Day Trips vs Centrally Located in Southern Spain

You could find a lot of opinions by searching the forum. If you haven't been to Southern Spain before, my opinion would be to not rent a car, and not go to the coast. I would spend the nights in Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba, possibly add time in Toledo and Madrid. Perhaps 2-3 nights in Cordoba, 2-3 nights in Granada and 4-6 nights in Sevilla.

I just recently returned from a trip to Spain this past September. A few years ago, I did a similar trip to Southern Spain in March (2019) Both Months are an excellent time to travel around as the weather is almost perfect.

I would not centralized myself in Malaga, although the cites/town don't look far from each other on the map, Spain is quite a large country and there is a lot of open spaces in between. After a long flight into Madrid from The US, you may not feel like getting on a train and going too far the first day. Perhaps stop in Cordoba for 2 nights to see the Mesquita and take time to rest (2 hours train ride) Then train to Granada for 2 nights to see the Alhambra. Next (private driver or bus) to Malaga. Stay on the coast for a few nights then head to Sevilla (4-5 nights) and do day trips to Cadiz or Gibraltar. From here train back to Madrid, spend two nights and be ready for the flight back to the US.

You don't really need the expense or worry of a car. You could skip Malaga and drive from Granada to Sevilla, or book a private driver (as we did with a stop for lunch in Ronda). I also do not suggest adding too many side trips as it gets tiring after awhile. I have not been to Morocco, so will let others comment on the logistics of this.

Just know the towns have very narrow streets, our young Spanish driver got stuck in one of them and there was all kinds of commotion from the other drivers. I felt sorry for him, so I told him to back up and we would walk the rest of the way to our hotel. Spain is a lovely country to visit. Enjoy your trip.

Seville and Granada are both worth stays of multiple nights. For that matter, so is Cordoba. Seville in particular is quite large and has some very worthwhile scattered sights. It's really not a good daytrip from anywhere. A lot of people do take daytrips to Cordoba while staying in Seville, but I like spending the night there. When you travel by train, Cordoba is on the way from Madrid to Seville, from Madrid to Granada, from Seville to Granada and from Seville to Malaga, so there are lots of opportunities to avoid the roundtrip necessitated by daytripping to Cordoba. It's a matter of balancing the time (and cost) of the return trip on the train against the hassle of changing hotels.

Bus has excellent inter-city buses that are heavily used in situations where the train lines don't provide direct, express service. You might consider buses in some cases.

I haven't been to Gibraltar.

I definitely don't recommend a side trip to Tangier. That would be my position even if you weren't trying to see so many places in Andalucia in 10 days and a few hours (on your jetlagged arrival day). Tangier is like a border town, and the ferries do not depart from cities in Spain where you'd otherwise be, thus adding to the amount of transportation time required. Morocco has many great destinations, but Tangier is most definitely not one of them. There are flights from many cities in Europe to really interesting places like Fes and Marrakech, so you needn't settle for a quick trip to an inferior destination just because you'll be in Spain this year.

We always rent a car and last September had a great time driving through Andalucia, days allocated as follows:

1. Arrive Malaga around noon - stay Malaga
2. Malaga
3. Drive to and walk Caminito del Rey, then to Ronda, stay Arriate
4. Drive through the white villages to Arcos de la Frontera, stay Arcos
5. Drive To Gibraltor, then to Tarifa, stay Tarifa
6. Drive through beach towns to Cadiz, stay Cadiz
7. Drive to Seville, park car, stay Seville
8. Stay Seville
9. Stay Seville
10. Drive to Cordoba, stay Cordoba
11. Stay Cordoba
12. Drive to Granada, park car, stay Granada
13. Stay Granada
14. Drive to Nerja via Frigiliana, stay Nerja
15. Stay Nerja
16. Depart from Malaga

Things we would change:
Omit Ronda — super crowded, touristy and unwelcoming; tiny Arriate was a pleasure
Omit Nerja — an expat community, does not feel like Spain
Probably skip Arcos de la Frontera
Maybe skip Gibraltor

What we loved:
Cordoba — the Mezquita
Caminito del Rey
Seville Cathedral rooftop tour
Malaga
Tarifa

Also, last month we flew into/out of Madrid to visit Asturias and make a return visit to Laguardia. A day and a half for
Reina Sofia, a walk around and two awesome dinners were, for us, plenty in Madrid, but we loved seeing the walls of Avila and spending a night in Segovia, both nearby.

Lastly, Morocco is awesome but deserves a dedicated trip. That one day would be better spent in Spain.

Have a wonderful trip!

There isn’t one good central location for visiting the places you want to visit. You’d use a lot of time just getting to and from those locations if trying to take day trips. Also, if the places you mentioned are the only places you intend on visiting a rental car isn’t needed.

A rental car comes in handy when visiting out of the way locations and small towns not well served by public transportation. Even with a rental car visiting small villages one needs to balance the time it would take to get there and back against the amount of time that would be spent at the location.

