Madrid / Sevilla / Granada

I would not try to cram Madrid, Seville and Granada into five days. How many nights are we talking about in Spain before you have to head up to Barcelona?

I think culturally, Madrid is the least interesting of the cities you mention. If you like older European art and Spanish art, it is probably worth a trip to go to the Prado. Don't get me wrong, it is a pretty city with a lot of night life (I stayed two evenings on the Puerta del Sol) but other cities are so much more historic and interesting. If you could fly into Sevilla and then travel to Granada and then on to Barcelona, I think you'd make the best use of your limited time. It is a little more convoluted to get to Barcelona from Granada by train, but its worth it and at least an interesting train ride. (From Granada to Barcelona, you have to take a bus, then a train that goes thru Cordoba and Madrid) The Alhambra is over the top amazing, but I enjoyed the cities of Sevilla and Cordoba much more, tho I don't think you have time for Cordoba and could use a day or so more for Sevilla and Granada.

With five days I'd just pick one of the cities and take a day-trip or two.

Three cities in five days is too much.

If you want to stay in two cities, then logistically (out/in for Barcelona), I think the best options are Granada/Sevilla (via aeroplane & coach/railway) or Madrid/Sevilla (by railway), although you'd need to check if flight times suit for some legs.

However, sticking to the better one city option - since Granada is your number 1, why not just go there? Plenty to fill two or three days in the city, and then a good range of day-trips to Antequera, Guadix, Las Alpujarras towns, and (perhaps not in February) further up the mountains or to the coast. Between Granada and Barcelona, I'd fly.

Madrid is few people's favourite city when compared to others in Spain, but it's still a good place for a short-break with some easy and interesting day-trips (better than Barcelona's options, frankly), plus its own sights (including some grand architecture, a lot of art galleries and a huge palace so dull even the King won't live there). Madrid is also the easiest from/to Barcelona.

Unfortunately, with only 5 nights, I believe that you will only have time for Madrid and Granada with no day-tips. How I see it, I think that you have 3 options:

Madrid (3 nights)
ALSA bus to Granada
Granada (2 nights)
Fly to Barcelona

or

Madrid (3 nights)
{Day trip to Segovia
AVE Train to Toledo
Toledo (2 nights)
AVE Train to Barcelona, via Madrid Atocha

or

Sevilla (3 nights)
{Day trip to the Mezquita de Córdoba
ALSA bus to Granada
Granada (2 nights)
Fly to Barcelona

Personally, I would choose the "only Madrid" option, it is the most cost and time efficient option, and 5 nights is perfect for the Madrid/Toledo combination. If you try to include cities in Andalucía, I feel like you will end up short-changing both places. I would save Andalucía for when you have a good 8 nights, at least, to dedicate to the region.

Considering the weather, I’d favour Sevilla over Madrid in February. With 5 nights before hitting Barcelona ...

Sat - Arrive in Sevilla (3 nights)
Sun - Sevilla
Mon - Day trip to Córdoba for the Mezquita
Tue - Afternoon train to Granada (2 nights)
Wed - Visit the Alhambra
Thu - Fly to Barcelona

David's suggestion is v. good, but I'm not sure the OP actually has 5 nights - I interpreted it as arriving in Barcelona airport on day 1 (early? late? it matters in terms of "arrive in Sevilla"), and needing to be back in Barcelona city centre on day 5. Perhaps the OP could clarify because it certainly makes a difference.

Thank you for these great ideas.

I have modified my post to indicate 6 days / 5 nights. i.e. arriving in Spain (doesn't have to be Barcelona) on a Saturday morning, and need to be in Barcelona that Thursday late afternoon. Also, it's just 2 of us on the part before Barcelona. (We join the group in Barcelona.)

"...6 days / 5 nights. i.e. arriving in Spain (doesn't have to be Barcelona) on a Saturday morning, and need to be in Barcelona that Thursday late afternoon."

OK, this is a philosophical point, but based on long, hard experience dealing with sleepless overnight flights to Europe. To me, that is 5 nights and just 4 days plus a fraction of a day (Thursday). For me the arrival day is worthless except for possibly hopping on a train or bus to get to your first destination.

If you're away from Barcelona when you wake up Thursday morning and need to be sure you're back in Barcelona by late afternoon, how much time will you be able to spend sightseeing before you have to head to the train station? I wouldn't want to take the very last train that would get me (barely) to Barcelona by late afternoon, just in case there was a delay somewhere. And I presume you want to be checked into your hotel by late afternoon, just barely arriving at the Barcelona train station at that time. So if traveling from Madrid I'd be planning to leave noonish. It would be earlier if traveling from farther away.

Now, if you're in Girona, that's a different matter.

I've got a total of 11 days / 10 nights. I'd like to see Barcelona plus 2 other places. We can fly into any city - it doesn't have to be Barcelona. We won't have a car. So, within Spain we need to travel by plane, train or bus. Since we are ending in Barcelona, and flying out of Barcelona, I was thinking the easist and least expensive thing to do is fly into Madrid, then go to one other place, then go to Barcelona. Other than Barcelona, which is not possible to change, my top choice is Granada. And it seemed easy and reasonably priced to fly from Granada to Barcelona - But, I don't know at all what I'm talking about! Honestly, I'd be very happy to do anything that will be reasonable and fun. If only one other city besides Barcelona is manageable, that's ok.......I just don't know which one. Hopefully this makes sense! Thanks very much!

