Seville,Cordoba,Costa del Sol, Tangier, Morrocco

It's always nice to be able to fly directly into the first city you want to visit, but when it's a smaller city like Seville, it can be unexpectedly costly to get a single through-ticket, and flying on separate tickets is a bit risky because of the potential for delays on the transatlantic leg. The fast AVE trains make the run from Madrid-Atocha to Seville-Santa Justa in less than three hours or Cordoba Central in less than 2 hours. If your flight from LAX doesn't arrive too late in the day, you might be able to get to Seville on Day 1 by train, which is a good use of what is otherwise usually sort of a foggy, jet-lagged day. The tricky part is guessing what is a safe time to plan to get on a train to Seville, given the uncertainties of your flight arrival time and other airport activities. What time is your flight scheduled to arrive in Madrid?

If your hotels are in partly-residential neighborhoods, there will usually be small markets not too far away. Give us the names of your hotels (and the addresses if you have them), and we may be able to provide more specifics. There may also be tapas bars at which you can stop (beginning around noon, I'd guess) for small nibbles that can substitute for a sit-down lunch and be considerably more interesting than sandwiches.

I'd spend time in Granada and (secondarily) Ronda before going to the coast.

I loved Morocco, but to me it's iffy to go for just one night, which pretty much does limit you to Tangier. If you think this will be your only chance to see Morocco, though... At the very least, check into the actual time required to get to Tangier from whatever city you expect to be in the previous day, and how long it will take to move on to your next stop.

It's generally not terribly complicated to make your own flight, hotel and train reservations. You'll avoid travel agent's fees, and most of us feel like we're in a better position to select hotels and transportation routings that work best for us. As far as hotels are concerned, there's always a risk that your travel agent will be influenced by the size of the commission he stands to earn from each potential hotel, rather than simply by what would be most suitable for you.

Exactly when is your trip--what days do you plan to fly to and from Spain?

Thanks acravan for a quick response. We are leaving LA on 6/18/17. Our flight arrives at 2:30 pm in Madrid (we are 4 people) . We are booked on a train the next day at 9:35 am arriving in Cordoba at 11:25 am. Flying back from Athens on 7/13/17 as we are also doing Greece.

The following are the cities and hotels in Spain:

1. Cordoba - NH Collection Amistad Cordoba-Superior
2. Seville - Casa Romana - Superior
3. Marbella - Hotel Guadalmina Spa

1-Sevilla airport (SVQ) has no direct flights to a North America, therefore you would still need to connect to MAD or some other European hub. The train option is good, although I would not have spent the 1st night in Madrid, I would have taken the train that same day if possible. There are risks in purchasing discounted tickets and then missing the train, but if you pay full price you can change tickets at no penalty.
2-There are plenty of places where you can buy food or quick lunches in Madrid: deli shops, tapa bars, etc. you can find them all over. Just ask anybody, from the hotel staff or people in the streets.
3-Drop Costa Del Sol and Morocco completely. Add those nights to Sevilla. It's the most beautiful city in Spain (in the top 10 in the world in my opinion), you need 4 nights there. Granada is also good for at least 2-3 nights, but not sure you have the time. As far as I'm concerned, if Malaga didn't exist, it would be no loss to humanity.
4-Hiring a travel agent to organize my trips has been generally useless. One would need to find an agent who really knows the places you visit (in your case Spain) and cares to spend time to do research for you. Unfortunately, most travel agents don't know what they are doing and all they care about is to make a quick commission in the shortest amount of time possible. Do your own homework and ask questions on this site, and any of us, frequent contributors here, will advise you better than 99% of professional travel agents.

I haven't found any mini-markets or supermarkets close to your hotels but I'll do some more checking tomorrow.

In Seville your hotel isn't more than about 1/3 mile from an El Corte Ingles department store. I think some of those have food halls. You hotel desk staff will probably know whether that one does. I think "Where's the nearest grocery store" is probably one of the most common questions asked of hotel staff, so if no one here comes up with the information you need, check with hotel personnel when you arrive.

I've never been to Marbella, but just looking at the map, I wonder whether your hotel, which calls itself a "resort", isn't pretty isolated from things like supermarkets. It seems to be at least five miles from central Marbella.

Roberto your bullet by bullet responses are really helpful. The responses are to the point and address my questions/concerns. I will add at least 2 more days to Seville by dropping Costa del Sol. I would like to see Rock of Gibraltar for its history. I believe a trip to Tangier from there may not be too long. I am not really constraint by time so I may add more to Seville
I am a member of AAA so there travel planning services are free. She spent almost 4 hours with me yesterday. I am meeting with her again on Saturday and she is willing to spend as much time as I need until the trip is finalized. AAA uses two tour companies for international travel and as a AAA member I get a discount. But she also gets commission (well deserved as she is really thorough) and the tour companies also get a commission. They are making my airlines, hotel, train and private transfer reservations so it all adds up in terms of commissions. I have asked her to break down the cost of hotels, train, car rental (right now for Greece only) and transfers so that if I make the reservations I can compare.

The round trip air fare seems reasonable, $ 1172 per person. I have compared it using sites suggested by Rick Steves.
The other pricey thing are hotels. I have requested 4 star hotels. Is there really a difference between 2-3 star hotels and 4 star? I have posted the names of the hotels earlier. I will be visiting Spain from June 18-June 30 so I would like reliable AC in hotels. :)

Where would I buy tickets to museums, the horse show etc. I am reluctant to buy tickets so much in advance because I don't want the days and timings dictate the pace. I am a healthy 68 years old but still 68. :). My wife is 63.

