Is this a Good Plan for Visiting Spain?

ixoy

My bf and I are planning on visiting Spain in late August/early September for about 11 nights (Monday to the following Friday). We're not really interested in a beach holiday but instead see more of a cultural aspect and some of the city life. We'd be limited to public transport as neither of us drive, so seeing lots of small surrounding towns would not be easily doable. Also, trying to avoid the really hot areas (e.g. Seville) as the heat wouldn't wholly agree with us.

Currently, this is a rough plan in my head:
Madrid - 5 nights. Within this one day up by train to Toledo.
then rail to
Valencia - 2 nights
then rail to
Barcelona - 4 nights, including spending a day in Sitges beach.

This would seem to get a good selection of the cities and sights in Spain.

Others however, might have better suggestions, or better ways to allot our times in those cites. Anyone have any comments on what might be the best approach for us?

Dodge

I don't think Madrid has enough to warrent more time spent there than Barcelona or Valencia (admittedly my stay in Valencia was only one day)

Spent a weekend in Madrid and pretty much seen everything in a couple of days. Barcelona has far more and repated visits haven't covered everything yet. My GF found Madrid a bit grimy too and said she wouldn't go back. Nightlife was superb though

missmatty

I would echo what dodge said about Madrid, 2 or 3 days there would be plenty. But def go to Toledo, it's fab

Unshelved

I disagree with other posters. If you're based in Madrid you can visit Toldeo (1 day), Segovia (1 day) and the Escurial or Avila.

List of day trips from Madrid here - www.softdoc.es/madrid_guide/daytrips/daytrips.html

With that, the big art galleries, the Royal Palace and, say, an open-top bus tour of the city, you'd have no problem filling five days. Personally I prefer Madrid to Barcelona - the people are a lot friendlier and the nightlife is just superb.

Madrid does get very hot though so make sure that whatever hotel you're staying in has air conditioning.

Also, while it's not quite as bad as Barcelona for pickpockets, bring a money belt and be careful of your valuables at all times.

neska

if you're not interested in a beach holiday the northwest is a good option, cities like san sebastian, bilbao or santiago could be very interesting

ixoy

Thanks for the advice - we've altered it a bit a result, to something like:

Day 1 - Fly into Madrid/See a bit
Day 2 - Madrid
Day 3 - Train from Madrid to Toledo, spend the day there
Day 4 - Madrid
Day 5 - Leave early, go to Valencia and see some of it that day
Day 6 - More Valencia
Day 7 - Leave Valencia for Barcelona
Days 8+ - Spend remainder of time there and fly out from Barcelona

Hopefully we'll enjoy it!

wazabi666

you can visit costa brava at north of barcelona is a very nice place like l'estartit, cadaques or tossa de mar. i think that madrid isn't very interesting. I prefer cities like avila, toledo, salamanca or segovia