Spain - Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid (28 days)

[thinkingbouteurope]

I'm starting to plan a trip that with include visits to Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. I have studied Spanish in high school and college and feel that my next trip to Europe (after having visited Cinque Terre) should take advantage of my Spanish education (though its been a while)

I plan to fly into Barcelona; possibly out of Madrid.

Where I need the most help is choosing Mediterrean home bases Tarragona, Castellon and Tortosa seem the most obvious, along with Alicante and Cartegena, the latter seeming to be the best route to Toledo/Madrid. Toledo seems to be a good choice near Madrid.

I like to choose a home base, staying for 5 to 7 nights and then take day trips into the major cities.

I could see a itinerary of:
Barcelona
Tarragona
Castellon
Alicante or Cartagena
Toledo
Madrid
with the middle four cities/towns being 5-7 nights each.

Is this realisitic?

[jennifer]

Hey there! Well, you haven't seemed to overload as most of these cities are "considered small". I would check out the railroads to make sure you aren't backtracking between cities.

I would also suggest you do Toledo as a daytrip, unless you really have thing planned out there, as it is quite small to walk around.

5-7 nights in Madrid and Barcelona seems pretty good. I haven't been to your other cities!

Good luck!

[herrbert]

I can't help you with the sea resorts, as those are not my favourite places to go to. One thing to keep in mind if you want to work on your Spanish is, that if you choose towns in Catalunya, that some people in these towns, don't want to speak Spanish.

I would spend 4-5 days in Barcelona and Madrid, and like Jeniffer suggested do Toledo as a daytrip. (I did today ), Toledo is a lovely city, that can be reached in 30 minutes by train from Madrid, or 1 hour if you choose to go by bus. Another daytrip I suggest from Madrid is Segovia, and if you don't mind a little more time on the train, you can also choose for Cuenca.

My suggestions for the larger places to visit in Spain, are Granada and Sevilla.