Itinerary help with Andalucia

Spend at least a few nights in Córdoba for sure! :)

It's only a 45 min train ride on the high speed AVE train from Sevilla. Personally, I like Córdoba better than Granada or Sevilla. It will be the least crowded of the three, especially if you spend the night, that way you can escape the people day tripping in from Sevilla.

Córdoba is very ancient town and was the former capital of the Umayyad Caliphate, it's considered historically more significant than even Granada. Córdoba has one of the best attractions in Spain which is the Mezquita de Córdoba, a former Umayyad Mosque. Córdoba also has a very picturesque whitewashed old center, as well as pre-Islamic Roman ruins like its intact Roman Bridge.

After Córdoba, you can take a very good bus (about 3 hrs) to Granada for a few nights, before taking another bus (about 2 hrs) back to Málaga to fly out. No need to rent a car :)

We enjoyed one night in Cordoba, two nights in Ronda and three nights in Granada besides our four nights in Sevilla. Since you’re in Sevilla several days, I would just take a day trip to Cordoba by train. We just used train and the occasional bus in Spain. Sevilla to Ronda was a nice bus.

Of those towns, Sevilla and Ronda were our favorites, but they are all worth seeing. We were mostly outside at Ronda (went in October last year) so I’m not familiar with it in February if that would impact your decision.

Granada is a wonderful town to stay in for a couple of nights.

The Alhambra is the main attraction and takes a good 4 hours or so. The Albayzin is also quite lovely to explore and has some nice restaurants and shops to wander through.

There is also the cathedral and royal chapel, which are literally right next to each other along Gran Via.

I also liked modern Granada, which is lively and interesting thanks to its large student population.

The only issue with Granada is that it’s somewhat isolated from the rest of Andalusia. You will likely have to transfer in Antequera, which is in the middle of nowhere. The bus ride from Antequera to Granada is over an hour long.

Granada’s airport is also quite far from the city and requires a lengthy bus ride.

In other words: Granada is definitely worth a stop, but unlike Cordoba or Ronda, it’s difficult to do as a day trip and probably requires at least two nights to fully experience.

Different people love different places, but I loved my 3 nights in Granada and could easily have stayed a fourth. I liked the cathedral much better than Seville’s cathedral (and of course the Alhambra) and enjoyed the street musicians, the alleyways, and general feel. Each of our three nights, over tapas we met either people who live in Granada or Spaniards on vacation in Granada - who were just interested in talking to my daughter and me. We were there mid-March but not Easter.

Granada is my favorite city in Spain, definitely worth a stay of a few nights.

Here’s a link to my trip report from our vacation in Spain last April; scroll down to find details of where we stayed in Granada and what we did:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-our-two-week-family-vacation-to-spain-april-2018

We also really enjoyed our day trip from Sevilla to Jerez.

Next time we go back to Spain, we will return to Granada (which would be my fourth visit). I would also like to explore Cadiz; looks interesting from things I’ve read.

We've been to Cordoba, and liked it, but prefer Sevilla. Granada is getting to be more and more of a possibility, as I learn more about it (and receive suggestions). Thanks everybody for all of the input :)

I've been to Ronda twice, both times in February. On a sunny day it's a wow. On a grey day, not so much. I find it a good base to explore the pueblos blancos by car. I was not overly impressed with Granada but I loved the Alhambra, both an evening visit to the Nasrid Palaces and a full day seeing it all. The Nasrid Palaces are completely different during the day. I saw them first at night and would recommend doing it that way. I had 3 full days and thought 2 would have been enough. You might consider Jerez for 2-3 nights. You could visit Arcos (less than an hour by bus), Cadiz (by train), and see a horse show at the Royal Equestrian School (only twice a week in winter, I think), see the Cathedral, take 2-3 sherry bodega tours.
I saw a bit of Malaga while I was there for Semana Santa a couple of years ago. You may want to allot a day or two for this pretty town, with a several "second-tier" museums and Roman ruins. I thought the Thyssen Museum was very good, the Museum of Popular Arts is very good. Stop in the Antigua Casa de Guardia for some cheaply priced local wines poured from the barrels, then head to the beautiful Modernisme market for some fried sardines.

Another advantage of Granada is there is a direct coach service run by Alsa to Malaga airport. Although, personally, I'd plan at least one night in Malaga to see it's great sights.

If you had 6 nights in Granada, as well as three days needed for exploring the city you have lots of day-trip options. At that time of year you may not want to go high into the mountains - unless you enjoy winter sports - but lower down is the cave town of Guadix; or go further north for the absolutely stunning Ubeda/Baeza towns (long day trip, but worth it, get up early); or to the castle & dolmens of Antequera (especially if the railway is open by then which it might be).