In Madrid, check out the Reina Sophia Museum, Picasso’s Guernica is there. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
In Majorca, we loved Es Pati in tiny Sant Llorenc des Cardessar so much, we ate there twice. Reservations are mandatory.
+1
As well as the Royal Palace (get the personal tour) and armory museum! If you have an interest in day trips, El Escorial is very neat and Segovia (I recommend the Cathedral, the Castle and the Aqueduct for visits in Segovia. And El Duque for lunch best suckling pig around.
Agree on the palace and El Escorial. Day trip to Toledo to see the cathedral is worth it as well.
And eat at the Parador just outside of Toledo…
Thanks so much to all for your input! We will do what we can to see as much as possible. But I’m not sure we’ll have time for a day trip, unless we skip Prado.
Any more suggestions for Majorca? Can anyone recommend a winery tour, or should we just see them all? I will make a reservation at Es Pati.
Only winery tour I can 100% recommend is Dominio Buenavista in Granada. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I sort of have a bias though!!! 
Can highly recommend El Barril de las Letras in Madrid. Excellent food and great wine list. They sell wine on premises and charge 7 Euros to open it in the restaurant. NV Ruinart was 68 (75) Euros. They also had 2006 Dom Perignon on the list for 118 (125). Decent selection of Spanish wines too - Malleolus, Vina Ardanza, etc. Like most Madrid restaurants they charge for water and bread, but overall we had a great meal there. Located near our hotel NH Paseo del Prado (very nice, quiet, and perfect location, though small rooms) in the Museum district.
Is this a wine trip primarily or a cultural trip? Since you said it’s with your family, I assume wine will be a minor distraction, but maybe your children are grown?
Mallorca is a long way away from everything else and really, since there’s so much to see on the mainland, not much of a loss IMO.
A fun trip might be:
- Split your time between Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid primarily, with maybe 1 or 2 nights on the road. You’re making a triangle, basically, through three awesome cities.
- You’ll fly between Bilbao and Barcelona ($100) and/or take a high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona. (You can either close the triangle if you want to arrive and depart from the same city, or you can leave the triangle incomplete and fly into Madrid/out of Barcelona or vice versa)
- You’ll drive between Madrid and Bilbao with stops along the way.
- Where will you stop along the way? Segovia (is probably my favorite city in all of Spain - maybe 2nd to Madrid? Tough call.), Valladolid (Ribera del Duero) and Lagrono (Rioja), perhaps? These cities will give you a really great flavor for Spanish Food, culture, and wine.
Why Bilbao over San Sebastian? There’s more to do and it’s just a great city. You can day trip on the coastal highway over to San Sebastian (2 hrs road time maybe, plus stops?) and be sure to stop at Kaia Kaipe in Getaria for lunch or dinner. Stop at a winery in the Txakolina DO on the way. You won’t regret any of it.
You can do this trip in any order - just have to decide if you want the beach (Barcelona) at the beginning or end of your trip. You can also get a beach fix on the north coast, but the Bay of Biscay (e.g. surf beach at Zarautz) is COLD compared to the Mediterranean beaches.
If you want to skip the north coast (Bilbao) you could draw the triangle pointing south and hit Murcia or Valencia, which would also be fun. But I am biased toward Bilbao. That part of the country is just other-worldly. Either way, it’ll be a great way to spend 2 weeks with your family.
We would move to Spain if we could figure out a way to make it happen…
We did two weeks last year to Barcelona, San Sebastian, and Madrid. The itinerary was as follows:
Day 0: Depart Atlanta.
Day 1: Land in Barcelona/Check into our apartment found via Booking.com. We have had better experiences with rates/places to view than VRBO or Airbnb. Very european centric
Day 2-4: Toured all the key stuff including a trip out to the monastery.
Day 5 (Travel): Picked up rental car in the city instead of the airport to save some money (Avis/Costco rate was incredible for a 1-way drop). Drove out to San Sebastian with a lunch stop in Zaragoza. Nice downtown area to see. Easy drive and scenic. Arrived early evening in SS. Again, we used Booking.com for securing a great apartment near the beach.
