Itinerary suggestions - Barcelona and Andalucia

That looks like a very solid itinerary. Only thing missing is Cordoba. You could do it as a day trip from Seville, or better, do in en route to Granada and steal one night from Granada and stay there. So you'd take the train from Seville to Cordoba, spend one night, and bus the next day to Granada. Or possibly 'steal' the night from Malaga instead of Granada. I would give up one night in either Granada or Malaga for a night in Cordoba.

Here's my photos of those places - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f855477163

As mentioned, pretty solid. I also agree about trying to fit Cordoba in for a night.
Have you looked at considering flight costs from Barcelona to Seville? It might save both a little time and money.
I think the bus is fine for Seville to Granada, but there is still a Renfe travel option...though it does combine train part way and bus part way. I like more time in Granada, but I might suggest shaving from there....depending on when you were planning to arrive in Malaga. Some like to count nights, instead of days in places, but if you are like me who leaves a city late in the day, my '2 nights in Malaga' would only cover one full day having arrived the night before (and not being a night owl I wouldn't do anything then) and leaving for flights the following morning.
So, where to take away depends on when you depart from the previous city.

"Via bus, as I think there is not a train yet?"

Yes, no direct train. But, you can book a train ticket on Renfe, but the journey will actually be split with train for the first part then transfer to a coach (or local train), for the second part. Or you can go by coach on Alsa that does it as a single trip. The time is about the same, so I'd just pick based on which timetable suits best.

I think your itinerary looks great. You could alter it to fly from Barcelona to Granada, then coach/train to Sevilla, then hire car to Malaga (via Ronda), but it's six of one and half a dozen of the other which route is better. I would at least include a stop in Cordoba if you possibly can, even if that means losing a night in Barcelona or Granada, but not Sevilla.

I agree with everyone who suggests staying overnight in Cordoba. Cordoba has the Mezquita, which is magnificent, but there is more to Cordoba than just the Mezquita. It was one of our favorite places on our trip to Andalucia. I wouldn't steal a night from Barcelona because Barcelona is a big city with lots of important sites. I would either take a night from Granada or from Malaga. We enjoyed Malaga, and I think Malaga is an under-rated city; however, Cordoba is a more important city historically with its Muslim, Jewish, and Christian history and influences.

We didn't go to Ronda, but I think you could delete Ronda from your itinerary to spend a night in Cordoba (if you don't want to delete a night from Granada or Malaga). Based on my research when i was planning our trip, I think Ronda is considered a "lesser" site historically. But it all depends on your interests. Personally, I would not choose Ronda over Cordoba.

We took the ALSA bus twice on our trip, and I highly recommend it. It is modern, clean, comfortable and air-conditioned.

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm now leaning towards Cordoba instead of Ronda.

So, out itinerary could be:

• Fly into Barcelona - stay 4 nights
• Train to Seville - stay 3 nights
• Train to Cordoba - stay 1 night.
• Travel to Granada. Stay 3 nights.
• Travel to Malaga. Stay 2 nights.
• Fly out of Malaga.

I'm unsure about the best way to travel from Cordoba --> Granada --> Malaga
The trains looks to be indirect routes.
Are the busses good?
Or would it be worth it to use a rental car? (although I have a hunch it would sit unused while we're in Granada?)

Thanks!

Look at your train timings to get the most out of each day. Consider Jerez as a substitute for Ronda. I would go like this ...

Day
1. Fly into Barcelona - stay 4 nights
2.3.4. Barcelona
5. Fly to Granada - stay 2 nights
6. Alhambra
7. Evening train (3hr 45min) to Seville - stay 4 nights
8. Sevilla
9. Day trip to Jerez or Cadiz
10. Sevilla
11. Morning train (45min) to Cordoba - stay 1 night
12. Afternoon train (55min) to Malaga - stay 2 nights
13. Malaga
14. Fly out of Malaga

Four nights in Barcelona is rather short, especially at the beginning of your trip when you may be suffering from significant sleep-deprivation and jetlag; those conditions sometimes continue into Day 2. I'm making my first trip to Malaga in April so have no personal experience there, but I don't think it compares very well to your other destinations. In your shoes I'd happily take one night from Malaga (leaving essentially no time there, I realize) and transfer it to Barcelona.

