Andalucia itinerary for two weeks in November

Seville is much larger than Granada and it seems nearly everyone finds Seville needs more time because of the number of sights there. I'd switch one night from Granada to Seville.

For me it's a close call on that day trip to Malaga. Cordoba is such a nice city, and it has a lot more sights than Malaga. But I can understand wanting to include a coastal city.

I would choose Cadiz over Malaga--an easy day trip from Sevilla. I enjoyed spending a day/night in Malaga when I flew in there, but I would not go out of my way for it.
Without knowing what you want to do in each place, it is difficult to comment on number of days allotted for each place. Sevilla could warrant another day.

Thanks, y’all. Usually on a four night visit, we try to see the major sites in an unhurried way and devote a lot of time to wandering, wine, lunches. We like to do a private guided tour and have enjoyed hiring a driver for expeditions to nearby places.

So, we are fellow North Carolinians and in your age range. Based on our recent (self-drive) trip to Andalusia, would suggest less time in Granada and at least one night in Cordoba. We flew in/out of Malaga which was cost effective. And we enjoyed Malaga (did not love Cadiz) — no major sights but lovely, relaxing and good food.

I concur on less time in Granada; a couple of days would catch the major attractions there. I would encourage at least a day trip to Marbella and, if possible, Malaga to see the coastal communities, which are quite different from the inland cities.

I would skip the day trips, there's a lot to see in each of the cities without them

My wife and I (similar age range as you two) leave for our first trip to Spain in April, and this is how we finally decided to divide up our 3 weeks:

Seville 5 nights
Costa de la Luz 2 nights (Jerez, Cadiz or Arcos de la Frontera, still debating the relative merits of the three)
Ronda 3 nights (Ronda will also be a base for our exploration of the Pueblos Blancos, with a rental car)
Granada 3 nights
Cordoba 3 nights
Madrid 5 nights

I second acraven's recommendation to move a night from Granada to Sevilla. You might also consider dropping the day trip to Malaga in favor of devoting 3 nights in Cordoba to the city itself, which has more to see than we realized. Cordoba seems to be perennially underrated in the guidebooks, some of which recommend visiting the city as a day trip from Sevilla.

I like the "less is more" focus of your overall itinerary, which is more amenable to slow travel since there is less time transferring between stops, which always means more time for sightseeing or soaking in the local culture.

We are utilizing guides for Sevilla (Concepcion @ Sevilla Walking Tours), Granada (Alhambra Tours), Cordoba (Angel Aguilar-Tablada) and Madrid (Federico, ie, Spain Fred) and will DIY our visits for Ronda and Jere/Cadiz/Arcos (still debating which one!). We are fine with DIY walking tours (more so when we were younger and had more energy!), but despite that, my experience is that local guides know a lot more of the details about their hometowns than I ever will, and that extra knowledge has always been money well spent.

Hope this helps - best of luck with your trip planning!

Definitely skip the day trip to Malaga from Córdoba and spend time enjoying Córdoba instead. There's the Mezquita, which is gorgeous, and there's lots to do even though it's not a large city.

Have you made your airline reservations yet? If not, I strongly recommend looking into open-jaw or multi-city flights. For example, fly into Madrid and home from Seville so that you don't have to backtrack to Madrid. Or home from Malaga so you can spend a night in Malaga, which is a lovely coastal city that actually has a lot of impressive and enjoyable sites.

Some wonderful Malaga sites:
Alcazaba
Castillo de Gibralfaro
Museo Picasso
Malaga Cathedral
Atarazanas Market
Seaside Promenade where you can have drinks while watching the sunset
Paseo del Parque
And many more museums if you are interested

I haven't been to Cadiz so I can't compare it to Malaga.

And I concur with others that you can take a night away from Granada and should add it to Seville, which is larger and has so many interesting sites.

And if you can fly in/out of Malaga as mml suggests, that is even better since it looks like you really don't plan on spending any time in Madrid. Being on the coast for a few days gives you a nice diversity to your trip since all the other places are inland. In fact, that is why I chose Malaga over Ronda.

@kmkwoo, you make excellent points about Malaga, and I personally loved it; my wife, conversely, really enjoyed Cadiz. I really don't think one can go wrong with either choice.

Thanks, everyone, for your insights and suggestions. I've made some adjustments!
@acraven I've added time in Seville at your suggestion. @valadelphia I'm going with Cadiz as you suggest. @Webdweeb I appreciate the guide information and will investigate further.

@kmkwoo We often use multi-city flights; I'll look into that, but we need to use Delta credit, so that's a limiting factor. I try to be very aware of my husband's comfort; he really does not enjoy long flights and we don't want more than one connection. We were in Madrid briefly in 2015 and would like more time there.

With day trips, we usually play it by ear once we've settled in a given city.

