Cordoba or Granada

You may not need an entire day for Cordoba. We stopped for two hours on the drive between Madrid and Seville. But yes, it's okay to prioritize the other two cities if time is limited.

Thanks Claudia. My plan is to rent a car in Seville and do a road trip of Southern Spain. Seville - Ronda - Arcos - Malaga - Granada.

All that in 7 days with a 3-day beach vacation in Malaga. That's the plan and hence my crunch for time.

Lose Malaga, drop the "beach vacation". Neither are worth what you would have to give up, neither are particularly special, especially so when compared to every other place you've mentioned.

Do Cordoba as a half-day stop between Seville and points east (it's right on the high speed rail line to Madrid). Whatever you do, above all, don't skip Granada and the Alhambra.

Seville, Cordoba and Granada are all wonderful. Maximize your time there. The Alhambra and the Mesquita are both spectacular, but very, very different. Personally, I think just a short daytime visit to Cordoba would be short-changing both yourself and Cordoba. It’s lovely plus less crowded in the evening.

I agree that spending 3 days on the beach in Malaga sounds like a waste of time if you're interested in sightseeing.

Some thoughts . . . I don't see how you can do everything on your itinerary in 7 days. How many nights do you have in Spain? Have you taken into account the time from place to place? That includes time spent at the rental agency, time finding parking, time packing and unpacking. Is your whole trip 7 days? Will you be jetlagged on arrival?

Your plan is Seville - Ronda - Arcos - Malaga - Granada. Switch Ronda and Arcos so you aren't backtracking. Are you returning the car in Malaga?

Thanks David, Larry, Chani.
Some context. It's a 14-day trip with family with 2 teen boys. Idea was to end with a bit of down time or beach vacation or whatever.

Day 1 Arrive Barcelona by 9 am
Day 2 Barcelona
Day 3 Barcelona / Evening train to Madrid
Day 4 Madrid
Day 5 Madrid / Evening train to Seville
Day 6 Seville
Day 7 Seville
Day 8 Day trip to Cordoba (train) / Night Seville (this is the discussion on to or not-to)
Day 9 Pick up rental car, Drive to Ronda, Zahara / Night in Arcos de la Fontera
Day 10 Day trip to Gibraltar / Night in Malaga
Day 11 Malaga
Day 12 Drive to Nerja / Night in Granada
Day 13 Granada (day) / Night in Granda or Train to Madrid
Day 14 Train to Madrid / Madrid
Day 15 Leave to USA

I think I'm packing in a lot here. Comments? Feedback?
Thanks

You are taking the train from Madrid to Seville. That train goes right through Cordoba.
After 2 days in Seville, you're going to take the train back to Cordoba, spend part of the day there, then take the train back to Seville for the night. That wastes money and time. You may have plenty of money to burn on this trip, but you don't have enough time to throw it away like that.

Hint: When you find yourself slicing days up into different parts, telling yourself you will spend the day in a city, then get on a train in the evening and go to a different city, that's often a sign that you are not being realistic with yourself about how much usable time you really have. If you build this into your schedule many times, that's usually a giveaway that your plans are not realistic. Been there, did that (until I learned you can't stretch time like that and still enjoy the places you blow through). Just my own experience, maybe you are different. With a family of 4, my guess is you might be less efficient than you expect (the larger the group, the slower it tends to move).

Biggest, most obvious issue I see is that, with the exception of Seville, on your entire trip, you never spend more than one full day in any place -- you will be constantly on the move, only pausing briefly. You have sliced things so you have one full day (in some of the world's greatest cities to visit) and part of the next day, which means maybe half a day, since you will need to check out of your hotel, deal with baggage, deal with the train, etc. You have just one full day in Barcelona, one full day in Madrid, two days in Seville, and everywhere else, you have less than a full day. (And you spend a full day in Malaga...). None of that is good plan IMHO.

Every time you move from one place to another, that consumes part of a day -- maybe 4 or 5 hours if you're efficient (a group of 4...) maybe half the day. You are not being realistic about how much time it takes just for getting around, and for the basic boring requirements/logistics of human survival (eating, sleeping, finding your way, the basics).

I know this is not what you want to hear, but saying you have "a crunch for time" is not an honest description of what you are looking at doing. Far too much of the time on your trip will be spent looking at the world pass by through train or car windows, not enough time spent being out in that world. The ratio of "getting there" to "being there" is just too lopsided.

Here's the fundamental problem: You have 13 full days on the ground. You have 9 or 10 different "locations" (Madrid counts for two, I'm counting "white hill towns" as one, and day trips out to Gibraltar and Nerja as one each).

