Spain multi-city travel advice

I think it's highly unlikely you'll have any real time for sightseeing on your departure day, assuming "home" is the US or Canada. You need to be at the airport at least 3 hours before departure time.

You need to buy tickets for the Alcazar in Seville ahead of time to avoid a terrible line. Check Rick's book for the way to avoid a bad line at the Seville Cathedral.

New ticketing procedures at Parc Guell require advance purchase of a timed ticket there.

I like both Toledo and Cordoba a great deal, but as originally laid out the itinerary has too much moving around for me. Seville needs more than 1-1/2 days. Barcelona needs more than 2-1/2 days, which I think is what you have.

I would plan a walking tour in both Madrid and Barcelona. That's a way to force yourself to slow down and see a city in a different way. I took tours organized by the tourist offices and really liked them. My favorite in Barcelona was the Barri Gotic tour.

Both Casa Mila and Casa Batllo are extremely crowded; Casa Batllo was worse for me in 2016. You might consider substituting either the Palau de la Musica Catalana (or you could attend a concert there) or the Sant Pau modernista site for one of the two Casas. Sant Pau you can just walk up to and buy a ticket. It's fairly near La Sagrada Familia.

Neither the Reina Sofia nor the Thyssen is large. Depending on the time of your train departure from Madrid, I think you might have an extra day there that could be used for a day-trip to Toledo. You wouldn't need to decide in advance. Alone among your potential travel legs, the trip to Toledo doesn't increase in cost if you buy the tickets at the last minute--though some trains may be sold out.

Keep in mind the extremely late meal hours in Spain. It affects the rhythm of your days. I had trouble getting a restaurant meal every day. That could be a bone of contention for a traveler who feels she's being rushed around. Having dinner at 10 PM--or later--can also mess with your sleep schedule and for me makes early AM train departures even less attractive than usual.

Keep in mind the extremely late meal hours in Spain.

Our meal times are just right, it is the American meal times that are very early lol :)

As a sort of "hack" for your early American dinners, consider going out for tapas, most tapas bars are open during the American dinner time (5:00 pm -7:00 pm I assume?).

Personally I would not try to fight it, you will find things go much smoothly if you acclimate faster to our Spanish schedule, i.e. Lunch (big meal of the day) at 2-3 pm and dinner (smaller meal) at 9-10 pm.

There are medical reasons why eating dinner late and quickly going to bed doesn't work for some of us. Tapas or (more often) a stop at a market are my usual food-sourcing techniques.

Of course if there are medical reasons, that should take primacy. Apologies, I was speaking in general terms and did not perceive any medical limitations from the op's post.

Thanks for the input! I should have been more clear; our fly home day is extra. As you say, that day will be all about travel.
Based on your suggestions, perhaps we'll keep the Toledo day in reserve, and the Cordoba night will go toward Seville. Sad to miss Cordoba, but I think you're right; it's just too much. Here's what the itin looks like this now... I'm tempted to give one of the three Seville days to Grenada or Barcellona (option for daytrip to Montserrat?).

Any more thoughts on how to avoid multi-city burnout? How many museums or cathedrals in one day is too much, etc? Lodging best bets?

Arrive/Madrid
Madrid
Madrid
Madrid
Madrid (option for Toledo daytrip)
Seville
Seville
Seville
Grenada
Grenada
Barcellona
Barcellona
Barcellona
Barcellona
Barcellona/Depart

Oh, and to be clear, we don't have any medical issue with late dinners. But we're also inclined to go to bed on the early side, especially after a long day of seeing the sights. I imagine most nights we'll be sustaining ourselves on tapas.

Hi Tim,
You asked what is the best time of day to travel between cities. Everyone has their own preferences. We visited Madrid, Toledo, and Andalucia in September 2017, and we traveled by train or bus. We always took the morning train/bus to our next destination. By doing this, we don't have to worry where to store our luggage when we are sightseeing. Also, we don't have to keep looking at our watches/phones to see what time it is to make sure we get our luggage in time and make our way to the train/bus station. Doing that is not relaxing or fun for me. We typically would arrive at our next destination in time for lunch after we check into our hotel. Then have time for some sightseeing on arrival day.

Regarding your itinerary, I think you could see the Thyssen the same day you visit the Reina Sofia. So perhaps the next day (that you have scheduled for the Thyssen), you could take the morning train to Cordoba. This means I am suggesting omitting Toledo from your itinerary. If you go to Toledo, you have to backtrack to Madrid to travel to your next destination. It's not a bad thing, that is what we did, but we had more time than you because we weren't going to Barcelona. Cordoba was one of our favorite cities. The Mezquita is amazing, but there are also other wonderful sites, such as the Alcazar gardens, Roman Bridge, Palacio de Viana, and wandering the beautiful and quaint Juderia. I personally preferred Cordoba over Toledo. But everyone is different.

If you omit both Toledo and Cordoba, I suggest adding one night to Seville and one night to Barcelona.

