Please help with itinerary from Madrid to Granada and surrounding area.

Do NOT take a ferry for a "day trip to Morocco." With all due respect, this is worst piece of advice that Rick Steves has ever offered (taking a night train to save a few dollars is the second, but I digress...).

If you take the ferry for a "day trip", you are guaranteed to experience the absolute worst that Morocco can offer: a crass, grotesque manufactured-for-tourists show that is all about fleecing you for a few Euro and little about the actual country - which is wonderful and deserving of more than a few hours of your time. Morocco is great, but if all you can devote is a few hours (that's what you get there, with all the time lost to the ferry), then stop, save yourself, and defer a visit to Morocco for when you can do it justice. There's plenty to do and see in Spain that you would be giving up to burn 2-3 days in an attempt to "see Morocco" for a few hours. You would be really wasting your time which could be so much better spent elsewhere in Spain.

Here's a tip to help put this in perspective: Morocco is to western Europe as Mexico is to the USA: an exotic place nearby, for cheap fun-in-the-sun vacations, a source of labor (legal and otherwise), food and culture, with a complex culture and a history deeply intertwined. Going to a Moroccan ferry port for a few hours is the same thing as crossing the border to Tijuana for a few hours. You will get the exact same kind of awful "bordertown" experience in both. Do yourself a favor, save Morocco for a trip when you can spend at least a few days there - there are dirt-cheap flights to Morocco from all over western Europe. Don't do the ferry trip, it's a huge mistake.

It would be soooo much better to spend that 2-3 days elsewhere in Spain, it's just not worth it to do the ferry trip.

Thank-you David for your suggestion regarding a day trip to Morocco; we have not made a decision and we will certainly take your comments to heart.
So...as far as getting to Granada from Madrid, maybe we should consider going to Madrid first, then on to Barcelona and flying to Granada if that is doable...anyone??

I totally agree with David about burning the better part of 3 days to see Tangier, but I'm also sort of concerned about your proposed time distribution and your choices of cities. Staying 3 nights in Barcelona gives you just two full days there; your sleep-deprived/jetlagged arrival day doesn't count, and even your second day may find you not operating at normal speed. Barcelona has tons to see and deserves at least four days, not two. There are nice side-trips, too.

Two nights for Madrid will be OK if you aren't interested in its three major art museums and don't plan to take any of the wonderful day-trips to be made from Madrid, which include Toledo and Segovia. But those are great destinations.

Seville also needs more time. Traveling there from Barcelona or Granada will make it afternoon by the time you arrive, which gives you just over one full day. Cordoba is a lovely side-trip from Seville if you don't want to go to the trouble of changing hotels and spending a night or two there.

I haven't been to Malaga, and people have had nice things to say about it on the forum, but three nights there and only two in Seville and two in Madrid is seriously out of balance in my view. Malaga wouldn't be on my itinerary at all with the number of days you have. I think just about any guide book you consult will recommend Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Cordoba and Granada more highly than Malaga.

In my view the Algarve is not a wonderful place, though some cities are better than others. I think your time in Spain is too short to take a week and spend it in the Algarve. Lisbon and Porto, plus many smaller Portuguese cities, are more interesting, though it is true that traveling on the ground between Spain and Portugal is a lot more challenging than one would assume from looking at a map, and the Algarve is fairly close to Seville.

If I had three weeks I could happily spend it all in either Spain or Portugal. If I wanted to mix the two, I'd fly from somewhere in Spain to either Lisbon or Porto, then take the train to the other city.

I agree with a lot that has been said, although I have not been to Morocco so can't really comment on that.

As a point of comparison, last September we spent 15 nights in Spain. Our destinations: Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, and Seville (in this order). We visited Barcelona on a separate trip.

I suggest at least 4 or 5 nights in Barcelona. it's a wonderful city with lots to see. If you like art museums, I recommend 4 nights in Madrid. I don't know how you feel about one-night stays, but if possible, I think you should spend at least one night in Toledo. It was very, very crowded with tour buses when we were there, and I know I would not have liked Toledo as much as we did if we went there for a day trip. It was so much nicer at night after the tour buses left, and very pretty with the city lit up.

I agree 2 nights is not enough for Seville. I recommend at least 4 nights. And if you can, stay one or two nights in Cordoba. We loved Cordoba! it was one of our favorite cities. The Mezquita is amazing; but there is more to Cordoba than just the Mezquita.

We also really enjoyed Malaga for 2 nights, and I believe it is an under-rated city. But i would choose Cordoba over Malaga if I didn't have the time to visit both because Cordoba is more important historically.

You could take the train from Madrid to Cordoba; then take the ALSA bus from Cordoba to Granada; then take the bus to Malaga.

If you also want to see some of Portugal on this trip, I recommend visiting Lisbon. We spent 5 nights there last April and loved it! you can easily fly from Seville to Lisbon.

Hope this helps.

Thank-you so much for your suggestions; we are busy tweaking our itinerary based on your information - there are only so many days and of course we want to be able to get a good taste of the areas. Hopefully will be able to return for another trip some day, but it is a big world and we want to be able to experience a lot of it!

Day
1. ARRIVE Madrid (4N)
2. Madrid
3. Day to Toledo
4. Day to Segovia, or more Madrid
5. Train to Barcelona (4N)
6. Barcelona
7. Barcelona
8. Barcelona
9. Fly to Granada (2N)
10. Visit the Alhambra
11. Train to Seville (4N)
12. Seville
13. Day to Cordoba for the Mezquita
14. Seville
15. DEPART Seville for Portugal

Nearly everyone starts out with an over-packed itinerary on the first trip (or more). Just remember that nearly all the time involved in changing hotels (packing up, checking out, loading the car or getting to the train station, the drive/train ride itself, unloading the car or getting from the train station to your lodgings, checking in, unpacking) is a total loss from the sightseeing standpoint, aside from the occasional pretty view out the window of the car or train. (There is a great deal of remarkably dull scenery in all directions around Madrid.)

If you stay in a key city for a third or fourth day, you have an additional 10-14 hours of sightseeing time there. So you'll see a lot more if you go to fewer places. And the second-, third- or fourth-rank sights in Barcelona, Seville, etc., are better than the top sights on the Algarve, in my view.