21 nights in Spain: Itinerary Advice Please

I should have added that we could shift the trip to May, if that is advised,

March/April is a very good time to go.
Sierra Nevada would be snowy then, so unless you are going skiing, no day trip.
A day trip from Sevilla to the hill towns is long: instead, I would rent a car in Granada, spend 1 nights in e.g. Ronda, and continue to Sevilla.

And your stay in Madrid feels long. Salamanca is really far for a day trip, and Zaragoza as well: the train rides aren't that long, but the round trips will easily eat 4 hours. A reshuffling of the trip to add 2 nights in Zaragoza between Barcelona and Seville or Granada would be worthwhile (Zaragoza is on the Barcelona-Madrid-Sevilla train line).

Not a bad plan, however I have some suggestions:

1) Don't do Cordoba on a day trip from Seville. Cordoba is between Seville and Madrid, just stop over for a day or two.

2) 8 nights for Madrid is a bit much, even with the day trips. Consider adding Avila to your visits.

My guess is you’re trying to minimize changing hotels, but by doing so you’re adding a lot of travel time. I’m thinking you’re going to get tired to day tripping, but that’s your choice.

I consider the “white towns” area to be those between Arcos de la Frontera and Ronda. As a day trip from Sevilla you’d have about 5 hours of driving. Depending on which towns you wanted to see, it would be a very long day. A possibility to shorten the travel days and have more time to visit the towns could be visiting the white towns, spending a night in Ronda, then stopping in Córdoba on the way back to Sevilla. Córdoba deserves a night, but you can see the main sights in a day. Its main sites are close together.

Since I always get a rental car, I’d make a loop; Madrid - Toledo - Salamanca - Segovia - Madrid. You’d spend a night in each. That would minimize travel time and trips to the train stations to catch trains.

If you wanted, and since you need to drive right by it, you could stop at Ávila for a couple hours to see its wall en route from Toledo to Salamanca. If you like castles, between Salamanca and Segovia there are castles in Medina de Campo, Coca, Cuellar, and Portillo. My point is, by driving you could stop and see places en route to your next city.

You have a lot of nights for your trip so I think it would be a mistake to visit Cordoba as a daytrip. Cordoba is wonderful; it's such a pretty city especially the Juderia with its narrow lanes, white-washed buildings, patios and flower pots. Cordoba is a very important city culturally and historically. There is so much to see here. In addition to the Mezquita, there is the Alcazar with its beautiful gardens, exploring the Juderia, Palacio de Viana with its lovely 12 patios, and the Roman Bridge, and I know I am leaving out other sites. Cordoba is magical at night after the daytrippers have left and the town is illuminated. One of my best memories is walking across the Roman Bridge at night and looking back to see the illuminated Mezquita.

So, I would take 2 nights from Madrid and add it to Cordoba.

Even though I haven't been to Ronda, I agree with others that it would be a very, very long day to visit the white towns from Seville as a daytrip. So take that extra night that you have and stay overnight in Ronda.

Even though I think 5 nights is perfect for Seville (without day trips), you could take one night from Seville (and still have enough time in Seville) and spend a night in Toledo. I think Toledo is more enjoyable when you spend at least one night here.

It's quite a long train trip from Barcelona to Granada, so if you take a day trip while you're in Granada, that will leave you only one full day and maybe some evening hours in that city.

Andalucia can start warming up a lot in May. You might prefer not to be in that region past the beginning of the month, though weather varies considerably from year to year.

I wouldn't expect cold weather in any of your planned destinations, but the coolest are likely to be Madrid, its day-trip destinations and Granada (at altitude). I'd suggest checking the monthly-average climate chart in each city's Wikipedia entry with an eye on the precipitation statistics--not that I think there will be a big difference between April and May.

I like the suggestions for trimming the amount of time you'll need to spend on trains with the original plan.

Wow! Thank you all for your input, it is MUCH appreciated! Now I am going to spend some time digesting the recommendations and revising my itinerary. Will be back...

I should mention that we are planning on a Northern Spain trip in the near future so we are omitting some places for that trip.

2nd Pass on itinerary:

Barcelona – 4 nights w/daytrip to Montserrat

Direct train to Granada (6 ½ hours)

Granada – 3 nights in the parador

Rent car drive to Ronda

Ronda – 1 night

Visit hill towns en route to Seville

Seville – 4 nights

Train to Cordoba

Cordoba – 2 nights

Train to Toledo (via Madrid)

Toledo – 2 nights

Train to Madrid

Madrid – 5 nights with daytrips to Segovia & Avila

The Rail Europe site does not have all the schedules that the Renfe site seems to have. Is this correct? Is there something I should be cautious about regarding this discrepancy?

Is Segovia worth spending a night there?

Thank you to everyone who has chimed in with suggestions.

Felix, Seville sounds amazing around Easter. We may look to include it. Thank you.

RailEurope is just a third-party seller of train tickets; it doesn't necessarily list all the trains, and it will probably charge you a bit more. Renfe runs most of the trains and is a better place [edited from "the best place", because you might find a deal from one of the other train companies, like Iryo] to look for the lowest-available fares. In addition, if something goes wrong (like cancellation of a train), it will probably be quite a bit easier to get a refund if you've bought your ticket from Renfe.

Other than the wall, there's not much to see and do in Avila, in my experience.

Your second plan seems better. My only suggestion would be to spend just one night in Toledo instead of two. It will take long enough to get there (via Madrid) that you won't have much sightseeing time the day of arrival, but you could give Toledo most of the next day and take a late afternoon train back to Madrid. That plan frees up a night for one of your other cities.

Just having been to Granada in September I understand the, in advance, appeal of staying at the parador. However there is more to Granada than the Alhambra, as spectacular it is. Staying at the parador is a taxi ride from the city and isolated away from all of the excellent bars and restaurants. Conversely, staying down at the base of the Albacain allows for walking to everything (except, for us, a taxi ride up to the Alhambra!) So, food for thought….