Liz
Austin (Texas)
My husband and I are planning a two week vacation to Spain. We are splitting our time with a week in the south and a week in the north, using Madrid and Barcelona as starting points for each week. Looking for advice on when best to travel by train, flight or rental car. Must dos are Granada and San Sebastián. Thank you in advance!
Spain is a big country to see in only 2 weeks, and the distances are big for your 4 points Madrid Barcelona San Sebastian and Granada being widely apart. I would consider using both plane and train and even perhaps a car depending on what else you visit
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Hi Liz,
Sounds like a great trip! We were in Spain two years ago and had very good luck with the train. Since we were traveling with our 8 year old daughter, we didn't want to pack up and go too many times and limited ourselves to 3 accommodations. We stayed to 3 nights in Barcelona, 2 nights in Sevilleand 3 nights in Madrid (from which we day-tripped to Toledo). We flew into Barcelona, took the high speed train Barcelona-Sevilla, then high speed train Sevilla-Madrid, and local train Madrid-Toledo-Madrid. We had taxis to/from airports. We love the train as we can still see the landscape, but enjoy the worry-free travel and not having to make decisions (plus our daughter could easily catch up on homework on the train). My brother and dad have traveled extensively throughout Spain by car and said it was very easy (unlike other areas like Italy's cities). So it is probably more of a personal preference. Have a great trip!
By the way, we loved Seville! It was the highlight of our trip.
My preference is for the high speed trains. The stations are downtown so there is no long drive out to the airport, there is no baggage check, just walk up 10 minutes before departure and stow your bag, three hours later you have walked to your hotel 450 miles away. Airport rigamarole on both ends takes that much time without adding the flight time.
Liz
