Going to Spain - any ideas?

I love that we have a travel forum now. Anyways, I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Spain this fall with a detour to Morocco. So far, I've got this:

• Days 1-3 - Barcelona (take overnight train to Granada on night 3)
• Day 4 - Granada
• Day 5 - travel day to Fez, Morocco
• Days 6-7 - Fez
• Day 8 - travel day to Cordoba, Spain
• Day 9 - Cordoba
• Days 10-13 Madrid

Does this sound feasible? I can get a flight for around $600 and hotels in the $20-30 range.

Originally Posted by Talamasca

I love that we have a travel forum now. Anyways, I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Spain this fall with a detour to Morocco. So far, I've got this:

• Days 1-3 - Barcelona (take overnight train to Granada on night 3)
• Day 4 - Granada
• Day 5 - travel day to Fez, Morocco
• Days 6-7 - Fez
• Day 8 - travel day to Cordoba, Spain
• Day 9 - Cordoba
• Days 10-13 Madrid

Does this sound feasible? I can get a flight for around $600 and hotels in the $20-30 range.

any reason why you chose not to goto casablanca in morocco? a lot more to see and do in casa, apparently.

i'd personally drop madrid to two days, and cordoba entirely, in favour of two days in sevilla.

if you must go to madrid, i'd suggest the thyssen museum of modern art over the prado.

Originally Posted by afong56

any reason why you chose not to goto casablanca in morocco? a lot more to see and do in casa, apparently.

i'd personally drop madrid to two days, and cordoba entirely, in favour of two days in sevilla.

if you must go to madrid, i'd suggest the thyssen museum of modern art over the prado.

Casablanca's too far and I've read that its medina isn't as good as Fez's as Casa is too modern and Westernized. Marrakesh and Fez have the best medinas from what I've read so far but Marrakesh is even further away and the trek from Spain to Morocco will be pretty grueling as it is already.

I'm a huge fan of Renaissance/Baroque art so I have to visit the Prado. The Thyssen is also on my itinerary though as it's just down the street. Modern art doesn't really do it for me. I would have loved to have seen the Guggenheim Bilbao in person but it's too far and only has modern art.

What does Sevilla have to offer? I've read that Cordoba's Alcazar and Moorish quarter is beautiful.

if you're into partying..... you need to add Ibiza.

I was in Mallorca and Ibiza in the summer. Great places. If you have time check them out. I stayed in a small town in Mallorca... very beautiful. Try to avoid Magalluf, unless you want to party with a bunch of drunken british tourists.

whatever you do, don't go to tangier. that had to be the worst place i've been too. at least i can say i've been to africa though...i heard marrakesh is the place to go though.

i spent 5 days in barcelona and i thought there were tons of things to do there, couldn't say the same for madrid, it felt a bit boring compared to barcelona. i think seville was much more interesting than granada, you don't wanna miss that, next to the alhambra (which was a bit boring), there's not a whole lot in granada. seville got way nicer buildings than granada, there's a nice plaza, the cathedral is huge, there's a bull ring (which i dont think you can go into though) and the streets feel much more traditionally spanish than other places.

I just had my honeymoon in Spain in April 2004. Our plan was similar to yours as it originally included Morrocco, but we got to tired and didn't end up going. We landed in Madrid, spent 2 days there, had a travel day to Barcelona where we spent 6 days, then travelled overnight to Granada where we spent 2 days, then travelled to Seville and spent 3 days, then back to Madrid where we did a day trip to Segovia before we left. Three weeks in all (I don't know if I got the amount of days exactly right here).

Anyway, we found Madrid to be beautiful. We spent a lot of time doing the walking tours from Lonely Planet guide and didn't go to any art museums. The shopping is good there. We also found that Barcelona had the most things to do. We spent 3/4 of our time in the old city where we were staying and left the Gaudi architecture for last, but found we liked that part the best, especially Parc Guell. The overnight train to Granada was very uncomfortable compared to similar train rides I have taken in France. We didn't book sleeping quarters, just normal seats. Granada was really beautiful. I think you will get enough of moorish architecture here so that you won't have to go to Cordoba. We went to Seville last so didn't appreciate it as much as we might have. The alcazar is gorgeous. I recommend Segovia as a day trip when you're in Madrid.

One thing we did was wait until we got somewhere to book a room. This was often fine but sometimes the hotels were all busy because of festivals, which seem to happen every other weekend in Spain. Read your guide and find out about these festivals and book ahead if there is one where you are going.

Have fun, hope this is helpful, sorry so long. By the way, my friend in Morrocco recommended Merrakesh to me.

Sounds OK but you're gonna have to fly from Granada to Fez. You'd spend a lot of time doing it by land and boat, you have to get from Granada to Malaga or Algeciras, then get from Tangier or Melilla to Fez by bus. You'd have to figure things out pretty well if you think you can do it in a day but I imgaine you'd have to do in two days.

Fez is definatley preferable to Casa which is pretty boring by comparison. Fez is ace, figure on $5 upwards for a room, the medina is cool, impossible not to get lost! I wouldn't bother with Tangier.

Haven't been to Granada (always wanted to though) but I doubt one day will be enough. Barcelona is great and three days is about right if you don't want to visit the surrounding area.

Hope this helps.

Can you elaborate on the $600 flight? I'm planning to do a Spain-Portugal-Morocco backpacking trip in two months.
I'd love to see a $600 flight, all I've seen is $800+ to Madrid or Lisbon from TO, Montreal and Ottawa.

Originally Posted by Talamasca

I love that we have a travel forum now. Anyways, I'm in the early stages of planning a trip to Spain this fall with a detour to Morocco. So far, I've got this:

• Days 1-3 - Barcelona (take overnight train to Granada on night 3)
• Day 4 - Granada
• Day 5 - travel day to Fez, Morocco
• Days 6-7 - Fez
• Day 8 - travel day to Cordoba, Spain
• Day 9 - Cordoba
• Days 10-13 Madrid

Does this sound feasible? I can get a flight for around $600 and hotels in the $20-30 range.

Originally Posted by vw_michael

Can you elaborate on the $600 flight? I'm planning to do a Spain-Portugal-Morocco backpacking trip in two months.
I'd love to see a $600 flight, all I've seen is $800+ to Madrid or Lisbon from TO, Montreal and Ottawa.

Canadian Affair has cheap flights to London. From London, there are cheap easyJet flights to various Spanish and Portuguese cities.

For example, I want to leave TO on Oct. 8 and fly back Oct. 23. I want to fly from London to Barcelona on Oct. 9 and fly back from Madrid to London on Oct. 22. Prices are as follows and include all taxes

Toronto-London return: $523
London-Barcelona one way: $65
Madrid-London one way: $63

Grand Total $651

Can anyone recommend good-value accomodations for Spain? I read somewhere in the $30 range/night... is this CDN or EURO, and is this per double room or per person?

I'm planning to go to Spain as well (Barcelona-Bilbao route) and looking for ideas re accomodations... When I say good value, I mean good value for the money, not necessarily the cheapest (I don't want to sleep on the floor or a wooden bed and have to share a bathroom with a whole floor of guests).

Regarding Morroco, a friend who does very extensive traveling (at least two, usually three, trips per year!) also says that Fez and Marrekesh are better "exotic" destinations than Casablanca.