Confused with transportation, pls help

My personal travel perference is to not do a lot of 1 night stays but pick a base and do day trips from said base.
Consider day trips to Segovia and Toledo from Madrid.
Some have suggested day trips to Cordoba from Seville.
Renting a car might make your schedule more flexible and you could possibly drive to Nerja from Granada as a day trip or do some day trips from Seville say to Arcos de la Frontera,

I would stick to 3- night stops, if a place doesn't sound good enough for 3 nights skip it. Plan to be in Granada over a weekend as it is so much fun on weekends. Flights in Spain are cheap via Vueling. Enjoy your trip, J

If you are only going to spend a night in Toledo, then do it as a day trip from Madrid, instead. (There's a lot to do in Toldedo, we stayed 3 nights). I would also do Segovia as a day trip from Madrid. I'm not sure where you are intending to day trip to Cordoba from. Many, believe Cordoba deserves at least two nights, I recommend three. If you have to do it on a day trip, probably best from Sevilla, but you already do not have enough time in Sevilla.

If you are only going to spend 2 nights in the Basque area, you should just skip, its a long way to travel to just spend a bit of time. Can you fly into Barcelona and out of Bilbao or even Madrid?

Vueling flights do not include price for carryon. As soon as I add carryon (max wt. 10kg), the price shoots up and with 4 passengers, it stings!

Thanks for the input. I can avoid a night in Toledo and do this as a daytrip from Madrid (along with Valley of the Fallen and El Escorial).

Definitely will do Cordoba from Seville.

Thank you!

Yep, bags add a lot to the price. You are spending a lot of time and money to get to cities that are not close for just a small amount of time to see the cities.

I would say the pace of the RS tour is quite brisk. But keep in mind, they do it a lot, they don't get lost, they know where to park, and they have guides to whisk you through places picking up the just what they consider are the highlights.

Any domestic flights that allow carryon for price of the ticket?

The issue one runs into is the weight restriction, in addition to the dimensional limits. With some airlines you might be able to buy your way to a greater weight limit or simply resign yourself to checking bags.

Agree with above comments that the one nighters should be avoided if at all possible. The exception being your last night before the flight home.

I am kinda looking at dropping San Sebastian from the trip although I really wanna eat all the food. However, getting back to Barcelona from Granada is not any easier - it retraces the path I took to get there. Any suggestions?

Can you fly into Barcelona and out of Bilbao or even Madrid?
Unfortunately the only thing we have booked is flights and it is non-refundable :|

A lot of people do the "big three" Andalusia cities as a triangle. There is a high speed train from Madrid to Sevilla. I know there is now train from Granada, not sure its high speed. You could do Sevilla, Cordoba and then Granada and then back to Madrid. Or you could use a bus to go from Sevilla to Arcos to Granada.

Or you could rent a car when you leave Sevilla, go to Tarifa, Nerja and Arcos and turn in the car when you arrive Granada. I've not been to Tarifa or Nerja so I can't speak to them as far as a tourist destination. Arcos is enjoyable (There are also many other white village towns that are enjoyable--Grazelema, Zahara, Sentinel, Ronda. . .

I am not sure Tarifa and Nerja warrants much time, honestly. We stayed in Tarifa mostly to get a ferry to Tangier (would not recommend, for various reasons). Town is small and cute, but not much else going on. Same with Nerja - nice beach town, easy to get to Frigliana hill town but if you are doing Ronda and Arcos, you can skip Frigilana. IMO.

As others have said, you can easily do day trips to Segovia and Toledo from Madrid - not that both cities are not worth spending more time in, they are. But I also think you need to eliminate some of the one night stays, especially if you are taking trains and/or buses. Both modes of transport are great but they do take time. You might check into a car rental to see how it compares with all the bus and train fares (make sure you factor in taxi/uber to get from train/bus stations to your hotel). Although then you have to park the car, but it may make things easier for all your stops between Madrid and Barcelona.

