Comments on 2 different itineraries for September. Thanks in Advance

Hmmm… Both of your itineraries look good, but if you’re “not completely sold on Malaga “, I’d skip it and add those nights to Córdoba instead.

Consider something like this:
Arrive to Madrid, travel immediately to Córdoba (2-3N) > > take ALSA Bus (or train) to Granada (2-3N) >> ALSA bus (or train) to Sevilla (4-5N) >> AVE train to Madrid (4-5N) > Toledo (overnight)

Enjoy your time in beautiful Spain!

Edited to add…
You could also spend 1-2 nights in Toledo, before your stay in Madrid.
You may consider storing most of your luggage at the Atocha train station (as recommended by my friend Chani, another RS forum member) and just taking an overnight bag to Toledo.

The itinerary above was actually our itinerary, however we stayed in Toledo at the end of our trip (had visited Madrid on a previous trip)

I was traveling with my elderly mom (88) at the time, so we traveled slowly and stayed 5 nights in each city (4 in Granada)

I agree with Nick about Malaga. Don't dismiss it! Malaga is a wonderful city with a beautiful city center, and is worth 2 or 3 nights. Walk to the top of the Alcazaba and along the way you will see lush vegetation, flowers, ruins, and spectacular views of the Mediterranean. Visit the Cathedral and the Ataranzas market; there are numerous art museums including the Picasso Museum. Walk along the seaside promenade and have drinks overlooking the port. The coastal ambience will be very different from the inland cities you are visiting. I think people on this forum are negative about Malaga because Rick treats Malaga as basically a transportation hub in his guide books, and Malaga is so much more than that.

I also recommend spending a night or two in Cordoba, another wonderful city with its white-washed walls, narrow lanes, patios, flowers, etc. The Mezquita is amazing but there is more to Cordoba than just the Mezquita.

We did spend one night in Toledo, and didn't find it tiring to move to a new hotel for one night. If we had visited Toledo as a day trip, I think we would have been very disappointed. It is very, very crowded during the day with large tour buses. Much nicer and quieter at night when the daytrippers have left and the city is illuminated.

If, for any given destination, we can assume that the first specified day is the day you travel in (i.e., if in itinerary #2 you go from Granada to Malaga on Sept 16; from Malaga to Seville on Sept. 18, etc.), then I think that second itinerary looks better, if only because you give yourself two complete (non-travel) days in Granada. (Your first itinerary allows only one complete day for this city.) But if my above assumption is wrong, then it becomes hard to evaluate either itinerary.

Thank you all for taking the time to comment. I think we will stick with Malaga and go with itinerary #1. We will plan for early departure trains between destinations.. I checked with several hotels that indicate they will be happy to hold our luggage if we arrive before check in, allowing us to do some exploring. We used Rick Steves audio tours to get the lay of the land when we were in Italy, hopefully I can find the same for spain.

sbowers, when we visited Andalucia in 2017, we also took early morning trains or the ALSA bus to get to our next destination. By early morning, I mean anywhere from 9AM to around 10:30AM. Depending on what the train/bus schedule was at the time. This way we arrived at our next destination at a decent time; we would typically have lunch, maybe a late lunch, and then do some exploring. It worked for us. And all of our hotels allowed us to leave our luggage with them if we arrived before check-in time. Not a problem at all.