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You are here: Experts > Food/Drink > Spanish Cuisine > Travel to Spain > 3 Days to Travel
Expert: Víctor Díaz - 10/2/2008
Question
QUESTION: Hi - We're arriving in Barcelona on Oct 31 and leave on the 1st for a 12 day cruise. We will have the first evening and most of the 31st to tour Barcelona. When the cruise returns to Barcelona on the 13th (5am) we would like to travel to Madrid where our plane leaves around noon to return home on the 16th. I have considered plane, train and auto and am leaning toward driving because of the ability to stop when and where we like but I am interested to know if driving from Barcelona to Madrid is a problem in November - is there snow? I thought we would go through Cuenca, then Toledo and spend the last day in Madrid. Is this possible? Will we be driving the whole time? Are there busses that serve these cities? Should we just fly to Madrid and do day trips from there? I'm trying to see as much as I can and spend the least possible. I would appreciate any input you can offer.
ANSWER: Hello Laurie
November is not specially cold yet, but talking about weather you can't never know.
In the main route between Barcelona and Madrid, A2 highway (called Ap2 when tolled) in the stretch between Zaragoza and Guadalajara there are a couple of places near 1000m of altitude, where could be some snow, but it's not likely in november.
About Cuenca-Toledo-MAdrid in threee days by car, yes it's possible, a bit stressing but possible. Madrid probably deserves more than 1 day, you could do 2 days for MAdrid and Toledo as a daytrip from Madrid (as most people do).
Having a car in Madrid won't help you too much, you may do Toledo as a daytrip by train, just 30 minutes ride. But having so little time i think the best is the route i propose you below.
Cuenca is about 100km from Madrid, you may visit this place and probably pass anight there if you get there directly from Barcelona.
Roads to the north of Cuenca are in montainous area, and may be in not very good conditions if there are a lot of rains and/or some snow. If going by car to Cuenca add a visit to the nearby 'enchanted city' a curious natural rock formations.
The route proposed in Viamichelin looks good and you will get to Cuenca from the south roads avoiding mountain passes to the north of the city.
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/Itineraires?strStart...
You could do as follows:
13-drive to cuenca, visit the city and enchanted city, travel takes almost 6h. Overnight in Cuenca.
14-drive to Toledo directly in the morning, takes 2h25 according to ViaMichelin, half of the route by conventional roads
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/Itineraires?strStart...
Drive to Madrid in the evening, leave the car
15-Madrid
16-return home
A second route could be
13-move to cuenca, overnight in cuenca
14-move to madrid whenever you want along the day, return the car
15-visit toledo as a daytrip, return in the afternoon
16-return home
this second route is not as stressing as the first one, it leaves less time to visit madrid but it's more flexible if you want to stay some more hours in cuenca or toledo.
There are buses connecting Cuenca and Madrid as well as Madrid and toledo, but for Madrid-Toledo i think it's better the train, much faster for a similar cost.
A different thing is Barcelona-cuenca, which was difficult to find
http://www.barcelonanord.com
with this company
http://www.touristbus.es/frgrsamar.htm
takes about 6hours, and train connections are not better as you should have to get to VAlencia and then take another one to Cuenca.
If you want to use only public transport i recommend to skip Cuenca and focus in Madrid + Toledo, if you don't want to spend two days for MAdrid, then add Segovia as daytrip or El Escorial, also very easy to do from Madrid by train.
i hope this helps a bit.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: THANK YOU! Great information. I have just found a reasonable flight between Barcelona & Madrid. We could arrive in Madrid late afternoon on the 13th and have until we leave there. We could take a day trip to Toledo and another city if we desire from there. I was just desiring to see the Spanish countryside but maybe we should wait until we have more time. Cuenca just seemed like a very interesting place to see (as well as the enchanted city)and I'm fascinated by the whole "Don Quixote" culture of La Mancha and hoped to be able to capture some of that by driving. It does seem to be a bit too much for the time we have, however. I'll try not to bother you further but wondered what you thought of all of this. You are so helpful!
Answer
Hello again Laurie
About flights between Barcelona and Madrid, if you find a good offer then is the fastest option. Vueling is a low cost with many flights between both cities and probably one of the cheapest.
Also check Renfe, since the new high speed line opened this year, train has become an option to consider instead of flights. Train are not as fast as planes but in overall time travel door to doo it takes the same time. And if you travel with luggage that you should check in when travelling by plane, it could be more confortable to use the train.
http://www.renfe.es/
For day 13 of november there are a couple of trains in the afternoon that take 3h and cost from 63,20 for Estrella offer, there are also a couple of them early in the morning with Web offer from 49,70 euros.
I have checked vueling and have from 35euros but you must add some of those surplus for luggage and some other hidden taxes.
http://www.vueling.es
Cuenca is interesting, it's part of the world heritage cities for unesco. Leave it for other travel in the future with more time so you could explore properly the area.
http://www.turismocuenca.com/default.aspx?lang=en
CLM
http://www.visitclm.com/
http://www.aytoconsuegra.es/
CLM is a big region with different landscapes and a car is a must to explore it, Cuenca and Toledo are the main tourist destiantion. Toledo as it's close to Madrid is the most visited. For towns, Consuegra and some other in the area have kept some of the typical windmills.
Toledo:
http://www.t-descubre.com/es/portada/
http://www.toledo-turismo.com/turismo/
information for other possible daytrips from Madrid
http://www.turismodesegovia.com/default.asp?ban=1
http://www.sanlorenzoturismo.org/ingles/default2.htm
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