Bilbao and San Sebastian are both very worthwhile, but are quite a bit out of the way, given the rest of your itinerary. Maybe Barcelona-Madrid (day trips to Segovia and Toledo)-Bilbao/San Sebastian-Seville-Arcos-Granada-Barcelona? Rent a car to drive from Granada to Barcelona, stop somewhere for a night or two along the coast? Worth looking at costs vs flying...

Sounds like a great trip though!

The Segovia stop is not in line with other stops. It’s just under 2 hours from Toledo. Seems like there would be a bus going between the two. Before finalizing the itinerary, check into the train and bus schedules for frequency and ease of getting to/from the places you want to visit.

I always get a rental car so can’t speak to public transportation.

I would try to build some flexibility into your schedule. The weather, especially in Andalusia, can be frying pan hot during the summer. Take a look here - Seville weather 2022. You may want to reserve rooms in advance, but rooms that are easy to cancel. If sweltering weather is forecast you'll be able to consider alternative locations.

I know Valencia wasnt on your itinerary but had you considered Barcelona to Valencia to Granada to Seville to Madrid and then back to Barcelona. Day trips to Segovia and Toledo and El Escorial from Madrid.

You can do Toledo as a day trip from Madrid. It's a 30 minutes train ride. With lots of trains. To get to the Basque Country, we took the high speed train from Barcelona to Zaragosa, then rented a car to take us the rest of the way. We stopped in Olite to see the Castle. With a car in the Basque country you can drive from San Sebastian to Hondarribia (walled town) or Bilbao. Beautiful drives along the coast with places to get out. Something also to consider, Basque food is very popular in Barcelona. We had great Pintxos in Barcelona. If the only reason to go to Basque country is for the food. We loved driving the back roads through small towns. It was very peaceful.

Yes, Barcelona to Valencia to Granada and west then north was my original plan. but to get to Granada from Valencia, I am routed to Madrid by train or take a slow bus.

Tarifa - yes, we plan to do Tangiers, hence 2 nights in Tarifa.

Renting a car may be a good option to get you from Valencia to Granada. It may be cheaper than train tickets or airfare for 4. We drove through parts of Spain for 3 weeks and it really wasn't that bad. Once we got to big cities like Granada we parked the car and walked or used public transportation. Of course you'll need to ensure your hotel or airbnb has parking . Best of luck on planning

This question pops up a lot on the forum, so I’ll keep it short: you can do tons of amazing day trips (and even overnight getaways) from Barcelona without needing to constantly switch hotels.

It’s something people often overlook. And while I totally get the appeal—especially for many American travellers—of trying to squeeze in as many European cities as possible, sometimes, less really is more. You don’t have to pack and unpack every two nights or spend hours on trains and planes to have an unforgettable trip.

So here’s a quick thought for anyone who might find it useful:

Barcelona is the capital of a small nation called Catalonia, which is now part of Spain but has its own language, culture, and over a thousand years of history. It’s a compact region—roughly the size of Maryland or Belgium—but incredibly diverse. You’ve got sandy beaches in the south, rugged cliffs along the northern coast, towering mountains (over 10,000 feet!) up north, and wide plains out west. And the best part? It’s all super close. Barcelona sits right in the middle, so everything is within easy reach.

This creates a surprising mix of microclimates and totally different landscapes, often just a short drive apart. In just over three hours by car, you can explore pretty much (almost) any corner of Catalonia.

And it’s not just the scenery—there’s a ton of living culture too. Our long history has given us a calendar full of local festivals, religious celebrations, and fairs of all kinds (traditional, food-focused, historical—you name it). So, beyond nature and museums, there’s always something vibrant happening in our towns and villages.

