Help w/ a Spain Intinerary Please!

With a 10 days visit: spend your 3-4 days in Madrid (side trip to Segovia), head south to Toledo(1 night), Cordova stop, Sevilla (1 night or 2?), on to Tarifa, full day trip to Morocco, ferry back to Tarifa for the night (2 nights total in Tarifa), Grenada (2 nights), fly back home. If you like Cordova - stay the night. With 2 nights in Tarifa you can take your time getting there and leave everything in your hotel while you take a day pack to Tanger. Take your time getting to Grenada and book Alhambre for the next day. Have fun!!

Have not done your trip, but parts of it...4 nights in Madrid will give you time to see the Prado, the park Retrio, Puerta del Sol, Palace, Plaza Mayor, and some of the other areas without being rushed. As for Toledo, it is 1/2 hour via AVE train...plan on two nights there if you can. Sevilla - I am spending three nights there in November, based on other comments on the site and reviews read elsewhere. El Escorial would be a day trip at most. Have a great time!

Thank you both so much! I'm a little worried about the actual travel time via bus/train to and from Tarifa. I feel like we might lose a whole day in travel...? Any thoughts?

From Sevilla to Tarifa to Tangiers and back to Tarifa...then off to Granada.....will cost you three days. That's probably cutting a little too deeply into your 10 days, and it's really not worth cutting out time from your other stops.

Hmm. Maybe we should forget about Morocco then. 5 hours to and from Tarifa for just one day in Tangiers is a little extreme. I don't mind train or bus rides, but maybe it is just not worth the hassle. What do you think about 4 days in Madrid, 3 days in Sevilla and 2 days in Granada? Good?

There you go Kara! That sounds enjoyable. We're going to be in the area for 15 days (arriving by car for the first 3) and couldn't figure out how to squeeze in a day in Morocco without over taxing the schlep factor. We took out a night in Madrid for one in Cordoba, but I'm really intrigued by the early Moorish Caliphates.

Hi Kara, We did a 10-day trip over the summer and covered lots of territory, but still got to see most of what we were wanted to see. We started in Barcelona, and then took a high speed train to Seville. We had an afternoon, an evening and part of the next morning in Seville. Then we took a bus to Granada. As with Seville, we had an afternoon, evening, and half of the following day in Granada. From there, we took a bus to Malaga. Although Rick's tour book is right on the mark regarding the over-development in Malaga, we stayed right near the cathedral, and once there, it was a pleasant enough place. We took a tour to Tangier from Malaga. It was a bit of a grueling day: we left at 5 a.m. (by bus to Tarifa) and returned at ~ 6 p.m. Despite that, I'd do it all over again as the coastal highway was very scenic, the trip across the strait was very cool (literally and figuratively!), and the sights in Tangier were a real highlight. From Malaga, we took a high speed train to Madrid, where we had two days to tour around, including a 1/2 day side trip to Toledo. So, it can be done! Of course, I would have liked a little more time in each city. Still, it was our first trip to Spain, and it was great to see the different regions of the country.

Kara....for 10 days, that revised schedule sounds great!

I got back a few days ago, and everything was fantastic! Fell in love with Spain! No problems regarding safety or anything - I read about some things in the Albayzin in Granada but I had no issues whatsoever. Sevilla was my favorite!!!

Had a bit of an issue in the Hotel Opera when we got to Madrid, though. We were booked for 4 nights, but when we arrived at the hotel after our train from Sevilla we were told that we'd have to stay at another hotel for one night. They were overbooked with two tour groups. (Funny thing is, one of them was a Rick tour!!!!). I was a little annoyed but did not let it bother me, and they were very apologetic about it so I wasn't really mad per se. They called us a taxi and after about 15 minutes the driver finally found the new hotel, which was a few streets away, towards Gran Via. We had no problems with that hotel, and checked in at the Opera early the next morning.

They told us they were very sorry and gave us complimentary drinks and lunch in the café, use of the sauna and gym, and the manager told us we'd get a discount on the room. When we checked out a few days later (early, around 6:45am) the guy at the desk said he had no idea about a discount and since the manager wasn't there he couldn't do anything. I figured this would happen, though I kept trying to get the discount, but when I got nowhere, I paid for the room and made sure to get a detailed receipt. The guy at the desk said he'd talk to the manager this week and let us know. I haven't heard from them yet but will give them until tomorrow before I email them. That was the only "downer" of the trip.

I absolutely loved Spain, though, and I can't wait to go back. Granada was great, Sevilla was amazing and Madrid was really cool!

Oh, and I forgot - Toledo was also great!!!!

Kara, How did it turn out? I hope it was all wonderful. Honeymooned in Spain/Portugal 20 years ago for 2 weeks and adored it all. El Escorial and Toledo are fabulous! I'm taking my family of 4 to Southern Spain in December. We're not planning to hit every place with the kids ("no more cathedrals!") so we've left Tarifa on the table. But Spanish friends have warned us about the high unemployment rate leading to a higher crime rate in the south - any issues you encountered?