9 days in Spain- advice, please

Just going off of your timing, March, the center and north (Barcelona and Madrid) will still be rather cold, for more pleasant weather (and since it's your first time visiting Spain), I would recommend visiting Andalucía, the region of Moorish castles and white-washed towns.

Here would be my rough schedule hitting all the "must-sees" for 8 nights:

Fly in to Madrid and take the AVE high speed train directly to
Córdoba (2 nights)
Take AVE high speed train to
Sevilla (4 nights)
ALSA Bus to
Granada (2 nights)
Fly out of Granada to Madrid and then on to US

Hope this helps!

Hello,

I would suggest a few different itineraries, maybe you can use something as a starting point:

1)Madrid based option
Day 1 - Arrival in Madrid
Day 2 - Madrid Old Town Exploration and Flamenco show
Day 3 - Own visit to Prado Museum
Day 4 - Day trip to Toledo ( Spain's first capital) - on RENFE local train
Day 5 - Day to El Escorial or Free day
Day 6 - Day trip to Segovia if you like or Free day
Day 7 - Free day
Day 8 - Free day
Day 9 - Departure

2)Southern Spain focus
Day 1 - Arrival in Madrid
Day 2 - Madrid Old Town Tour
Day 3 - Madrid of The Bourbons and Prado museum
Day 4 - Trip to Toledo and train to Cordoba
Day 5 - Day trip to Alhambra of Granada from Cordoba (via Antequera Santa Ana train station)
Day 6 - Cordoba Exploration
Day 7 - Train to Seville and evening Flamenco show (or tapas tour)
Day 8 - Alcazar of Seville and Cathedral exploration
Day 9 - Departure

3)Iberian capitals option
Day 1 - arrival in Barcelona
Day 2 - Barcelona exploration on your own and maybe Palacio Real inside visit
Day 3 - Free day - or Gaudi leftovers exploraration, Montserrat Monastery or Camp Nou Tour if you're soccer fans
Day 4 - Train to Madrid
Day 5 - Madrid tour / Prado Museum / Corrida visit / Toledo trip
Day 6 - Flight to Lisbon,Portugal
Day 7 - Lisbon exploration (including Belem Quarter)
Day 8 - Day trip to Sintra on your own
Day 9 - Departure back home

Thats what I have to propose :) Open to critique comments :)

I like Carlos's suggestion of Andalusia and his suggested itinerary. Since you like laid back, small towns, if you can swing another day or two, I would suggest time in the pueblos blancos. My favorites were Grazelema, Zahara and Setenil. You can add them between Sevilla and Granada. They are easiest visited by rental car.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies- I agree that Andalucia might be a better choice. I will definitely take these into consideration :)

Cordoba, Sevilla and Granada fit your likes perfectly and are the top 3 cities for Andalucia. While you can day trip from Sevilla to Cordoba, you will be missing its charm unless you spend a couple of nights there. Granada is too far for a day trip. 2-3 nights in Granada, 2-3 in Cordoba, 3-4 in Sevilla.

The logistics of travel depend on what your gateway cities are. Sevilla and Granada have airports but they are small. If you have to connect in Europe from Texas, you may find good open-jaw routes. Also consider flying into or out of Malaga, which is bigger and a reasonable distance from Granada.

I like Carlos' suggestion. I don't know which airport is larger, Seville or Granada. When we did a similar trip in 2017, we flew into Madrid and out of Seville. We flew home from Seville using TAP and had a lay-over in Lisbon. TAP is a budget airline; we have always gotten very good low fares. Check to see if they fly from Texas. We are from Boston.

We also used ALSA bus several times and we have no complaints. Buses are modern, air-conditioned, clean, and comfortable.

Thanks, I'll look into that airline and other budget ones like Ryanair. We will fly into and out of Madrid most likely via Condor. We will rent a car and drive the 5 hours down to Seville to stay for a couple of days, then perhaps two days in Cordoba. We wanted to fit in Portugal but I'm sure that's pushing it. Is a trip down to Casablanca or Melilla a good idea? Sounds like Granada is a better option for us.

I would strongly advise against renting a car and driving the 5 hrs down to Sevilla. You will be throwing away the already little vacation time that you have. It is much more faster, comfortable, and economical to use the AVE Train/ALSA Bus combo to travel. Since you will be visiting mainly urban areas, if you have a car, you will have the additional burden of finding parking, paying for parking daily, and also paying for petrol (avg. $5.39 USD a gallon here in Spain).

I would also 100% rule out Portugal and Morocco for this trip, you have barely enough time in Andalucía, as it is. I would stick with the Córdoba - Sevilla - Granada combo.

I just checked the train schedule- wow, good call. That will save valuable time!

No worries! :)
The AVE High Speed Train system is really great in Spain, whenever possible, I would check to see if there is an AVE line to where you are going. Conveniently, Córdoba and Sevilla sit on the same AVE line, so that makes connecting between the two a breeze. The only time I think you should rent a car on this trip, is if you decide to explore the white-washed hill towns (Pueblos Blancos) southeast of Sevilla for a day or two.

The train is the way to go. If you are flying R/T Madrid and have a morning or early afternoon arrival, you should go straight to Cordoba, changings trains in Madrid. Right now it's a toss-up between using the bus or the train to Granada. Maybe by 2020 the track upgrade to Granada will be completed (though I would not hold out too much hope). In the meantime (it's been several years now), you take the fast train from Cordoba, Madrid or Sevilla to Antequera, then transfer to a shuttle bus for the drive to the Granada train station. There are also tourist-class buses from all of them to Granada. Unless you have a mid-afternoon or later departure from Madrid, you'll need to spend your last night there to get to the airport. Anyway, you've got nearly a year before you have to consider that.