Andalusia - travel between cities on trip

You can buy your ticket to Seville by train (this is the operator I prefer and recommend https://iryo.eu/en/home ) or plane once you know for sure that your flight is leaving and arriving on time, for example on your phone at the boarding gate at IAD. Give yourself at least 3 hours to catch it.

The bus ride from Seville to Granada turned out to be quite pleasant a real value for us and for others who I have recommended that to. This is the company that operates it where you can buy tickets in advance
https://www.alsa.com/en

Trains along the line from Barcelona to Madrid to Cordoba to Seville do sometimes sell out. There's not a great solution to that situation on your arrival day. What you can do is keep a close eye on the Renfe and Iryo websites in the last week or so before departure, to see whether all trains remain available. If you see trains beginning to show up as "Full", you may decide to buy tickets and be optimistic. You can also buy tickets that allow changes at a slight up-charge (plus difference in ticket cost if you need to change them), but that doesn't protect against a bunch of sold-out trains on your travel date, only against a delayed flight.

Thanks Acraven. So are you a proponent of taking the train versus flying?

After checking Iberia airlines, it appears they have a have a direct flight at 13:20 which, I assume, would be more than enough time between landing from US and Iberia flight, even with a delay. Seems like they have a 24 hr and a 72 hr hold also which would allow me to purchase tickets with last minute changes? I'm very much a planner and feel purchasing some form of transportation before we get there would decrease my stress.

Not for any logical reason, I always prefer trains. The thing about the flight option is that you don't know there will still be tickets available at an acceptable price if you wait to buy tickets until just a few days before traveling, and you can't be certain you won't encounter a significant delay on your inbound flight that could mess up the continuation flight just like it could mess up train travel. With a flight you don't need to find your way into town, to Atocha Station, but I don't know what extra steps you might run into at the airport, flying on two separate tickets. Definitely, plenty of people would say to fly to Seville since you're already going to be at the airport anyway.

Late last April I had a ticket on a non-stop flight from Washington-Dulles to London-Heathrow. I've flown to Europe from Dulles about two dozen times (including to destinations requiring transfers) without a significant issue, but that simple non-stop to London was canceled. I was rescheduled for the next day. A few months before that I took a domestic trip up to Boston, which is a very short trip. My outbound flight was 6 hours late (the plane was "broken", according to the pilot); my return flight was 7 hours late (legitimate major weather issues on that one). Stuff happens, and it's harder to get a good, quick replacement for a transatlantic flight.

My husband and I have a famous memory of running to catch a train to Sevilla after landing in Madrid. That said I still prefer getting on a train after a long international flight. I can’t tell from your post if you have a connection from within the US. We’re in California so when we land in Europe we’re ready to be done with planes for a while. What I like about train connections is:

Easier for me to get a little sleep
Enjoy looking at scenery on the journey vs, more sky and clouds
Can easily get up and walk around
Usually more comfortable - larger seats and more room

I think we'll wait a bit to assure we don't have flight changes and likely take the train. We do indeed have connections before getting to DC so, yes, there is a possibility of delays or missing flights (We're flying from Colorado). Wishing now we would have flown into Seville, however when booking flights, there were not good connections in Europe into Seville using United. We had flight credit so needed to use United. I'm thankful we get in at 8 a.m. at least.

Cupcake, how much time did you give yourself for the train transfer?

Also wondering if anyone has insight on what time of day the trains are the least busy from Madrid to Seville?

As long as your flight arrives on time, or not too much later, I can't see why you would have any trouble making an 11:30am flight. Especially with carry on only.

We are in a similar situation. Flying into Madrid and then transferring to Granada. Our flight gets in at 9:05am and there is a flight to Granada at noon. If they make any changes to our flight, then we will also have to consider the train. My thinking is that if you are already at the airport, it seems easier to just take a flight rather than getting to the train station (with luggage) and taking the train. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are not wrong!!

I’m glad to hear that flying is reasonable. It definitely would be our preference. Even if we select the 1:30 pm flight, we still will get in much earlier than taking a train I think.
I’ll wait awhile though to finalize trip.
I guess there’s always a chance of problems with flying with delays, cancelations, etc. whether you miss another flight or the train.

Any feedback in taking a bus or train from Seville to Granada? And Granada to Cordoba?

I am bookmarking this post. Your tip is so similar to mine in September, but we are doing it in the reverse. We fly into Madrid, stay there a few days and then head south. We are for sure doing Seville and will do Granada and Cordoba. I would like to try and do Nerja (I think that's how you spell it) but we only have 2 weeks and don't want it to be crazy, go, go, go. This is our first trip to Spain, so if anyone has suggestions on the "must do" list, I would love to hear about it. I think we are doing mostly train and will be taking the train from Madrid south. Thank you for this post and I hope you enjoy your trip!

Several posters have commented on using buses in and out of Granada (probably because their schedules were more convenient than the infrequent trains). I do not recall any complaints. Although I haven't taken buses between Granada and Seville or Granada and Cordoba, I've taken many other buses in southern Spain, and they were comfortable.

Buses are heavily used in Spain. They can sell out (though possibly less frequently than express trains). I'd be shocked if that happened very far in advance, but I ran into a full bus once in Bilbao.

Bus fares on major intercity routes seem to be somewhat variable, based on demand, so if you buy your ticket late, you may pay more than the price would have been a week or two earlier.

Plane vs train, hard decision but I’m wondering if you are aware of the train derailment in Spain. Here is a link to a recent Forum thread about it. Might be helpful to you in making a decision

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/heavy-train-accident-rail-services-between-madrid-and-andalusia-closed-minimum-until-tuesday#bottom