Dear Madrid Fans,

Been lurking for a while. I visited northern spain in 1997 with my parents. Going back for a conference plus extra days for a mini-vacation.
I just wanted to ask your opinion concerning my
travel itinerary.

Wed - Arrive in Madrid 8:00am. (Royal Palace, Retiro Park, eating, etc)
Thu - Madrid (conference 9:00am-8:00pm) Eating, night life exploring,
Fri - Madrid (conference 9:00am-6:00pm) Eating, Plaza Mayor, etc
Sat - Madrid (conference 9:00am-12:00pm) Prado, more site seeing, Flamenco show & eating, etc.
Sun - Toledo (bus day trip)
Mon - Segovia (bus day trip- return to Madrid 9:00pm) - take overnight train to Barcelona (depart 11:00pm, arrive 8:00am)
Tues - Barcelona (Ramblas, Gaudi sites, etc)
Wed - Barcelona - (site seeing until 9pm) take overnight train to Madrid (depart 11:00pm, arrive 8:00am)
Thurs - Fly out of Madrid - plane leaves at 12:00pm!

I assume I must get to the airport by 9:00am, to give ourselves enough time to get through all the airport stuff. I'm from Argentina, and speak spanish and not shy to use metro and pretty energetic. Want to make the most of my trip, but concerned about the return train. Are they reliable? is it better to take a morning flight from Barcelona-Madrid instead? Wife is worried what if airport is down due to weather and we miss our international flight... trains can go regardless of weather. I agree.

Anyone think this connection is low-risk? Sorry if this question is silly, but would like to know your experiences, especially about the trains.

Thanks for your advice, and thanks to madridman for these forums!!

Muchas Gracias!

¡Hola Gauchito!

I live in Madrid, and speak Spanish too.
I think your itinerary is quite good, you´ll have time to see even more than what you have posted.
The return connection by train is ok, you´ll get your plane on time. But you could search the web and maybe find a cheap plane arriving earlier, it´s up to you. Travelling by train you save a hotel night, which is also an advantage.
If you go by train, get off the train in Chamartin Station, even if the train continues to Atocha.
Chamartín is connected by metro to Nuevos Ministerio metro station, and, there, you can take a direct line to Barajas Airport (just that i don´t know where exactly in Barajas, get informed)
One more thing, in Nuevos Ministerios, you can also check in your luggage and save some time.

You could skipped Barcelona and try for a shorter train ride to Sevilla. Three hours on AVE.

Whatever you do have fun!

Bill

Hi Gauchito

I havent done the trip from Madrid to Barcelona but as im from the UK i have been there (Barcelona) for a few weekend breaks before. I think the time you have there is plenty to give you a delicious taster of the cities delights..... I love having my early morning coffee along the las Ramblas soaking up the atmosphere as Barcelona goes about is business.. enjoy.

I'd say just stay in the Madrid area...or go to Toledo, Segovia...don't rush it cuz u won't enjoy it as much...just an opinion...
also it makes me laugh how american we are including eating on our itineraries...i know its a fact of life but still it just cracks me up.

Oops sorry, u are from Argentina..sorry...

Wow! thanks for the quick replies. meencantaespana, good to know about the difference between Chamartin vs. Atocha. I saw the schedule for the trains and it went through both stations, so I didn't know what the difference meant.

About eating, don't apologize - I live in the US now and have adopted this mentality . It is funny! I think I also wrote it down because I love to remind myself of all the food I will be eating!!!

Btw - since you are in madrid, I noticed from the metro madrid webpage that the metro station to Chamartin is closed down for repairs. But the train station is still open right? I hope they will be done when I go there (End of Sept, early Oct). Thanks for the advice about the train - I didn't want to worry about that.

Bill from NYC, ha! I had a huge problem deciding between Sevilla & Barcelona. But I think I will save Sevilla for another trip. I think having started in the the north from my first visit, I will make my way down eventually

Thanks Britgirl, looking forward to seeing a different side of Spain in Barcelona! My mother's parents were Galician and Basque, so our first trip was really a chance to see our roots. Now I want to see the parts that I really am not familiar with (Castile & Catalunya). My dad's side is French, Italian, & British... just did france two years ago.. now I have to finish Italy & Britain and I will have checked everthing off my list

That´s true, now the metro in Chamartin is closed, but the train station is open, of course.

If the metro is still closed in September, you can also go to Nuevos Ministerios by Cercanías train, it´s just one station, 10 minutes or less

Chamartin metro station is gonna be closed till the end of the year. Take the commuter train to Nuevos Ministerios (5 minutes).