Updated: 2 weeks in Spain

No, as a first time visit with only 13 days, it isn't a must see. You really cannot do Granada as a day trip from Seville and if you have any interest in the big art museums in Madrid, you haven't allowed sufficient time to see Segovia, Toledo and Madrid in 3 days (in my opinion).
Is this October 2019? If so, are you considering Granada primarily for the Alhambra? If so, then you may be out of luck. I did a check and there are no general admission nor Dobla d'Oro tickets for the 2nd or 3rd week of October. So then that might change a few things, and then the only way may have to be as a tour - whether from Granada or from Seville. You want to ensure, however, that the tour includes confirmed Alhambra tickets. I enjoyed the night visit but I also did the general entry as well. Maybe you can do a night visit of the Nazrid Palace, and a day visit to the grounds only. Here is the official website for ticket purchases
https://tickets.alhambra-patronato.es/en/
If you decide to forego Granada because of inability to get tickets, then you could consider Valencia - if you are travelers that just want a taste of a place. Plenty would just add more time to existing 3 cities.

I haven't been to Valencia, so I can't speak to its worthiness or not. I have heard very good things about it, however.

If you do go to Valencia, I would recommend dropping a few day trips, particularly from Seville and Barcelona. Seville has many sights and Cordoba is easily worth an entire day (if not several).

As amazing as the Alhambra is, I think it may be too difficult to do Granada as a day trip. It's quite far from Seville, the Alhambra is a lengthy (but amazing) excursion and there are additional sights in Granada you'd end up missing.

Barcelona has a TON of sights and requires several days to explore even on a basic level. Many of the Gaudi attractions are timed-entry, making it difficult to see them efficiently (unless you have impeccable timing). I would probably drop both Montserrat and the Dali museum.

I think the question isn't whether Valencia is worth it or not. I think the question is whether Valencia can fit into what's already a very crowded schedule.

For example, is it worth skipping Granada for Valencia? My guess is most people would say no, given the Alhambra's magnificence. But that's likely a decision you're going to have to make.

If I'm being honest, I think you should consider dropping, not adding, day trips to your itinerary. You're still going to see plenty of amazing things even if you aggressively pare down your schedule. You might as well give yourself the time to fully enjoy them. :)

It is worth it but your itinerary is jam packed with day trips & Valencia is furthest away from the others so concentrate on the holy grail, Madrid, Seville, Barcelona. I would add to Seville and Barcelona. Girona is a nice day trip from Barc & could be combined with Dali. We did Valencia on our 2nd trip to Spain and enjoyed several nights there at a slower pace. You could always catch a football game in Madrid/Barcelona or take a tour of their stadiums. Quite entertaining!

Hello, in your case I would drop Valencia, in fact I would also drop Barcelona, your itinerary is way too overfilled as it is already. For example you are staying in Sevilla for 3 days (2 nights?) and doing 2 very long day trips to Cordoba and Granada also, when do you plan to see Sevilla? The same for Barcelona only 2.5 days, but you have penciled in already two day trips. You will also force yourself to backtrack illogically if you go to Valencia from Madrid then back down to Sevilla then fly back up north to Barcelona.

I would recommend you take a big step back and revise your current itinerary, maybe something along these lines:

Fly in to Madrid
Madrid (3 nights) - day trip to Segovia
AVE to
Toledo (1 night)
AVE via Madrid to
Sevilla (3 nights) - day trip to Cadiz or Jerez
AVE to
Cordoba (2 nights)
AVE to
Granada (2 nights)
AVE back to
Madrid (1 night)
Fly out of Madrid

With your current Itinerary, I'm afraid you will zip by Spain like a marathon race, I know it's tempting to want to see everything the first time, but it's best if you leave Barcelona and Valencia for another time, as they are easy to do together. Hope this helps :)

This question seems to arise a lot. My standard response is (a) Valencia is delightful, but (b) not a top destination for a first trip with limited time and other priorities.

In your case you're very short of time for all that proposed and I would drop it. I don't think you're allowing enough time for the sights within any of your other base cities given all the day trips planned.

I agree with the others. Less is more. Valencia is a pleasant place but it has fewer sights of great touristic importance than the other places mentioned--unless you go absolutely nuts for contemporary architecture.

