Madrid/Seville/Granada in February

You'll need to buy the Alhambra ticket very early. They typically sell out far in advance. At this point only tickets through January 31 are available. I do not know how soon the February tickets will go on sale, but I suppose it might happen on November 1.

You'll be able to save some money on your train tickets by buying non-refundable/non-changeable tickets well in advance of your travel date. I'm not sure when those tickets will be available, either. You must be certain of your travel plans before buying such tickets. Renfe's the company operating the trains. If can be tricky to make purchases on the Renfe website. I believe some people have had success using PayPal. Otherwise, you can check to see whether trainline.eu or loco2.com sells Spanish tickets. Do not use RailEurope; it often has very high fees.

The rail line into Granada (note spelling) is under construction to allow high-speed trains in the future. At the moment, I think one leg of the trip is via bus. The process is seamless, but some travelers have decided just to make the whole trip by bus.

I've noticed the Renfe website isn't super user friendly. February train tickets aren't on sale yet. I just checked a bit ago.

I'll keep an eye on Alhambra.

It seems like you are zigzagging.

From Madrid, go to Cordoba, then on to Seville. From Seville, take the bus to Granada. Then fly from Granada to Madrid.

I'm hesitant to stop in Cordoba on the way to Seville. We will have had an overnight flight. I think it'll be too much. I could change things a bit and go from Seville to Granada in the early morning and do the olive oil tour that afternoon. Then on Wednesday take an early bus to Cordoba and then continue to Madrid if that makes sense.

Your itineary looks great. I second the recommendations on the Alhambra tickets. I don’t know your exact dates for travel, but here are some events happening end of February:

• February–March: Carnival celebrations across Spain
• February 17: Seville Marathon
• February 28: Day of Andalucía (some closures in Andalucía)

Granada was one of our favorite cities to visit. We went on a tapas tour through Devour and the manager for Granada has little ones your kids ages, so if this is something of interest, I would connect with her and see if it is a good fit for boys. Even if you don’t want to take the tour, I would recommend downloading the guide on their site as they will give you some good food tips. They also have information on what do with kids in Granada. Here is the link: https://devourgranadafoodtours.com.

In Seville, Devour has a special kids Tapas experience that may be of interest: https://devoursevillefoodtours.com/tours/tour/family-friendly-tour-seville/. We took their tapas tour and it was an amazing experience, but a bit too much food for 9-10 year olds. Seville is also a great place to see Flamenco.

In Madrid, you don’t have a lot of time, so one of things that could be interesting for you and your boys is to visit the palace and see the changing of the guards. They also have a small, but interesting museum of arms and armory. Here is the link: http://www.patrimonionacional.es.

Have a great trip,
Sandy

Sandy, I've been eyeing that Devour site. And my boys have never turned down food. They are bottomless pits. It amazes me how much food they can cram into their bodies. I'm glad to hear the tours are good.

Oh, and our dates are 2/22 through 3/1.....somewhere around there. The Day of Andalusia should be the only concern. I'll have to look that up and see what impact it will have.

Now to find lodging....I did book an apartment in Granada. So at least that's done. And there's no cancellation penalty.

Sounds like you have done your research and planned well. I agree about not trying to see what Cordoba has to offer, just as a stop through, on the day you arrive. Save some time for just wandering up in the Albaicín and/or Plaza Nueva in Granada, maybe on your Alhambra day.

I'm wondering if I should skip Madrid this trip and just do 4N Seville and 2N Granada. The final night in Madrid in order to catch our flight home.

One day in Seville can be a day trip to Cordoba.

I think that would slow things down a bit.

Honestly, that's what I would do. It's relatively easy to get back to Spain to see Madrid (and Barcelona). To go to Madrid and not see Toledo (which is worth one or two nights itself, if not longer) and Segovia would be sort of a shame. And there are other good day-trips to Cuenca (requires AVE train) and Alcala de Henares. Even someone who doesn't care much about art could easily spend about a week in the Madrid area.

You will find a wide variety of opinions on Madrid here. I would skip Madrid, but I am not a big fan - visited once with kids (14, 11, 10) and once without.

Seville is a great city. We all loved it - did this tour:
https://devoursevillefoodtours.com/tours/tour/seville-food-tour/

You could consider a bike tour - Seville is easy to bike around/very flat. We did this one:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187443-d1949527-Reviews-Sevilla_Bike_Tour-Seville_Province_of_Seville_Andalucia.html

RS recommends this one (wasn't available when we were there):
http://www.reallydiscover.com/index.php/styles/features/26-core-framework

Stayed here in Seville and cannot recommend enough:
https://www.overlandsuites.com/en/

NP - thanks for the links! I think the boys would enjoy the bike tour. And we will do a food tour as well, just need to research which one. I know that company has a kid oriented one also.