I'll have about two weeks some time next summer to spend in Spain. I've just started a little
research, and it's going to be hard to narrow down! And it's even worse because I want to
see Lisbon and a small town in Portugal, plus a daytrip to Morocco. Any suggestions? Sadly,
I have completely ruled out the north for this trip. This will be my first time in Spain, so I'd at least
like to see Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, and one of the Andalucian hill towns. Am I being
ridiculous try to to do this much?

I definitely think trying to see the large cities in all 4 areas of the country in 2 weeks would be pushing it...ask yourself this: will you really get to know a city and see what it's really like in 3 days each place? Or will you spend all your time scurrying from museum to museum and feel like you are not even on vacation?

I agree with Leche, if you tried going to all the places listed you would be like one of the hapless tourist in the movie, " If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium!"

I had the same dilemma when I went back to Spain after a hiatus of over 20 some years. I had seen the major cities of Spain, but it had been so long that I had tough decisions to make as well. I too only had a little over two weeks. You are very lucky in discovering MadridMan's Web page, because there are many threads that will help you make your decisions.

In addition to the advice given here in MadridMan, what also helped me a great deal in narrowing down my choices was watching the Rick Steves series on Spain, which are available from most public libraries. I am a visual learner and I realized then that to see Madrid I needed at least five days, Segovia a day trip, Salamanca two days, Santiago four days, etc. That gave me an idea as to how long I would need to visit each city and still have time to viscerally see the places.

To me some of the fun of travelling is in doing the research beforehand, and this Board was instrumental in making my trip the success that it was.
Enjoy your search.

Today, I finally leave for Spain. Just alittle excited. This will be my first time in Spain and Portugal. I wanted to see all the major cities, Sevilla, Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona, Lisbon. Well, I opted to see Barcelona and Madrid and side trips to Toledo. Portugal, is a very pretty country. I am going to spend some time near Lisbon area. There is so much to see and do in the time frame of just 2.5 weeks. I did some much of my research at the library. I did alot of my resreach through the library. They have guide books that you can garner alot of information from. One day before vacation, I was making hotels accomodations. I normally would not recommend that, since I had another hotel backup but this is a 4 star hotel. This will be my last post. Usta Legua.

We took two trips to Andalucia in the past 2 years. One went from Malaga to Cortijo el Papudo - http://www.andalucia.com/gardens/papudo/home.htm a lovely converted farmhouse with super breakfasts.
From there on to Cadiz, Jerez, Seville, and Ronda and back to Malaga.
A couple of good Spanish hotels: Alavera de los Banos in Ronda: At bottom of ravine but very good. http://www.andalucia.com/alavera/home.htm
Also ; www.santafe-hotel.com a lovely small hotel (more like home with rooms) with excellent food, situated at Coin inland from Costa del Sol on inland road between Malage and Marbella.
A useful site for accommodation is :
http://www.andalucia.com/accommodation/home.htm.
We did stop at La Fonda Hotel in Benelmadena Pueblo( 2 miles inland) - they hadn't any rooms in the hotel but gave us an apartment for about 35 Euros - beautiful apartment down a side street right opposite a little bar - few tourists got down there - snacks very cheap and they kept giving us a free drink every time we went in. Sorry can't remember their web site.
We did the trip in 7 days but you could add on our other trip which took in Granada, & Cordoba.
Best place we stopped in there was Molino del Santo at Benojoan near Ronda : http://www.andalucia.com/molino/home.htm way out in the country but beautiful hotel in lovely surroundings

Barcelona is up north. Yes, it does sound like you're trying to cram a lot into 2 weeks! Forget 3 days! You'll waste most of your time traveling from city to city! Granada and Andalucia... you can do that easily, and Madrid even... but there goes a week already, and that's limiting it to 2 days in each place, and not counting traveling!
Then Portugal... well, although the new super highway makes the trip much faster, its still 5 hours, and if your taking the bus, at least 7 (they have to stop not just to pick up, but for rests- and they are much stricter about it there than in the US). Train won't get you TOO much faster, and then there is always the option of flying, which would help... Portugal is a wonderful country, that in my humble opinion deserves its own visit, but that's just me...

If you stick to Andalucia, Granada and Madrid, you'll probably get more out of your trip, as you can visit Salamanca, Toledo, Segovia as day trips (although I'd stay a night in Salamanca, as its the furthest away from Madrid). El Escorial would then also be a possibility...

