My wife and I will be visiting Iberia this October, using our son attending a semester in Madrid as the impetus for the trip. We'll have 20 nights for the visit, arriving very late on Sept 30th and flying back to US on Oct. 20th. Given the late arrival on the 30th we're viewing this as a 19 night itinerary. Our current outline is to spend 7-8 nights split between Madrid and Barcelona, 7-8 more shared in Granada, Seville and the White Hill towns and 4 nights in Lisbon.
We're considering 3 different routes. #1 is Barcelona->Madrid->Granada->White Hills->Seville->Lisbon. This is the most direct routing (shortest # of miles traveled within Iberia).
Route 2 is Madrid->Barcelona->Granada->White Hills->Seville->Lisbon. The advantage with this route is we can do our jet lag recovery in Madrid where our son is. I doubt we'll be up for major sightseeing that first day but we'll be able to spend time with him after he's had a month in Madrid to learn a bit about the neighborhoods. His Spanish is already very good and should be better by then, for what that's worth.
Route 3 is Madrid->Granada->White Hills->Seville->Lisbon->Barcelona. In addition to dealing with jet lag in Madrid this routing would allow our son to join us in Lisbon (he has no classes Fri-Sun and his Monday class is at 5pm). With either of the other routes he could join us in Granada and see the White Hills with us, something he likely won't be able to do without us as he won't have a car. And with route #1 he could join us in Barcelona as well.
Here are some of our assumptions regarding transportation:
a) we will fly from Barcelona to Granada with route 2.
b) we will rent a car when we leave Granada so we can visit the White Hill towns, returning it in Seville with all itineraries.
c) we will fly from Seville to Lisbon.
d) we will fly from Lisbon to Barcelona on route 3.
e) we will take trains between Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Granada depending on final routing.
I'd appreciate comments on our route options and whether we should consider having the rental car while in either Granada or Seville or just while in the White Hill towns between those cities. Other thoughts will also be appreciated. Thanks!