My fiance and I are planning our 1st trip to Spain - 7 days in Madrid and 7 days in Barcelona sometime around the beginning of July using hostels. We are really excited about it and can't wait to get there. So our main question for the knowledge people on this board is:

We plan to use Madrid as our home base for the first 7 days and take day trips to other cities in the region such as Granada, Cordoba, and Sevilla. Are the day trips to each of those three cities feasible - are they too far away by bus or rail, and are day trips enough time to take in the sites at those cities? We are also thinking of using this strategy for Barcelona as well. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thnx,
Pac

Pac writes: Spain is a big country! Sevilla is more than 350 mi from Madrid - kind of like Pittsburg from NYC.
You can do Sevilla (2.5 hours by high speed train) and/or Cordoba (1.5 hours by that same train). I think Granada is out of the question for a day trip from Madrid. More realistic Madrid daytrips are Toledo, Segovia and el Escorial.

Pac-We are also spendin 1wk. in Madrid.Also our first time but have to agree with Eddie that you should limit your day trips.We are doing th standard Segovia&Toledo and would like Chinchon if time permits.Looking at your first choices I think you would want more then 1 rushed day in each.Check out Hostal Lopez-Quick to answer my e-mails and graet location.You can get reviews by searching under hostals.Also price is GREAT.Be back on May 3 if youwant a detailed report let me know.Give yourselves 3 days in Madrid proper!

The only daytrip feasible by train is Seville, nevertheless it will take you 2,5 each trip plus the time to get to the station. Plane is the only option if you want to have a fast glimpse of a citiy, Barcelona-Madrid is "the" business route of Spain, there is a plane every 15 minutes (not kidding) between the two cities, you can certainly get to the airport get a ticket in one of the selfservices ticket machines hop into thw first plane and after a 50min lfight you are in Barcelona. Nevertheless if you add the times to get the airport it more but it is a frequent business day to take this plane for a meeting and to come back in the same day.