Barcelona=can it be a day trip??

Day trip to Barcelona is out of the question. Look at a map. Too far.

AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona is about 3 hours I think...and you can not see the items listed in one day...they are spread out in different parts of town. Maybe two in one day if you push yourself, do not stop to enjoy any thing else which might catch your eye. I think I would stay in Madrid, save Barcelona for another time...if you wanted, you could do a day trip to Toledo from Barcelona .. 1/2 hour via AVE train. I have been to both cities and either would be a great choice.

HJ - Toledo is by Madrid. Shira - Not sure how you are getting from Paris to Spain. But if you are taking the overnight train you can arrive early morning in either city. Barcelona - Gaudi sites are all over the city. Sagrada Familia will take you a little time to absorb it all in. The other Gaudi sites can take the rest of the day and maybe a second day just by themselves depending on which ones you want to experience. The Picasso Museum can take a hour or two. Best to have 2-3 days in Barcelona to give yourself time to see what you want. Madrid - Better located to do day trips - Avila, Segovia, Toledo, etc along with art museums, bull fighting, royal palace, etc. I would recommend spending the 4 days in one city or the other and at the most doing one day trip. You may also want to consider just spending the extra 4 days in Paris. Edwin

Shira, I don't think your plan is very realistic. Honestly, if all you have is eight days, I'd suggest you save Spain for another trip when you can actually do even a small part of it right. First, how many full days do you have, not including travel days? Do you really have 8 full days? If so, I would probably spend 4 days in Paris (as per your plan), and a couple days visiting the Loire Valley chateaux, and a couple days in Normandy (D-Day sites, Mt. St. Michel, etc.). Eight days would be perfect for that. Be honest with yourself about how many days you really have (your first day in Europe you will be jetlagged and half zonked out, but you cab count that day - although I suggest planning a short day 1). If you really must include some bit of Spain on this trip, I'd fly to either Madrid or Barcelona, but not both. You will lose most of a day when you do that flight. Also, don't forget to factor in return travel back to your departure point - another day lost if you have to fly back from Spain to Paris. If you can fly open-jaws (fly in to Paris, then return home directly from Madrid, for example) then you only lose one day in transit - effectively going you a 7 day vacation. If you have to go back to Paris, your trip is 6 days. If it were me, I'd just stick to France. Spain will still be there when you have time to go back.

From a practical standpoint I agree that it would be better to spend the extra days in France, in one or two of the regions that are close by. Or even Brussels and Bruge. That said, Madrid and Barcelona are both great. If you do decide to tack on Spain, I would recommend choosing one. I prefer Madrid, it gets my vote for most underrated big city in western Europe.

I pretty much agree with everyone's comments - you'll miss out on too much trying to cram each city into 2 days, and a day trip to Barcelona is not practical. I'd recommend either spending 4 days in Madrid (with day trips to Segovia and/or Toledo - I highly encourage you to spend a night in Segovia too) OR spending the 4 days in Barcelona (or maybe spend an extra day in Paris and 3 in Barcelona). As for what's cheaper, it's pretty comparable. I'd say Madrid would be slightly less expensive, but when you factor in the day trips it might be comparable.

thanks all for your help... I think we want to do so much..thinking that this will be our only trip (economy here in puerto rico is not good). the trip will be 13 days.
Puerto Rico to Rome - 4 full days in Rome and then taking a night train to Paris, staying 4 full days in Paris and then another night train to Madrid staying 4 days there... I really wanted to see Barcelona so I thought that we could take the night train from Paris to Barcelona..enjoying 2 days there and then on our 3rd day really early going to Madrid and try to do the most on 1 and a half or on our 2nd day in Barcelona taking a late train to Madrid. Its probably too much to do. At least we have a lot of time to plan..this planning is for march 2012... :)

Hey Shira, We are also planning on going to Spain. We have "done" Paris. We are actually leaving from PR on a cruise ship that is repositioning to Malaga. From there we have a week to see Spain. We have been to Madrid and Barcelona. Not enough time to do both. We are also considering on going to Switzerland. That is our favorite place in Europe. It is a short flight from Paris. It would be very different from PR. We fly to Zurich, train to Interlaken, then fly back to Paris and spend a few days there, then back to Florida. You are allowed one stop and so we make Paris the one stop. You could even do that with Madrid or Barcelona. Have a wonderful trip. Take extra care in Paris. My husband and I have both been robbed in Paris. We were very careful and still got hit. These were different trips.
Mary Joe

For your consideration, at least two airlines fly from Paris to Barcelona, and possibly Paris to Madrid, and this may be quicker than train (you do have to consider getting to the airport early, etc) www.vueling.com
www.spanair.com I agree with other posters, the more you move around, the more time you lose, so I would do Paris/Barcelona or Paris/Madrid...or stay in Paris the whole time. I know that you may feel as if this may be your only trip, but you do want to REMEMBER your trip, and you might not do so if you move around from city to city too quickly! You will have a wonderful time seeing these new places !! Enjoy your trip.

Since you are so early in the planning phase, here's my suggestion: Take the night train from Paris to Barcelona. Spend one night and two full days in Barcelona.
Take a dinner-time train to Madrid (eat a picnic supper on board). Spend 3 nights in Madrid - two full days, no day trips.