BTW, what does FOMO mean?

Thanks. I'll take your suggestions under consideration. FOMO = fear of missing out.

My tip -- see what day(s) the Alhambra tickets are available, then organize your trip around that. We had to rearrange plans when the day we wanted to see Alhambra was fully booked in October. And note that National Day (October 12) is a big local holiday so hotels may be harder to book for that weekend.

Hi Tim,

Your new itinerary will help in avoiding the multi-city burnout. In terms of when to travel between cities, my preference is to leave in the morning and arrive in my next destination before noon, drop my luggage off in the hotel and have a nice lunch before afternoon site seeing in the new city.

In terms of how many museums and cathedrals is too much, that is really a personal preference. I love museums, I could stay all day in the Prado if you let me. My husband's rule is no more than one museum and one cathedral in a day. In planning our trip to Spain in late September, October 2017, I had a list similar to yours. In Madrid, my husband went only to the Prado while I spent a few hours at the Reina Sofia by myself as he relaxed in a cafe.

The thing that worked for us was to prioritize the top 2-3 experiences in each city. If we had time for the lower priority ones, then great. More often than not, we found a local event or activity, we did instead. For example, in Barcelona, we were there for La Mercè Festival, Barcelona's largest street festival, and decided to skip some touring to attend the parades, fireworks, etc.

For hotels, here are the ones that we stayed in with feedback & links.

Madrid:
- Doubletree Prado: It is a typical Doubletree, with a really expensive breakfast. I loved this location. 5 minutes from Prado, short walk to Puerta del Sol (15 minutes) and nice little pastry shop down the street for breakfast. https://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/spain/doubletree-by-hilton-madrid-prado-MADPRDI/index.html?WT.mc_id=zELWAKN0EMEA1DT2DMH3LocalSearch4DGGenericx6MADPRDI
- Hotel Europa: RS recommended hotel in the Puerta del Sol. The hotel was clean, good hospitality, uninspiring free breakfast. I didn't like the location, too busy and a bit noisy. However, you want to be in the thick of things, this is a decent hotel. Here is the link: https://www.hoteleuropa.eu/.

Seville: We stayed at the El Rey Morro in the Santa Cruz : https://elreymoro.com/. I loved this hotel. We splurged for a junior suite (which was still very reasonably priced). The best thing about this hotel, other than the location is its beautiful patio. We would come back in the late afternoon from a long day of walking, grab a glass of wine and sit and relax before heading out later for dinner. One of my favorite tapas place in Seville, Bodega Santa Cruz, is just a few minutes walk. The only real negative for us was the staff, though very polite, was not willing to go out of the way to help on things other than booking attraction tickets.

Granada: We stayed two nights and three days and this is a place i could have stayed longer. The Alhambra is magical (make sure to get your tickets early--they run out fast, even in October). We stayed at the Anacapri : https://hotelanacapri.com/. Hotel is reasonably priced, good location, and the best staff--we felt we had the concierge services of a five star hotel. The rooms are basic, the breakfast basic, lots of RS tours, so very crowded. We would go back for the service alone. However, the wi-fi was so bad to the point it was almost unusable. I wanted to download the Alhambra app and it took me over an hour. I hope they improved it.

Barcelona. We stayed at my favorite hotel of the trip, Hotel Midmost: https://www.hotelmidmost.com/en. It is perfectly located, between Plaza Catalunya and Plaza Universitat squares. We had a room with an outdoor patio area to have a coffee in the morning and the room was very luxurious and well appointed. The hotel's breakfast was amazing from house made pastries to a selection of organic juices, eggs made to order, it was delicious. The hotel has a nice rooftop deck with a bar and a very small pool. The staff was so helpful, going out the way to make sure we had everything we needed from tickets to transportation.

Enjoy your trip to Spain. It is a beautiful country.

Sandy

The time of day that you travel is sometimes a personal preference, sometimes it's forced on you by the limited choices. Even though this article hasn't been updated for several years, it's still an excellent guide to the Renfe website. I prefer to travel in the evening, so I have a full day's sightseeing and then relax on the train. I usually take taxis between train stations and my hotel. In Toledo and Cordoba I walked everywhere. In Granada I only took the bus (actually a minibus) to/from the Alhambra, walked everywhere else. In Madrid and Barcelona I used the metro a lot, especially in Barcelona where the sights are much more spread out. It's hard to walk anywhere without passing tempting places to eat, any time of day.

I spent 2 nights, about 1.5 days, in Toledo and liked it very much. Cordoba is my favorite Spanish city. The Mezquita is both unique and beautiful and should not be missed. And there are other excellent sights there as well. It has the best-preserved medieval center of all your places and is flat, while Toledo is San-Francisco-hilly. Both are better as overnights. To make it easier, you can store your luggage at Atocha station in Madrid and take a small overnight bag to Toledo. It is possible to visit Cordoba as a day trip, either en route from Madrid to Sevilla (luggage storage at the bus station across the street from the train station) or as a day trip from Sevilla.

