We are planning a trip to Spain in October and thinking of starting in Barcelona, renting a car after 3 days in Barcelona to drive the eastern coast to Andalusia andup to Madrid where we will drop off the car and visit there for awhile. Does this sound realistic? Thanks for any help! We were hoping to enjoy the coast.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Personally, I think it's a waste of time. The empty areas are pretty ratty and the developed areas are an endless string of tourist-ridden high rise condos. Not really much to enjoy for scenery except the few national/regional parks.
I'd probably stop the adventure at Valencia and make a bee line for Andalucia to make a more enjoyable and productive use of time. There might be some prejucice since I live in a place with an endless string .... and avoid that area like the plague.
Give it a try, you can always hang a right if things don't meet you expectations.
One odd thing about driving in Spain: if you wear glasses, you must have a spare set in the car. I was stopped once at a routine roadblock and had to fish mine out of the trunk -- not a problem, just evidence that they do seem to enforce the law which I'd always thought was one more urban myth.
Edit: based on Mike's understanding below, I agree with him -- my comments were based on three days driving down the coast and then proceeding to Andalucia.
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
417 posts
Maybe. If you mean to say that you will drive from Barcelona, all the way to Madrid, in just three days, I think that is probably too ambitious. The drive from Barcelona to Valencia is about 3.5 hours. From there to the Cordoba it is 5.5 hours. Finally, to get to Madrid, another 4.5 hours.
That is doable, but you will be spending most of your time driving in a car, rather than enjoying the coast.
Consider visiting Barcelona, night train or flight to Granada, rent a car there and do some day trips around to the coast, and then train up to Madrid. Sounds a bit more relaxing to me!
Posted by
www.travelblur.com
14 posts
We spent two weeks in Spain last September doing much the same thing you plan to do. We started in Barcelona, flew to Granada and picked up a rental car to explore the coast, leaving the car in Malaga. We then took the fast train to Madrid. PM me if you’d like more detail.
Spain is wonderful and you’ll have a great time. Just try not to spend too much of the trip in transit.