop on a train or fly to either Granada or Seville on the 13th and leave Madrid for the end?
3. With 13 full days in spain do we plan all our nights in Seville, Granada and Madrid (one night toledo) and take day trips? Or plan one more location for a 2 night stay? (yes the 13th is jet lagged and travel will eat into that time)
4. Is there an area we could enjoy nature, hiking, spectacular scenary for a couple days?

We don't want to rent a car but we do pretty well getting to buses and trains and can also use pre-planned tours to get around.

Thanks in advance.
Sharon

Posted by Renee

USA

06/15/22 01:23 PM

193 posts

I am interested in this as well.

Posted by joanne1108

06/15/22 11:07 PM

359 posts

Since your flying out of Madrid too, I would go to Toledo from the airport and stay at least two nights there seeing Madrid at the end of your trip. I think it would take longer to fly to Seville then it would just to train back to Madrid and on to Seville, Granada. Stay at least 3 nights in both of those. The south of Spain has lots of really nice hikes. September will most likely hot and hikes along normally pretty rivers may not have water to make them enjoyable. Take a look at Caminito del Rey, there are group bus tours to visit this hike and others out of Granada. J

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

06/16/22 03:44 AM

27063 posts

It would probably be a good bit cooler up in the Alpujarras outside Granada. Whether it would be enough cooler at that time of year for really enjoyable hiking, I do not know.

Posted by Kenko

Citizen of the World

06/16/22 06:59 AM

1403 posts

The Alhambra in Granada is open every day of the week except Easter, Christmas and national holidays.
The usual “Closed Mondays” rule applies to many Madrid Toledo and Seville museums, so watch out for that if it applies to your itinerary. I agree that you should stay a couple nights in Toledo- the floodlights on the medieval town ( it was Spain’s capital before the 1700’s) are spectacular. Bullet trains travel from Madrid to Granada, and between Madrid and Seville. If you book your online digital train tix now, you can save hundreds of Euros on the fares for non-refundable tix. The timing is perfect because they go on sale 60-90 days in advance and the 90 days started 3 days ago for September 13. If the Renfe ( Spanish National Train Company) website is too difficult, use the user-friendly www.TheTrainline.com website and pay the minute service fee of a few bucks to get your train tix now! Check www.Seat61.com for details. Take the regular train between Granada and Seville. No need to reserve that route- just buy it at the station. Brilliant to go in September- it won’t be torrid in southern Spain then.
Have a great Trip!

Posted by geovagriffith

06/16/22 04:07 PM

7643 posts

Do a day trip to Segovia from Madrid.
You can do Toledo on a day trip from Madrid as well.
Stop for a day in Cordoba if you can on your way to Seville.
Seville is my favorite city in Spain.
Granada you can do in two days.

Posted by April

USA

06/26/22 05:56 PM

42 posts

In Spain now……you could do
Madrid - 4 full days
Train to seville (very easy 2 1/2 hr train ride)
Seville - 4 full days
Day trip from seville to cordoba via train (very easy took 8:00 train got there and met your guide by 9:15, toured and was done for lunch and then train back).

We couldn’t swing Granada but really wanted to…..

Could do Madrid, train to Granada, train to seville, train back to Madrid and depending on flight time spend last night in Madrid to catch flight….

PM me if questions here now.

Posted by jaimeelsabio

Mid-Atlantic area

06/26/22 06:32 PM

6511 posts

Regarding when places are closed, you’ll need to look each up and see what it says. On my recent trip, no major tourist cities, some places were closed Mondays in one town, places closed on Tuesdays in another, and even an occasional Wednesday closure. Once you know what’s open when you can plan your itinerary around the closures.