With 5 days, I would choose Madrid OR Granada--not both. Have you checked flights into airports near Granada? I have flown into Sevilla, Malaga, and Jerez in the past. Granada appears to have an airport as well. If you did not spend all five nights in Granada, there are several appealing close by towns to stay in as well.
Madrid will likely be better flight-wise, and there are great train accessible day trips you can do before hopping onto a train to Barcelona, but do an exhaustive search of flights first if Granada was the dream.
But what people are saying is that both will be an expenditure of time you don't have--giving short shrift to both and spending a lot of time in airports or on trains.

Kathy, since your dream is to see Granada and Madrid, that is what you should do. When will you be in Spain again? You could spend your first 3 nights in Madrid (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights). Then take the ALSA bus to Granada, unless there are reasonable flights, on Tuesday morning. Spend Tuesday night and Wednesday night in Granada. You have all day Wednesday to spend in the Alhambra. Then fly from Granada to Barcelona on Thursday. It might be a bit rushed, but if this is your dream, I think you can do it.

You need to check rometorio to figure out best ways to travel from Madrid to Granada, and then Granada to Barcelona.

kmkwoo has it right. See what you want to see. The rest of us can help you with practicalities (such as the recommendation to fly in to one city and out of another) but you have to decide where your priorities are. With 5 nights before flying to Barcelona, you could have 2 nights in Madrid and 3 in Granada, or the opposite. You do lose sightseeing time in transitioning from place to place. So with 2 nights in Madrid, you would have only one full day to sightsee (but for me that would be enough). Then spend 3/4 of the day checking out, getting to Granada, and checking. 3 nights there gives you 2 full days. I happened to love Granada, but others prefer other cities more - you have to decide. Then you could fly on to Barcelona. :) But no, adding Seville in between Madrid and Granada doesn’t make sense.

I would not choose Madrid unless you must see the Prado (and it is quite wonderful). I would want to see the Alhambra and the Mezquita and so visit Cordoba and Granada. Perhaps Seville as a base for 3 nights with one day a side trip to Cordoba for the Mezquita. It was the most amazing thing we saw in Spain:
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/the-mezquita-at-least-the-catholics-had-the-good-sense-not-to-destroy-it-when-they-desecrated-it/

And then Granada for two nights for the Alhambra.

Madrid is interesting; we spent 6 nights there, BUT IMHO it is not as interesting as Seville, Cordoba and Granada.

Kathy,

You've received many helpful suggestions thus far.

If you do decide to visit Granada, make sure you book your Alhambra tickets as soon as you solidify your itinerary.

Have a wonderful trip!

Good point, Priscilla. I just did a series of trip reports for our trip to Madrid area and Andalusia. In regards to tickets, I only prepurchased tickets to the Alhambra and they were selling out 2-3 months in advance. Some options gone on the first day available. Also, I figured out they go on sale more than 3 months in advance since they will put the whole month out for sale and so like all of November, on July 1. We didn't buy advance tickets for the Sevilla Alcazar, because it was "off season". We wished we had, as we waited more than an hour to get in. In regards to Sevilla's cathedral, lines were long there too, but we did as RS suggests and went to Church of the Savior and lined up about 10 minutes before opening. You purchase a combo ticket to be used at both churches and then you do not have to wait in line at the cathedral. I wish you a great trip!

Thanks for that reminder. I knew about the early sell-outs at the Alhambra, but it hadn't registered with me how soon tickets would be going on sale for the time of my visit (April). I've now put a reminder on my calendar for Dec. 31 so I can get my act together. Unfortunately, I am nowhere near knowing what dates I'll be in Granada. That is going to take some heavy-duty planning, and I need to get my Scotland plans finalized (for hotel bookings) first.

I see that tickets are available at this point for all days after January 4th, but they're all marked in yellow ("Last tickets") on the calendar. I'm sure April will be dicier.

Thank you all for these great tips.
Regardless of how the rest sorts out, I know I want to go to Granada, so I guess I need to get my ticket now, for Alhambra.
Is there a particular ticket I should get? Website to use? I don't want to accidentally get an "incomplete" ticket. Or is there a recommended tour?

this may be helpful, from today's Guardian newspaper: A local’s guide to Granada: 10 top tips

This is the official website for Alhambra tickets. The standard ticket is the 14-euro "Alhambra General". Some people also like to see the Alhambra at night, but I haven't seen any suggestion that seeing it only at night is a good plan.

The Dobla de Oro ticket includes some additional sights. I don't know anything about that one.

The Dobla de Oro ticket includes other sites outside of the Alhambra complex. I believe they are in the Albaicin. When I researched, the impression I got was they are sites you can do on your own. I also got the impression that sometimes (or often) the Alhambra tickets are sold out and the Dobla de Oro ticket which does include the palace and generlife is another was to get a ticket to the Alhambra. The chat feature on the Alhambra website is quite good and the person(s) responding speak English well. When I initially got on the official website more than 3 months before my visit, it appeared that the tickets were just about sold out. It didn't make sense. I used chat, and someone gave me a link that got me where I needed to be.
My own opinion would be that people should absolutely visit in the daytime. I enjoyed seeing it at night from the Sacromonte. You could also go again in the evening, but I wouldn't swap day for just night.

All wonderful locations, Kathy, you can’t go wrong. Return to Spain for those you miss this trip!
And janettravels44, your photography of the Mesquita is marvelous. Brings back many memories, and makes the Mesquita irresistible, I do believe.