Spain vs Central Europe

What are your family's thoughts?

Ten days is not much. Since you are in Spain, stay in Spain. There is more than enough to see in Spain for your ten days. And southern Spain is a big contrast to the Europe that you have seen. Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga, the hill towns, etc.

Additional inforation will help provide better responses.
What month?
How many are in your family and their ages?
Where have your family members previously visited in Europe?
And as a prior poster asked, what are your family members desires?

It's probably going to be late July/early August. We are a family of 4. My parents are in their 40s, I am 19 and my sister is 16.
My parents have already been to Switzerland but not Austria or the Czech Republic. My dad has been to Spain--Barcelona, Madrid, and Granada.
My sister and I have visited London, Paris, Florence, Venice, and Rome.
So far, my family has a pretty open mind to our destination. My dad really wants us to see Granada.

Thank you for your responses!

If you Dad wants to go to Granada and I assume he is paying, so why not go. The Alhambra is unique. But July and August will be hot in Spain.

I'm like Frank, why travel somewhere else when you only have ten days? If Granada is in, stick with southern Spain. Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba, and a hill town will consume most of your ten days.

Use your weekends during the month to visit Toledo (train or bus); Segovia and/or Avila (bus); Valladolid (three great castles nearby), Salamanca and/or Burgos (bus or rental car); or Pamplona (San Fermin is in July) and the great castle in nearby Olite (bus, train to Zaragosa and bus or rental car from there). You could even fast train to Barcelona for a weekend - but that gets expensive.

Barcelona is great in the summer heat of July/August, so it's a hard one to leave out.
Can you stretch to 2 weeks for Madrid>>Cordoba>>Sevilla>>Granada>>Barcelona ?

There are advantages and disadvantages. Because you are already in Spain, stay in Spain - a lot to see. On the other hand at that time of the year you will experience oppressing heat. Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic won't be so hot. But lately with global warming, summers there are becoming hot, too. If you tolerate heat well, stay in Spain, you will save money. If you are like me and don't tolerate heat, go to Central Europe but it will cost you more.

While you are in Madrid, go to Toledo one weekend (less than an hour on the train). Maybe Cordoba or Seville on another (all are within 3 hours on the train). Maybe other towns near Madrid (Avila, Segovia). Then you have seen a few things in Spain.

In your 10 days either do some combo of Granada, Southern Spain, and Barcelona. This is the most convenient, so the most logical.

OR

Go to Barcelona for 4-5 days then get a cheap flight to Vienna or Prague or another central European city of interest. Barcelona is a great city, and has a good airport for flights to another destination. While Barcelona/Prague is an odd combination, it could be fun.

Thank you everyone for the advice! I think that with the limited time I have, a trip in Spain would be a better option.

Seville and Cordoba may be too hot. Granada should be better because of the altitude. I also think Barcelona would be a better choice. There's lots to see in the city and there are other places of interest.

We are able to tolerate heat pretty well since we are all from Texas. Will it really be too hot to enjoy Seville and other parts of southern Spain?

I also second the "stay in Spain" idea. Ten days is not long. A suggestion would be to visit Seville with day trip to Cadiz or Jerez, Granada with day trip to Malaga and Barcelona. This implies 3 travel days if you fly back from Barcelona. Spain will be hot July and August.

As a Texan who retired in AZ because TX just wasn't hot enough, I'm sure y'all would do fine in the south of Spain. But if you think you might have had enough by the time your family arrives, you might consider San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela and other possibilities in the Basque and Galicia areas on the Atlantic, and maybe pass through Salamanca enroute. It's green and hilly to mountainous. Google that area for information, weather and some stunning mountain and ocean pictures.

Will it be too hot?

When will you be there? Is your course ending at the end of summer or in the middle? I went in April and it was mostly unseasonably cold, including driving through snow between Jaen and Granada. Generally April is high season because it's comfortable.

I had a friend stationed in southern Spain. He described the weather as like Arizona (in summer, up to around 115 degrees). That's probably why the Spanish eat dinner late and take a siesta in the middle of the day. My friend said it was really hot, but you didn't notice it most of the time. The time you will notice the heat is when you're outdoors all day - as in a visit to the Alhambra in Granada.

Lo has a good point. The north coast is ideal that time of year. The rest of the year it's rainy and gets cold.

My course will end early August. So that is around the time we will be taking the trip. But Arizona during the summer! That is really hot, especially as I imagine we will spend a lot of time outside.

Ok, appears we have a family of fairly seasoned travelers capable of tolerating a variety of circumstances. Some thoughts:

There is a reason for taking a siesta and it is to stay out of the hottest time of the day. Even though you will feel the pressure to make the most out of your travel dollar and limited time, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of siestas. Remove yourself from the mass of hot sticky unpleasant sea of humanity and go take a shower and a nap.
Hydration starts the day before you get out into the heat. Seriously. Water your body the day prior and keep inhaling the h2O. Once your body gets behind on hydration it is difficult to get back to a needed level, especially while trying to maintain a schedule in high temps. Local water is great and safe. Do you want cheap water? Buy a beer!

Max out your time by quickly adjusting to the local cultural time table. This means eating later and enjoying more night life. Fyi: alhambra is fascinating at night.

Tip: if you desire to eat outside then look for wet pavement. By rinsing down the pavement the built up temperature is being released and creating a cooler service area. Also, strive to get a table close to the building, especially a table near the exterior entry to the cellar. The cool air from the cellar will creep out along the wall of the building and create a cooler air under the tbales positioned near the wall.

In Granada stay outside the main tourist zone. Locate a map depicting the location of the university of granada and stay in/near that zone (our daughter went to the university of granada). Rates are much cheaper for rooms and eating. Suggest staying three nights in Granada and if you choose three nights then suggest you rent an apartment with a higher floor location offering a terrace. Apartments offer better value for space and amenties. Btw: there is a nice water park in granada.

Since you will studying abroad in spain use the student network to identify places to stay outside of tourist zones. Also include your teachers and use their network to find places tourist will never hear about.

I advise a stay in ronda, especially if your family enjoys hiking.

Seville is a three night stay.

And i can go on and on...........

Biggest tip is to pack uber light and being luggage mule is no fun in any type of weather.

Thank you all very much for your helpful responses! While we are keeping our options open right now, we are leaning towards spending more time in Spain.