Back in the Saddle and planning a trip to Spain in October. Y’all are absolutely invaluable for planning so here goes!
We are looking to travel Spain for three weeks this October. This trip is to gauge coming back for a 2-3 month stay later so we are exploring what area we might want to make our base. (Our base won’t be in the middle of the country so I’m trying to explore the coasts but we still want to visit Madrid while we are here.)
We are thinking of starting in Barcelona for four days then heading down East coast. Now, RS travel book goes from Barcelona to Granada but skips the coast entirely. We are thinking we would like to take three days to explore it.
Maybe Barcelona to Valencia first day and Valencia to Almería second day , stopping at sites along the drive.
We also want to see Nerja and Ronda for that third day and stay in Ronda maybe overnight.
Finally heading to Seville to drop off car.
OR….do we just keep the car for the entire trip??
Our next leg is Seville to Madrid to Salamanca (hubby choice not mine) to Lugo to Bilbao then fly out from there to home.
or alternatively we could eliminate Salamanca and go from Lugo (2 nights) to Gijón (2 nights) to Bilbao (2 nights)
*certainly we could drop the car in Seville and rent another one a week later at the end of our stay in Madrid (use train to travel from S to M)
But how to travel?? A car gives us the advantage of going where we want when we want BUT is parking going to be hassle? Picking up and dropping off? Driving those winding roads??? We are both good drivers and still young enough to feel confident in our skills (but with those mountains I’m going to want an automatic!) but maybe a car is not worth four-ish days if the rest of the trip is public transportation.
I remember in Italy that folks we met who had rented cars were mostly miserable cause so many places didn’t allow cars into the city centers. They had to park way out and some even got ticketed as they did not understand the restrictions. But Spains rail travel from some smaller cities looks slower than buses. So maybe we don’t rent the car and just take buses between smaller cities?
So then my question is can we take a train from Barcelona to some coastal towns then kind of hop on and off or are the trains/buses just too far from the sites on the coast to be worth it?
Like in Cinque Terre and Lake Como, the trains were super convenient to use between smaller towns.
And basically, how easy is it to drive and park in Spain? Whew! Sorry it’s a lot, but transportation and places to stay are the first boxes I like to check off my list.
Certainly we could stick to bigger cities
Barcelona(4) to Valencia(2) to Granada(2) to Seville(4) to Madrid(4) to Salamanca(2) to Lugo(2) to Bilbao(2) and day trip from these.
Oh my! Help :-)