Spain: Trip Planning

Step 1: We began our trip planning with borrowing travel guides from the library and friends...

Step 2: Flying in and out of Madrid's Barajas Airport, we familiarized ourselves with the surrounding areas and decided exactly where we wanted to go.

The plan...

• 5 days in Madrid (including a day trip to Toledo)
• 2 days in Seville
• rent a car in Seville and drive to Cadiz then Tarifa - stay overnight
• return to Seville, stopping in Ronda (between Marbella and Seville) on the way.
• the following morning, take the train back to the Madrid airport for a 1pm departure to Dallas.

Step 3:  Logistics.

• Determining where we would stay was largely dependent on proximity to the train station and points of interest. 'Mr. Something' was in charge of that aspect of our trip. I gave him the dates and he simply got on hotels.com and took care of business.When he finds a hotel that he thinks would work for us, he checks out www.tripadvisor.com to see what others think of it. So far, his system has worked very well.

• In an effort to maintain marital harmony, determining how to get from the airport to your hotel is very important and these days is as simple as Googling... "How to get from Madrid airport to Madrid". 

Our flight from Dallas departed Nov. 8th @ 5pm and arrived in Madrid Nov. 9th @ 10am. Deciding how to get to our hotel from the airport without sleep was just an argument waiting to happen so...we dodged that bullet by purchasing a 4-day Madrid tourist pass for buses, subway and city trains in advance through neoturismo.com

With the exception of the rental car, I was in charge of the inter-Spain travel portion of our trip and our passes were picked up without a hitch at Madrid's Barajas Airport, Terminal 4 - Visitor Info. Within minutes, armed with a city map and our 'Spanish Phrasebook for Travelers', we were on the express train to the Atocha Station where we found our hotel within a couple of blocks. 

Other Advance bookings included...

• Madrid Hotel: 4 nights - Hotel Agumar (hotels.com)
• 72 hour Madrid Museum pass (neoturismo.com)
• One-day "Hop on/Hop off" Madrid Bus pass (neoturismo.com)
• One-day round trip Toledo train ticket and 24 hour museum pass. (neoturismo.com)
• 48 hour Seville Museum pass (neoturismo.com)
• Tickets to Palacio Andaluz Flamenco Show (neoturismo.com)
• 24 hour "Sixt" Car rental.(orbitz.com)
• Round trip Madrid-Seville via Renfe High Speed (AVE) train (renfe.com)
• Seville hotel: 2 nights - Hotel Cervantes (hotels.com)
• Tarifa Hotel: 1 night - Hotel La Torre (hotels.com)
• Seville Hotel:1 night - Hotel Cervantes (hotels.com)