We are planning a 9day trip to Spain this summer. We would like to fly into Madrid, take a train to Barcelona and possibly fly or take a train to Malaga. We would also love to take a day trip to Morocco. We plan to fly back home to NY from Malaga. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to get to around Spain, the best amount of time in each city and would a day trip from Malaga to Morocco work? Thanks!!
You will save travel time if you fly into Barcelona and go to Madrid and then Malaga. Those travel times by AVE train are each 2.5 hours, whereas Barcelona to Malaga is 5.5 hours.
Train routes are limited. It's good between Barcelona and Madrid and from Madrid south to Cordoba and Seville but not good at all from Madrid or Barcelona toward Granada. A flight to Malaga is probably best for your time table. If you can fly into Barcelona, to Madrid first, then south to Cordoba and Seville, by train, is easy. I'm not sure about getting to Malaga from there or from Tarifa (jumping off point into Morocco) to Malaga. We're looking at an April trip and decided to use a rental car for the parts that wont work well by train.
The three places they mentioned are very well-connected by high-speed trains which run frequently and make the best use of time, if you do them in the right order as I stated above. There is no need for a flight from Barcelona to Malaga, unless they have a strong wish to experience the joys of European budget airlines and another airport security check and wait time.
Thank you so much for all your input, it will definitely help me with all my planning!!
Here's a map of the rail routes in Spain, with the high-speed trains color-coded in blue: http://petrabax.com/renfe/spain_map.html This may help you visualize it better.
Thank you Lola! Much appreciated!
Thank you Brad as well!!