Spain in April 2019 - Planning Suggestions?

During the Semana Santa in Córdoba there will be over 30 grand religious processions, some of these processions are centuries old, and the best-known is called 'El Rescatado', which takes to the streets on Palm Sunday; some of the other good ones are 'El Cristo del Remedio de Ánimas', on Easter Monday; 'Nuestra Señora de la Paz y la Esperanza', on Easter Wednesday; 'Nuestra Señora de las Angustias' or 'El Esparraguero', on Maundy Thursday; and 'La Virgen de los Dolores', on Good Friday.

Here is the official 2018 schedule from the Córdoba city government, however it is only in Spanish. The 2019 schedule is not out yet, but the city government website says to refer to this one in the interim: horarios-itinerarios-procesiones-semana-santa-cordoba-2018

If you can, scheduling wise, I would try to embrace the Semana Santa festivities. It will make your travel experience so much deeper and rewarding than if you went during a normal week. You will have the opportunity to see a very emotional, living-breathing part of Andalucían and Spanish culture. The majority of Spain's cities, towns and villages, all have their own processions combining music, art, and color; but in Andalucía they are all the more breathtaking.

While there may be some slowdown in the cities themselves due to the number of people coming to see these processions, I don’t feel it would interfere too much in the main tourist attractions, although it may take longer to get from point A to point B. Most people will be in Córdoba for the Holy Week processions and not for the usual tourist attractions. My only note would be that Easter Monday is a public holiday in Spain, so the vast majority of shops and restaurants will be closed.

Around Catalonia, one can find some pretty cool Semana Santa events too. Here is a detailed post from a fellow Barcelona local, Enric, describing Holy Week in Catalonia, look for his response at the end: Catalan Holy Week

Most of the big day trips from Barcelona are accessible via public transportation. The only sites that come to mind that would potentially need a car would be the medieval villages like Besalú and Rupit and the ruins of the Ancient Greek colony at Empúries. Although one can take guided tours from Barcelona of these sites with transportation included.

Thanks so much, Carlos! This is exactly the type of information I was hoping to read. We didn’t even realize we would be traveling during Easter week until after we had selected cities and days to visit. After reading your post, I’m now wondering if we should rearrange our days in Madrid and Cordoba in order to better experience the spiritual and cultural aspects of Holy Week in Andalucía. Thank you, too, for the Barcelona information and links. It looks like there are plenty of great options using public transportation. This might be a good trip for us to back away from a rental car. :)

another idea for a trip via train from Barcelona would be Girona, although I think Girona is worth a couple days, at least. Girona is an ancient walled city, and you can walk around the old town along the tops of the walls. There also is a very visually appealing river with bridges, one designed by Eiffel.

Your welcome Wendy, glad I was able to help! I think that if you can do some fancy rescheduling and stay in Cordoba, for at least for a couple of nights, during Holy Week, your experience will be so much more deeper and rewarding, as the Semana Santa processions are put on by locals for locals.

I also second Jules' suggestion for an overnight stay in Girona, which also has one of the best preserved medieval Jewish Quarters in Europe.

Wendy,

I’m just wondering if you’d considered visiting the amazing Alhambra in Granada?

Hi Wendy. I was in Andalucia 2 years ago for Semana Santa. I left Sevilla on Saturday evening for several nights in Cordoba.

The high point of the processions is Thursday night's La Madruga, usually starting in the wee hours, technically Friday morning. You may want to sleep late on Thursday in Madrid and train to Toledo for their procession, then go back to Madrid in the morning. I did meet one procession on Saturday late afternoon in Sevilla, the place that - along with Malaga - seems to have the most processions.

I looked at the link above for the 2018 Cordoba pamphlet and didn't see any processions on Saturday. The one on Easter Sunday goes around the Mezquita (the cathedral) to the main square. Somehow I forgot about it on Sunday morning when I was in Cordoba and missed it completely. Honestly, Cordoba didn't seem crowded at all - Sevilla was wall-to-wall people in places. BTW all the restaurants were open on Easter Sunday. I know that in Sevilla, some shops and supermarkets were open on Saturday, but I don't know if you'll be able to get groceries on Saturday in Cordoba. The Mezquita has very limited hours on Easter Sunday because of the procession and services. On Monday, it had regular hours.

Thanks for all of the great responses, this is very helpful!

Jules and Carlos, I just checked out some online info on Girona and it looks beautiful and so interesting. I’m seriously considering keeping our weeklong rental in Barcelona, but booking one night at a Girona hotel and taking an overnight trip. We got some amazingly low prices on our airfare, so I wouldn’t be opposed to “double-paying” for lodging one of those nights. :)

Priscilla, we actually had planned to stay in Granada (and visit the Alhambra) instead of Cordoba, but the train situation in Granada was challenging with our next destination being Barcelona. We didn’t want to fly to Barcelona and the train time from Córdoba to Barcelona was much more reasonable, so we made a tough decision.

Chani, thanks for sharing your Córdoba Semana Santa experience! Great idea for the late day trip to Toledo from Madrid but I’m even wondering about changing our Friday night from Madrid to Córdoba? I don’t want to short change Madrid, but the opportunity to enjoy a local procession in a smaller town could be a factor.

Looks like it’s time for more research. Thanks again, everyone!

If you stay in Madrid Friday night, you could spend Thursday night in Toledo, sleeping in the daytime on Thursday and Friday in your Madrid hotel. Toledo is a 1/2 train ride from Madrid and their may be special late evening trains during Semana Santa. The Madruga starts around 2 am Thursday night. Cordoba is a 2 hour train ride from Madrid. You could try to get a room for Thursday night in Toledo . . .