What airport are you flying home from?
Don’t rent a car on arrival day. It’s best to get at least one night of sleep after arriving on a sleepless trans-Atlantic flight. Spain’s train system is excellent so take advantage of it.
There are frequent inexpensive nonstop flights from Madrid to Granada on Iberia Airlines, Spain’s national carrier. Here’s an idea:
Day one – fly from MAD to GRX (Granada) and sleep in Granada.
Day two – visit the Alhambra and sleep in Granada.
Day three – take a train from Granada to Malaga and sleep in Malaga.
Day four – you may want to rent a car for the day and drive along the coast. Sleep in Malaga.
Day five – take a morning bus from Malaga to Gibraltar.
Day six – take a direct bus from Gibraltar to the Algeciras Tangier port. Take a ferry to and from Tangier. Sleep in Gibraltar.
Day seven – take a direct early morning train since there are only two per day from Gibraltar to Cadiz. Sleep in Cadiz for one night.
Day eight – take a train from Cadiz to Seville and sleep in Sevilla for three nights. Instead of sleeping in Córdoba take a direct train from Seville to Córdoba for the day (1h).

Usually, I just let the OP look at all the suggestions and make up their own minds. But, truly, if this is a first trip to Spain, I would just keep it simple. Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Toledo(if it works) are spectacular sites. All accessible by train or bus. With the amount of time you have, why be driving all over when you already have three amazing Andalusian towns you can visit with little to no stress? Yes, you can do Cordoba by day trip from Sevilla, but it is such a beautiful town with plenty to do. It also is an easy train ride from the Madrid airport (via Atocha). I strongly encourage making it a first stop for 2 nights (you can snooze a bit on the train) and then go via train to Granada or Sevilla. You will want to purchase Alhambra tickets well in advance and the Sevilla Alcazar in advance, as well.

So, my first question is why Spain and what do you wish to experience?

History?
Religion or religious history?
Beaches? (March might be a little early)
Food?
Flamenco?
Countryside?
Art? If art, what art?
Big cities?
Small villages or “white towns”?

How important, relatively speaking, are each of those? I think that your collective, personal travel priorities will then guide your itinerary.

Is literature leading you there? Or do any of you speak Spanish? Or is the weather calling?

Once you and your family consider these, then you can better plan. Get some nice guidebooks, perhaps from the library. Not just RS, but also DK Eyewitness, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Moon, and Michelin.

Spain is large, as another has said. You can easily take two to three hours (or more) in a day just moving around by car from one place to another in Andalucia.

Your possibly optimistic one to two hour time frames from Malaga (generally accurate by car) do not include stops along the way, and for day trips you need to double the travel time if you are basing yourselves in Malaga the whole time. FWIW, when we spent 8 nights in Andalucia, we spent two nights in each of four locales. We had the following itinerary (by car).

1. Arr. Sevilla. First night in Sevilla.
2. Explore Sevilla. Second night in Sevilla.
3. To Vejer de la Frontera, via Jerez. First night in Vejer.
4. Day trip to Arcos de la Frontera and explore coast (Trafalgar and Barbate) near Vejer. Second night in Vejer.
5. To Granada, via Ronda. First night in Granada.
6. The Alhambra by day and Albacin by night. Second night in Granada.
7. To Cordoba, via Priego. First night in Cordoba. This was Palm Sunday, the first day of Semana Santa. THAT was an experience!
8. Explore Cordoba. Second night in Cordoba.
9. Depart Cordoba, after visiting the Alcazar there.

Why are you considering Gibraltar or Morocco? Genuine interest, or boxes to check off? (We drove right past Gibraltar without stopping on our way from Vejer to Ronda, but our focus was Spain, history (including Moorish history), food and our friends/travel companions - one of whom was a Spaniard.)

You have just ten (full) days in Spain, since your arrival and departure days don’t really count.

Personally, I would spend the three days at the end either in Madrid alone or Madrid plus a day trip to Toledo. For me, that’s largely to have a couple of days in Madrid for art museums. And due to the fact that the country’s history makes Andalucia sensible as a prelude to finishing in Madrid. I quite enjoyed our seven full days in Andalucia as outlined above.

(Our two nights in Vejer was not so much for Vejer itself; Ronda and Arcos are both more interesting white towns, but I was charmed by a little four guest room hotel that I had found on-line and that was located there. Geographically, it worked with our travel route.)

(Our Andalucia trip was a day, perhaps two days, longer than you have time for if you want to spend a couple or three of days in Madrid plus a day in Toledo.)

Happy planning.

As much as I loved Cordoba, I found the Alcazar there to be a little disappointing. On the other hand, the Sevilla Alcazar was stunning.

My advise is do not use Malaga as a base for most of your trip. If you visit Rhonda, you would do it on a day trip.

Also, suggest skipping the day visit to Morocco. Morocco is great, but key places are Fes, Marrakesh and Rabat. Do it on a separate trip.

Spend at least three days in Seville. Don't miss Granada or Cordoba. Cadiz is good.

If you go back to Spain visit Madrid and nearby Toledo (my favorite city in Spain) as well as Segovia and then Barcelona.