Sorry to be the skunk at the picnic, but I think you need to make some significant changes to your plan. For starters, I'd begin by cutting out the whole Gibraltar/Malaga/Nerja section, reallocate that time among the great cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Granada). Do Cordoba as a half-day stop on your way from Madrid to Seville (Cordoba deserves more time than that, but you don't have it, and you can hit the most important Cordoba sights in a half day stop off the train).

While I found Gibraltar fairly interesting (I'm a history fan) none of those places (Gibraltar/Malaga/Nerja) is so special I'd spend the days in these places on this very short trip. You need fewer "one night stands" and more full days. And you need to be more realistic about how much time you will burn just moving from place to place (I say this as someone who is not shy about moving fast).

Time to sharpen your pencil and get out a clean sheet of paper, I think. I hope this is helpful (even though I know it's not what you will want to hear).

We just did the Seville/Cordoba/Granada circuit, so I'll chime in with my two cents. Lots of people say they like Cordoba at night after the day-trippers leave, but we found it kinda dead. Seville and Granada come alive at night, and are much more exciting places. Cordoba's nice, but if you're doing Seville and Granada, it can be skipped altogether.

Now you will need to add an hour or more to get well away from the skunk at your picnic!

Thanks David for a honest response. I greatly appreciate it.

I fundamentally disagree with fuzzy's assessment, so I'll just leave this excellent quote here from one of our fellow forum contributor, Bill Sinclair:

“Hunched around a meander of the Guadalquivir river, a hundred miles or so upstream from its cousin Sevilla, Córdoba is refreshingly free of overbaked Andalusian brag and swagger. Córdoba is a quietly confident, and a confidently quiet city which welcomes its visitors with a warm handshake rather than a self-regarding fanfare."

"Often overlooked by the international coach brigades, Córdoba only reveals its undeniable charms at walking pace. Once the third holiest pilgrimage site in the Islamic world, and before that the capital of Roman Hispania Ulterior, Córdoba wears its age and multi-layered antiquity well. Against the background of a sluggardly dark Europe Córdoba was once the very epicentre of all understanding and learning."

Also Cordoba has the best local cuisine of Andalucía ;-)

"Against the background of a sluggardly dark Europe Córdoba was once
the very epicentre of all understanding and learning..."

Indeed, Carlos, even Obi-Wan Kenobi knows this...

"In the Arab city of Cordoba, were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village..."

But vishman and his family won't have time to enjoy "the vanished gardens of Cordoba" that Prince Faisal longs for (or much else there) unless he takes a scalpel to his plan.

@vishman - I really don't mean to be discouraging. You can still have an awesome trip filled with amazing sights and wonderful experiences. You just need to seriously prioritize, and be ruthlessly realistic about the hard choices you will have to make (and, I would suggest, slow down a bit). You can do it!

To paint a sharper picture of some of the issues raised . . .

Pick up rental car, Drive to Ronda, Zahara / Night in Arcos de la Fontera The easiest is to pick up the car at the train station. Offices generally open at 8 am, later on weekends. Even if your family are very efficient, you all have to pack, have breakfast, check out and get to the train station. That means getting up around 6 am. It will take at least half an hour (in my experience it's often more) before you are on the road. It's about 2 hours to drive to Ronda, without stopping to enjoy the views of the hills and white hill towns from the roadside pullouts. Hopefully you easily find the underground parking lot in the center of town. So it's nearly 11 am before you start exploring Ronda. 3 hours for sightseeing and lunch (and even 3 full hours for sightseeing is not nearly enough). Go back to the car and drive to Zahara and park. It's 3 pm. 2 hours there and drive to Arcos. It's 6 pm. Park, check in, have a 1-2 hour walk around (some sights may already be closed) and have dinner at 8 or so. That's al you'll see since you'll be up early to pack, have breakfast and drive to Gibraltar.

Day trip to Gibraltar / Night in Malaga It's over 1.5 hours to drive to the parking lots near the border crossing. The earlier you get there, the easier it will be to find a parking place and the closer you'll park to the crossing. The reason there are big parking lots there is that going across the border by car can take a very long time. When it's crowded the lots do fill up, so you'll want to get there as early as possible. So you went to bed around 10 or later the night before, and you're all up again at 6 to get ready, pack, have breakfast and head out. So up at 6, get to parking at 9, in Gibraltar at 9.30. Leave at 4.30 (caveat - I have never been to Gibraltar so I have no idea how much time to spend there). Google maps says it's at least 1.5 hours and possible 2.5 hours to get to Malaga on the tollroad. (do not consider the side roads which give you some sea views because they are incredibly slow - I speak from experience).

That's just 2 days. Whew.