Late Sept. Spain trip planning advice requested
FTers have been helpful in past trips, so I would be grateful for advice on this next trip.
A friend and I are planning a trip to Europe and considering Barcelona as our base to fly in/out of. We have not yet done research on Barcelona but expect there will be plenty to do there for a few days. We were planning to visit the region somewhere around 8-12 days, so the question is what else to do.
Where this gets tricky is taking into account travel styles. I can be fairly aggressive in planning to do a lot and she is the opposite - she is perfectly fine staying in one spot 10 days and spending the day at the cafe. So we need to find a plan that will work for both of us.
Neither of us have been to Spain. From what I have read, it is an easy day trip to the Pyrenees. Having said that, one thought I had was to rent a car from Barcelona, drive to Andorra (country), stay a night or two there, then drive up to through the Pyrenees, staying maybe three nights, and back to Barcelona.
Is this too much to do in 8 to 12 days? Too little to do in 8-12 days? I am trying to not force too much but if there are other must-sees around, would like to know about them and see if they can work out too.
Also, I am wondering about how this trip works for two different traveling styles. It does provide time in each place where one can sit at a cafe all day and another one heads out to walk about town and sightsee, but is that realistic in the Pyrenees? Are there cafes to go just hang out? Is it realistic for the other person to go adventuring solo there or is this unsafe as I read about travel scams, etc? I would not say that situational awareness is my strong-suit but I am not super gullible either.
Last, I read here on FT that driving in Spain and the Pyrenees is not any more difficult than other European destinations, but it occurred to me that most car rentals are standard transmissions there. I am very comfortable driving standard transmissions - drove one for many years - but never was an expert at driving standard transmission uphill from a stop in windy hills where I tried to prevent it from rolling back (before going off a cliff backwards) but then would punch it too hard and burn the clutch a bit. How tight and narrow are these turns in the Pyrenees in terms of this driving issue?
All of that said, we also considered going from Barcelona down to Mallorca or Ibiza for the trip, but we do enjoy UNESCO world heritage sites and the Pyrenees seem like something not to miss in the area. But because we are not all that familiar with Spain, we also may not be considering other areas we should instead.
As for travel preferences, my friend likes museums and cafes, authentic people and a world heritage site. I like historic and cultural sites, beautiful landscapes, authentic towns, experiencing local foods, and local music (traditional, folk, classical, jazz or other). Neither of us are big drinkers and not into dance clubs, but would do jazz clubs or even a local rock band.
Last, I have diamond with Hilton and platinum with Starwood and Marriott, so I was hoping to stay at some of those hotels (for upgrades and use points maybe), but it looks like there is not any of those sorts of hotels in the Pyrenees. Is there a better Spain trip to plan to do so? I expect to not be diamond next year with Hilton so figure I should take advantage of it now.
As you can tell, there is much we need to figure out and can use help with. It is more of a hey-we-have-some-time-and-points-and-feel-like-going-to-somewhere-new-in-Europe-and-Spain-has-good-fares-and-we've-never-been trip more than a pilgrimage to somewhere in particular. Any help would be appreciated!! Thank you!!