Preliminary Itinerary October 2026 - feedback please

Fairly good plan. You will love Segovia with its 1800 year old intact Roman aqueduct. Also, there is more to see there.
Not sure you need three days.
My first visit to Madrid was 40 years ago and went back for a tour Summer of 2025. The city had changed quite a bit. Still love the Prado. The city had grown more than any city in Europe since we toured in the 80s.

Madrid doesn't have the ancient charm of Seville or Toledo, but is nice. Do the Royal Palace and dine at the Casa Botin (where Hemingway dined).

Salamanca is special, an ancient university city and historic. You are almost in Portugal.

What you have will work.

The route from Córdoba to Segovia will take you through Madrid and a probable change of train stations, but you’ll need to check that out. Segovia to Salamanca is about 2 hours each way, so take that into consideration when planning the day trip.

If you went to Segovia upon arrival rather than Sevilla you could arrive at your hotel a little earlier and you wouldn’t need to stay awake quite as long on arrival day. You could take a day from the Sevilla stay since you’d be getting over jet lag in Segovia instead. You could visit Sevilla after your return from Santiago. Personal preference.

Unless taking day trips from it you may get bored with Santiago after day three, but that depends on what you like to do. If you still aren’t thrilled with Madrid once there, consider visiting Alcalá de Henares and/or Cuenca to occupy some of that time.

If you were open to more bases, Zamora, Puebla de Sanabria, and Ourense (all on the train route to Santiago) are each worth a couple nights (one full day) stay.

I don’t blame you for dropping the Costa Del Sol. We avoid it too.

Thank you for the suggestions. Welcome additional comments on revised plan:

Fly into Madrid - take train to:
Segovia - 3 nights ( jet lag adjustment)
Segovia to Salamanca - 2 nights
Salamanca to Cordoba - 3 nights
Cordoba to Sevilla - 7 nights ( Cadiz day trip)
Sevilla to Madrid - 5 nights and depart

Questions:

Thoughts about dropping Salamanca as an overnight and adding those nights to an overnight in Cadiz? I’m drawn to Cadiz for history and beaches. Would love to hear what folks on this forum like or dislike about Cadiz as a home base.

Salamanca is definitely worth a full day and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The Mirador a la Catedral affords a nice view of the cathedral and can be especially pretty at sunset.

Some people love Cádiz and feel a week there isn’t long enough. I’m not one of them. It could still be very warm there in October so you could get in some beach time. Càdiz doesn’t have any wow sites, but is nice to walk around and it has a number of nice parks. If you get bored, there are ferries that cross the bay and go to Rota, Puerto de Santa María, and I believe either Chipiona or Sanlúcar de la Barrameda if you wanted to visit one or more of them. They stop running if the bay’s waters get too rough.

Full disclosure, my impression of Cádiz is influenced by me having lived across the bay in Rota for a few years, so that Cádiz, Puerto, Sanlúcar, Jerez, Rota, Arcos area is my old stomping ground.

@ekscrunchy - I read it as 3 nights in Segovia, 2 nights in Salamanca, and 3 nights in Córdoba.

I spent a week in Cadiz a few years ago. The center is pretty small and you can walk everywhere.
It's a base for visiting Puerto Santa Maria and Sanlucar, but I think Jerez makes a better base, unless you want to spend time on the beaches in Cadiz. Easy to get to Cadiz from Jerez by train. Also easy to get to Sanlucar from Jerez. I find Jerez to be the quintessential small Andaluz city; small enough to walk around everywhere, very friendly, beautiful architecture and wonderful food/restaurants and of course, the wines. (Vinos generosos)

But I don't understand: "Salamanca to Cordoba=three nights". Is this three nights for both cities? Ii think Coroba deserves a minimum of three nights but I spent five nights in 2024 and loved every minute.

How much time in Segovia? There are a few great day trips from there, to Sepulveda, Pedraza etc.

Like you, I was not enamored with Madrid on my first visits but I grew to love it very much. You could easily spend a week there and still leave much to do on the next visit. It might be the best food city in Europe right now.