Thanks Paul, I need to dig deeper and read up on the places you recommend like Segovia, Ronda, and Valencia.
Great info thank you.
When the Catholic Monarchs, Isabela and Ferdinand were able to finally oust the Moors from Granada, they departed by crossing over the mountains. It is said that the Queen Mother Aixa al-Hurra, of the last Emir of Granada Boabdil, said as he looked back one last time as he crossed over the mountain, to the city and cried, “Do not cry like a woman for that which you could not defend as a man.” Most of them departed though the seaside of Adra but many settled in the Alpujarra (named after Ibrahim Albuxarra a Moor turned Christian (semi) remained in command of the territory, the chain of mountains, took his name, which has since been slightly changed to Alpujarra. The Moors revolted numerous times but finally the Christians prevailed and ousted them. In one of the neighboring villages Valor, celebrate their holiday September 12-16 with a reenactment battle of the Moor & Christians, processions, rockets, festivities.
In our village, Ugijar the patroness of the Alpujarra is the Virgen del Martirio, they bring her out during the festivities of our village on the 13th of October. The folklore with her is that someone was digging into a well and when the shovel hit her she cried out in pain, they pulled her out of the well and she told them the story of how the Moors tried to burn her but they could not, so the moors buried her, then she was rescued by the Christians and that’s why she is dark. Lots of stories…
If you end up down in Valencia, you might consider checking out Tarragona (you’ll pass through, has cool Roman ruins) and Javea (quiet beach area), as well.
If you’re driving from Madrid to San Sebastian, consider lunch in Burgos. The cathedral there is definitely worth a visit and it’s a nice break.
If you’re in the Barcelona area, I’m a huge fan of Girona (old city wall, painted houses) and Sitges (awesome beaches, restaurants and cannons), both of which are a fairly short train ride from Sants.
Not sure I’d do more than 48 hrs in Granada. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a beautiful city… but once you blow through Alhambra and have drinks/food in a couple of the squares, it’s time to go. We stayed in the Hotel Alhambra Palace, which had epic views of the city. I’d note that it’s up on the hill, however, which means you need to shuttle/taxi down into the city (or get the car out).
In San Sebastian, the Maria Cristina is exceptional - but for us five nights would have been way too many. We stayed two. The pinxtos crawl was fun, and we had a great meal at Akelare. But our favorite thing in San Sebastian was the thalassotherapy at La Perla. The circuit pools are fantastic - 3 hours for 32/Euros has got to be one of the best bargains in Europe. You can have lunch on the terrace overlooking the beach.
Love Mallorca. One of the highlights of our Spain trip last year. We stayed at Park Hyatt Mallorca on points also and great value at 20k/night. Standard rooms are huge and the property is beautiful. Definitely a trek to the East Side of the island and you will need a car. The driving didn’t bother us and the beaches are amazing.
Our trip included Barcelona, Granada, Ronda, Seville and Mallorca. Loved all of the locations. If you can avoid summer, it would preferably as it’s crazy crowded and almost unbearably hot. We went in the summer cuz of my daughter’s schedule. We spent only one night in Ronda and that’s prob enough, but what a majestic one of a kind city.
We loved Barcelona but we’re also huge Barca FC fans and got to catch a game and did the Camp Nou tour so we might be a little biased.
If you’re even remotely a futbol fan and if scheduling works out, I think catching a game at Camp Nou in Barcelona or Bernabeu in Madrid would be amazing.
If you’re even remotely a futbol fan and if scheduling works out, I think catching a game at Camp Nou in Barcelona or Bernabeu in Madrid would be amazing
Seeing this reminded me - if you’re a futbol fan, you can take a tour of Bernabeu. The trophy room is ridiculously impressive and it’s cool to walk up to the field (they wouldn’t let us on the pitch) and see the locker room/take pics. I took a pic of Ronaldo’s locker and then pretended to fall over, which the tour guide did not appreciate as much as I did. We did it for a corp event, but they do offer tours at → https://www.realmadrid.com/en/tickets/bernabeu-tour
San Sebastian definitely has a special place in my heart. I did a trip there many years ago (along with running of the bulls in Pamplona — so was there in July-ish time frame). Great coastal town with a great casual drinking / food scene. Beautiful scenery and close enough to hop over to France for a quick side jaunt of you are so inclined. I’d love to go back because I hear the high end restaurant scene is off the charts.
Barcelona was beautiful and fun. I’m a little biased too because I went in late Feb / early March which, at the time, had near perfect weather for me (not beach level hot but a certain departure from the late Feb chill in NYC). My wife and I only spent about 2 days there which was perfect timing. For that time of year it’s great. Summer may be a bit less enjoyable.
Madrid I found to be ok… Worth seeing at some point, but wouldn’t be on my personal list for places to revisit (whereas the other two above are definite revisit candidates for me if that tells you anything).
Have to say that it really depends on who/what you are. I’ve lived most of my life in NYC and I wasn’t a fan of Madrid, but I ADORED Barcelona and wound up making that my home base for 9 months. It was some time ago that I lived there and it has become a bit more of a college spring break type destination which may be why so many of the above said they didn’t care for it all that much. I loved all the museums, the Gaudi buildings are unreal, and the old town part of the city is super lively and fun. Barcelona is a very spread out city (think Los Angeles, though not that big) that I think where you stay will play an important part in your experience. But there are great places to shoot up to from Barcelona like Sitges, Figueres for the Dali Museum, and I fell in love with a little town about 1.5 hours NW called Huesca in Aragon. have a fun trip!!
