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Southern Spain 21 days Itinerary thoughts?

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First, thanks to all who give of their expertise and knowledge!

We are in the very early planning stages for a trip to Spain in October/November 2027 for about three weeks.
We are saving Barcelona and northern Spain for another trip!

We will probably fly DFW to Madrid (because there are direct flights, or flights with one stop in Atlanta. I will not fly through Paris CDG anymore).

We like historic sites, including religious history, art in moderation (it gets a bit overwhelming in large doses), cultural (we'd like to see flamenco, for example), and wandering about.
We're not interested in beaches (grew up on sand and PB sandwiches at the beach) or nightlife.

"Must sees" for us--Cordoba, Alhambra

Most flights from DFW land in Madrid morning or early afternoon, although who knows at this stage of the game?

From Madrid, train to Toledo. It looks like there are several trains to Toledo and they wouldn't need reservations.

Toledo-2 nights

Train to Cordoba--3 nights

Train to Granada--2-3 nights

Train/Bus to Ronda-1 night (from what I gather, the train route is currently being repaired, although it might be open by the time of our trip)

Train to Seville--4-5 nights

***Rent a car in Seville, stay in a parador in Extramadura and visit a couple of towns there by car
Return car to Madrid--3 nights in Madrid
Return home

***Alternatively, train to Madrid, rent a car or train to Segovia and that area of Spain, then return to Madrid for a few nights before departing

Writing this all down, I'm wondering if this is too much. Perhaps add a night in Toledo and skip Ronda? And any thoughts on transportation? Thank you!

Posted by
371 posts

We spent 11 nights in that area in Sep 2023. (With so little time we dropped our original plan to spend 1 night in Toledo and instead added Cordoba based on advice from a forum member; it worked well for us as the Mezquita was a unique site.):

  • SEVILLE 3 nights
  • RONDA (with visit to Setenil de las Bodegas) 2 nights
  • GRANADA (with visit to Montefrio) 2 nights
  • CORDOBA 1 night
  • MADRID 3 nights

Our trip report might be useful reference: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-spain-aug-sep-seville-ronda-granada-cordoba-madrid

Posted by
72 posts

Thanks for your excellent report.
I will be studying it to help plan our trip!

Posted by
2390 posts

First off, thank you for describing your interests and priorities. It makes it so much easier to offer suggestions.

I think your itinerary is good. I can't comment on the bus vs train vs rental car questions. My preference is always for public transportation over driving a rental car, and I'd rather hire a driver to take me to places than rent a car for places hard to reach by bus or train.

If your flight arrives in Madrid early, and you can get to Toledo late morning, and you aren't zonkered, I think you can enjoy the highlights of Toledo in a day and a half. Two full days would be better, and if you need some downtime on that first day, then adding a third night in Toledo probably makes sense. Whether to take it by skipping Ronda altogether, or by subtracting a night from somewhere else is hard to say. Ronda is lovely and very different from everywhere else on your list, but if your consideration is to eliminate a lot of moving around, that might be a place to cut.

How many nights are you thinking for Extremadura? The only place in Extremadura I've been to is Mérida, which is probably worth a half-day if you're nearby, but I'm curious what draws you to that region?

Posted by
72 posts

Good question. We enjoy some time in the out-of-the-way places that still have history and ambience.

So we're thinking Extramadura would offer stays in paradors (there's one in Caceres and one in Trujillo--both are medieval walled cities), some Roman ruins, small museums, and just some time away from big cities and mega amounts of tourists.

Perhaps someplace else would fit the bill, and still be within our time limitations?

Posted by
72 posts

Also, I think Ronda is now added to a really-want-to-see list.

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