12-14 nights in Spain sometime between March 15th & May 15th

[Nola_Palomar]

Craig, I am sorry to hear about your wife. One of the beautiful parts of Spain is that the cities and villages are very centralice. Now, some of the villages in the Alpujarra are built on the mountain side and you go up and down all day long. My village Ugijar is actually very flat as it is in a valley. Most cities have good sidewalks and will not be that far for her to walk. If you are in a town or city in Spain and there isn’t a tapa bar within a half a mile, then you are not in Spain, fire your travel agent!!! Now, many of the streets are not necessarily smooth either, there is a lot of cobble stone.

[craig_v]

Nola, that’s good to know about your village as otherwise your village certainly is our wheelhouse for charm and low key authenticity. Does a train or bus stop there? Plus it would be fun to meetup for dinner. I’m going to try to avoid cars if possible. They’re a total pain in in place with more than 1000 people living there because of old city centre restrictions, parking and narrow streets.

What costal villages have the right mix of charm, food and authenticity without any jet setter craziness or heavy traffic? In France we loved Villefranche-Sur-Mer.

If choosing to come sometime between March 15th and May 15th when would you come to Spain for mild weather and possible outdoor dinning but no hot weather, period? Trying to make it work from Barcelona to the Granada and possibly in the mountains like you village. What would be your guess for closest to 65-75 degrees and not a ton of rain. We don’t mind a little rain for atmosphere, at all.

Thanks
Craig

Craig, I am sorry to hear about your wife. One of the beautiful parts of Spain is that the cities and villages are very centralice. Now, some of the villages in the Alpujarra are built on the mountain side and you go up and down all day long. My village Ugijar is actually very flat as it is in a valley. Most cities have good sidewalks and will not be that far for her to walk. If you are in a town or city in Spain and there isn’t a tapa bar within a half a mile, then you are not in Spain, fire your travel agent!!! Now, many of the streets are not necessarily smooth either, there is a lot of cobble stone.

[Andrew_Kotowski]

I wouldn’t toss the car idea out. Spain is probably one of the easiest places to drive, even once you get off the beaten track. With GPS, it’s a breeze, especially if you’re on a toll road. I’ve gone from Barcelona to Grenada to Gibraltar and back out of Malaga at a 150km/day, as well as from Barcelona to Madrid to San Sebastián and back with no problems, and I was dragging young kids Couldn’t agree more with Nola - it’s just an amazing country.

[Nola_Palomar]

Agree with above regarding driving.

To and from my village, there are buses from both Granada and Almeria. We also have a couple of taxi drivers that make a daily route for a reasonable charge.

As far as costal villages, I am most versed with Almeria and Aguadulce but there are soooo many! I would stay away from Marbella and Gibraltar just because they are extremely touristic. Unless your thing is to go to Puerto Baynus to watch the rich dudes with their trophy girls and Ferrari’s driving in front of the multi-million dollar yachts.

Almeria is beautiful, has a good airport (that’s where I fly in and out of) Train station, Buses and taxis. There are good hotels at very reasonable prices and a plethora of restaurants. I have a number of friends there and am a member of the Club de Mar (Yacht Club) where you can have a beautiful meal over looking the sea. Aguadulce is the vacation place for the locals. Many people who live and work in Almeria have their summer apartment in Aguadulce which is less than 10 miles away. There are other local villages along the coast that are secluded and quiet San Jose (Almeria) that is nice (volcanic beach) and Aguamarga (Nijar) there is a little restaurant that just got the Plato de Oro award. Going west from Almeria there are Castell de Ferro, Salobrena, Almunecar, Nijar, Torremolinos (Malaga) is halfway between Malaga and Marbella.

But that’s just Almeria, I am going to send you the contact info for the travel agent that helped my friends recently with their trip. I think it would be worth your while just to talk with her and she can assist you to get all your ideas formed and assist you to make plans.

Time wise? Lets see, our budbreak is late Feb. Normally after May 1st there is little to zero rainfall in the south. This year there was a bit more than they normally see but rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains!!! My husbands favorite months were May and June. July gets hot and Aug is the national vacation month. Lots of festivals to compliment your trip, you could even plan around them. September is still hot but starts to cool more in the evenings, Oct same but now you have more chances for rain. I have more travel restrictions at least for the next 2 1/2 years until Nolita is out of school and I can let her do her things and I an travel more liberally. I usually try to go on Spring break (chilly, but not cold) and then I try to spend most of July there. During the school year it is harder for me to go because of my daughter’s schedule.

