Advice for 2 weeks in Spain

How about: Barcelona then drive to Granada (include a stop somewhere maybe Valencia) drive to Seville to La Rioja area and then to Madrid. The guidebooks have all the must see attractions listed in them.

That’s a heck of a lot of driving in 2 weeks! Since Rioja is a must, why not concentrate on the north? Zaragoza, San Sebastián & Bilbao come to mind.

August will be terribly hot in Andalusia: Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada. Save them for a cooler time of year. Sevilla is my favorite place in Spain but you would do better focusing in the north in August as another poster outlined.

Instead of Rioja, why not Priorat? Better wine and not so many tourists.

Don’t let others dissuade you from visiting someplace because of the heat. However, there is a lot of driving in your itinerary and the flow isn’t that great. I could understand Barcelona, Granada, Sevilla Madrid, but Rioja is out of the way. Or, Barcelona, La Rioja, Madrid, but then the others are out of place. I’m not certain which are most important for you to visit. If you dropped Granada and Sevilla, then you could add, Leon and Burgos, for example. That would cut down on the total driving time. As you already know, the places mentioned will all be very busy in August. Since you will have a car, there are a lot of small towns and sites in La Rioja worth seeing, but don’t take a lot of time to visit. Most importantly, they are much less touristy than the cities you mentioned.
Distances between the places you mentioned.
Barcelona - longrono (La Rioja) - 250 miles
Barcelona - Granada - 423 miles
Granada - Sevilla - 132 miles
Sevilla - Madrid - 243 miles
Madrid - Logrono - 155 miles

Assuming you could drive 60mph and didn’t stop for food or gas, and didn’t make any wrong turns or stop to see anything, you have 20 hours of driving just getting to the places you mentioned.

First as someone who has traveled from Logroño to Granada with two teenagers and in 40°C (104F) heat you need a day to it and a day to recover.

You might want take advantage of what is between Barcelona and La Rioja. Zaragoza will be hot in August, but if you go up to Huesca, and Jaca, there are some interesting places to visit, like the Castle of Loarre used by Ridley Scott in the movie Kingdom of Heaven, or the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña where the Holy Grail was supposed to be housed for several centuries. You mentioned religious significance, Javier, the birth place of St. Francisco Javier is near by also.

As for Logroño, and La Rioja, August is a pretty calm month. Most of the people here go to away for vacation, and few people come here for a vacation, and most who do go to their village. Ezcaray fills up with people from the Basque Country who have apartments there.

From Logroño, you can head south to Soria. If your kids like El Cid, you can fall to Route of El Cid, or if you like Romans, you can visit Numantia and Medinaceli. If there is a Spaghetti Western fan in your group you can visit the cemetery from "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"

Do not underestimate the heat in Andalucia. There's a reason July-August is low season! (unlike Italy and even Greece).

Seriously consider heading north to Basque country and/or Galicia and/or the Pyrenees. There's great food, historical sights and local culture everywhere, and more chance of scenic outdoors.

Thank you all for the great input! I will reconsider the leg to Andalusia due to the distance/logistics. Maybe it will have to be moved to the "after kids are out of the nest" trips list, when we can travel in the off-season. ;)