This is all very helpful. Spain is on our radar as well.
Salamanca
Aquablava (Parador)
Compostella de Santiago
Toledo
Tortosa (parador)
I’m back on Spain/Portugal for our 40th anni trip this coming Spring. My wife spoke with a girl friend recently and now she’s excited about Spain.
We want to go sometime between March 15th and the end of April. Please help me debug my itinerary…
Thinking… 2 days in Barcelona, 2 days in Madrid, 2 days in Toledo, 3 days in Sevilla, 2 days in Granada and 2 days in either Porto or Lisbon but not both. So around 12-14 nights. Since we going in the Spring would it make more sense to fly into Porto or Madrid and back out of Barcelona. Coming from Minneapolis and using Delta usually means connecting through Amsterdam or CDG each way.
Appreciate everyone’s thought on itinerary and if you have any thoughts about weather in mid late March vs anytime in April.
Thanks
Craig
Personally, that’s way too many cities in two weeks. If you factor in travel between cities, you’re really only spending a day in each place. To each their own, obviously, but I prefer fewer cities for a longer period, and then make the odd day trip if I have a car.
I’d tend to agree with Jay these days, but it probably depends on what the likelihood of you ever coming back is, as it is different from the vantage point of having been to all those places already.
I’d say 2 nights in Toledo is too much. One would be enough, and it is possible to do it as a day trip from Madrid. It has been a few years since I was there but I don’t think the train ride was much more than an hour.
If you fly into Porto, you may as well go to Lisbon I think. They are about 2 1/2 - 3 hours I think by train. And getting from Porto or Lisbon to any of the places you want to go is going to take a long while by train. I did an overnight sleeper on the train going from Madrid to Lisbon many years ago. Otherwise you are flying or losing a day in travel time. I love the city of Porto, and it is fun to visit the Port Lodges on the other side of the Douro but if you are there go to Lisbon too. If you go to Lisbon, make sure you do a day trip out to Sintra.
Madrid has the high speed rail connections down to Seville and to up to Barcelona. It was a decade ago, but I remember looking at flying between Barcelona and Madrid vs the Train. The cost was similar and the times looked pretty similar after you factored in time to get out and back to the airports. The train will get you to the middle of the city though and it is more scenic.
Thanks Paul, I’m now inclined to skip Portugal and focus on Spain. I really don’t want to “day trip” anywhere unless the place only has an much value as going to Pizza and seeing the tower. For me you miss all the atmosphere of after 5pm and into the evening.
I’ve heard that Seville & Toledo might be two of the most soulful places in Spain and worth overnights. I love to train from one city to the next during the day so I can get some bonus armchair views of places I don’t have time to stop and see. I also believe that any great city worth seeing is worth at least 2 nights there to enjoy the ambience and to see the place without the herd of tour day trippers. So I want to spend at least two nights everywhere and wouldn’t be opposed to doing 3 nights in Seville, Madrid and maybe even Barcelona.
I really love walking down antient streets and seeing the old urban core. My wife likes to cook so if I can VBROs well cook at least one night everywhere and hit a market. Want to see a couple art museums. Neither of us dig shopping for stuff to bring home. We do the Rick Steves mini back packs. No heaps of luggage. I love the high seed trains just not the stations and ticketing stuff. Love eating out in some cool plaza or small back street. We both take a ton of photos.
So now, maybe I do this…
Barcelona - 3 nights ( unless someone can convince me otherwise I’d skip the big goofy Familia thing completely)
Madrid - 3 nights
Seville - 3 nights
Toledo - 2 nights = roughly 1.5 days
Granada - 2 nights = roughly 1.5 days
Nola’s area of the world - Alpujarra is truly a special place and if you have a chance it is well worth a visit. Spain is a wonderful country and I can’t wait to go back, and I could spend weeks in the Alpujarra.
-David
Indeed.
Mallorca is lovely and quite varied. certainly can fill a number of days there. Also Ibiza is nice, if you stay away from Ibiza town (unless you like the disco). We were engage at this joint - https://www.haciendanaxamena-ibiza.com/
I wouldn’t skip the “big, goofy” Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It’s quite compelling, along with Gaudi’s other works
I would not skip it either. Hacienda Na Xamena is beautiful. We used to have a 37 ft Sea Ray and one summer we navigated across from an area between Valencia and Alicante over to Ibiza. Fun trip, lots of memories. We stayed in the boat, but got to explore the island quite a bit. There is so much to see and do in Spain.
Its looks gorgeous and, right up my alley but, not sure my wife could handle the steep uneven, rough terrain. She’s about 50% debilitated from slow progressive MS that was diagnosed 10 years ago. She’s a slow walker with balance issues and can at most walk 1/2 mile before needing a break on smooth city streets.
The place does look awesome. Thinking about a less jet set, costal village like Tosso de Mor in Costa Bravo or even smaller.