Festivals:
Springtime the biggie is Semana Santa
There are processions in every city and most towns, some more pagan than others but all very serious on the religious aspect of Easter. Semana Santa starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday. One of my favs is Lorca (Murcia) it is a parade of horses decked out in Roman costumes and trained in dressage, Sevilla has the most solemn and beautiful processions. Apart from that, look at the calendar here and see if any of these are must see for you all. https://www.spanish-fiestas.com/festivals/calendar/ If you decide to go north west to Santiago, I can give you some thoughts on that area too.

[riaz_syed]

Agree with above regarding driving.

To and from my village, there are buses from both Granada and Almeria. We also have a couple of taxi drivers that make a daily route for a reasonable charge.

As far as costal villages, I am most versed with Almeria and Aguadulce but there are soooo many! I would stay away from Marbella and Gibraltar just because they are extremely touristic. Unless your thing is to go to Puerto Baynus to watch the rich dudes with their trophy girls and Ferrari’s driving in front of the multi-million dollar yachts.

Almeria is beautiful, has a good airport (that’s where I fly in and out of) Train station, Buses and taxis. There are good hotels at very reasonable prices and a plethora of restaurants. I have a number of friends there and am a member of the Club de Mar (Yacht Club) where you can have a beautiful meal over looking the sea. Aguadulce is the vacation place for the locals. Many people who live and work in Almeria have their summer apartment in Aguadulce which is less than 10 miles away. There are other local villages along the coast that are secluded and quiet San Jose (Almeria) that is nice (volcanic beach) and Aguamarga (Nijar) there is a little restaurant that just got the Plato de Oro award. Going west from Almeria there are Castell de Ferro, Salobrena, Almunecar, Nijar, Torremolinos (Malaga) is halfway between Malaga and Marbella.

But that’s just Almeria, I am going to send you the contact info for the travel agent that helped my friends recently with their trip. I think it would be worth your while just to talk with her and she can assist you to get all your ideas formed and assist you to make plans.

Time wise? Lets see, our budbreak is late Feb. Normally after May 1st there is little to zero rainfall in the south. This year there was a bit more than they normally see but rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains!!! My husbands favorite months were May and June. July gets hot and Aug is the national vacation month. Lots of festivals to compliment your trip, you could even plan around them. September is still hot but starts to cool more in the evenings, Oct same but now you have more chances for rain. I have more travel restrictions at least for the next 2 1/2 years until Nolita is out of school and I can let her do her things and I an travel more liberally. I usually try to go on Spring break (chilly, but not cold) and then I try to spend most of July there. During the school year it is harder for me to go because of my daughter’s schedule.

Festivals:
Springtime the biggie is Semana Santa
There are processions in every city and most towns, some more pagan than others but all very serious on the religious aspect of Easter. Semana Santa starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday. One of my favs is Lorca (Murcia) it is a parade of horses decked out in Roman costumes and trained in dressage, Sevilla has the most solemn and beautiful processions. Apart from that, look at the calendar here and see if any of these are must see for you all. https://www.spanish-fiestas.com/festivals/calendar/ If you decide to go north west to Santiago, I can give you some thoughts on that area too.

Stoppped off in Ugijar earlier in the summer having read South From Granada and on the way to stay at friends in Orgiva. Great place to spend some time, especially if you’ve a hire car to get around to the diffeent villages.

[craig_v]

I booked my flights and this is my updated intinerary. I’ve decided to focus on the major cities I’m interested in plus Toledo. We plan to travel by train & bus. Not car due to parking and city hassles. Plus we like trains. The only other thing I’m thinking about is taking a train or a bus from Madrid or Barcelona to Rioja for day trip to essentially hit Lopez Heredia and possibly one or two other nearby under the radar old school Rioja guys. Anyone know if its possible to get there via train / bus and perhaps Ubber / taxi as needed?

14 nights on the ground

Wed 24th Depart MSP 12:45 PM ATL ARV Madrid next day 8:35 AM
Thursday 25th Madrid arrv 8:35 AM
Friday 26th Madrid
Saturday 27th Madrid?

Saturday 27th Toledo
Sunday 28th Toledo

Monday 29th Seville
Tuesday 30th Seville
Wednesday 1st Seville

Thursday 2nd Granada
Friday 3rd Granada
Saturday 4th Granada

arMonday 6th Barcelona
Tuesday 7th Barcelona
Wednesday 8th Barcelona
Depart Barcellona 10:30 AM aarv MSP 6:27PM

[Mark_Cochard]

It looks like a at least 4 hour train ride from Madrid to Haro and you change trains in Zaragoza. Use this website to book Renfe trains https://www.trainline.eu/, much easier to use the the Renfe site and they also have an AP.