As I'm working through an itinerary I'm looking at splitting Spain into two halves:
Northern Half- Barcelona, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Madrid/Segovia
Southern Half- Toledo, Grenada, Cordoba, Sevilla, Gibraltar
Is one half better to use a rental car and the other better served traveling via train? Flights are in/out of Barcelona.
I understand that Grenada is not connected to the main train system(?) thinking rental car might be better in the Southern half of the country...?
You don't say how much time you have for your trip, or whether you want to stop for any towns along the way.
North - I think they are all connected by train or good bus service.
South - Toledo is best by train from Madrid, so put it in the north half. Or on second thought, put Madrid in the south - makes more sense. Cordoba and Sevilla are on the same fast train line from Madrid (and a lot faster than a car). Driving to Granada won't save you time from Cordoba or Sevilla or Madrid - the train is faster. It's a long trip from Granada to Barcelona, so it's better to fly, but I wouldn't recommend flying into BCN and taking a separately ticketed international flight out on the same day.
Gibraltar is an outlier and probably easiest if you have a car, though it's usually better to park on the mainland rather than taking the car across the causeway. Without knowing how much time you have or what the rest of your route will look like, it's not possible to give you good advice on this bit . . . except to say that I'd skip it.
The deal with Toledo is that it is on a spur railway line connected only to Madrid. Otherwise, there's no issue there. You just need to return to Madrid before heading south to Cordoba, etc.
Depends on what you intend on visiting. If it’s all medium to large sized town or cities, then trains may suffice. If you intend to visit small towns, many castles, etc., not serviced by trains or served regularly by public transportation, then a car is best. Coming from someone who all but once has had a rental car, the part of the country you’re in fairly inconsequential. Those who always use trains would better know the Renfe system.
That's a long list of destinations covering most of the country. If you're like the typical American and don't have time for a long trip, I doubt that you'll be seeing any small towns. That looks like a somewhat rushed 3-week trip. If you have less than 21 full days, I think you should consider pruning.
We'll have 15-full days in-country to see things.
Gibralter is more of a novelty and we're dropping that.
One member of our party is interested in seeing the Moto GP race outside of Alcaniz...which is why car rental was brought up.
You don't need a car for any of this, except for the Alcaniz portion.
It's Toledo that is on a spur railway line connected only to Madrid. I'm sure that's what acraven meant.
Between San Sebastian and Bilbao, buses run frequently and are faster than trains.
Train service to/from Granada is operating fine, but with a short portion replaced by bus during track construction in the direction of Granada and Madrid, or longer-distance buses provide additional options. There are a few direct trains/day operating between Granada and Seville.
Good grief, that was an awful mental hiccup. Thanks for catching it, Laura. I've corrected my post.
Somewhat on this topic, but my family will be needing to go from Toledo to Granada this summer (after coming from Madrid) and I've been researching options. I can't find anywhere to rent a car in Toledo with any major companies (so we would have to go back north to Madrid to do that). And sounds like the only train option is again to go on train back to Madrid, and then go back south again to Granada on a direct train (so somewhat backtracking to Madrid just to go back south again). But maybe that is the best option. Was also looking at maybe Bla Bla car ride sharing (since Rome 2 Rio seems to show that as alternative, to just go from Toledo directly to Granada, which seems a faster route). But didn't know thoughts?
Craig, you really need to start a separate thread so we can address your questions directly.
15 full days, so 16 nights, and your last night needs to be in Barcelona for your flight out. So when you land in Barcelona, you'll want to go straight to another town by train. Madrid might be the best option.
I count 7 cities, leaving out Gibraltar which you've nixed (very wisely) and Segovia and Toledo, both of which can be day trips from Madrid. 4 nights for Madrid (3 days, 1 each for Toledo, Segovia, Madrid), 2 nights in Barcelona, so that leaves 9 nights and 5 cities, not even 2N each which would give you one full day of sightseeing in each city. That is a very fast-paced trip with lots of travel time - don't underestimate how long it takes to pack/unpack, check in/out, move to/from train stations. And you've got some fairly long train/bus rides too.
You haven't told us when this trip is planned for. Weather can be very different in the northwest, Andalucia and the Costa Brava.
And two nights in Barcelona is way below what you'll wish you had when you dig into a guide book.
As you’ve been told, even with Gibraltar eliminated, you have too many destinations. Personally, I found San Sebastián underwhelming. I think you could save it and Bilbao for a Basque centered trip. Madrid, Toledo and Segovia can be grouped together to eliminate a hotel change. Do the two smaller cities as day trips from Madrid.
Two nights in Barcelona will give you little more than one day. Not enough! You’ll realize that if you look at a guide book, or go to Tripadvisor and click on “Things To Do” for Barcelona. I think four nights would be a minimum; and then, you will only scratch the surface.
Looks like San Sebastian & Bilbao is being left off in the latest round of trimming the itinerary. It was decided that another trip for N.Spain/S.France could cover those areas, this trip focus on the big cities and S.Spain.
Barcelona is definitely a 3-nite stay, as is Madrid, would Grenada or, Saville warrant a 3-night stay?
