Hi - My husband and I have planned a trip to Spain, flying in on April 15th to Madrid from USA and flying out on April 24. Want to see Seville, cordoba and Granada and a day in Madrid.
There will be a lot of processions and festivals and crowds I hear as we are coming in on Good Friday. We would like to avoid the crowds as far as possible. What can we do\see on Sunday\Monday that will be open and away from the crowds?
Also for return , plan to be back the day before in Madrid. Where can we get a pcr test to come back to USA..?
Is seeing the rock of Gibraltar worth it? Is that all open due to COVID.?
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
2329 posts
Where will you be on which dates? Or are you trying to pin down an itinerary? Do you have tickets to the Alhambra booked?
Not counting your arrival and departure days, you only have 8 days. Here is what I would do:
4/15 Arrival day: train to Granada depending on arrival time. Otherwise overnight in Madrid.
4/16-18: Granada. The Alhambra is open on Easter, if tickets are available. You will have other people around, for sure.
4/19-4/22: Seville. Day trip to Cordoba.
4/23-24: Madrid. Your hotel can direct you about Covid testing.
IMO you don’t have time for the rock of Gibraltar.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6584 posts
If this is your first time to Spain and you want to see the main attractions in those cities, you won’t be able to avoid the crowds. I would suggest trying to get to the popular sights as early or late as possible. That might cut down on the crowds you’re around.
You only need an antigen to return to the U.S. here are a few places you can get tested.
Madrid testing centers
quironprevencion.com - multiple sites throughout Madrid
Quirón Prevención, Francisco Zea 8, Salamanca neighborhood (Prado area) is the clinic one person I’ve written to used on a couple trips to Spain.
https://www.aena.es/en/passengers/travellers/covid-clinics.html - this is the company contracted to test at the airports.
http://www.cmgranvia.com/ or https://democratest.com/ this clinic is nearer to the Puerta Del Sol. Both have the same street address. My guess is one is the clinic and the other is the lab.
Posted by
Washington DC
27187 posts
The Alhambra in Granada, the Alcazar and Cathedral in Seville, and the Mezquita in Cordoba will be very busy. To go to those cities and not see those places would be pretty much unthinkable. Each of those cities has many other sights that will not be crowded. You have enough time to enjoy some of those other sights.
I think you'll find the streets in Seville the most crowded during Holy Week because of the many processions. It's a big city, and a lot of folks are out on the streets to see the processions. I don't know that the procession continue on Easter Monday (they may), but I think putting Seville at the end of the trip might work well. I imagine this will make a major difference in the cost of lodgings in Seville. (What it will do to you in Granada and Cordoba, I don't know. Holy Week is expensive.)
Because of geography and the way trains are routed, you could travel either Madrid-Cordoba-Granada-Seville-Madrid or Madrid-Granada-Cordoba-Seville-Madrid.
It's difficult to figure out what is a safe amount of time to allow between a flight's supposed arrival time at Madrid-Barajas Airport and a train departure time from Atocha Station downtown. It's really best not to try to guess if you don't have to, yet Holy Week must be a very busy travel time, and trains can sell out even in normal periods. In addition, you may well pay a top price for a ticket purchased on the day of travel. You may need to get your first ticket ahead of time and hope for the best. If you decide not to do that, you need to buy the ticket from Madrid to your first destination at the airport train station. Do not plan to buy that ticket or any other at Atocha Station. The lines there are hours long even outside Holy Week. The vending machines worked fine for me, but occasionally people report issues with foreign credit cards there, which could mean needing to go to the grossly-understaffed counters.
In setting up your itinerary, keep in mind that Seville is at least twice as large as Cordoba and Granada, so it needs more time. So I'd do something like this:
April 15: Arrive Madrid and take train to Cordoba or Granada (2 nights)
April 17: Travel Cordoba-Granada or Granada-Cordoba (2 nights)
April 19: Travel to Seville (3 nights)
April 22: Travel to Madrid (2 nights)
April 24: Fly home from Madrid
The first stop will feel shorter than the second because of jetlag and late-in-the-day arrival, so if your research suggests there's more you want to see in either Granada or Cordoba as compared to the other, put the city with fewer attractions first. You can also choose an earlier or later train to the second city (on April 17) to adjust the time you have available in each of the two cities.
To have a day in Madrid you'll need to spend two nights there, which cuts Seville really short. If you aren't planning to see the art museums in Madrid, I'd drop it to one night, just taking an early train up from Seville on April 23. That would give you 4 nights in Seville.
Some folks would recommend day-tripping from Madrid to Cordoba to eliminate one hotel change. On a short trip like this, that's not a crazy idea, but Cordoba has a more peaceful vibe than Seville, and I think you'll enjoy that environment.