Extra time in Spain

Forget Tangiers and if a flight to somewhere better in Morocco is not an option then don't consider it. Portugal is also a tricky combination with Spain and the travel logistics can be a headache. With ten days you could enjoy a very interesting trip to Mallorca, easy access from the mainland and back to Madrid for your return home.

You could head over to Extremadura. Since you like long stays you could use a city like Cáceres as a base. It’s an hour from a few other cities so you could take day trips from it. There are a number of medium sized towns too, like León, Burgos, Zaragoza, Logroño, etc. that are very much worth visiting.

What about northeast Spain, particularly Bilbao? Or the picturesque Girona, whose soccer team may beat the big guys in the national league this year? It's a handy base for exploring Salvador Dali's provocative artwork.

Your trip sounds lovely. It's fantastic to be able to spend time in a beautiful city instead of the mad dash to visit the must-sees. I would stay in Andalucia. You are already there, so what's the point of a lot of tiring travel to go somewhere else.
Possible areas:
Option 1 Fantastic places but more demanding: Cadiz - Jerez de la Frontera - El Puerto de Santa Maria - Sanlucar de Barrameda - Medina Sidonia. These are all smaller towns which will give you a different taste of Andalucia but from the cities you are already seeing. We based in El Puerto de Santa Maria for ten days because it makes the most sense logistically - but we preferred the others. Theoretically you could visit these places from Seville, but there's plenty to keep you busy in Seville for seven days without day trips. If you have a car you can also head down Costa de la Luz to places like Bolonia and Tarifa, Vejer de la Frontera.
Option 2 - maybe more relaxing - another but different city base - Malaga - we stayed there for ten days in November 2019. There is a lot to see in Malaga itself
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2020/01/malaga-what-to-see-and-do-free-31-ideas.html
but it's also easy to day trip to places like Antequera and Nerja and you wouldn't need a car. Malaga city attracts a cosmopolitan variety of visitors and must not be confused with the Costa del sol and places like Torremolinos, although it's easy to go for a day trip there if you want.
Option 3: The coast around Nerja -Frigilliana - Almunecar - Salobrena. The same year in November 2019 we spent 5 nights in Nerja and % in Alumnecar. Yes, there are foreigners around, but a mix of nationalities, and especially in Almunecar a lot of Spanish. Almunecar has an endless seafront for strolling and is a nice town.

Another possibility in Andalucia is the Ubeda/Baeza/Jaen area. Ubeda and Baeza in particular have beautiful Renaissance architecture that's quite different from what you'll have previously seen. Jaen is the only one of the cities with a train station right in town. For Ubeda and Baeza one either uses the Linares-Baeza station or takes the bus.

You could split your time about 2/3 to U/B/J and 1/3 to Malaga.

Forget Tangiers, but if you go to Morocco, visit Marrakesh, Fes and Agidar.

Two weeks in Madrid and a week in Toledo are way much for seeing those places. Also, six days in Cordoba and a week in Seville are too much.

Cut your days in each city in half and visit more places in Spain. You haven't included Barcelona, Valencia, Rhonda, Malaga, Salamanca. or the Basque region near the French border.

You could spend ten days in Portugal, taking in Lisbon, Cascais, Obidos, Porto and the Douro Valley.

Well, I think you have a wonderful trip planned, and certainly you have the flexibility to be able to add on another country. You are doing some very long stays in some cities, such as Granada, so have you already determined what you might want to see and do all those days? Also, the cities you have selected to visit in Andalucia are all rather near to each other, so you could combine some of your visits easily.

Unfortunately train travel from Spain to Portugal, especially Lisbon, is a bit slow and convoluted. If you were willing to do a driving trip it would be much easier to arrange all the logistics. However, Portugal is lovely and the people are quite friendly, and I certainly recommend seeing the country. Again, if you have the stamina, there are multi-day tours of Portugal by bus offered from Madrid, so you could see a few of the highlights, like Lisbon and Fatima.

Yes, you will have to fly to Morocco, and it may be better to take a guided tour, although that will mean a different city every few days.

I am not sure why you want to limit yourself to southern Spain--another option would be to head north and see a fabulous historic city like Santiago de Campostela. Although Andalucia is wonderful, visiting the north allows you to learn a bit more about the Castilian history and character. Of course, I hope that while you are in Madrid you can also make it to Avila, Segovia, and Salamanca, cities that should not be missed.

Have a fantastic time!

Thanks all!
We are aware of wonderful places we will be missing in northern and eastern Spain, but we are trying to hold to what seems right for us, that is to establish home bases to go out from and return to.

Side trips from Madrid we plan on include Segovia, Avila and Guadalajara.

Taking advice, we will probably shorten Toledo and Cordoba. Some old friends have invited us to Lagos, Portugal where we see the opportunity to be near water and get to have a personal tour and get there and back by bus from Sevilla.

Back in Sevilla, we will rent a car and drive by way of some of the many suggested small Andalusian towns. We don’t have all the stops planned but are hopeful we won’t feel too busy or too bored. For us, the latter better than the former.
Thanks for all the ideas.

We hope to drop the car off in Malaga and take train to Granada. It’s our last stop before we head back to Madrid and home. We’ll be staying away from town and look forward to relaxing in the Spanish countryside in between seeing the sights in Granada.

We’re still not set in stone and continue to welcome comments.

This is such a great site!