What is a safe and scenic way to drive from Barcelona to Madrid? [closed]

'Beautiful' is relative, but if you take the highway, well, it's a highway.

Spain ain't, say, the Central African Republic, so, car hire is a pretty boring (and safe) business. All the regular players are available in Barcelona. I recommend booking through 3clickcarhire. They tend to give decent deals. This September, I also rented a car through 3clickcarhire in Barcelona, the provider being Budget Rent-a-car, where the cost of renting the car was pleasantly low and service good. Do realise that Spain has plenty of (sometimes expensive!) toll roads.

I've done this drive a couple of times. You can do it in under 6 hours easily on the motorway. I found parts of the trip extremely beautiful, but I guess it depends how used you are to the barren dry landscapes. There were lightning storms in the distance for long stretches of the journey, which looked amazing to us. However, I must admit that long stretches of the trip are a bit samey.

As other people have mentioned, there are loads of tolls you have to pay coming in to Barcelona. I think we paid around €30 in total. The other thing I remember is that there are NO signs for Madrid anywhere in the Catalonia region - the Catalans really don't like the Madrileños! This can be confusing at times, if you don't know exactly which road to take. Whereas on the other hand, there are signs for Barcelona even in the very centre of Madrid city, so the feeling isn't mutual.

Every time I've done the drive, I've been under time pressure to get to my destination, so I don't have much advice about stops. Zaragoza is quite nice. One beautiful stop along the way is Alcala de Henares. It's only an hour or so outside Madrid, so maybe a bit too close to be stopping, but it's a beautiful medieval town worth at least a quick walk around.

Regarding safe car hires, all the usual suspects are there. You have to remember that Spain is a first world country, so expect everything you're used to at home (except that hardly anyone speaks English).