Spain Itinerary - Appreciate Feedback

Hey Mike,

Your itinerary is good logistically. I would encourage you to do an open jaw flight plan. Fly into Barcelona and Fly out of Seville to head home after the trip. What mode of transportation will you be using to travel between towns?

Here is a suggested itinerary that might be of benefit to you for the 16 days:

Fly into Barcelona

Barcelona (4 Nights)

Day 1 - Barcelona

Day 2 - Barcelona (Day Trip to Montserrat)

Day 3 - Barcelona (Day Trip to Girona)

Day 4 - Barcelona

Madrid (4 Nights)

Day 1 - Madrid

Day 2 - Madrid (Day Trip to Toledo)

Day 3 - Madrid (Day Trip to Segovia)

Day 4 - Madrid

Granada (4 Nights) (Get a Rental Car in Granada to see the smaller towns)

Day 1 - Granada

Day 2 - Granada (Day Trip to Beach Town Nerja)

Day 3 - Granada (Day Trip To Ronda)

Day 4 - Granada

Seville (4 Nights)

Day 1 - Seville

Day 2 - Seville (Day trip to Whitewash Hill Town Arcos De La Frontera)

Day 3 - Seville (Day Trip to Cordoba)
(Drop off Rental Car after Day trip)

Day 4 - Seville (Fly Home)

Mike - have you been to Spain before? I highly recommend you spend one night in Toledo - not a day trip only. Most tourist crowds leave the old city before dark. I enjoy wandering the streets in the old walled city at night after dinner and in the early morning hours, one of my favorite things to do in any city; it adds a little magic to the experience, especially in this late medieval city.

Hello, I think that I actually like plan #1 better than the second one. I think that if we edit plan #1 a bit we can incorporate more of your interest in seeing the smaller quaint towns. Plan #2 is the standard 2 weeks "best of Spain" itinerary, which is good as well, but an edited version of Plan 1 may be more up your alley.

I'm thinking what may be interesting is renting a car and making a road trip out of this. Taking into account your interests, I would re-hash plan #1 to look something like this:

Fly into Barcelona

• Barcelona (4 Nights) - After your visit, rent a car and drive south along the coast to Peñíscola

{Make sure to stop in Tarragona along the way to see the Roman ruins, including the seaside amphitheater and intact Roman Aqueduct at Pont del Diable.

• Peñíscola (2 nights)

• Cuenca (1 night): A medieval town hanging over a deep river gorge strung together by narrow meandering streets. The whole town has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Toledo (2 nights)

• Córdoba (2 nights): My favorite town in Andalucía, definitively worth a night or two. If you like quaint streets, squares and cafes, this is the town for you - Córdoba old town.

• Granada (2 nights)

• Sevilla (3 nights) - Drop off the rental car
  ALSA bus to Faro, Portugal

If you can add one or two nights to you vacation time then I would add those nights to Cuenca and Sevilla, respectively.

Very workable. With the time available, I wouldn’t change anything from plan 2. Believe with the nights allocated to each city, you’ll get a good feel for each and be able to see the main sights. There are always additional places one would like to visit, but I believe you will have plenty to keep you occupied without any side/day trips. Save those places for your next trip.

I like plan 2. I like the idea of splitting Madrid and Toledo.

Are you going to rent a car? Without a car, I would drop Ronda. I do like the town, having spent time there twice, but you have better options in other places. If you rent a car that's a completely different story and well worth a 2-night stay so you can explore the white hill towns. If you drop Ronda, consider spending 2 nights in Cordoba, which is a much quieter, smaller place than bustling Sevilla, especially in the evenings. Maybe because the Mezquita is such a wow, the many lesser sights get overlooked.

Note that access to Toledo is on a spur line from Madrid. So you will have to change trains in Madrid and allow 1/2 hour (at least) for the transfer. Atocha is a huge station, many find it confusing and the Toledo trains are far from the other train lines.

I much prefer your plan #2, but doing Toledo before Madrid, which on a day by day would look like ...

Day
1. Arrive Barcelona (4 nights)
2. Barcelona
3. Barcelona
4. Barcelona
5. Train via Madrid to Toledo (2 nights)
6. Toledo
7. Early train to Madrid (2 nights)
8. Madrid
9. Train to Granada (2 nights)
10. Alhambra
11. Train to Ronda (2 nights)
12. Ronda
13. Train to Sevilla (4 nights)
14. Sevilla
15. Day to Córdoba for the Mezquita
16. Sevilla
17. Depart Sevilla

One possible tweak would be to limit Ronda to one night, allowing an extra night in Madrid for a day to Segovia.

Thanks for all your feedback. After some of your recommendations we are looking at taking a day away from Ronda and Seville and staying 2 nights in Cordoba. After Chani's comment about getting to Granada from Toledo would we be better off renting a car in either Madrid or Toledo (I'm assuming they would have car rentals there)? We would have the rental to explore the Andalucia hill towns and then drop the car in Seville and take the train or bus to the Algarve(I have heard it is very expensive to rent in Spain and drop off in Portugal). We are flying home from Porto. After this I still have 16 days in Portugal to plan.

