Hi @Tanbiko! How did the trip work out for you??? I’d like to do something similar later this year and would love to hear about your experience!
I wish I could share my experience but I ended up not going because I got laid off in the middle of November. The main driver for the trip was to burn my vacation days. Well, I got paid for them… In any case, the CC experts proved that my original plan was not well thought through. Now I have a non-transferable United ticket that I have to use within a year. If I find a job that does not start right away I am thinking about a short trip to Madrid:)
Oh, I am so sorry about the layoff! I hope you can get to Madrid, it would be too bad to forfeit the ticket. I took one of my adult kids to Madrid a couple years ago for a week. We had a great time and a week was not too long. Segovia and Toledo make easy day trips for a little variety.
So sorry to hear about the lay off. I hope you do make it to Spain – especially Madrid! Granada is also amazing. I spent a week and personally between the two places it was just the right amount of time.
The Prado has free admissions time slots, and there are two other amazing musuems, one of them (at least) has a free admissions time as well. For me just walking outside the Royal Palace was enough. The Alhambra is worth seeing. 100 montaditos is a cheap filling restaurant that is a chain you can find everywhere in Madrid.
I would not rent a car but depend on metro and a bus or train to Granada. I think bus is cheaper but would not swear to it, the train is definitely faster.
So sorry that you were laid off and could not make the trip but whenever you do get to go, I hope that you will adjust some of the planned itinerary. 10 days is not enough time for all that was on your initial list. Span is a very large country and if driving, it takes quite some time to get from place to place. Years ago DH and I did a Spain trip where we landed in Madrid, picked up a rental car (DH had to learn to drive stick) when we left Madrid and we headed north after a day trip to Toledo from Madrid. We went to Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, Cordoba, Ronda and the white towns, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga,Algeciras, Alicante, Valencia and ended in Barcelona.That took three weeks and we could have used more time for sure. In those days everything shut down midday so you needed to carefully plan your driving and your touring as well as dining because most restaurants will not open for dinner before 8 or 9 PM. We did a Barcelona alone trip about 6 years ago and again restaurants did not open for dinner until late. Whenever you go I would try to add Toledo to your plans as well as a day trip to the Escorial north of Madrid.
Back in the day when I travelled to Europe on $5 a day and $5 a day went very far in Spain, my college roommate literally had the Alhambra all to ourselves.
Let me resurrect this thread to say that my plan B worked. My job search took much more time than I expected due to my advanced age but finally I landed a new job that, as expected, required a long background check.
I just came back from Madrid and it is amazing. I also did El Escorial, Toledo and Segovia. Did not use so much public transportation in 30+ years.
Highly recommend these destinations and can answer questions.