Barcelona-Valencia-Alicante

Hi guys, I want to ask for advice about the itinerary.

This year during end of June or mid of July, I plan a trip to Spain with my girlfriend. Our initial plan is arrival/departure by plane in/from Barcelona. From there after 3-4 days in Barcelona we would like and considering to take rent-a-car and visit Valencia, Alicante and maybe Murcia/Cartagena and any other small interesting city in between and drive by the seaside.

I don't know much about their roads, and the best value rent-a-car companies so would be great if you can recommend me some? I saw that price is around 20euros for the smallest possible option. Also, any tip about itinerary is highly appreciated because we just have started planning.

Thanks in advance!

I suggest you take a look at previous threads about car rentals in Spain, there was one just a few days ago about Goldcar and their practices towards customers but there are many more.. 20 euros seems very cheap and there is a big chance there´s a catch somewhere, which will make you pay double the price and which you´ll only find out about when you´re already here ready to pick up the car, so do a careful research, read reviews and read the small print of course before committing to anything, I won´t take the risk of recommending any particular company :) Golden rule – be extremely wary of anything that looks too good to be true.

The roads are generally in good conditions but there are tolls to pay on the highway – between Barcelona and Valencia I think it´s around € 30-35. You can of course avoid the tolls by taking side roads if you´re in no particular rush and sometimes these are better if you want to stop at smaller villages on your way between the big cities.

Just a suggestion, but if you´re going all the way to Murcia I would look at the possibility of dropping off the car somewhere around there and fly back from Alicante, which has an international airport, so you don´t have to drive all the way back to Barcelona..

Driving along the seaside from Barcelona to Alicante is not really possible. Along the coast a lot of high-rise tourist apartments are built and separate the road from the sea. On top there is a lot of (local) traffic on this road, which means that it takes quite a while. The main roads, motorways are toll and often not very interesting. In other words if you want to go from Barcelona to Valencia, take the train.
If you plan to go inland the situation changes, because there are quite a lot of nice villages to visit. Have a look at https://www.viamichelin.com/. Places of interest and roads with a nice scenery are marked by a green square or stripe.

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