From your itinerary, it sounds like European painting is a very big deal for you. If that's true, go for it. But if you've included it in your itinerary just because it's on all the recommended lists, reconsider and allocate less time to Madrid. Assuming you'll be as happy spending a day in the Prado as you will seeing the sights of Cordoba or Toledo, make a plan. The museum is huge. Use their website to decide which periods/artists/genres most interest you and map it out. Their audio guide is good. I haven't been to the Reina Sofia (modern art isn't my thing) but others have said 2 hours is enough, maybe 3 maximum. My favorite is the Thyssen, but I can't imagine more than 3 hours there, though maybe with a special exhibition that really interested me, I might need 4. BTW if you are so much into art, do not skip the MNAC in Barcelona (3 hours minimum).

It looks like there are still plenty of tickets for the Alhambra in October, but don't dawdle. As soon as you have firm dates, buy the tickets. I went first for the night visit to the Nasrid Palaces and then returned for a full day. There are night visits (10 pm) for most of the week until mid-October, after that, only Fri-Sat nights. Plan to spend some time in the Albaicin as well.

There's much more to Barcelona that the Gaudi sights.

Although I enjoyed my nighttime visit and was glad Chani had recommended it, in April [mental hiccup--I was in Granada in early May, not in April] the Alhambra was much more crowded at night than in the daytime. There's only one entry time at night, so everyone shows up at the same time. You can see from the length of the line that a lot of tickets have been sold. Perhaps it's not as bad off-season, when there aren't so many people who miss out on the daytime tickets and figure a night visit is better than nothing. For photographers who hope for pictures without clots of tourists in them, the crowding at night will be majorly frustrating.

Experience: 6 full days in Barcelona. 3 nights and 2 full days are plenty for a taste of Barcelona. My personal priorities would be The Sagrada Familia (Gaudi and others), Montaner's Palace of Catalan Music, and Gaudi's early work Casa Vicens. Also, try to see one of Cadafalch's buildings. Take walking tours with a guide for Barri Gotic and Modernista (Runnerbean or Barcelona Tourism). I would throw in visiting Barcelona History Museum and Santa Maria del Mar tour. With more days you will be able to Experience exploring the different areas within Barcelona and take a day trip to Tossa de Mar. Some of our favorite walks included the Roman theater with it's surrounding rose garden and Placa d'Espanya. The Arena has a free panoramic view of Barcelona from the top. For Tapas try carrer de Blai.

You definitely have enough time in all of the cities with your new itinerary. It's always a challenge not knowing which cities you'll wind up liking more than others. The upside is that if you do decide you've seen "enough" of Madrid, you can do the day trip to Toledo (you just have to be mindful that the popular times for the train will sell out, but we only bought ours 48 hours out). We also did Cordoba as a day trip from Seville, as we had more than our fill of Seville after a full day and a half (others clearly love this city -- to each their own). In Madrid, we did the Reina Sofia in an afternoon and then the Prado/Thyssen the next day, but 2 1/2 hours in one museum is more than enough for us, but others can spend a full day in one place.

As far as your other questions, my husband and I are in our 40s, and we have found that we need the balance of hitting the big sites but also taking time to relax and "smell the roses" so to speak. I don't know when/if I'll ever go back to some of our European destinations, so we do prioritize our "must haves" for all of our trips, as though we won't come back. But our travel style is to push hard to see a lot of sites in one day and then the spend the next one just wandering around, getting lost, going to the hammam, sitting down with a glass of wine and people watch. Part of going to these other cities (for us) is trying to get away from the main tourist areas and finding that fun wine bar or walking through a park where you feel like you're getting to know the city a bit more than the museum. And, as we think of place we'd eventually like to go back to, very few of them are because of the tourist sites, but for the food and areas we wandered into and explored. Our first trip abroad to Italy, we realized about 1/2 way through that we were just doing too much and then found ourselves not enjoying it as much because we were just too exhausted and worn down, so we figured out our rhythm in what works best for us.

We usually use a combination of Airbnbs, hotels or B&Bs, as we tend to prioritize location (or if there's a metro stop nearby to get you quickly around). It depends on the city, where we want to stay, the price, the quality, etc. Airbnbs are nice because they have a washing machine (my sink washing will never be as good!), so we try to use them at specific points on our trip (btw, our AirBnb in Granada was in the Albaicin area with a huge terrace and full amazing view of the Alhambra). As far as getting in between cities, you can use a train between all of the places you're visiting, and just check to see what the latest is for in/out of Granada as the AVE line is opening soon (or has by now?) -- we were there in May and had to use the bus/train combo to get to Madrid.As for tours, that's definitely a personal preference. We don't care for tours (unless it's the only way to visit) because they are slower than our own pace, and we are usually fine with the level of info the audio guide will provide -- but if you're the type that love the extra context, it may be for you.

I have trip notes for all of these places, and am happy to share if you send me a DM.