How is my interniary?

When is your trip?

I'm guessing when you write "3 days" and "2 days" you mean "3 nights" and "2 nights". Because of the time it takes to pack up, check in and out of hotels, and move from place to place, counting days tends to seriously overstate the amount of sightseeing time you'll have at each destination.

If you're arriving in Barcelona after an overnight flight from the US or Canada, at least some of you (maybe all) are likely to be sleep-deprived and jetlagged on your arrival day. I'm one of many who completely writes off that day. I have way too much trouble staying awake to plan to do anything more than walk around aimlessly, ideally outdoors. So that means, by the way I count, you have only two full days in Barcelona.

Barcelona's a city with a great many interesting things to see and do, all too many of which pretty much require you to buy (usually timed) tickets in advance. If you don't do that, you may spend an hour or more in line and then find out the tickets for that day are sold out. The difficulty is, how do you schedule the second and third sight of the day (if you are interested in a bunch of those high-traffic sights)? How much time will you want to spend at the first sight? How much time will it take you to get to the second one? How much time will you want to spend at lunch (at some point)? The scheduling is not a trivial task, and the fewer days you have, the harder it is to figure out. To me, two days in Barcelona would be an exercise in frustration. However, it does depend on what you want to see and do there. There are plenty of sights you can normally walk right up to.

It takes a long time to get from Barcelona to Granada, whether you opt to fly (getting to and from the airports, extra time for security, etc.) or take a train. There won't be too many hours of the day left by the time you get to Granada, so you'll basically have just one full day there and a few hours on the day you arrive. If this is a spring-break trip, it may be quite difficult to obtain tickets to the Alhambra, which I assume is your major reason for going to Granada. The Alhambra tends to sell out months in advance. Although there are other things to see in Granada (I'm planning 4 nights there myself in May), it adds a lot of transportation time to your trip, and I wouldn't make it a priority if you can't get Alhambra tickets.

Granada to Seville takes at least 3 hours on the bus or some combination of train and bus. They're still working on the high-speed rail line near Granada. That means about 2-1/2 days in Seville, which will give you a good look at the city.

If you're interested in seeing Cordoba, you might consider stopping there on the way to Madrid. You'll be using the very fast AVE train between Seville and Madrid. I believe there's a place to check luggage at the Cordoba bus station, which is near the trains station. There may also be commercial luggage-storage service in the area.

Depending on whether you stop to see the Mezquita and/or other sights in Cordoba, you'll have a full day and some varying number of hours in Madrid. If you have no interest in Madrid's art museums, that may not be too bad. You won't have time for Toledo on this trip; maybe next time.

I would not cut 11 nights into so many pieces, but I know it's hard to eliminate one of those four cities.

If this is a summer trip, it will probably be extremely hot during your time in Granada and Seville. Days over 100F are pretty much to be expected. Madrid should be somewhat less hot but may still be bad. In Barcelona the temperature's likely to be pretty moderate, but when the humidity is high, it can feel hotter than it actually is. I suggest putting a premium on hotels located close to the specific sights you care about so you can take a break in your air-conditioned hotel room if the afternoon heat becomes unbearable. Some museums, cafes, restaurants and shops are not air conditioned.

Thank you for replying. Yes, I meant nights. We are going in the end of June beginning of July.

Adding to the above good advice, Madrid is the least interesting of your cities. If you want to spend a day (or more) enjoying European painting at its 3 top-notch art museums, that's fine. Otherwise, I'd cut one night and add it to Barcelona.

Thank you. I will consider that as well. I was thinking of taking day trips from Madrid (Toledo, Segovia) that is why I added a bit more time there. But perhaps I should add it to Barcelona as you indicated.

Toledo is my favorite but Segovia is totally worthwhile, and with two children, I might vote for the aqueduct. But that's even more traveling. That's just an awful lot of places you're trying to squeeze into not so many days. It's not just the time spent sitting on the trains and buses, it's the time it takes to get the family packed and to the station. Your trip is going to tilt pretty heavily toward time spent traveling from place to place rather than time spent actually sightseeing with your feet on the ground. You'll have time to see a lot more if you don't travel so much. It's not as if a place like Barcelona has only two days' worth of sights.