Madrid 8 days - what day trips ?

The transition from Córdoba to Segovia isn’t clear. As I read it, you’re departing Córdoba on the morning of day 5, going back to Madrid, checking into the hotel, switching train stations, and going straight to Segovia.

That won’t leave much time in Segovia if the intent is to return to Madrid that evening.

Remain flexible with your day trip plans. Once you get there you may find it’s too hectic a pace. If you decide to skip one, decide which, Toledo or Segovia, you’ll skip before heading over. Assuming the trip is during the summer months at least it will stay light until about 10pm.

If i am reading your plan correctly it looks like you’re checking in and out of hotels in Madrid several times. Here’s an option to help with your flow depending on how many day trips vs overnight stays you want to do on a fairly short trip.

Land in Madrid train to cordoba. Stay two nights as you’ve planned
Back to Madrid and see the rest of the places on your list as day trips.

What time of year is this trip? Madrid and the surrounding area can be very hot in the summer. Cordoba is even hotter.

Train tickets between Madrid and Cordoba vary in price. They can be a lot less expensive if purchased well ahead of time, but the lowest prices are for date- and time-specific tickets. Take a look at the change/refund rules on Renfe.com and iryo.com so you have the full picture. I like the idea of beginning the trip in Cordoba before you settle into Madrid for the rest of the trip. However, I'd find it risky to buy a day-of-arrival ticket to Cordoba in advance.

Tickets to Toledo do not vary in price, so there's no need to buy them way in advance. However, those are reserved-seat trains that sometimes sell out. It's important to monitor ticket availability on renfe.com. Rick especially warns about full trains returning to Madrid late in the day; he recommends buying the return ticket when you start the trip (if not before). I love the Mudejar architecture in Toledo and was happy to spend 3 nights there, but lots of people seem happy with what they accomplish on a day trip. I will mention, however, that the historic area is hilly, so you will probably not move around as fast as you imagine.

I'm one of those who don't find Madrid an especially visually interesting city; Spain has many older cities. To me, it comes down to your interest in its major sights, a number of which are art museums. I think you have about enough time even if you do like art, given the length of your time in Spain. (You could always spend more time in Madrid, exploring various neighborhoods.) If you're not big art fans who want to see every picture in the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia, you could perhaps drop one day from Madrid. You could maintain flexibility--figuring you can do a second day trip to Toledo if you fall in love with it and are willing to give up the day in Madrid.

Express trains to Segovia have variable prices with tomorrow's fares ranging from 11 to 39(!) euros one way. It looks like a good idea not to wait until the last minute to buy tickets, once you are certain of your travel date. Because trains are so frequent, you probably don't need to buy very far in advance to avoid high prices. You can take a look at renfe.com every day or so in the lead-up to your trip to see how things look. Segovia trains depart from Chamartin Station.

I don't think you are going to need to come up with another day trip, but the old university town of Alcala de Henares is just outside Madrid and accessible by cheap, frequent commuter trains. Cuenca is also great, but day-tripping there requires an express train whose tickets will almost certainly be quite costly if not purchased well in advance. Therefore, Cuenca's not idea as a last-minute day trip.

Thank you for responses - very helpful . -
- We will be there first week of October after a month in Portugal .
- We like art , churches & architecture- not intrested in shopping .
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Revised intinery - does this flow better ?
Should we do a tour of Toledo rather than independently - just thinking might be less strenuous .
Day 1&2 -Madrid
Day 3&4 - Cordoba
Day 5 - Toledo
Day 6 - Madrid
Day 7 - Segovia
Day 8 - Madrid

It would be great if you could go to Cordoba from Lisbon. (??) to minimize checking in and out of hotels in Madrid. I would find that to be strenuous.

A day in Toledo is fine. I'm not sure that a tour would be any less strenuous than doing the touring alone; you'll have to walk in either case but it's not a large city. Same with Segovia.

But your time in Madrid seems very limited, at least to me. Unless you've been before...

I agree I would prefer to go from Lisbon to Cordoba, but no direct flights or trains . We fly out of Madrid .
Maybe we should not go to Toledo ?

Cordoba doesn't have an airport, and a train from Porto would take forever. You can fly to Madrid (which I think is your plan) and get a train from the airport to Atocha Station, where you pick up an express train to Toledo (<< I meant to write "Cordoba" here, but this works for Toledo as well). Being conservative, you could not buy the Madrid-Cordoba ticket ahead of time, but just go straight to the airport train station and get tickets to Cordoba right there. Or you could take the slightly riskier approach of buying the tickets online while you're awaiting take-off at the Porto airport.

I love Toledo, so I wouldn't suggest that you skip it with as much time as you have. However, my bet is that you'll be back in Spain to see Seville, Granada and Barcelona if you haven't yet been to those cities. You can include Toledo then.

Thanks for your input you have helped me clarify what to do .
I used to live in southern Spain in the 70s - so a long time between tapas !
Given that there are no flights between Lisbon & Cordoba , I am thinking of flying direct to Seville spending 3 days there and take train to Madrid and make that our base , with day trips to Segovia & Toledo . Then fly home to Australia via Dubai ( already booked ) . I think that will be a lot less draining than checking in & out of hotels, considering we would have spent 4 weeks in Portugal - so might be a tad tired . Yes , we miss cordoba but we gain Seville .
Once again thanks everyone for your advice .