It's not that Valencia is a bad, or dull, place to go; it's just that you need to consider the trade-offs. A day in Valencia costs you not just a day in Barcelona or some other prime destination, but also the hours needed for transportation to and from Valencia, plus the time spent checking into and out of the hotel. I didn't go to Valencia until my sixth trip to Spain.

Please don't try to combine Toledo and Segovia into a single day-trip. I easily filled more than two days in Toledo, which has a huge, atmospheric (and hilly) historic district in addition to many sights worth going inside. Segovia's worth close to a day if you enjoy wandering around.

And Granada shouldn't be attempted as a day-trip from Seville. The Alhambra ticket situation is grim, but you might be able to get tickets from your hotel.

Three full days in Seville would be about right with a day-trip to Cordoba included, though you could certainly fill another day or two in Seville. (And Cordoba's worth more time as well.)

I adore Barcelona (and am lukewarm about Madrid except for the art museums), but I wouldn't try to talk you out of focusing on Andalucia and the area around Madrid with the time you have.

Ditto Nick and acraven’s comments. I’ve been to Valencia a couple times and there are so many other places in Spain you should visit before Valencia. Save it for another trip since I’m sure you’ll want to return.

Just reread what acraven wrote. It's what I would also advise.

Spain is a very large and very diverse country. You absolutely cannot explore "the country" in 2 weeks, not even in 2 months. Plan a trip that gives you time to more than just taste the joys of each place. No one I know goes to Spain only once.

Thank you so much for the valuable inputs. I was definitely almost over the fence so as to drop Valencia and just need an affirmation from someone who would have explored all the cities here.
Secondly, I know this itinerary seems extra crazy to most of you given the limited time, however, we really want to get a basic flavor of Madrid, Seville and Barcelona. Having said that, unfortunately, being based out of India, it is difficult to plan multiple trips to European countries. Maybe, I should have stated this in my initial post that we are touching just the highlights in this visit. Though I do wish I could spend at least a month; hopefully in the future (fingers crossed :) )
I guess, we will go with this:
Madrid - 4 days with day trips to Segovia and Toledo each. Hoping to cover Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Seville - 3 days
Cordoba - 1 day
Granada - 1 day
Barcelona - 4 days
For Alhambra, I had no idea that tickets would be sold out for the whole month of October a month in advance already. So, trying to get them by booking a tour. If not, might add a day in Barcelona. Any other site or museum in the above itinerary that needs to be booked right away in order to avoid this (for travel dates Oct 9-22)?
For Barcelona, is it suggested to keep all 4 days for exploring the city itself, and should not attempt to visit Montserrat or Salvador Dali museum or both?

Again, all inputs are much appreciated :)

Some recommend that you prebook the Alcazar in Seville and definitely need to prebook Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Personally, I hate to be that committed to a day and time weeks in advance, but I was in Spain in late October/November 2017 and only pre-booked the Alhambra. I cancelled my Barcelona segment, or would have also pre-booked Sagrada Familia.
If you can't get into Alhambra thus foregoing Granada, adding the day to Barcelona allows for more day trips. I think 3 days for Barcelona itself seems to be common.

On your revised itinerary -

• I may be confusing your "days" and "nights",but it would be worth investigating a stop in Cordoba whilst travelling between other cities. The (fast) railway from Madrid to Seville stops in Cordoba so you could alight there, store your luggage, spend a day in Cordoba then go onto Sevilla. Alternatively, between Sevilla and Granada you can do something similar if you go by rail (coach is an alternative mode for this segment, but the faster ones don't stop in Cordoba) Note that when I suggest this I do mean you buy tickets for each leg - you cannot just get off and on. Also, of course a night (or three) in Cordoba is brilliant. But your time is limited;

• between Granada and Barcelona, I'd fly instead of using the train; and

• since you don't know if/when you'd be back, I highly recommend the extra cost of using a tour of the Alhambra if the standard tickets are sold out already.

With the Alcazar in Sevilla (Edit: except, as pointed out below, for the ticket limited royal rooms, which are not the main attraction), you don't need to book in advance to get a limited ticket in the same way you do with parts of the Alhambra, but it is a good idea to avoid the queues which can be horrendous. Unless you plan to arrive well before the Alcazar opens, I'd definitely buy an advance ticket to allow you to jump the queue.

