my way barcelona to seville and Gibraltar?

If you haven't purchased your flight, yet, you might want to consider flying back from Malaga.

The fastest way from Seville to Gibraltar is about 4 hours by bus to La Línea de la Concepción. There's no benefit to returning to Seville after that. Along the coast, trains serve Cadiz, Algeciras, and Malaga, each being the end of a separate train line, but not Gibraltar. Inside the front cover of Rick's Spain guidebook, the color map shows train lines as thin, black or purple lines.

You can see all of Gibraltar in one day. Many sites are closed on Sundays.

But since the My Way tour doesn't stop in Cordoba, a day trip there by fast train (45 minutes each way) would be a better use of a day, I'm sure most travelers would agree. Another night in Seville is always welcome.

Thanks. Malaga is a great idea.
we have plenty of time (retired) and open to spur of the moment decisions.
All your ideas are welcome but we still want Gibraltar (History ).

JC,

we have plenty of time (retired) and open to spur of the moment decisions.

If you have the time, don't dismiss visiting Córdoba... A beautiful city full of history.

First, use these tools for planning from place to place:

1. rome2rio.com will give you options and approximate times. then you can (usually) drill down to specifics.
2. The Spanish trains are very good for major cities. Read this article on how to use the renfe.com website. Tickets go on sale usually 2 months in advance. You can save a great deal of money by buying early (prices only go up), but the tickets are usually nonrefundable.
3. bahn.de is the German train website, but it has virtually all the European trains so you can look up schedules from anywhere to anywhere, just about, but you won't find prices.

If you are retired, you may be over 60. Then you can get the tarjeta dorada (gold card) once you are in Spain. That offers considerable discounts on train tickets. The cards cost about €6 per person. Going to Barcelona from Sevilla or Cordoba by train can be as fast as flying - and a lot less hassle and a lot more comfort. Also, if you are over 65, you can get discounts at most sights.

There are many wonderful places to see in Andalucia, if you have the time. Also consider renting a car for a few days. That would certainly make getting to/from Gibraltar easier and you could explore more of the area as well. It sounds like you don't have your plane tickets yet. Unless you have a reason to return to Barcelona, it would be better to fly open-jaw, into Barcelona and back from Malaga or Sevilla, or Madrid.

Although some tourist sites do give discounts to all visitors over 65, in many cases one must be an EU citizen or even a Spanish citizen. On the other hand, I was given the discount on several occasions despite leaving Spain two months before my 65th birthday--and yes, I was completely truthful about my age. Maybe I looked poor (in addition to old).

I believe very occasionally the discount is offered to all retired people, of which I am one, so I told the ticket sellers that I was "una pensionista". I think perhaps the masculine form is "un pensionado", but I am not sure.

My 13 year old son and I visited Gibraltar last March as part of a Spain trip (his idea, not mine). He did some research and suggested it as somewhere he wanted to go, mainly to see the apes and look across to Africa. We did both of those things and he absolutely loved it - me, I was trying for 2 days in Ronda, but lost. :)

Anyway, we went to the top of the rock both by cable car and by a guided taxi. I thought the taxi ride was good, we followed Rick's advice and found one near the bottom and up we went. The stops were pretty cool, and our driver was good.

We took the train into Algeciras (from Cordoba) and then a taxi to the border (frontera I believe they called it).

Have a good trip!
Kim

another thing about gibraltar... FYI my ATT Passport international plan did not work there, which was a real hassle.