Barcelona + Seville + Self-drive in between

You are ging to spend more time in your car than enjoying Spain.
Your idea of flying to Seville then renting a car is a good one.

I used to live near Malaga and have done quite a bit of driving through Spain,

However, have a think abut taking the train instead. Door to door, it's not much longer than flying, and far easier. You'll also see the scenery en route.
There are direct trains, or ones with a change in Madrid (same station) that take about 6 -7 hours.

I think you have to be a little more realistic. Although, I accept we all travel differently, both your plans seem to be a lot of moving around with only limited "seeing stuff".

In plan A on day 5 you'll be in the car for over 5 hours, you can add another 2 hours in parking/getting into the town centre/eating, etc. The only time you actually have in Ubeda and Baeza is enough to take a photo before turning round and going back to the parking lot.

In plan B, there really is no way you can do everything on days 5 to 7 of plan A in just two days, unless visiting means simply driving past the town limit sign.

I'd suggest, making this a two destination trip. The first half in Barcelona, with the monastery as a day-trip. Then fly to Seville for the second half. Hire a car for two days to visit some places. Perhaps ending in Malaga. Then fly to Scotland. Or you could "loop around" and go back to Sevilla - Ryanair has Seville-Edinburgh flights.

An alternative, busy option would be to fly from Barcelona to Granada. Then rent a car to drive to Sevilla with a stopover along the way - your route could include some (but not all) of the places you mention such as Ubeda.

Bear in mind that hire car fees for a one-way drop-off can be dear.

We did Montserrat taking the train from Plaza Espana and got there early. Not sure about driving. I think we took the cable car up, sorry it was 15 years ago. Check for where you would park.

You need more than two days in Seville.

Thanks Nick, for your thoughts.

The two destination option that you mentioned was similar to my Plan B. I figured that 3 days would be sufficient to start from Seville to visit Andújar - Baeza - Ubeda (1st day), Priego de Córdoba - (maybe Capileira) - Ronda (2nd Day), Grazalema - Zahara de la Sierra (3rd Day). 3rd day ending in Seville.

I did think about the option of flying to Granada and hire a car one-way to Seville, but Granada seems to be in the middle of the loop and I will only be able to do one half of the loop.

The more I read up on Spain on the internet, the more nice places are added to my list. I have even considered leaving out the driving in Scotland or even visiting Edinburgh, and stay in Spain till the Corpus Christi celebrations in Seville. That'll make it two weeks in Spain (instead of 8 days) and really ideal.

I'll still need to fly to the UK though. My flight back to Singapore (where I'm from) is booked and it's leaving from London Gatwick. We're not really interested in London, but we're visiting Liverpool (we're football fans) and the plan was to drive there from Edinburgh (Edinburgh - Scottish Highlands - Skye - etc - Liverpool).

Totally unrealistic. There is no way you can adequately see all the places you want to visit with amount of time that you have. I feel you have drastically underestimated the amount of travel time between places as well as the amount of time it will take to look around.

Thanks Lin C, for your advice.

Yeah I do realise that there's a lot of driving.

I have considered trains, but I would prefer flying. The train from Barcelona to Granada is about 6-7 hours (with one connection). Seems like all of these trains take the Barcelona - Madrid - Granada route, except for the earliest 6am direct train Barcelona - Granada (which takes 6 hours, which is odd considering that going via Madrid takes just one hour more).

The journey by train doesn't work in my schedule as I plan to leave Barcelona in the afternoon. By flying, I will reach Granada (or Seville) by late evening, just in time for dinner. 😊

Thanks, Geovagriffith.

I did think about visiting Montserrat as a day trip, but I figured staying the night there will be better as we can enjoy certain places without the crowd in the late evening, night and early morning.

The accommodation at Montserrat seems reasonably priced. Hiring a car for one day works out to about the total price for four people taking the train from Barcelona and rack railway in Montserrat, plus the trip to the airport.

"I figured that 3 days would be sufficient to start from Seville to visit Andújar - Baeza - Ubeda (1st day), Priego de Córdoba - (maybe Capileira) - Ronda (2nd Day), Grazalema - Zahara de la Sierra (3rd Day). 3rd day ending in Seville."

We have, as I said earlier, different travel styles. But I am still at something of a loss at this itinerary.

Why Andujar? Is there anything there to see particularly? And Priego de Cordoba is fine, but not that special (certainly compared to Cordoba proper). With a 3 day Sevilla 'loop' road trip, I don't think you allowed enough time for Sevilla itself (and, again, what about Cordoba?)

But, if you want something like this, then -
- drive from Seville to Baeza (3 hours driving). Stop for a quick look and lunch, then onto Ubeda. Stay there overnight and see more in the morning.
- drive to Ronda (another 3 hours drive) and spend the evening there. Along the way from Ubeda to Ronda, there are a few "quick view" places to break the trip. For example, you'll pass close to the Antequera dolmens.
- drive back to Seville via stops in Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra.

I'm not really wanting to rewrite your plans entirely, but I do think you need to be a little less hectic if you're going to get the best value.

Hi Nick, thanks again for sharing your recommendations. I have taken onboard your advice and I'm rethinking the day for the flight out of Seville. I'm also relooking at places that are similar that I can either remove from my itinerary (or do a short stop for meals / rest).

Spending 11 days (instead of 8 days) will be better to enjoy my time in Spain. I will arrive in Barcelona on 8-Jun (Thu) and the flights from Seville to Edinburgh are only on Thursdays n Sundays. I might decide to scrap Scotland from my vacation and stay till Corpus Christi (Thu 19-Jun), which will be a remarkable experience.

For Andujar, there is a nice little village with a church (Basílica y Real Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza). It's about 82km (1hr30min drive) from Baeza. I had wanted to spend the night there in my initial plan as this place looks interesting.

For Cordoba, I plan to skip it as I have been to Iran and I know the highlight in Cordoba is the La Mesquita. Priego de Cordoba is a little town that I find interesting.

Basically, and you might have noticed it by now, my travel planning involves visiting major cities and quaint, small villages / towns (skipping middle sized cities if possible).

I checked out Antequera Dolmens that you suggested, but it might not interest my family (esp teenage boys). When I travel with my wife (just the two of us), we spend some time in museums, hire a guide for the day, etc. But if I travel with my boys, I tend to skip these as they may lose interest after a while.

How old are your boys? Sitting in a car for long stretches is never fun.

I would second Nick's advice.