Traveling to Spain during Easter Week/Santa Semana

Others are better equipped than I am to give you big-picture suggestions of places to go. Some of the cities with the biggest celebrations are in Andalucia, which from the weather standpoint is the best place in Spain around Easter. I know, because I was there in 2019, that Seville is one of the hotspots for Holy Week celebrations. If you visit that city during the week before Easter, there will be some impact on the time you need to accomplish your sightseeing goals. I felt the situation called for at least one extra day in Seville, because:

• Some sights were closed from time to time because of a procession in the area. I'm not sure those limited hours ever made it onto the attractions' websites. I'd expect full-day closures to be posted well in advance. Some of the tourist offices in Andalucia had a one-page handout especially for Holy Week, showing the special hours for all the local sights. I don't remember whether Seville was one of those cities.

• Churches that are staging areas for processional floats may be closed, or partially closed, for multiple days during Holy Week.

• It can take longer than usual to cover the distance between your hotel and the sights, or between sights, if there is a procession in the area. Sometimes you need to walk blocks out of your way to get across a procession.

The larger cities (Seville, Cordoba, Granada) have areas where it's very worthwhile simply to wander around, observing the attractive architecture, so you will have a way to use your time even if there are periods when the sights you're trying to see are closed. This assumes, of course, that you aren't unlucky with the weather.

This year Easter is early, and the chances for inclement weather are greater (I Think of the phrase"March in like a lamb out like a lion")

I´m going to throw out a very specific recommendation here. Think about spending part of Holy Week in Logroño. It is not the famous Andalusian Holy Week, but it is quite an active time. There are many processions during the week. While there are people on the procession routes, they are not jam packed with people. And if you can get an AirBnB in the Plaza del Mercado, you won´t even have to leave your apartment to see the processions.

Here is my trip report for our trip last year where we spent Santa Semana in Zaragoza. Based on your comment about crowds, I would not recommend Zaragoza for you, even through it was amazing. But I can offer this about the first part of your question. We were shocked how much was open and normal during the Good Friday to Easter Sunday spread. Restaurants were open. Museums were open on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was more closed, of course, but plenty of restaurants and bars were open and popular! Also, grocery stores were shutting down early on Holy Thursday, but that might have been more unique to Zaragoza. Bottom line, we had this vision of everything shuttered for three or four days, and that was not true at all.

To many foreigners surprise...Sunday (until lunch time) is probably the liveliest day of the week in Spain, everybody is out enjoying the "aperitivo" with family and friends. And restaurants and bars are of course open during Easter...everyone is on vacation and we go to visit places and eat out. We are not very religious any more...but we love our traditions and Easter processions are watched by most Spaniards.

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions. I am leaning towards booking Seville for 3 nights with the plan to make a day trip to Cordoba and maybe one other spot...do you suggest hiring a car and driver/guide for the day or taking trains or renting a car on our own to get around? I'm not sure how easy it is to navigate the area, and also handle parking in the smaller villages.

Second question...we are ending our trip in Barcelona for 4 nights. My husband would like to visit Pamplona - he a history and literary fan- is it possible to do a day trip to Pamplona from a base of Barcelona?

Iruña-Pamplona (Basque and Spanish name) is way too far from Barcelona and not that interesting, it can be seen in half day. It´s a very nice city, but not worth driving for 4h to get there. Zaragoza would be a better place to visit.

Girona, Tarragona (close to Barcelona) make great day trips. For an extended stay, Valencia further south may be a great surprise.

I would not go to Seville for 3 nights and take a day trip to Cordoba. Three nights in Seville is only two full days and a few extra hours on the day you arrive. If you take a day trip to Cordoba, that leaves you just one full day and a few hours in Seville. That's not nearly enough. I consider 4 nights the minimum in Seville with no out-of-town day trip and not during Holy Week.

Edited to add: It's not that I don't like Cordoba. I spent several nights there in 2019 and enjoyed all my time. It's just that when you head off to another city, you get X hours there (X depending on the length of the train trip and how early you choose to depart. Meanwhile, you lose X + Y +Y hours in your base city, where Y is the time required to travel between your hotel and the origin train station plus the time required to travel between the destination train station and the part(s) of town you want to see. In other words, you might gain 6 hours of productive sightseeing time in Cordoba and lose nearly 10 hours in Seville.

I appreciate the detailed planning information, especially as it related to timing for day trips...we have 4 nights during Holy Week and don't want to move hotels. If you have to choose 4 nights (Holy Thursday through Easter) would you recommend Granada or Seville?

The Semana Santa de Seville is the biggest in Andalusia and one of the biggest in Spain. If you want to avoid huge crowds (per your original post), I'd pick Granada. If you want to see one of the most significant in the country, go with Seville.