My family will be visiting Spain for about 10 days in June. The main cities we are interested in visiting are Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, and Seville. We will be traveling by train. We will be starting our trip in Madrid and we can either fly out of Madrid or Barcelona depending on which is more convenient. We would welcome any suggestions as to what order to visit the cities in?
Thanks in advice for your suggestions.
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
Granada is not very well linked to other cities in Spain and not at all by the high-speed AVE train. So if you are visiting southern Spain (Andalucía) and Barcelona, the trick is getting between the two quickly since 10 days is a tight schedule for all on your list.
My recommendation would be to fly into Madrid and spend a few nights there. Then head south. You could visit Sevilla first by high-speed AVE, then Granada by bus or train (both slow) and then fly from Granada to Barcelona. Or take the slow train to Granada first, bus or train to Sevilla and then either fly or take the high-speed AVE to Barcelona.
If visiting both Barcelona and Madrid, for sure you'll want to fly in one and out the other (multi-city ticket). It can actually be cheaper that way and you save the cost and time to backtrack.
I'd start in Madrid only because it is the least interesting city in my opinion (although with amazing museums).
Also FYI - you need to reserve tickets to the Alhambra and Sagrada Familia in advance (they sell out). And you can get deep discounts on train fares from the RENFE website.
Posted by
Mansfield, USA
46 posts
We are making a similar trip in October. Our itinerary is Madrid, Granada, Nerja, Sevilla, Barcelona. We are flying into Madrid and flying out of Barcelona, and will be using the high speed trains to get to everywhere but Nerja. From Nerja, we are taking a bus to Malaga, and then hopping on the train to Seville. The longest leg of the trip will be Seville, but it was still the shortest train ride to Barcelona from the other 3 cities.