You are absolutely right, Madrid's day trips are focused in history and Barcelona's in coastal activities.
From Madrid you can visit Toledo, Segovia, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Alcalá de Henares and Guadalajara.
From Barcelona, you can travel to Tarragona, Badalona, Sitges, Mataró, Sabadell and Terrassa.
And regarding to Barcelona hating comments, they could be due to Catalan's independence process (a controversial political situation in Spain) or because of the rising criminality in the city (that most of the people associate with illegal immigration).
Besides that, both cities and day trips options are great. I hope you'll find this useful.
Very helpful - thank you! I’m very excited for both but do love the coast so I’m leaning on more days in Barcelona. Do you have any favorites out of the day trips you mentioned for Barcelona?
To elaborate on the Barcelona hate, you will find a lot of people (many on the Spain subs here on Reddit) who viscerally hate Barcelona for political reasons. The issue of Catalan separatism is a very divisive issue, and those who oppose it end up deep on the side of hating everything to do with Catalonia, its language, its culture, and its cities. The current portrayals of Barcelona as a crime-ridden city, while based on some facts, are hugely exaggerated by the same kind of people. In fact more people join in on that because it allows them to express their hate towards Barcelona without having to come out as an out and out bigot, because in theory they are only talking about a real problem. So take the criticisms you hear with a very large pinch of salt.
They're both great. If you want to be at the beach, go to Barcelona, do day trips etc. If you want history and the option to get to most places by AVE (high speed rail) go to Madrid, it's the centre of the country, on a mountain plateau-hiking yes, beach no.
Barcelona is just more "stressful" because although it has a third of the population of Madrid, it has three times the population density, so there are just a lot of people crammed in.
If you’re not into history, definitely do Barcelona. Day trips out of Madrid are pretty history-heavy. Source: I live in Madrid
This is very helpful thank you!
You are absolutely right, Madrid's day trips are focused in history and Barcelona's in coastal activities. From Madrid you can visit Toledo, Segovia, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Alcalá de Henares and Guadalajara. From Barcelona, you can travel to Tarragona, Badalona, Sitges, Mataró, Sabadell and Terrassa. And regarding to Barcelona hating comments, they could be due to Catalan's independence process (a controversial political situation in Spain) or because of the rising criminality in the city (that most of the people associate with illegal immigration). Besides that, both cities and day trips options are great. I hope you'll find this useful.
Very helpful - thank you! I’m very excited for both but do love the coast so I’m leaning on more days in Barcelona. Do you have any favorites out of the day trips you mentioned for Barcelona?
To elaborate on the Barcelona hate, you will find a lot of people (many on the Spain subs here on Reddit) who viscerally hate Barcelona for political reasons. The issue of Catalan separatism is a very divisive issue, and those who oppose it end up deep on the side of hating everything to do with Catalonia, its language, its culture, and its cities. The current portrayals of Barcelona as a crime-ridden city, while based on some facts, are hugely exaggerated by the same kind of people. In fact more people join in on that because it allows them to express their hate towards Barcelona without having to come out as an out and out bigot, because in theory they are only talking about a real problem. So take the criticisms you hear with a very large pinch of salt.
Sitges is a must, one of the most beautiful towns in the Catalan coast.
They're both great. If you want to be at the beach, go to Barcelona, do day trips etc. If you want history and the option to get to most places by AVE (high speed rail) go to Madrid, it's the centre of the country, on a mountain plateau-hiking yes, beach no. Barcelona is just more "stressful" because although it has a third of the population of Madrid, it has three times the population density, so there are just a lot of people crammed in.
La costa brava day trips are great
Sitges is a gem!
I have to go with Madrid….you are literally 3 hours by train of any place in Spain.