Day 6-9: Toured all the key stuff with a day trip Pamplona during the running of the bulls.
Day 10 (Travel): Departed for Madrid with a day trip to Rioja. Arrived early evening into Madrid. Again, we used Booking.com for securing a great apartment near the Prado.
Day 11-13: Toured all the key stuff. Turned in the rental car in the downtown area the evening we arrived.
Day 14: Depart Madrid.
What would we do differently? Probably spend a day or so in one of the wine regions and make additional day trips outside of the cities we visited. I really can’t say enough about the food especially in San Sebastian.
Hope this helps and please ping me with any additional questions.
The closest we are getting to Bodega Dominio Buenavista is the cruise ship port at Malaga and in mid-December no less.
Well bummer, we are an excursion destination for a couple of cruise ships that come into Almeria, but it’s a little far for Malaga.
I checked the map. We would spend all day going to and from. Too bad though.
If you do go to Spain, and stay in Seville, you need to go via train or bus to Arcos de la Frontera, and stay overnight in the Parador at top of the town. It has a very nice restaurant too. It is one of the “white cities”, and is a great place to visit. Check if there is any local celebrations there too. When we were there, there was a celebration with horsemen and women dressed in all their splendor in native clothes.
In Seville spend the night in Alfonso XIII
I will be with a group of 6 friends doing an R&R in Porcuna (between Cordoba to the west and Jaen to the southeast) later this spring. Any suggestions for restaurants or wineries in the area would be greatly appreciated.
Finalizing our trip to Northern Spain and Portugal this summer with our kids (we’ve been several times (including our engagement in Ibiza), but it will be the first for our kids). I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and advice. on this and prior threads.
If Mallorca is on the itinerary, We loved Palma and adored the coast and forest drive through Valdemossa and Deia to Port de Pollenca, where you can find some old line resort hotels with patios on the beach. If you go, I’d recommend a side trip to the Cap Formentor if you like lighthouses and vistas and a detour to the unforgetable drive down the awesome road to Sa Calobra (even more fun on a bike) between Deia and Port de Pollenca.
The drive to Palma up the coas5t/forest road takes quite a while given the switchbacks and small towns, but the drive bank of the main highway is very quick.
My trip to Spain is coming on a-pace and have learned that in addition to Porcuna, we will be visiting Cordoba, Seville and Ronda. Any suggestions for restaurants or wineries in any of these areas would be greatly appreciated!
If you still go to Mallorca leave room in the suitcase for shoes. Carmina shoes and George’s handmade shoes are exceptional quality. If you skip Mallorca El Corte Ingles has a selection.
With 3 I would look at apartment rentals and have some space.
I am curious how you decided on a little town in the middle of Olive Oil land? There are roughly 7k residents in Porcuna. There are ruins, there is a pretty little castle, and there are lots of olive trees. On the Ayuntamiento site for Porcuna it references 2 restaurantes, one of them has a website. Without question they will have more, and tons of bar/restaurants that will keep you completely fed. It’s only about 20 miles from Jaen and further east is a little city called Ubeda. Ubeda is gorgeous, number of hotels, a parador, Basilica, etc. You’re sort out in the middle of it, but the access is a bit more of a challenge. As far a wineries in the area…slim pickins. https://bodegasantagertrudis.es/ In Granada, to the south you have a couple dozen wineries including my winery www.dominiobuenavista.com that have challenged themselves and were honored a D.O.P in 2014 indicating vinos de calidad. http://www.vinosdegranada.com/vinos-de-granada/ The determining factor is water. Jaen is pretty parched, Granada has the tallest mountains of the whole Iberian peninsula, with that you have water. You will undoubtedly have a phenomenal trip. I applaud you for choosing a little village in Andalusia to have your R&R. You will absolutely be a villager by the time you leave. Please ask me any questions you may have!!
If you decide to venture to Granada, PLEASE let me know, I will get you connected.