Barcelona-Madrid-Lisbon

Those are major cities, with tons to see. I would only visit two of them in that time frame.

Cut out Lisbon because you need four to five nights for Barcelona if you include a couple day trips i.e., the Dali Theatre-Museum and Montserrat. You need four nights in Madrid if you add a day trip to Toledo, more nights if you include Salamanca and Segovia. Lisbon deserves a minimum of five to seven nights if you add day trips to Belém and Sintra.

I agree with the posters who recommend dropping Lisbon. You really don’t have time for 3 major cities. Barcelona is a large city with many important and interesting sites such as the Gaudi buildings (La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, Parc Guell, etc. ) and churches, museums, interesting neighborhoods, etc. You could easily spend 5 nights in Barcelona without day trips.

If you are interested in art, Madrid has some outstanding art museums, in addition to the Royal Palace, Temple Debod, Plaza Mayor, the San Miguel Market, Retiro Park, etc. You could easily spend 4 nights in Madrid without day trips, and 5 nights with a day trip to Toledo. Or spend one night in Toledo.

Thank you so much. Good to hear Madrid and Barcelona can fill my 9 days.

Both Barcelona and Madrid are great cities. And all great European cities are worthy of 4 or more day.

So you might consider dropping Lisbon this trip.

Or spend one night in Toledo.

Unless you’re a late-night person you do not want to spend the night in Toledo. After my first visit to Toledo, I thought I needed to spend one night so when I returned to Madrid, I did spend one night in Toledo. What I learned is Toledo shuts down at 7PM. This was in early spring and no people were walking in the dark alleyway like streets nor were there street lights and restaurants were either closed or were shutting down. There are some who say it’s revived after 9PM but I find that hard to believe. What I did like is the next morning I got an early start and a lot of stores were open as early as 8:30AM when Madrid’s stores open later. I’m not the only one who says this either.

I'm a big fan of Toledo and have recommended multiple nights there. I'm not a fan of a one-night stay, especially in this situation when you're already going to two major cities in nine or ten days. It's a hassle to switch hotels for one night, especially in Toledo where the train station is located way below the historic center. I think in your case, a day trip to Toledo makes the most sense.

The trains to and from Toledo do sometimes sell out (though I think not very far in advance), so you might want to buy those tickets as soon as you get to Madrid and can take a look at the local weather forecast. The fare will not change if you buy your tickets at the last minute, but you might well not be able to travel at the time you want.

I agree with the main idea of only 2 of those 3 cities.
For me Barcelona-Lisbon would be a good choice also.
You don't have time for 3.

I am not trying to convince the OP that he should spend one night in Toledo if he really doesn't want to. It was just a suggestion. A day trip would be easier especially since the vacation is not very long to begin with.

But our experience staying overnight in Toledo was very different from Mary Pat's, and I wonder if this has something to do with the time of year. We were in Toledo in September 2017. According to my journal, we had dinner at El Trebol located on a side street about a block away from Plaza de Zocodover. After dinner, we walked to Plaza de Zocodover where we stopped for gelato. There were many Spanish families hanging out in the plaza eating ice cream and tons of little children riding their bikes. It was a very enjoyable experience. Many of the daytrippers had left and the city is gorgeous when it is illuminated at night. Mary Pat says she was in Toledo in early spring so I assume the time of year is the reason for our different experiences.