Right now I am taking trains from Cordoba-Seville- Granada. Should I drive? Would there be a lot of traffic? Routes scenic?

Acravan you have answered my question. Its very kind of you to offer to do research on my behalf but I get the picture.

Thank you again

I think I may have stayed in one 4-star hotel in Europe, but only because there weren't last-minute rooms available in cheaper places that had air conditioning (would not typically be an issue in Spain, where a/c is needed for multiple months each year). In Spain I stayed in a lot of 2-star places which tended to be small (sometimes extremely so) but were similar to some Italian 3-star places. At the 2-star level you often get decor that I describe as "recently redecorated dorm room." I never ran into that at the 3-star level, but the rating criteria vary from country to country, and many of the rating factors are simple yes/no or numbers-driven issues rather than evaluations based on things like charm and style. Is there a restaurant? Is there room service? How many square feet is the room? Do the toiletries come in individual bottles, or is there a dispenser mounted on the wall?

The 3-star places I stayed at in Spain would not have upset anyone, but some were more charming than others, and none had room service. What you can do is go to one of the hotel websites (I use booking.com), select a variety of hotels including the ones listed in your previous post, look at a bunch of the pictures and read a lot of the reviews. You may find places that you think would fully meet your needs down at the 3-star level. Or not, if you are the sort of traveler who regularly stays at Marriotts and places in that (or higher) price categories.

Train service from Madrid to Cordoba to Seville is very fast. I wouldn't even think of driving that route. You might like to have a car for your time between Seville and Granada, for visiting Ronda and some of the white villages like Arcos de la Frontera. I suspect, but do not know for sure, that you would not be allowed to take a rental car on the ferry to Tangiers (not that you'd want to drive in that city, anyway), but it could save time in getting to a parking lot near the ferry embarkation point (check on parking ahead of time).

If you are not time-limited, I urge you to extend your trip. Spain has many wonderful sights, and you will be very glad to have the extra time once you get there. Toledo, Segovia and Cuenca are three fabulous cities that are worth overnights but can be visited on day trips from Madrid. I spent two months in Spain this summer and did not even get to Andalucía, just to give you an idea.

A good current guidebook will generally tell you at which sights you'll need tickets purchased in advance (definitely the Alhambra and I assume the horse show) and at which you'll be able to bypass a long line by having pre-purchased tickets. Folks who've been to Andalucía recently can also provide guidance if you list the places you want to go. Like you, I prefer to wait till I'm on the scene to buy most of my tickets. But you'll probably miss out on a few high-demand sights if you do nothing in advance.

Non Savvy, as for adding days to Seville, I found so much in Seville I want to see while researching. But there are also several towns you can easily go by train or bus as a day trip, while enabling you to sleep in the same place longer! I wish I had 6 days there! Glad you added extra time!

In planning our days, we tried to leave a specific time for lunch. Meaning we will only be taking something with us on days when timing is off. Something I read somewhere suggested that having a bigger lunch and then tapas for dinner might suit a budget better. But the food is part of the adventure so we plan to eat as many times as we can. :)

As for travel agent or do-it-yourself, some of that might depend on how internet savvy you are. No one can research for you and tell you what in particular you might want to see or do but spending the time to look at all the hotels and compare, or spend time watching for flight sales, etc., might not be how you enjoy spending time. That is very individual. Personally I enjoy that almost as much as the travel itself, but not everyone does.

Also Priscilla just had a great suggestion to make Córdoba the first stop. You arrive in Madrid an hour before we do (at 3:30), so should have no trouble going on to either Córdoba or Seville after you arrive.

Travelmom, thanks. How ironic. I literally just made hotel reservations in Madrid to stay overnight and then go to Cordoba. This was just for jet leg. I don't know how far is the train station from the airport and how long it takes to go through customs and immigration. I tried to make train reservations but it showed me show many stations in Madrid and a couple even in Cordoba.

I am coming to the conclusion that I can cut my travel expenses almost in half if I do it myself. Almost in every case I am being charged almost twice as much for hotels. I think this company has some sort of a deal with these hotels. I can get the same type of a room at the SAME hotel. :) for half the price. For example, the private transfer to and from hotel is $141. The hotel where I booked has a free shuttle from and to the airport.!!! This is a 4 star hotel. The company is charging $446.00 per night . I have booked at this hotel $208/night.
I will go through the discussion that you started and find out where to buy tickets etc. and what to see where.
Can anyone help me with renting a car in Seville if I need one?
Thank you

Non savvy, I suggest you do a lot of reading about some of this. This will be my first trip to Spain myself (although not my first European travel) but I have found a lot of help from others on many of these same questions in previous threads by using the search function at the top. That way you can process the answers at your own pace, step by step. But, yes, if you are willing to spend a bit of time you will probably save quite a bit of money. :)

We have usually found it easy to get picnic foods or sandwiches in France or Italy but in Spain, Sevilla in particular, we found grocery shopping difficult. We had an apartment for a week and the grocery stores were poorly stocked and few and far between and we were far from the central hotel areas. It was however quite easy to find places to grab a quick cheap lunch.

If you don't get a flight to Sevilla I would book a train or flight from Madrid the afternoon of arrival since Madrid is not your destination. I think it is a poor city for a quick visit. That way you get to your onward destination on jet lag day without burning up an extra day.

Thanks janettravels44. This is really useful as we will be staying the longest in Seville.

Non Savvy Traveller

If you are unable to find picnic supplies anywhere else (in the myriad of large and small markets in the city of Sevilla), you can always find them at the major department store El Corte Ingles. I usually shop at the one located on the Plaza del Duque.