With 4 full days in Barcelona, then yes I feel you can do a day trip to Figueres/Dali Museum, which will probably take the good part of full day. Montserrat can also be done, usually takes half a day depending on how much you want to see, so that leaves you with 2.5 days in the city, which seems a bit tight but doable to me.

As far as I know, there is nothing about a day-trip to Montserrat that has to be pre-booked. I would wait and make a day-of-travel decision, because you may desperately need that day in Barcelona, or you may be unlucky with the weather.

When the time comes, just go to the rail station under the Placa d'Espanya and buy the combo round-trip ticket from a machine. When I was there in 2016 (headed elsewhere), there was a Renfe (?) staffer hanging around the machines, assisting tourists. You need to decide before making the purchase which mode of transportation you want to use for the second part of the trip (should be explained in your guidebook). And I believe Enric has recommended here not opting for the combo ticket that includes a meal.

The Dali Theatre and Museum ticket should be booked in advance. That place gets a lot of bus tours, and it's quite possible for certain time-blocks to fill up. Since you'd be traveling out of town for this, you wouldn't be happy to be told you could buy a ticket but had to return in 2 or 3 hours. If you have the option, I'd opt for a weekday. The T&M is accessible from France, and I'm guessing a lot of the French traffic arrives on weekends.

Another reason to book the Dali site in advance is that there may still be some inexpensive (non-refunfable/non-changeable) train tickets left to Figueres. They will be rather expensive at full fare. Renfe.com is a problem for many foreign tourists. I'd try buying the rail tickets from loco2.com or trainline.com. At this moment loco2 should be a bit cheaper; it will start charging fees later this year.

As for the Alcazar in Seville, part of my trip to that city fell during Holy Week this year, which is a very busy time. Lines for both the Alcazar and the Cathedral were very long, outdoors and uncovered. I bought the Alcazar ticket online, I think just one day in advance. However, I had a long stay in Seville and didn't need to be picky about my entry time. On a short trip you will benefit from putting that time-specific sight first thing in the morning, and demand for those tickets may cause them to sell out earlier.

Tickets for the private apartments in the Alcazar sell out far in advance (at least weeks, I believe). I have not read that the apartments are all that special; I think the ticket situation is due to a severe limit on the number sold. The Alcazar itself is large and can accommodate a lot of visitors; you just don't want to stand in that long ticket line

Note that October 12 is a major holiday in Spain. Check for closures and expect crowds that weekend and maybe some trains will be sold out.

I would drop a night in Madrid and add it to Granada. I would drop the day trip to Segovia too. Liked Avila much more. It’s a walled city. Or day trip to Salamanca but with all your travels I would drop the day trip all together. As to tickets for the Alhambra ask your hotel to get them. Most can. We stayed at Hotel Boutique Puerta de las Granadas and they got us tickets. If in the end you can’t get tickets do the night visit. Have done both day and night in different trips and both were magical.

Night tickets to the Alhambra including the Nasrid Palaces now often sell out. I would not count on that as an option when I rolled into town. Also, the palaces seemed more crowded at night; there were definitely more prople lined up for the single entry time in the evening.

It's clear that tastes vary, because to me Avila isn't remotely as interesting as Segovia, and I write that as someone who gives a lot of bonus points for a wall. The problem I had with Avila is that it felt as if it didn't have anything else. For the typical tourist with really limited time, I don't recommend Avila because there are so many destinations with more points of interest. If you're driving right past Avila and have hours to kill, that's a different story.

Too much on your itinerary for two weeks.

I would save Barcelona and Valencia and perhaps Granada for another trip.

Do Madrid with day trips to Toledo and Segovia (total of 5 nights)
Seville for 4 nights and 2 nights in Cordoba. You still have a couple of nights, so you could do Granada, but trying to include Valencia and Barcelona is too much.
Madrid deserves more than three nights, since two of days will be day trips outside the city.

Seville deserves 3 full days and your plan has four days with two days for day trips (by the way a day trip to Granada is too far).