I may shorten this by a day or so, depending on flights and travel fatigue forecasting.

Here's the new plan:

• Day 1 Travel overnight to Madrid
• Day 2 Arrive Madrid, spend night
• Day 3 Train to Granada / this is the longest ride, 3.5 hours, so I thought we'd start there
• Day 4 Granada
• Day 5 Granada
• Day 6 train to Seville / about 3 hours
• Day 7 Seville
• Day 8 Seville / Jerez de la Frontera?
• Day 9 Seville
• Day 10 Seville / Cadiz for the day?
• Day 11 Seville
• Day 12 train to Cordoba / about an hour
• Day 13 Cordoba
• Day 14 Cordoba / or maybe train to Madrid
• Day 15 Madrid
• Day 16 Madrid
• Day 17 fly home

Hi , we are four adults aged 59-67, in good health and active and have done Barcelona, Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla, Malaga, Ronda , 2 national parks, Camininto del Rey and a tour of an olive grove and production with the owner (just us). We are based in Caleta de Vélez right by the beach so have biked and walked a fair bit. Camino de Santiago de Compestela starts Monday April 1st then onto Madrid and hopefully time for Segovia and El Escorial before we fly out.

Cordoba;
We enjoy the Moorish influence in Spain and would recommend Córdoba. We did one day trip to Cordoba and it was raining so the former mosque is damp inside so dress appropriately, depending on the weather. We visited one of the very few Jewish synagogues that has survived in Spain and walked the Roman bridge. The Jewish quarter would have been interesting to visit, had we had enough time.

Sevilla:
We visited the Cathedral and Royal Alcazar. Both very good. If you want to go up the Giralda Tower of the cathedral, please note, there are 35 ramps to climb, and it is very narrow with travelling up and down ( the Moors went up donkeys back in the day). It would be challenging in a busy time Very congested once you get to the top. We ate at Rick’s recommended restaurant, Bar restaurante El 3 Oro. VERY good and reasonable. In fact, one of the best meals we’ve had here since I personally find the food rather plain in Spain.
MUST DO: an authentic flamenco show at La Casa del Flamenco. One of our guides told us that many other shows are glitzy for tourists and those dancers are not trained in flaminco. We thoroughly enjoyed our show and the talent and professionalism.

You may wish to drive to Rio Tinto from Sevilla for a unique experience. They have been mining there since 500 BC and the current mine is massive and quite striking. The river is literally red from the mineral runoff. There is a good museum to look at. The highlight is the museum and the train ride, although it is all in Spanish. I believe there are audio guides to help with the museum. There is also a reproduction, Roman mine, which was good to go through ( at the Museum).

MALAGA:
This is mostly a tourist area for the sun, and aside from the old streets, which have lots of character. I would spend time elsewhere.

I would recommend the Caminito del Rey, and a tour of an olive grove and its production. We went to Molino del Hortelano. Lovely soft spoken engaged wife-owner. Use google maps to get there. Gorgeous views and up HIGH, twisty route. Their olive is organic and was voted best in the world in 2021. Taste testing and explanation of new closed processing. DYK they crush the olive pit and include it?

Hope that helps!

I forgot to mention, the Nerja caves are outside Malaga and worth the trip! We also walked the Balcony of Europa there and enjoyed the paella on the beach per Rick’s book. Excellent.

There's been a fair amount of discussion here about Córdoba and Málaga, with the upshot being that Córdoba is the place for historical interest while Málaga is just a touristy beach town. I'll just say that characterization is wildly at odds with my impressions of the two cities, as I found the Alcazaba and extensive Roman ruins in Málaga to be fascinating, and the old quarters of the city center to be beautiful and interesting. Córdoba, for me, was quite disappointing: one of the least interesting cities I've visited in Europe, with the main exception being the small Jewish museum tucked away near the bullfighting museum. Bullfighting is not interesting to me, and the omnipresence of its influence in Córdoba I found off-putting.

Each to his own, obviously, and I don't intend to demean the opinions of others. I just don't share them.

There's lots to see and do in Malaga, full of history and museums, certainly not a 'beach town', although there is the beach too...
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2020/01/malaga-what-to-see-and-do-free-31-ideas.html

Although the OP has chosen Cadiz (which I am sure is lovely), I want to say that I agree with jphbucks and Tinac that Malaga is NOT just a beach town. Yes, there is a beach there, but there is so much more to Malaga. There is lots of history and wonderful art museums. And the Alcazaba is amazing, including the uphill walk to the top with small patios, fountains, exotic flowers, lush greenery, and stunning views of the Mediterranean and the port.

I believe the people who think it’s only a place for fun in the sun didn’t explore Malaga, and sadly only relied on Rick’s guidebook. Please use other guidebooks as well when planning your trips, such as Lonely Planet, Fodors, Michelin Green Guides, and Rough guides.