I don't think there are many car rental options in Toledo and it's "San Francisco hilly" so I sure wouldn't want a car there. I was just pointing out that getting between Toledo and Granada takes a lot of time. I think you are just trying to cram too many places into a short time frame. If I were starting from scratch, I'd drop Barcelona. There is a whole lot to see and do in and around Barcelona and 4 nights is short-changing Catalunya and making it difficult to fit in all your other places. If you are locked into Barcelona, then I'd recommend only 4 towns or maybe 5 for the other 12 nights and some hard decisions. There's no magic bullet for Andalucia, it takes time to get from place to place. The only short trips are Madrid/Toledo and Sevilla/Cordoba. Both Toledo and Cordoba are much better as overnight stays than day trips. What about dropping Madrid? It has much less to offer, considering your interests, than any of your other places. Barcelona 4N, Toledo 2N, Granada 2-3N, Ronda 2-3N, Cordoba 1-2N, Sevilla 3N.

The only place you'll want/need a car is through the hills between Granada and Sevilla/Cordoba. Then you really need 2 nights in Ronda so you have time to explore the pueblos blancos and enjoy the scenic driving.

Picking up from Chani then, and adding Córdoba overnight.

Day
1. Arrive Barcelona (4 nights)
2. Barcelona
3. Barcelona
4. Barcelona
5. Train via Madrid to Toledo (2 nights)
6. Toledo
7. Early train to Madrid (2 nights)
8. Madrid
9. Train to Granada (2 nights)
10. Alhambra
11. Train to Ronda (2 nights)
12. Ronda
13. Early train to Córdoba (1 night)
14. Late train to Sevilla (3 nights)
15. Sevilla
16. Sevilla
17. Depart Sevilla

A lot of good advice here. I'll just add if you like small staying in Toldeo and doing Madrid as a day trip (30 minute non-stop train with many times) is completely doable. To me Madrid is a big city with shopping, a couple of amazing museums and one big sight. Depending on how interested in those things you can spend as much or as little time there as you want. But if you like small Madrid will likely hold little appeal to you outside of those things.

One nice thing is that the train station is within walking distance of the two big museums so even train to Madrid - use left luggage at the train station - visiting one or both of the museums and collecting your luggage and getting back on the train is completely do-able. It would change your itinerary but you could Toledo, morning train to Madrid, sightsee and the evening train to Seville. That's what I did and then rented a car in Seville, toured the hilltowns across to the Costa del Sol and dropped the car off in Granada. But many combinations are possible.

If you rent a car get full coverage - especially if you're doing hill towns - and and an international drivers license.

Have a great time!
=Tod

We originally questioned going to Madrid but agree that smaller Toledo would be more appealing. So it looks like
Barcellona 4N
Toledo 3N

Cordoba 2N
Granada 2N
Ronda 1N
Seville 3N
We still have 2 nights we could add somewhere or just spend more time in Portugal. We are going to stay in Portugal about the same amount of days so we still have options. Would you suggest taking trains up until Granada and then rent a car to Ronda to explore the hill towns.

Four nights in Barcelona is very short. If that's your European arrival point, it is extremely short. If you can add a night (or more) there, I would recommend it.

You could add those two nights to the medieval-walled town of Girona, 40 min north of Barcelona via the AVE high-speed train. Girona is an ancient city in northern Catatonia. It has an impressive Cathedral, towering medieval walls, narrow winding streets, a Moorish bath complex, and one of the best preserved Jewish Quarters in Europe. The Onyar river snakes it's way through Girona, giving the town a Florence-esque feel. Using Girona as a base, one can do some pretty interesting day trips around northern Catalonia too.

For example, one could explore the surrounding medieval villages either with a car or as part of a tour group. Here would be some of my favorite villages from around the area:
Besalú - Castellfollit de la Roca - Rupit - Pals

For a nice lunch, stop at Restaurant Albert in Rupit, for a view of the village below and hardy Catalan mountain cuisine.

If you are interested in ancient history, I would also recommend visiting Empúries, which is the site of the ancient ruins of a Greek colony from the 6th–3rd century BC. It's quite unique as the ruins sit right on the Costa Brava overlooking the sea. The area is also the site of an ancient Roman town called Emporiæ from the 2nd century BC - 6th century AD. There is a pretty good museum on-site containing artifacts, statues, and mosaics of the Roman and Greek periods called the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya - Empúries.

I absolutely agree with Carlos if you're up for another hotel shift. I stayed in Girona to enjoy that city as well as take side-trips to Cadaques and Besalu (by public transportation). It's very much worth spending a couple of nights (or more) in Girona; it's a matter of balancing the hotel-changing hassle against the quieter (though not non-touristy) environment and the possibility of reducing travel mileage if you are planning at least two trips north from Barcelona.

Your new plan is a great improvement! If you are willing to rent a car from Granada to Sevilla, then add those 2 nights to Ronda and spend your time enjoying the pueblos blancos! Or stay in more than one larger town. I prefer to drive back and forth rather than changing rooms. I'd also consider taking a night from Toledo and adding it to Granada. You could also add nights to Barcelona - I never have enough time there either.

What a wealth of information you have all been. Thank you and it is much appreciated. This might not be the last you hear from me!

I certainly hope it's not the last. Especially since you are now obliged (but not obligated) to come back with a trip report :-)