Hi! Although reading about Croatia, etc is getting us to debate the destination, we are planning a trip to Spain for 15 days, in the middle of July, with our 18 and 14 year old children. They are well traveled. My wife and I have been to Spain twice and have seen Andalucía (Ronda, Marbella, Almagro, Granada, Tánger), Córdoba, Madrid, Barcelona and a hair of Sevilla. We don’t mind going back to any of those places (so the kids can see Barcelona, Madrid), but also wouldn’t mind seeing other areas of Spain worth visiting that we have no seen. We know it’s crowded, but that’s when the kids can travel. Can anyone kindly suggest some possible itineraries? We prefer “not to see it all”, with the idea that we will come back, rather than spending half a day in each city or town, just to say “I saw the whole country”. We can move fast if needed, but just as a reference, we did 15 days in Italy and did Venice, Florence, Cinqueterre and Rome (with an amazing one night stop at Orvieto) and it was perfect.
Thanks for the help!!
I’ll stay away from the obvious choices others will mention and not knowing how you intend on traveling, I’ll suggest some mid and smaller-sized cities. Salamanca, Zamora, Leon, Santiago de Compostela, the north coast with its many small towns and beaches, Santander, San Sebastián, Burgos, Cuenca. Assuming you arrive early afternoon, each is worth a full day/2 nights. Since most are further north, it will be cooler than places in Andalucia or Extremadura. Pamplona is nice but has its San Fermin festival around that time, so it will be very busy with extremely high-priced hotel rooms.
We went to Spain for about the same amount of time in July with our 18 year old. We spent a week in Galicia, which we loved. The weather was delightful. We spent a little time Madrid, stopped in Segovia and Astorga (day trip to Leon) on the way north and Salamanca on the way south.
In planning in the trip, I considered going to the Basque region and Burgos but decided to spend more time in Galicia instead.
- Arrive Barcelona (4 nts)
- Barcelona
- Barcelona
- Barcelona
Option #1 ...
05. Fly to San Sebastián (2 nts)
06. San Sebastián
07. Hire car - Drive to Pamplona (1 nt)
08. Drive to Laguardia (1 nt)
09. Drive to Bilbao (2 nts)
10. Bilbao
Option #2 ...
05. Fly to Asturias/Oviedo (2 nts)
06. Oviedo
07. Hire car - Drive to Leon (1 nt)
08. Drive to Lugo/Monforte de Lemos (1 nt)
09. Drive to Santiago de Compostela (2 nts)
10. Santiago de Compostela
11..Train or fly to Madrid (4 nts)
12..Madrid
13..Day to Toledo
14..Day to Segovia
15..Depart Madrid
The above suggestions are good ones, though I'd caution that Madrid and its immediate surroundings can be pretty darn hot in the summer. And I was not entranced by Santander. The beaches are impressive, but there was a fire in the 1940s, so the city lacks the architectural interest of most other major Spanish cities. I used it as a base for visiting Santillana del Mar (very small, very cute, very touristy; not a place I'd want to spend more than one night, for sure), Comillas (some modernist architecture) and the lovely and dramatic Picos de Europa area (best by car, one-day bus tours occasionally available). I thought the old stone town of Potes in the Picos was really charming, though of course you would not be the only visitors there.
In the Basque Country I preferred Bilbao to San Sebastian: better museums, larger historic district, more "real" feeling. But the beach in San Sebastian is stunning. However, you cannot rely on swimming weather in the Basque Country in the summer. You may get it, but you may not. Most days when I was on the northern coast I saw very few people actually in the water; the surfers wore wetsuits.
The liveliest cities moving west from the Basque Country seem to be Burgos, Leon and Santiago de Compostela. What they have in common is that they are major stops on the pilgrimage route and are very attractive in their own right. There's no shortage at all of interesting stops along that route. Lots of impressive cathedrals (Leon's is known for its glass, and of course Santiago's is magnificent). I very much enjoyed my visit to the Cartuja de Miraflores on the outskirts of Burgos (bus available, at least on weekdays; easier by car), where Berruguete's "Annunciation" stopped me--a lapsed Protestant--in my tracks.
Oviedo has some extremely early churches, with a car again being very handy. It is a much quieter-feeling city than Leon and Burgos. Someone commented that the locals go to the industrial/coastal city of Gijon for excitement. I found Gijon interesting; it doesn't get very many foreign tourists as far as I could tell. There's a small historic district plus quite a lot of attractive late-19th/early-20th century architecture. But Gijon hosts a mystery/suspense literary festival (Spanish-language only, I believe), and it falls on July 7-16 this year. I assume that does really ugly things to local hotel rates and might possibly affect Oviedo as well.
In Galicia, I believe A Coruna is substantially warmer and sunnier than Santiago de Compostela. The latter is rather notorious for overcast weather. Lots of cute coastal villages in Galicia, but they have been discovered.
Don’t let people terrify you with warnings of how hot Spain is in the summer.
I spent two weeks in Madrid in late August two years ago and it was fine. You stay in the shade, wear a hat and drink water. If the Spanish can do it so can you!
I spent so much time worrying about the heat and honestly, it was no worse then summers in NYC. In fact, it was better because there was no humidity! It was noticeably hotter when I went south to Córdoba but it was manageable. Pick your trip based on the sites and don’t worry too much about the weather.
Thank you all for the ideas, tips and encouragement!!
It should be noted that the Spanish often take a nice, long break in the middle of the day. Assuming they have an air-conditioned hotel room to retreat to, travelers can do that, too, as long as they are in their base city. If they're on a day-trip, well, it's not exactly practical. This is one reason why having a rental car (air-conditioned) can be helpful. There is really nothing quite so hot as standing still, with not much new to look at, at an outdoor bus stop in the heat of mid-summer.
Europe is just not as air-conditioned as the US. Small cafes, bars, little shops--probably no a/c. Many museums (particularly the ones not holding paintings or works on paper) certainly seem to have no a/c. It is just harder to escape from the heat in Europe than it is when you're at home.
I survived Sicily and Puglia in June/July 2015, but I'm a native North Carolinian and live in Washington DC. I do not recommend that others repeat my experience unless they have no alternative. I learned from that 2015 trip and now plan escapes to cooler climes during part of the hot months. If the schedule and destination are fixed, I recommend being mentally prepared for what is (likely) to come. It is unclear to me from globulen's post whether the earlier trips to Spain sans children occurred in the heat of summer.
I agree wholeheartedly with rebekah’s weather comment. Well said.