Travelling around Spain - advice/tips!

[TheHeartyJadeHiker]

I am trying to figure out, roughly, if we can afford to do a two holiday in Spain next year with our 3 chn. I’d like to fly into either Andalusia or Barcelona and then use the train or hire a car to visit a few places and then fly home. I did this a few times when I didn’t have children but this is 20 years ago.
I cannot figure out the Renfe train passes and Interrail looks like it’s way more.
Has anyone done similar and can give me some tips? tickets/location start and end/anything I’ve not thought of with the kids.
they’ll be 15, 13 and 11 next summer.
If it’s cheaper to hire a car we will but I would definitely prefer to use the train.

Do check the cost of tickets for the children. There used to be different age ranges for eligibility for reduced fares according to whether the train was local or long-distance.
It might well be much cheaper for a hire car than 5 fares.

We flew to Girona at Easter with the children some years ago. We stayed in an old apartment backing onto the city wall, we got it off booking.com, for about 4 days. We went by foot in that time, and hired a car when we left. We then drove to the Eurocamp nearest Barcelona and used it as a base. Our kids were a bit smaller, about 8 and 5. We alternated a day at base with a day visiting Barcelona or Tarragona or Monserrat. Then we drove back to Girona for our flight. We really liked Catalonia.

We got full insurance with the hire company, which was just as well, as someone rear ended us at a roundabout.

We would have been happy to rely only on public transport, but couldn’t make the logistics work.

I remember that we could however get a bus right into Barcelona from the Eurocamp, and we were pleased to avoid the hassle of driving and parking in the big city.

Trains will work well for these kind of trip, but the rail pass seems overpriced to me (300€ for an adult and 225€ for a child for a 6-trip pass?). I would just come up with an itinerary and buy single tickets in advance, as soon as they are released - some of the long-distance trains only show online 1-2 months in advance.

If you’re staying in one area and only need to cover short-ish distances, not all the trains you’ll need will be long-distance. A regional or cercanías ticket can be purchased on the day. Add your journey on omio or trainline and check which train it uses.

ALSA are one of the main coach companies and have very affordable costs. They usually run some kind of offer, pass or family ticket - but these change every few months, so no need to figure it out until a few months before your trip.

Keep in mind summers are incredibly hot (and humid in coastal areas), and if you go to Andalusia you can expect temperatures of 40-45 degrees almost every day, in some parts. Make sure your accommodation has air conditioning and plan your sightseeing and activities before midday/1pm and after 6pm. Indoors and in the shade during that gap. Don’t try to walk to train stations during the day, get a taxi. Stay hydrated. Don’t go in the pool during afternoon hours unless you know the signs of a heatstroke (better still, how to prevent one).

Malagacar was good for car hire, upgrade to unlimited mileage. We also did avis in Madrid and drove to Valencia once-/a bit more freedom than trains and carrying all your luggage

We did a similar trip last easter. We flew into Malaga (3 nights) and then travelled by bus to (Granada 3 nights), bus to Cordoba (1 night), train to Huelva (5 nights on the beach) and the 2 nights in Seville before flying home from Seville.

We all were allowed a carry on bag each and stayed in mostly airbnbs with washing machines along the way. Booked trains through trainline and buses through Alsa. We did the Caminito Del Rey while in Malaga, Alhambra in Granada. Both were awesome.
It felt like race across the world but a more planned version. If you want a shorter trip then skip the beach bit and get the train straight to Seville.

I think everything including food (some meals out, some cooking in the apartment) it was £3,500 for 2 weeks including flights for 2 adults, 2 kids (15 and 12).

Definitely consider the coach, can be much cheaper and sometimes faster than trains. But look on seat61.com for in depth advice on train transport in any country. I do think I remember reading some advice that it's cheaper to just pay for individual journeys rather than a Spanish rail pass, but this was some time ago.

One good thing to do may be to fly to Malaga, spend some time there, and move on to Cordoba and Seville. If you did that, you could do the El Caminito del Rey between Malaga and Cordoba as there's a train station nearby and you can get from one end to the other on a shuttle bus.

Don't try to do too much. We've been to Andalucia at least 50 times and haven't scratched the surface on places to go and things to see. You couldn't see everything in a lifetime.