12 days in and out of Barcelona-where to go?

and you need to look at transportation booking a flight and long distance high speed trains for example

Barcelona 3 nights
Buy a one way flight to Granada it is faster than the train
Visit Granada 2 nights
Train To Seville Visit Seville 3 nights
Train To Madrid Visit Madrid 2 nights
Train Back To Barcelona 1 night

i'm always the voice of dissent here but...i could do 12 days in barcelona. i could do 12 weeks in barcelona. months...years. ok i'll stop. but yeah. if you don't want to spend your entire time in transit, consider barcelona as a home base and do maybe two side trips. and everyone here can help you with side trips.

congrats on the amazing airfare you must have scored to make this happen. i saw a few fare sales the other day and was sad i couldn't take advantage of them. of course, i couldn't take advantage of them because i'll already BE in spain for most of may. still.

enjoy!

May
07. Arrive Barcelona. Train to Madrid (3 nts)
08. Madrid sights
09. Day to Toledo
10. Train to Sevilla (3 nts)
11. Sevilla sights
12. Day to Cordoba for Mezquita
13. Bus to Granada (2 nts)
14. Alhambra - BOOK ASAP
15. Fly to Barcelona (4 nts)
16.17.18 Barcelona sights
19. Depart Barcelona

To emphasize what David wrote, the Alhambra is already sold out for May 8-13 and May 16. Make sure you have tickets to the Alhambra before you book transportation to Granada.

Thanks everyone for all the awesome suggestions and advice!

I'm admittedly still in planning mode when I should probably be booking, but getting closer to nailing down some details.

Here's what I'm tentatively thinking at the moment...flights to Seville were all either too close to my arrival flight into the country, or much later in the day, so Jerez (XRY) seems like another viable option...

5/8 - arrive BCN at 9 am. Flight around lunchtime to XRY (Jerez). Rest of day/night in Jerez.
5/9 - Jerez/train to Sevilla
5/10 - Sevilla
5/11 - Sevilla/bus to Granada (alternatively: Córdoba day trip?)
5/12 - Granada
5/13 - Granada
5/14 - Granada
5/15 - Barcelona
5/16 - Barcelona
5/17 - Barcelona
5/18 - Barcelona
5/19 - Barcelona (depart lunchtime)

Wondering if it's going to be too cramped/busy, but it's pretty hard to cut out anything!

Re: Alhambra tickets, thank you djp_syd and Chani! I would have never know that it would book up so fast. I see Alhambra General tickets available for 5/14 which is perfect, although the only entrance time for the Nasrid Palaces is at 7:00 pm., and it looks like they close at 8 p.m. I will probably bite the bullet and buy them anyway--if we don't wind up being there on that day, we'll just forfeit the $30 entrance fee for two. Not the worst thing in the world.

I would urge you to drop Granada back so you can make Cordoba a certainty. After the Alhambra, you will find the Mezquita to be one of Spain's most spectacular sights.