Your saved trips
Kept in this browser onlyNo saved trips yet. Build a route above, give it a name and choose “Save this trip”. It will wait here the next time you visit on this device.
How the builder plans your route
Spain is big by European standards, about three-quarters the size of Texas: Madrid to Barcelona is about 390 miles (620 km) by road and Madrid to Seville about 330 miles (530 km). Every change of hotel costs about half a day: checkout, the station, the train, the new hotel, the wait for the room. Good trips stay at least two nights in each place and three or four in Madrid and Barcelona. The builder compares nine proven routes (Madrid and Barcelona with Toledo and Segovia; Madrid and Andalusia by train; Barcelona, Madrid and Andalusia; an Andalusia road trip from Málaga; Madrid, the Basque Country and Barcelona; Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid; Madrid, Castile and Santiago de Compostela; Barcelona and Mallorca; and Madrid with Tenerife), picks the one that best fits your interests and travel month, and gives each stop enough nights to be worth the move. It flags places that are much easier with a car, stops that are out of season, and festival weeks when hotels fill.
Day 1 is your arrival day. Most flights from the US land in Madrid or Barcelona in the morning, and hotel rooms are rarely ready before 2 or 3 p.m., so plan a light first afternoon and an early night by Spanish standards. Your flight home comes after the last day shown. Travel times are from our getting around guide and the destination pages, and assume the fastest train or normal traffic. Where trains thin out, in the white towns of Andalusia, the green north, Mallorca and the Canaries, a bus or a rental car takes over.
Saving and sharing
“Save this trip” keeps the plan in this browser, so it's here when you come back. “Copy share link” makes a link that opens this exact plan for anyone you send it to. “Ask us to plan it” sends the route to our planning form so we can turn it into a booked trip.
Insider tip
If your route ends far from where it started, price an open-jaw ticket (the airlines call it “multi-city”): into Madrid and home from Barcelona, or into Barcelona and home from Madrid. On the same airline or alliance it often costs close to a round trip, and it saves you a half day of backtracking. Rental companies charge a fee to drop a car in a different city, so plan the drive in the middle of the trip and use trains at both ends. See flights.
Different from home
Spain's high-speed trains run city center to city center, so a 2 hr 30 min ride from Madrid to Seville really is 2 hr 30 min, with no airport security line. Three companies now compete on the main lines (Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo), and the cheapest seats go weeks ahead. Cities are best without a car; if you choose “Happy to rent a car”, pick it up as you leave the last city, and carry an International Driving Permit with your US license. See driving in Spain.
Watch out
Holy Week, Seville's April Fair, Las Fallas in Valencia and San Fermín in Pamplona fill hotels months ahead and can double or triple prices, so check the dates on your route in festivals before you book. Ferries to the Balearics and between the Canary Islands can be cancelled in rough weather: never schedule one on the same day as your flight home.
Next steps: price it with the budget calculator, book trains in getting around, see when to go and festivals for the seasons on your route, and read the entry requirements for the EU's Entry/Exit System before you fly. Book the Alhambra and the Sagrada Família as soon as your dates are firm.