Trip to Spain

I recommend picking up the guidebook DK Eyewitness: Back Roads Spain

"Twenty-five themed drives, each lasting one to seven days, reveal breathtaking views, hidden gems, and authentic local experiences that can only be discovered by road."

Paul,
We would benefit from learning additional details of your plans:

1. travel dates
2. travel interests
3. What did you enjoy most from your Italy journey?
4. How many are in your travel party?
5. Define the "pace" of preferred travel in terms of minimum nights desired to spend at one destination
6. Define what you DO NOT enjoy during your travels.

Please review the size of Spain via google maps as many folks are surprised by the size of the country. Car travel, which we have done, can become quite lengthy in getting from point to point. We have taken to using plane/train transport to efficiently move from point to point and, when desired, rent cars for shorter local journeys.

When booking air travel please consider using "open jaw", fly into one airport and depart from another, to maximize effective use of your travel time.

With the requested information forum members will be able to better define their expertise to aide in creating the potential for a wonderful journey.

Is this your first trip to Spain? What time of year? If you have been before, where did you go? Do you prefer the more well known Spanish destinations? Do you want big cities, castles, mountains, beaches? Interests? You have to give us some idea of what you might want so we can better help you.

If you have never been then a trek through Andalucia visiting key places big and small would be interesting: lots of choices: Sevilla, Córdoba, Jerez, Cádiz, Ronda, Málaga, Granada , Baeza, Ubeda, etc if this is not your first trip to Spain then I suggest going west to Extremadura. Filled with wonderful smaller towns to visit. Just a few days ago there were several posts full of suggestions for Extremadura. You could head west to Extremadura and then northwest to Santiago de Compostela and circle back through Salamanca and Segovia to Madrid.
Take a look at the Michelin Green guide for Spain. They Green guides are older guidebooks but have great suggested routes with notable places of interest. I still consult them when planning trips.

Spain is a large country and 3-4 weeks is sufficient to see only a portion. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re spending 2-3 weeks in specific areas such as northwestern and the north coast, western Andalucía, eastern Andalucía, etc. We just finished a 25 day driving trip to mainly Aragón and La Rioja. I encourage car travel to get to out of the way and off the beaten path sights and locations that are inaccessible by train, and off most tourists’ radar.

Come back with the answers to Marbleskies questions and folks will be able to give you lots of suggestions, advice and tips. Weather and holidays/festivals are very big factors, as are your interests, of course. Spain isn't much smaller than Texas and its regions vary greatly in cultural and topography/climate.

You guys are right. I need to do more research. We loved the immersion part of our Italy trip. We stayed in Air b&b's the whole time. We only rented a car when in Sicily due to the fact that where we stayed and where we wanted to go, train access not available. We loved the rubbing elbows with the people. Noticed a few recommendations of some guide books. Any others that we could look at? Once we have a better idea I can get back to everyone. We thought about doing a Fall trip like September ,October and part of November. This would be our first trip. Would like to see as much of this beautiful country as we can.

Really any guide book is going to be helpful at this point--you have too much to choose from and need to narrow down. Different books all appeal in different ways. I like Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, but you can glean the basic lay of the land from any of them.

The Basque region and and Galicia are best in Sept-Oct (so I was told by a native of Bilbao), but the middle and south of Spain can still be pretty hot in Sept and even mid-Oct. The north may require a car. The only place I've ever wanted a car was in the hills of Andalucia and only for a few days. The rest is usually more efficient by train. From Madrid to Barcelona and most of the area south of there has an excellent train infrastructure and, dare I say, a little better than Italy's. Barcelona is an excellent place to settle in, plenty to see in the city and lots of great day trips as well. Andalucia lends itself more to 2-4 night stays (more if you have more time), due to the distances between cities. There are a couple options for day trips from Sevilla.

If you loved Italy, I think you will love Spain.