Madrid-Seville-Cordoba-Granada Itinerary Help

That's eight full days in Spain, not counting your arrival and departure days, for four or five cities. To visit all of them you'll be changing cities four times. Even if you visit Toledo as a day trip from Madrid, and Cordoba along the way between Madrid, Sevilla, and/or Granada, you'll still be dealing with a lot of packing, switching cities and hotels, unpacking, etc.

A doable plan (too fast for me) would be:

Day 1 -- Arrive Madrid, see outdoor sights to stay awake, sleep in Madrid

Day 2 -- More Madrid sights, sleep in Madrid

Day 3 -- Day trip to Toledo, return and sleep in Madrid

Day 4 -- Train to Cordoba, sights there, sleep in Cordoba

Day 5 -- Train to Granada, sights there, sleep in Granada

Day 6 -- Granada sights, sleep in Granada

Day 7 -- Train (via Cordoba) to Seville, sleep in Seville

Day 8 -- Seville sights, sleep in Seville

Day 9 -- Train (via Cordoba) back to Madrid, more sights, sleep in Madrid (near airport if a morning flight)

Day 10 -- Fly home

You could rework the non-Madrid days to stop in Cordoba whenever you're going between Madrid, Granada, and Seville. You could make Cordoba a daytime stop between those cities to reduce the number of hotel changes. You could skip Toledo and/or Cordoba to give yourself more time in the other cities. If I had just nine nights, I'd probably split them between Madrid and Seville, with a daytime stop in Cordoba between trains. I hope this is helpful.

In March 2022 I saw all of those cities. But My trip was 14 nights total, one night on the plane, 13 nights on the ground, found trip flights to Madrid, train to Seville, first night in Seville, 4 nights total in Seville, 2 in Granada, 2 in Cordoba, 5 nights/4 days in Madrid. With only 9 nights I would delete Madrid and just do the other 3 cities.

Can you make a list of museums and sites you want to see? Then you will see how many nights each city will require. Then look up train schedules and see how much you can comfortably fit in, in 9 nights. I have a co-worker who went to Spain with her husband for about 6 days; she said they are not into museums, she can't stand spending more than 2 to 3 hours at any one place, and that she can't see why I would want to spend more than a week in one country.

We went to Spain in late December. We flew in/out of Madrid and visited Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada. We spent 4 nights in Sevilla, 3 in Granada, 1 in Cordoba and 1 in Madrid. I would have preferred one less night in Granada in favor of more time in Cordoba or Sevilla. And, I wish we had not taken a morning train back to Madrid the day before our flight home and instead had spent more time in Cordoba before heading to Madrid in the evening. Basically, I would skip Madrid on this trip.

Day 1: Arrive Madrid (I’m assuming an early morning arrival). Leave immediately for Cordoba via train. See patios in Cordoba, wander some, stay awake. Or, head straight to Sevilla via plane or train.
Day 2: Train to Sevilla
Day 3: Sevilla
Day 4: Sevilla
Day 5: Sevilla
Day 6: Train to Granada
Day 7: Granada
Day 8: Early Train to Cordoba. Mezquita
Day 9: A little more time in Cordoba. Evening train to Madrid
Day 10: Fly home

Seville is more impressive than Madrid.
Madrid has the Prado and Royal Palace, as well as nearby Toledo and Segovia.
Seville is enchanting and has much to see as well. With only 9 nights cut a city. Granada is great, but a bit far from the others. Come back for it as well as Barcelona.

Would 3 nights cover all that Madrid has to offer?

Make your own list of what you want to see in each place and let us know, then we can help advise on length of stay. You can't do them all.
Decide first if you want to see Madrid or if you are satisfied to just fly in this time (and spend last night for flight out), since it is the most easy to return to in the future.

@valadelphia, Sounds good. I'll shortlist attractions that I like in the city. There is no way to cover it all in one trip. I would need a reason to go back.