Although I like Ronda, I think replacing Ronda with Cordoba makes sense when you have limited time.

With your current itinerary, there is no need to rent a car, unless you plan to visit the white hill towns. The ALSA buses are a very good alternative option to trains. They are very comfortable and fast, they even have wifi. I would not recommend trying to take the train from Barcelona to Andalucia, it will take you at least 5 hours, compared to just a 1.5 hour flight.

Here would be my itinerary to maximize efficiency and minimize backtracking:

Fly in to Barcelona
Barcelona (4 nights)
Fly to Sevilla
Sevilla (3 nights)
AVE train to Cordoba
Cordoba (2 nights)
ALSA Bus to Granada
Granada (2 nights)
ALSA Bus to Malaga
Malaga (2 nights)
Fly out of Malaga

I really liked the white villages (Ronda, Arcos, Zahara, etc.) but I would absolutely prioritize Cordoba over them. To me for this area, the priority should be Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba, over anything else. There are other worthy places like the white villages, Jerez and more, but in my opinion, only if you have enough time for Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba. I'm not a "beachy" person plus we were in the area in November, but I didn't go to Malaga. I do like Carlos's itinerary suggestion and the days he allocated to each city, if it were me I'd take a day from Malaga and add it to Barcelona, but that is my own bias.

Hi there! We did a very similar first trip to Spain in Sept 2018, except we had 15 nights to your 13. Here's what we did:

Fly into Barcelona, stay 5 nights
Fly to Sevilla, stay 4 nights
Pick up rental car and drive to Ronda, stay 3 nights
Drop off rental car in Granada, stay 3 nights.

What we learned:

Although we would have preferred a train, we found out it is much cheaper and faster to fly from Barcelona to Sevilla. Our flight with Vueling was under $50 per person, however it requires only carryons for this price (which is a good idea anyway) so be aware.
We had planned to do a day trip to Cordoba while in Sevilla, but we had so much fun exploring (and resting after our activity packed days in Barcelona), we never made it there (our one regret on this trip). Bike tour, flamenco, shopping, dining.
Others will tell you to skip Ronda, but we absolutely loved it. We stayed in the BEST air bnb EVER, overlooking the ravine in the center of Ronda. We even caught a Blessed Mary pageant marching down the streets at 10:30 PM (thought those were only at Easter time! magnificent and followed by a marching band and fireworks!). We also enjoyed using our rental car to explore the white hill towns - think olives, wine, and corks!
It was easy to pick up and drop off the rental car (which was $138 for 4 days including the zero deductible option) using the train stations in both cities.

Cannot speak to Malaga vs Cordoba. But beware making too many changes of accommodations in 13 nights, it is tiring and stressful, so we limited our "travel days" to 3 within Spain.

Enjoy planning!

If leaving out Ronda, then no need for a rental car. When trying to set out 'what town next', I use rome2rio website for creating the sequencing. It also provides transportation options to help decide bus, plane, train or car.
With adding Cordoba, it might make sense to do Barcelona - fly to Granada - bus to Seville - train to Cordoba - train to Malaga. But try a couple of sequences on rome2rio and see what suits best.

Although I use Rome2Rio to check on what modes of transportation may be available between two cities as well as possible transfer points, I have found it shockingly inaccurate about travel time, frequency and fares. It's important to drill down until you find a link to the company operating the buses or trains and go to its website for accurate information.

We really enjoyed our stay in the white villages. I think Ronda is a place to see but it wasn't our favorite village in the area (loved Zahara and Grazelema) I think the appeal of Ronda is the gorge. When we were there (November 2018) routes down to the gorge for the "classic" picture were closed due to the heavy rains. I would check to see if the gorge is open if you are thinking of staying there. It also gets pretty busy there with tourists, but so do many places.

It's a little shorter to take the train from Barcelona to Cordoba.

Barcelona (4) - Cordoba (1) - Sevilla (3) - car via Ronda (1) to Granada (2-3) - bus to Malaga (1-2). I'd lean toward only 1 night in Malaga, leaving Granada early and having most of the day to see its highlights.

Or fly to Granada from Barcelona, then Cordoba and Sevilla. Take a car for a night in Ronda and drop it in Malaga.

Thanks all for the great suggestions!
I ended up following the plan that @djp_syd suggested.
Very much looking forward to our first trip to Spain!