Madrid and Andalucia In January

I recommend two excellent tour guides at the beginning of your visit..
In Madrid, Federico Barroso (spainfred.com) and Adolfo Ferrero (Toledodelamano.com) in Toledo.

If you head south to Sevilla, then stay south and skip heading north to Bilbao. With the little time you have stick to Sevilla with possible day trips to Ronda and/or Córdoba. I do not know what the weather is like in Bilbao in January, but it will be better in Sevilla. Personal opinion, but with some research you don’t need a guide for either Madrid or Toledo, but that’s up to you.

With regard to the Paradors, most are priced in line with similar hotels in the area they are in. I’m not certain which you are referring to. Some are very inexpensive while others are pricey. The closest Parador to Madrid is Alcala de Henares (not convenient for seeing the city) and there isn’t one in Sevilla. There is one in Ronda, Córdoba, Toledo, and Granada. The Granada Parador is very expensive no matter what time of year you visit. We use Paradors as much as possible because we like them and many are in old convents, hospitals, or castles. Its site is www.parador.es/en. The mobile is, https://mobi.parador.es/en, so you can visit it to check prices and options for the dates you’ll be visiting.

Blue439, thank you for the tour information. While in Madrid we will just explore on our own. Would a tour guide for Toledo pick us up in Madrid? I've heard the train is an easy way to get to Toledo from Madrid.

jaimeelsabio, Thank you for the Parador link. The Granada Parador is quite pricey. I haven't looked at others. There are quite a few other interesting hotels in Granada. While in Andalusia, would be realistic to see Sevilla, Granada and Ronda? Also, we won't have a car. How easy is it to get around that area?

I always have a car when we visit Spain, so I can’t speak to getting around using public transportation.

I don't know about paradors in Granada, but I highly recommend Hotel Amadeus in Sevilla - great location, lovely hotel with musical decor and excellent staff.

Unless you want to spend a lot of time looking at European paintings, I would spend less time in Madrid. With only 6 days (is that 6 nights?) I would limit the trip to two places. You could go to Granada for 2 nights, just enough to spend a day at the Alhambra and a few hours seeing the best of the rest. It's a 4+ hour trip from Madrid, then 3+ hours to Sevilla. That is provided you can get tickets to the Alhambra. They sell out, so make sure you have tickets before you commit.

From SEvilla you can day-trip to Jerez, Cadiz and/or Cordoba by train.

Chani, thanks for the advice about Alhambra. We just happened to be looking online last night and saw how booked it is so we found a day that worked for us and purchased tickets. I'm excited for that.
As for Madrid, we are staying there for 4 nights (including the night we arrive), then have 6 days/7 nights to travel then go back to Madrid. We are going back to Madrid to get my son moved into his apartment for the semester so that can't change. The last day in Madrid we might have time/energy to take a day trip, maybe to Avila
Right now we decided from Madrid, all by train:
Sevilla 3 nights
Granada 2 nights
Cartegena 2 nights

We haven't booked lodging yet but Amadeus caught my eye also so I think we'll book that. Are we pushing ourselves with this itinerary? It's hard to choose with so many beautiful places to see in a short time.

Thanks so much

Avila is a 2-hour sort of place. It's a wall and not much else. There are many other side-trips from Madrid I'd choose before Avila; Toledo, Segovia, Cuenca and Alcala de Henares come to mind.

acraven, thank you for the recommendations. We are planning a day trip to Toledo during our first few days in Madrid. If we decide on a day trip at the end, Cuenca sounds like a good option. Avila would be a shorter trip -- we'll decide closer to the time we'd go.

A warning about Cuenca: To be a desirable day-trip, Cuenca really needs to be reached by the AVE express train. The other trains are too slow for a day-trip. Unfortunately, AVE fares tend to be quite high if you don't buy the tickets early enough to get one of the limited promotional fares. I'd suggest checking fares for your travel period on the Renfe website so you have an idea of what you are facing: http://www.renfe.com/EN/viajeros/index.html.

You will not face such profound fare differences on trips to Toledo, Segovia, or Alcala de Henares. Probably not Avila, either, but I have't checked those fares.

Cartagena? Frankly, I've never heard of it. I looked on a map, it's very far away. Renfe shows an 8+ hour train journey. Maybe you meant somewhere else?

We are just finishing up a trip in the southern part of spain and have loved it! We flew into barcelona, then flew from there to granada and rented a car. We have done granada (you will LOVE the alhambra! Get a guide - it will make it so much more meaningful). We then rented a car and drove to Seville (so great! get tickets and climb the bell tower - it's such an great view) for a couple days, then south to Gibraltar (so cool!!), and did a day in Morocco. Most people on here highly advise against that, but it was one of our favorite days. We are heading to Ronda tomorrow, then after that will go to Malaga to fly home. The weather hasn't been bad, but we have needed sweatshirts and jackets the whole time. Overall we have loved southern spain!

Jen thank you for your trip report!
We already have tickets for a guided tour of Alhambra. The bell tower in Seville sounds wonderful also - even though I’m not crazy about heights.
Our itinerary is
Madrid (maybe a day trip to Toledo), Seville, Granada, Malaga then back to Madrid. As of right now, we are mostly traveling by train.
We have found a variety of hotels, Airbnb, and the Parador in Milaga.

So glad you enjoyed your short visit to Morocco. Would love to visit sometime in the future.