If it's for a history project, you should plan a visit to a city with lots of Roman remains.
I would recommend going to the Old royal Palace, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, I studied in the School there for a month there last year and historically it has sooooo many interesting bit and pieces to it. It is around 40 000 sq metres and if you are taken on a tour around it you will have plenty to look at. If you are living in Madrid the Bus to El Escorial will be no more than say 15 euros Im pretty sure (those were the prices from last year) and it is only 60 km from the capital there. Also at the same time you would also be able to see Valle de los Caidos "Valley of the Fallen" where Francisco Franco was buried, I am pretty sure there is a bus line that goes there, and also about a 4 km walk up a mountain near the old palace is La Silla de Felipe II "the seat of Felipe the second" there are really spectacular views from on top of that mountain. Madrid to Barcelona is about 620 km and will be about a 5 - 6 hour trip by car, by train it is about 2 - 3 hours if you catch the tain from Madrid-Puerta de Atocha and stop off at Barcelona-Sants and I think there is only 3 stops between them. Unfortunetly I can't remember how much it costs :/ sorry, In the actually city of Madrid there are some pretty awesome sites that you can see including the Royal Palace and the Temple of Debod. If you also wanted to see some other cities I suggest Toledo and Segovia they have sooooo many interesting historical sites including the famous Roman Aqueduct, which are accessible by bus. Your in luck though because the buses and trains are quite cheap and will only cost you a few Euros depending on where you want to go. Hope this helps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_of...
http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction...
http://www.spain.info/en/conoce/monument...
http://gospain.about.com/od/bustravelins...
I would recommend going to see Granada if you get the chance. Its far in the south so it would be a bit of a mission but it is really cool. The city embodies there conquista. It was a gem of Moorish culture and power so has things like the Alhambra which you can visit (you have to book tickets at least three weeks before you go otherwise you wont get tickets to get in) and a massive Moorish legacy you can still see in every part of the city, then when Catholics took over they left their mark with so many amazing churches and even the famous Royal couple, Ferdinand and Isabella are buried there.
Besides of the wellknown places like Sevilla, Granada, cordoba, Madrid and Barcelona I would like to recommend the region of Murcia and Murcia town. Look into www.murciaturistica.es.
For transportation prices look into www.renfe.es (rail), www.alsa (part of buses).com, www.vueling.com (flights).
In Murcia (region) you will find from roman theater, art nouvelle and military constructions of 1700 (Cartagena, www.cartagena.es),.baroque (www.murcia.es), defense castles of the reconquistá (www.lorca.es), pre-historic paintings and excavations of a muslim town (www.cieza.es) kind of everyting, including mines used by the Romans kind of everything.
All given pages of the cities also have a link to the turism office.
Besides, the region of Murcia is kind of unknown because of the too wellknown places.
Oh, and you have good beaches as well there.
Enjoy the trip! And use locally allways the turist office! They will answer your questions and give a lot of helpful information.
Okay, for a history project, my two friends and I have to plan a 2 week trip to go to Spain. This of course isn't a real trip but we have to use real prices and search up real flights, tours, etc. Our budget per person is $2 200. So for three people, we have $6 600. We have found flights flying into Madrid for $868. So the flights there and back will cost us $2604. We now have $3996 to spend. Were going to be staying in youth hostels. What sights are there to see, any we would be able to walk to? How far are places such as barcelona? How much would buses, trains or ferrys cost?
