cars or buses.

Not enough scoop.

Do you mean you have only three days to get from Malaga to Africa and back into Spain?

If that's the case it almost has to be by car, but there's no place to drop one in Tarifa so you might wind up driving over to Granada.

Where's the train leaving from?

more scoop, We arrive in Madrid on Sept.30, dinner time. We have 2 additional days in beautiful Madrid. We then take the AVE high speed to Seville for 3 more glorious days. We are now taking a train from Seville to Malaga for another 3 days. We will then headed to Gibraltar, Tarifa, and off to Tangiers. This leave one open day to return to Malaga and get our train to our last stop in Spain Granada. We fly from Malaga to Milan which we will talk about on the italian forum

Ugh!

They're all connected by bus, obviously.

I'm holding out for a car since that's a lot of stops in a short amount of time and the connection times might not work out so well. Of most concern would be getting in and out of Ronda and, I think, having to hike from Spain across the runway and such into Gibraltar -- with a car you can just motor on into the town.

Hold up until Neil stumbles along and sorts out the bus possibilities. If he's blind, search around for him and drop him a back-channel note -- he's the guy from somewhere in Staffordshire, Whitfield/Whittington/something close.

The easiest way to get to Granada from Malaga is via bus. I don't believe there is a direct train connection.

We already have train tickets from Malaga to Granada, very inexpensive.

From malaga we have taken a day trip to ronda via car. It is easy to pick up a car from the malaga train terminal. Parking is fairly ample in ronda. This is less than a two hour trip each way. You need to obtain an IDP from AAA to comply with Spains laws. It cost $20, the fine is well over $200.
BTW- our family is from Marble and now you know why I have the moniker : Marbleskies.

I noticed many Colorado people on this board. We obtained the IDL at AAA for $15.

A car will get you around more efficiently. Buses are great for making one trip a day, not so much if you want to stop somewhere then continue on.

Brad's totally right.

The train works but it does require a change. The bus is direct, less than two hours, and half the price of the train, which is why I recommended it.

If you need to, you could likely drop a rental car in Algeciras. It's an industrial town between Gibraltar and Tarifa. There is also a ferry from there to Tangiers (but the route is maybe twice as long). Don't plan to stay here though, it's really not a great place - Tarifa is much nicer.