My reccomendation would be to try to centralize around 3 cities or so and plan to see things that are closest around those areas.

oh! Morrocco! I don't know how things are now, but I know that the whole Isla de Perejil thing altered the ferry schedules, not as many going as before... I'd also check with the embassy to see if they have any recommendations for/against going at this time. But if you're going to be in the South, Granada will be the city you want to see closest to it, I'd just figure into it the time it is going to take you to get there, how long you want to be there and then back to Granada and then to wherever. Again, I think it may be another side trip too many.

Thanks for all your helpful replies. We just got back from a whirlwind trip in Central Europe, and I have mixed feelings about travelling so quickly! It was great to see so many places, but I had a terrible cold, and all the train travel was hard on me. We came home early because we got stuck in the floods in the Czech Republic. ):

I am willing to skip the daytrips from Madrid, and save that for when I return on a trip to the Madrid area only. Just would like to get a taste of a few of the culturally different places in Spain. By skipping the north, I meant Galicia, Ovieto, Pampalona, etc. I am completely entrigued by this area and want to give it a separate trip. I had planned on flying to or from Barcelona to Madrid to save some time, depending on the route we take.

I still have loads of time to decide where to go. If we had even just 5 more vacation days that would help so much! It's stinks to have 10 days a year. Just isn't enough, never mind that I can't take any days off to just relax at home!

I have been to many parts of Spain, and Sevilla is one place a visitor to Spain must see. In fact if one were to set in foot in Spain for one day only, I would suggest it be in Sevilla, on a summer day with brides everywhere having their pictures taken in the Maria Louisa park. My favorite part of Spain is Galicia, La Coruna in particular, but I still would put Sevilla in a first trip to Spain. Later you can return for the north. Toledo is a good choice, as is Cuenca. You'll love Lisbon, and don't miss Sintra and Obidos in Portugal. Have a great trip!

Finally starting to think more about this trip! Borrowed "Rough Guide Spain" from the library and I'm really enjoying it! It's more book-like than other travel guides, a great before-you plan read.

Still want to see too much! I am going to try to schedule our trip around a holiday so that we can get an extra free day of vacation! Also going to try to leave on a Thursday or Friday and come back two weeks later on Saturday or Sunday to maximize free weekend time. I can't wait to have 5 weeks vacation... some day!

I am trying to convince myself to skip Barcelona or Madrid. Maybe skip Madrid? I can return another time and get to visit Toledo, Segovia, etc. But how can I miss the Prado?? Also trying to convince myself to skip Tangier; but I'd really like a taste of Morrocco, even if it's far from the real thing. I don't think I want to skip Portugal; I'd like to see Lisbon and maybe the Algarve. After reading Rough Guide, I have added Seville to my list!

Monique writes: Skip Madrid? Bad idea!

Skip Tangier! IMHO: For a one day trip it's a waste of time. And it's going to waste more than 1-day of your precious two weeks. You have to get into position for a daytrip to Tangier (Algeciras, for example)

Here's an example of how to get from Point-A to Point-B: Last summer I took an all Preferente Hotel train Barcelona-Sevilla: Depart Barcelona 10:30 PM; Arrive Sevilla 8:30 AM. Compartments were very private, 2-bed (upper & lower) w/wash basin (W/C at the end of the carriage). Bus Sevilla-Huelva and Huelva-Faro (Portugal). There are some thru-buses but they all stop in Huelva. Bus or Train Faro-Lisbon (I recommend Bus because Trains don't cross the Tagus).

If you fly 'Open Jaw' (Once I flew to Madrid and home from Lisbon; another time I flew to Lisbon and home from Madrid - Continental Airlines out of Newark) something like that might 'buy' you an extra day.

10-years ago I took my son to Spain for 3-weeks: The general opinion was: "You're going just to Spain for the whole 3-weeks?" We flew Iberia TransAtlantic and bought 'Visit Spain Passes' (Spanair also offers them). We flew from JFK to Madrid, Madrid-Sevila (for Expo'92), Sevilla-Barcelona ('92 Olympics), Barcelona-Vigo (Santiago flights were not available on our plan 'window' so we travelled by Train (TRD) Vigo-Santiago and back) and Vigo-Madrid. We took a train Madrid-Alicante, spent 4-nights on the beach in Campello - then back to Madrid for the weekend (even a bullfight). On our Madrid stops we day-tripped to Toledo & Segovia.
Been there! Done that!

With good planning you should have little trouble being able to visit Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla and Lisbon in 2-weeks.