First trip to Spain, 11 days total

I guess you could do it, if you have 9 nights.... Or do you have 8? Counting by nights is a better way to think of it. I would do 3 nights Madrid, 2 Sevilla, 2 Granada, 2 Barcelona. Honestly though, I would skip Barcelona with this length of a trip and just stick with Madrid and the Andalucia region. I think you will feel much less rushed. Plus, remember that 2 nights somewhere is only 1.5 days after travel time, check out and in to hotel, etc. You will love Granada and Seville.

You may want to look at the comments under, May multiple city trip help on this page below at the moment. It is basically the same question you are asking.

I agree with 'sanderskn' above, and yes it is very similar to the other post mentioned.
If you have 9 nights ...
Madrid - 3 or 4
Cordoba - 1
Sevilla - 2 or 3
Granada - 2
Trains are best way to go - AVE high speed where available.
www.renfe.com

I love travel by train but also as you are considering your options, check out flights (Vueling Airlines). I made a quick flight between Barcelona and Seville, timely and affordable. I myself loved Barcelona and would never want to go to Spain and not visit. To see the Mediterranean! To walk into it (just a few inches). Such a moment!

Wherever you choose you will have a remarkable experience.

What are your flight options? I took a quick look at rome2rio.com and it looks like from LAX the only non-stop flights to Spain go to Madrid. If you're flying from LAX, then for a trip of 8-9 days on the ground, drop Barcelona. You can easily fill 8-9 days in Madrid and Andalusia. Traveling to Barcelona will take a huge chunk of your vacation time.

What are your main interests? Madrid is mostly about its wonderful art museums and palace and it has a "big-city" feel. Do you want to do that?

After landing in Madrid, unless it's evening, you can easily take the train and continue to Cordoba or even Seville. Spend the time in Andalusia, with your last night (or 2 or 3) in Madrid before flying home.

Thanks all for the advice and suggestions. I had already been thinking that the limited time we have should really be spent on three cities rather than four, not going to Barcelona and just focusing on Madrid, Seville and Granada. However, my wife has heard from others that we can't skip Barcelona, so I think Barcelona is part of this trip. So either we make it just Madrid and Barcelona, or we add either Seville or Granada. Does that make sense? If we had to choose between those two, which should it be?

Thank you again.

Robb

Look at a map and you can see what everyone is pointing out. If Barcelona is critical then stick to that area - Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo, Segovia, Avila. The others are so far south that it becomes a logistic and time problem getting between the two. In someways there is a big difference between northern and southern Spain. So for this trip focus on northern Spain. Northern Spain could keep you occupied for a couple of months. Catch southern Spain on another trip.

PS As a new poster on this board you may not have caught the total flavor of the other posters that influences their responses. For the most part most of the posters here favor a concentrated, somewhat slower style of travel where you can really try to absorb and enjoy your locations. Min the travel and max the stay. Most first time travelers grossly under estimate the time it takes to change locations - Pack, check out, find the train, ride the train, find next hotel, checkin, unpack, get oriented to new location, etc. etc.

Building on Frank's comments, you are talking about 3 areas: Barcelona and around, Madrid and around, and Andalusia. In 11 days, you can do a whirlwind visit to all three, or you can pick two and see them a bit more leisurely, or pick one and do it in depth. Which of these three options you choose will depend on what you want out of the trip.

For a first Spain visit, I'd choose the middle course (two of the three). If one of the areas is Madrid, you would get to the others by train. If you're not seeing Madrid, it's probably easier to fly from Seville or Granada to Barcelona.

Given Spain's size, be sure to fly from the US to where you want to be; don't fly in and out of Madrid unless that is both a logical start and a logical end to your trip. For instance, if you're seeing Barcelona and the south, fly into Seville, take the train or bus to Granada, fly to Barcelona, and fly home from Barcelona. Use the "multi city" option on airline booking sites to find these flights; don't look for two one-way tickets, as that's usually much more expensive.

To find train schedules within Spain, use RENFE (Spanish national rail) http://www.renfe.com/ or Bahn (German rail, useful for all of Europe) http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Here's Rick's tutorial on using the Bahn website: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules

To book Spanish trains in advance at a discount, there are tutorials from The Man In Seat 61 http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm#How_to_buy_train_tickets_for_Spain and from TripAdvisor http://tinyurl.com/cu48wk5. Others have reported that it's not so simple, but the savings can be substantial and so are worth some hassle.

To find flights within Spain, use Skyscanner: http://www.skyscanner.com/

Others will have to help you with where to find bus schedules. But know that buses in Spain are much nicer than Greyhound in the US, and are perfectly fine to use; they often go where trains don't, and can be more convenient when trains would require connections but buses go direct.