Itinerary advice 7 days Madrid / Sevilla - time for day trips?

Granada is not a day trip from Sevilla but Cádiz is. You need a minimum of three nights in both Sevilla and Madrid. When you add a day trip add a night per place.

Agreed that Granada is not a day trip from Sevilla. In my opinion, if you truly like a slower paced trip since you have just 7 days you should stick to Madrid and Sevilla as there is so much to see and do there, and wandering around is a great part of the charm.

The amount of time you'll want to spend in Madrid itself will be significantly affected by your level of interest in the city's art museums. Art lovers would spend the better part of two days at the Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen (and there are other art museums). Two days means three nights, and that wouldn't allow an art lover much time to see the rest of the city.

For me, Seville is a 4-night (3-day) sort of place, but I'm such a slow traveler that I stayed longer.

Not knowing your sightseeing preferences, I can't say whether you have time for any daytrips at all. Cordoba, Toledo and Segovia fit better with the rest of your trip than Cadiz. Granada is too far, and Avila pales by comparison to the others. Note that a few hours would be a short visit to Cordoba or Toledo, and I was happy to spend multiple nights in Segovia and Cadiz as well.

I would do some combination of 3-4 nights Sevilla, 3-4 Madrid, pick Segovia or Toledo for a day trip but not both, potentially just pick based on whether your hotel is closer to Atocha (station for trains from Madrid to Toledo) or Chamartin (ditto for Segovia).

Sevilla is just magical. You don’t need to do day trips if you’re not a fast paced traveler. There’s so much food, wine, tapas, culture and just amazing vitality to Sevilla that I would spend full days there.

Madrid is more of a city but it’s just as amazing. You could spend less time there if you don’t like art museums but there’s a ton to enjoy.

Cordoba has an incredible historical mosque/cathedral but I wouldn’t say overnight under these time constraints. You can do the big Córdoba stuff in a day.

Thanks for all this great advice y'all

Do not miss Toledo, it is amazing.

split between the to cities, but do a full day trip to Toledo and if you have time in Madrid, do Segovia to see the 1800 year old Roman aqueduct.

Here’s a vote for 4 nights in Sevilla and 3 in Madrid with a daytrip to Segovia. Sevilla will consume as much time as you can allocate (highly recommend the rooftop tour of the cathedral). Unless you are big into museums, Madrid can be walked/shopped in 2 days even with stopping at Reina Sofia to see Guernica. Segovia is beautiful, welcoming, delicious…and the aqueduct is amazing!

Hello,

I vote for 2 nights in Cordoba. You will probably be there during their Patio Festival (May 5-18) and we really enjoyed everything about Cordoba --- especially the Mezquita.

If I had to short change a city, I would give Madrid just one or two days. My reasoning is that you will most likely fly into or out of Madrid on any future trips to Spain. Therefore, it's the easiest to see more thoroughly on future visits.

A short 1/2 day tour from Sevilla is Italica. An all-day tour from Madrid we enjoyed was Cuenca and the Enchanted City. Our top tour of the trip was the rooftop tour of the Cathedral in Sevilla.

Enjoy!

What I've come up with is:
4 nts Sevilla with possible day trip to either Cadiz or Jerez de la Frontera (suggestions here?)
1 nt Cordoba (en route to Madrid)
3 nts Madrid

Can someone please advise me of major sights that you can get or need early admission tickets to?

Thanks so much for the advice

Matthew

Buy tickets for the Cathedral and Alcazar in Seville in advance. Their ticket lines are very long.

Lines at the Prado and Royal Palce in Madrid are a bit less predictable, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get them ahead of time. You might be very grateful to have the tickets in hand when you arrive at the museum and the palace--assuming they're on your target list.

We used Sevilla Walking Tours recommended by Rick and both the City Intro and Alcazar tours were terrific.
https://sevillawalkingtours.com

In Madrid both the Thysen and Prado had excellent 1 hour intro tours in English. The Thysen was the more pleasant experience because it was so much less crowded.

I enjoyed the Royal Collections Gallery. Beautiful new museum and not crowded at all when we visited on a Sunday in April of 2024. The app is very good and so is the restaurant.

https://www.patrimonionacional.es/en/actualidad/galeria-de-las-colecciones-reales

New Banksy museum opens in Madrid – in pictures
A museum dedicated to the British urban artist Banksy has opened in Madrid, Spain, featuring 170 life-sized reproductions of his works

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/jan/30/new-banksy-museum-opens-in-madrid-in-pictures