So yeah, if you’re up for a trip that’s rich in experiences but low on logistical stress, I’ve got a few links that might give you some ideas…

https://www.catalunya.com/en
https://www.viator.com/blog/Top-Festivals-in-Catalonia/l24337
https://www.barcelonainsideandout.com/blog/festivals-and-traditions
https://www.njoycatalonia.com/en/gastronomic-experiences-in-catalonia

And I’ll stop here before I sound like I work for the tourism industry 😄
(Just for the record—I don’t!)

The weather warning above should be taken seriously. Weather in the south is likely to be brutally hot, and Madrid can also be awful. Seville, Cordoba and Granada are incredible places, but the heat can be strength-sapping. It's likely to slow you down, and I think your planned 3 nights in Seville would be short even in good weather (and with no daytrip to Cordoba planned).

When the temperature is really hot, it's great to have a centrally located hotel you can pop back to for an air-conditioned break in the middle of the day. When you take an out-of-town daytrip, that's not an option.

Here's a graph of Seville's weather in July 2024. I don't believe that was the worst recent year. You can easily find the same data for other months and years, and for other cities, on the Timeanddate website.

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/spain/sevilla/historic?month=7&year=2024

I totally agree that going to the Basque Country for just two days is ill-advised, but that's a part of Spain where the risk of miserably hot summer weather is very low. It's a lot more likely to be cloudy or rainy.

For traveling between Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba and Seville, trains are a lot faster than driving. A short-term car rental to cover ground between Seville and Granada would facilitate visits to places like Arcos de la Frontera (which has no trains). Malaga and Granada have good bus service, but I think relying on public transportation to get to smaller places will slow you down quite a bit. You can certainly do it (I traveled that way myself in April 2019), but it won't be very efficient.

There is considerable money to be saved by purchasing Spanish long-distance train tickets in advance, before the inexpensive promotional fares are sold out. In addition, Spain is a country where the fast trains do sometimes fill up ahead of time. That warning applies to the spur line between Madrid and Toledo as well as the longer trips you are planning. It is not safe to plan to buy tickets on Spain's long-distance express trains on the day of travel; I wouldn't want to risk waiting until the day before, either.

I like Morocco a lot, but I fall very firmly in the Tangier-isn't -worth-the-travel-time camp. There are flights to far more interesting Moroccan cities like Fes and Marrakech from many cities in Europe, so it's easy to visit more attractive destinations in Morocco on a trip that includes France, Germany, etc. You don't need to squeeze in a brief visit to an inferior destination this year just because you'll be in Spain.

We did much the same trip last April (2024). Barcelona 5 nights-definitely plenty to see and do there even without side trips. We took a rather long, but not boring, train to Bilbao and rented a car to see the Basque country and Pamplona. We made an online appointment to visit the Basque parliament in Guernica. Do not skip going to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao-even kids love it!

Train to Seville for 4 nights. We always prefer trains to flying throughout Europe.

From Seville, we rented a car to go to Tarifa, primarily to see Tangier and Gibraltar. (For those who say "Tangier is not Morocco," I say fine. We did not go to Spain to see Morocco. We went to Tangier because we wanted to, and we enjoyed it. Same goes for Gibraltar. Morocco/North Africa is another trip.)

By car we went to Ronda, then Granada where we turned in the car and went by train to Madrid. Cordoba was on our itinerary and we would have turned in the car there, but we had to drop that when I got sick with food poisoning in Granada and spent an extra day recovering in the hotel. (Hint: Don't eat tajine in a restaurant where the bring it from a kitchen across the street!)

Four nights in Madrid included a day trip to Toledo. I wish we would have had more.

My advice:

Pack light. Nobody but you knows you are wearing the same 2 outfits everyday; quick-dry, anti-odor fabrics are your friend.

If there is something you really want to see, SEE IT! Don't let me or anyone else put you off from it. It's your trip.

In Barcelona, we really enjoyed the "Devour Barcelona" food tour. Do the morning time slot. Do it on your first full day there. It will set you up to really enjoy the food culture of Spain. And it really is family friendly.