Itinerary ideas for Spain - 14 days

I don't see anything wrong with the variety of destinations on your list, but Avila has a wall and not much else. It isn't a particularly interesting destination, and I'd drop it from this itinerary. Toledo and Segovia have a great deal more going for them--so much so that I wonder whether you have time to include them.

The car is going to be a burden for part of those 14 days. Cordoba-Seville is a much, much faster trip by train than by car, and the car won't be useful at all for city sightseeing; you'll just have to pay to park it. The car will be helpful in linking Seville and Granada by way of Ronda. It will also be handy for the trip from Granada to Valencia; the fast trains require a detour to Madrid. Beyond Valencia, though, I don't think a car will save significant time compared to taking the train to Tarragona and then on to Barcelona.

I know it's tempting to think about being able to stop along the way, but that's a long list of cities you've listed. I don't see you having much extra time. You might manage with just 2 nights everywhere (which is unfortunately only about 1-1/2 days) except Seville--though I liked having longer in Cordoba and Granada, as well as in Toledo. Seville is a large city with a lot of sights scattered around. I'd want 4 nights there. A sequence of two-night stops can be rather tiring, and I'd dread the business of navigating to a parking place every two days.

There are places in Spain where the car would be more useful than on the itinerary you've laid out. One would be a drive across northern Spain; another would be the Cuenca-Teruel-Albarracin area between Madrid and Valencia. Spain is speckled with lots of interesting smaller cities and towns, but I think you'd need to trim your preliminary itinerary if you want to do much more than wave at them as you drive by.

The areas you want to cover seem well-chosen for the time of year. Andalucia and the Mediterranean coast should offer relatively mild temperatures.

I would highly recommend you consider spending time in the Basque country, Rioja, and Zaragoza en route to Barcelona. We just journeyed 17 days in Andalucia and enjoyed it but the Basque country, in 2019, won our hearts! But, if you go to Andalucia, and since you like to walk, I recommend the El Caminito del Rey which was a highlight of our recent trip. We found Ronda super touristy but the small nearby town of Arriate is lovely and Taberna Malacaña served some of the best food we had in Spain. We enjoyed Seville, Granada was crazy crowded but Cordoba was calm and the Mezquita was mind blowing. Whatever you decide enjoy!

Thanks for your feedback. I think I really need to reconsider my plans, especially with respect to the car. I'm guessing the alternative is trains? And buses? How easy is it to get public transport throughout Spain?

For places the size of the spots on your list, trains and buses are generally easy. You can explore schedules on the Renfe website (https://www.renfe.com/es/en). Edited to add: Renfe will just have the train schedules.

However, from Granada north to Valencia is a long day by bus. The train route isn't a great deal faster because it sends you first north to Madrid and then east to Valencia. Those are fast trains, but you're covering a lot of extra mileage, and there's a layover in Madrid.

A lot of people like to use a car between Seville and Granada so they can see a few of the little white villages. You can get from Seville to Ronda to Granada by public transportation--albeit by fairly slow trains and buses--but including small places like Arcos de la Frontera and Grazalema would require more extra time than I think you have. That's where your own wheels would be handy--but you'd need to move through those places quite fast unless you were willing to trim the rest of your itinerary.

Easiest would be to travel from Granada to Madrid to Zaragoza to Barcelona and fly home from there. Alternatively, Granada to Madrid to Valencia then up the coast to Barcelona (via Tarragona if there's time).

Do you already have airline tickets that have you flying home from Madrid?

1) You don't include Salamanca (near the Portuguese border). Don't miss this amazing city. You only need one day there.
2) Your itinerary is way overloaded. If you plan 4 days in Madrid and 4 in Barcelona, that leaves 6 days for all the other places you listed. Spain is a large country, not sure that you can pull this off, even if you only do a single day in Avila, Cordoba, Ronda, Granada, Valencia and Tarragona. This in itself is six days. Seville deserves 3 days.
3) Your itinerary would require much backtracking. Also, you don't want to keep a rental car in Madrid. Parking is a problem and the cost to park is high.
4) You don't include Toledo and Segovia, close to Madrid. Suggest eliminating Ronda, Valencia and Tarragona. Stop in Cordoba when traveling from Madrid to Seville (or vice versa).

5) Sit down and plan your trip, use mapquest or google maps to tell you how much time it takes to drive from place to place or take the train. Spain has some great high speed trains. Especially the one from Madrid to Barcelona.

Geovagriffith, the 14 days do not include the time in Barcelona and Madrid.

In 2019, we drove from Barcelona to Zaragoza, Rioja, Bilbao and the Basque country then back to Barcelona through France; and this September drove from Malaga throughout Andalucia including El Caminito del Rey, Ronda, the white villages, Arcos de la Frontera, Gibraltor, Tarifa, Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Nerja back to Malaga. It was easy, pleasant and afforded independence and flexibility. Yes, you have to pay to park in the cities but that is not difficult and, at least for us, was well worth it.

PS - Apple Carplay, or Android Auto, is very helpful.

Thanks so much for sharing all your experiences and advice. I think we will stick with the car hire but re-think the itinerary around this. I'm getting the message that we need to spend more time in fewer places so I'll take another look at which places offer the most, given our time and interests. And ensure that our accommodation bookings include parking. So glad I reached out to this forum. Thanks again