Need Barcelona trip loop advice

[twobone]

Need help with Barcelona and area trip 12 days

Family of 4 travelling in July
Flying in and out of barcelona. Total trip duration in 12 days.
Need help deciding in itinerary.
How many days in Barcelona?
Do we go north or south from Barcelona?
Planning to rent a car and use airbnb and vrbo along the way.

What's the best loop?
Boys are 15 and 10.
Looking for variety so we feel like we have had the Spanish experience
Thanks

[masraum]

Originally Posted by twobone

Need help with Barcelona and area trip 12 days

What's the best loop?
Boys are 15 and 10.
Looking for variety so we feel like we have had the Spanish experience
Thanks

I guess you'll be a bit too far away from the topless beaches.

j/k

Sadly, my experience in Spain is far from Barcelona so I can't offer much help, but I think we have several members that either live there or have experience, so you should get some great advice. I loved my time there and didn't get to see nearly as much as I'd have liked. You'll enjoy it.

Be careful for pick pockets. My parents were told that they would cut purse straps and pants pockets with razors to get to wallets and purses.

Serious crime is not too big a problem in Spain, but petty crimes like theft are.

[rattlsnak]

Why not take a cruise? There are many that leave out of Barcelona and cruise all the way around to Venice and back in a week with stops in Rome, Monaco, Isle of Capri, etc.. Not your typical cruise either, as the 'cruising' is all at night, so when you wake up you are pulling in to the next port.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I've flown into Barcelona a couple of times, didn't do any sight seeing as my loop was airport, race circuit, hotel, repeat a few times and then back to airport.

I've done quite a few road trip all over Europe and have got quite good at working out a travel plan formula that the whole family enjoys.

A hard days driving is +5 hrs, medium 3-5 hrs and an easy day is under 3 hrs. You don't want to race through the countryside and allow time for getting lost as you'll never know what you'll find. We take a road map, proper old fashioned paper version as a SAT-NAV is very good at telling you where you are but doesn't tell you what the name of the village/town in the distance that looks too interesting to drive by without having a look.

We stay at a mix of small family run hotels up to luxury spec., we try to get a pool on the longer days of driving and tend use Booking.com when choosing hotels.

As for things to do we look for stuff the kids will enjoy and they do their own research to come up with suggestions, World UNESCO Heritage sites (best of the best natural, historical and cultural places the world has to offer), buy lunch from a market/super market and do a picnic lunch or eat where the locals eat not in the hotel we are staying at.

Europe has more varied history per square inch than anywhere else I've been to in the world and despite the headlines your read in the papers it's still one of the safest places in world to explore on your own at your own leisure.

We are also turn into Victorian parents and take the kids electronic devices off them to make them look around, you can't see a country if you don't look out the window, after a day or two they forget they ever had a Kindle, IPad etc.

Hope this helps

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

Why not take a cruise? There are many that leave out of Barcelona and cruise all the way around to Venice and back in a week with stops in Rome, Monaco, Isle of Capri, etc.. Not your typical cruise either, as the 'cruising' is all at night, so when you wake up you are pulling in to the next port.

Doh! I was thinking about Madrid which is not on the coast, but Barcelona is, so they can hit the topless beaches!! Score

[Seahawk]

I do not know Barcelona at all: if you can get over the horror of a guided tour, take one. I always do in a new city:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=3142BARCELONA1&d=190166&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

Do it the first day and you'd be surprised how informative they can be. I don't mind looking goofy for a few hours learning about the city.

This one looks great: https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=14218P6&d=191040&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

On a different tack, a friend of mine swears these type of classes are great anywhere:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductDetail?product=16637P1&d=3757398&aidSuffix=xsell&partner=Viator

He lived in Italy for four years and took cooking classes in a number of cities. He and his family had a ball.

[Geneman]

IF YOU ARE REALLY adventurous a ferry ride from barce out to majorca/minorca is fabulous... you can do it as a 2 or 3 day interlude... bring your rental car... the balearic islands are spectacular...

[Evans, Marv]

All you need to do is go online and search for thing to see & do in the Catalonia area around Barcelona and Barcelona itself. I haven't been there for decades, but I can tell you about one thing that was the highlight for me of an entire trip to Spain. West of Barcelona is a village of Cardona. Next to the village is a ninth century castle that is now a parador. We were driving back to the north western portion of Spain and spotted it from the highway. Decided to stop and see if they had a room. We were lucky enough there was a cancellation and got a fantastic room. Rooms are booked up to a year in advance. The kids would probably love it, especially at their ages. It's a real castle situated above the village of Cardona. Our room had a large window looking to the west out over the village as the sun set. The wall the window was in was about 6 or 8 feet thick. The castle had a fire place six or seven feet high, a walkway around the top of the castle wall where soldiers used to patrol, and lots of areas to explore. We took a walk into the village, which was beautiful and ancient. The people weren't that interested in tourists at that time, but the village was great to see. You can do a search for the Parador de Cardona and try to maybe make it one of the places as part of a loop trip through that portion of Catalonia.

[LakeCleElum]

2Bone - Thanks for starting this thread. I was thinking of doing a thread like this as in Sept, I fly into Barccelona to meet the Princess when she returns to from a 2 week cruise with her cousin. (Be kinda like Driving Miss Daisy)

I like driving thru the small towns of Europe and seeing coastal scenery. Want to head to the Gilbraltar area and do a walk on ferry for a night or two in Morocco. Then north up the coast into Portugal.....

As you, I'm open to suggestions that keeps me away from the larger cities...I've been to a few cities in Spain, but only on a cruise ship....

[OffCamber00]

When we did Barcelona, we took a short flight south to Seville for a couple of days and then drove to Grenada for a few days. The drive was great - super winding roads and gorgeous scenery. We took our time and made it a whole day and stopped at some small towns along the way, including Ronda and Malaga. I highly recommend both Seville and Grenada - fabulous architecture and a very different feel from Barcelona that we liked a lot better.

[Paco Anton]

Hello twobone. Sorry for missing your post. Here goes my 0.02 €

You definitely need to do Barcelona + Madrid and plan to spend about 3 days in each city. You can do 2 days in each city and 1 day trip from there.

Then you need to decide if you want to go South and visit Andalucia (Seville, Cordoba, Granada) or you want to do the NorthWest (Bilbao, San Sebastian, Leon, Santiago). You can't really cover both in 12 days. Both alternatives are great but I'd go with the South for a first visit although the weather will be very hot so maybe you will prefer a milder climate. Also I would suggest using the high speed train to move between cities as it can take 5+ hours to get from Barcelona to Madrid and 5-6 more to get to Seville and the routes are not that scenic.

If you decide on this route I would suggest:

- Barcelona (2 days)
- Take the high speed train to Madrid
- Madrid (2 days)
- Day trip to Toledo, Segovia or El Escorial (1 day)
- Take the high speed train to Seville
- Seville (2 days)
- Rent a car and drive to Malaga
- Visit the beaches near Malaga (1-2 days)
- Drive to Granada (1 day)
- Drive to Cordoba (quick visit) then Madrid
- Take the high speed train to Barcelona
- Either rest in the beach or rent a car and tour the area

You migh also consider visiting Valencia (East) but you are well covered.

Once you have decided on your route I can suggest specific activities/visits for each city or area. PM me for my email if you want to discuss.