MetaChat - What to do in spain

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24 April 2014

What to do in spain We're thinking, really planning, of a trip to Spain and Morocco in June. Need some help planning.→[More:]

About 12-13 days including all traveling.
The thought was first to fly to Barcelona, then make it to Seville for a
couple of days, then to Marrakech for a few days.

But I know this is counter- what everyone says, but I'm wondering if Barcelona is the right city for us. We're not particularly interested in architecture or museums. I like to go to historical places. What really seems to interest me is more like Seville, Granada, Cordoba (Andalusia).

Does it make more sense, then, to fly to Madrid (which is too huge and museum-ish on its own for me) and stay in Seville (I'm looking at air B'n B's) and take day trips to those other towns in Andalusia and skip Barcelona?

Does anybody know if day trips from Seville to those places makes sense?
I'm too scared for us to rent a car and try to go from town to town by ourselves, staying in a different place every night - seems too confusing to book a nice friendly Air B'nB in e.g. Seville and come back to it every evening.

Would trains work as transportation, coming back to the same cozy Air B 'n
B in Seville each night?

Is it crazy to go to Spain and skip Barcelona? There is obviously limited
time here because we want to fly from Spain to Marrakech and spend a few
days there as well.

If it matters we're a couple, 68 and 63 years old, and our college-aged son, 21 years old, who studies Spanish seriously - another reason to go to more Spanish-speaking, less Catalonian places, maybe?

Any advice appreciated.

post by: DMelanogaster at: 07:37 | 9 comments

correction - "seems too confusing to book a nice friendly Air B'nB in e.g. Seville and come back to it every evening." should be "seems to confusing. Better to book a nice friendly..." etc. (SORRY)

posted by DMelanogaster 24 April | 07:39

*shrug* I loved Spain without setting foot in Barcelona, so it's definitely not crazy to skip it!

I don't know about day tripping around, but in addition to the places you list, definitely go to Ronda, which is awesome.

posted by gaspode 24 April | 10:06

thank you, gaspode. Very helpful and supportive non-Barcelona advice! Any ideas about if it's better to stay in Seville for a week and go each day to other towns, always coming back to Seville to sleep? seems more restful than going from Air B 'n B to Air B 'n B in a new town each night, right?

I'm not so sure about distances between/among these towns (like Seville, Granada, Cordoba? Ronda? Valencia? I haven't done much research yet).

posted by DMelanogaster 24 April | 12:59

I haven't been there in like 15 years! I remember that it did take quite a while between cities. I personally would be disinclined to do that much driving, but that's possibly my preference over basic logistics. We sort of did a loop in Andalusia, and stayed a couple of nights in each place, but we were staying in hotels (and deciding where to stay on the spur of the moment). I think from Seville to Granada is a few hours in the car though.

posted by gaspode 24 April | 15:11

Donostia, Gipuzkoa (aka San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa) in the Euskadi (Basque Country), located on the Bay of Biscay, looks like this:

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Hugh Janus 24 April | 15:12

Andalusia is great. I especially liked Granada.

posted by jouke 25 April | 00:25

IF you hit Madrid, be extraordinarily careful of your personal belongings. We were pickpocketed no less than 3 times in one week. On the subway, the pickpockets were so aggressive they actually knocked my husband off his feet so they could plunder his pockets. My brother, who lives in France, says that Madrid is rather notorious for this (and the people we talked to in Spain said so too.)

posted by bearwife 25 April | 19:34

Thank you, everyone! We're going to have a home base in Seville and travel to a few nearby towns by train and bus.

posted by DMelanogaster 27 April | 08:14

I did go by bus from the airport in Malaga to Granada. And I wasn't very impressed with the public transport.
Although that may have to do with the NL, where I live, having very good public transport.

If it were me I'd consider renting a car. If only for a few days. It gives you such flexibility to explore the area as well as the cities.

Oh yeah, the warning about pickpockets is unfortunately an almost universal experience in tourist hotspots in Spain.

posted by jouke 27 April | 11:01

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