Spain (Andalusia area) in April (**edited original February visit)

Out of Dulles we always flew United non-stop to Madrid, but that may be a seasonal flight. British Airways may also have non-stop flights. Also check schedules flying into Malaga as some airlines may fly non-stop to it from Dulles. There are no non-stop flights to Spain from BWI.

I can’t think of many places you could day trip to from Granada and public transportation in Ronda may not meet your needs, especially in February. There are plenty of places to day trip to from Sevilla and Córdoba. While in Sevila don’t overlook possibly day trips to places like Zafra, Cáceres, and Trujillo. I believe you’d need to take a bus and a couple cities might be further away than you’d like.

For me, the greatest limiting factor to consider when planning day trips in February are the short daylight hours. Sunrise will be about 8am and sunset about 7pm.

Edited: my guess is the best fares are long gone. I doubt there will be many low fares now since your travel timeframe isn’t that far off. The best time to get good fares in my experience is about six months out, unless an airline runs a special. I know British Airways frequently runs specials, but those good fares are usually not out of BWI or IAD. I fly British Airways frequently so check on flights to Heathrow with a connecting flight to Madrid or Malaga. I used BA as an example only. Check other airlines.

Easy to fly DC to Madrid with connections on ward into/out of Seville or Granada. If possible, time your trip to be in Granada on a weekend, so much fun on a weekend. If your lucky spring will be warm and the orange trees will be in bloom. If not expect a lot of rain and bring waterproof shoes and Stoch guard the bottom of your pants. J

Weather-wise, I don't think you can do better than Andalucia in Europe unless you go somewhere like the Canaries. I recommend checking the actual, historical, day-by-day weather data available on timeanddate.com. Looking at the most recent five years should give you a very good idea of the range of conditions you many experience.

Seville weather -- February 2025

Use the pull-down box at the right, just above the graph, to change the month and year. Use the Search box at the upper right to change the location. Seville and Cordoba will probably be the warmest of the locations you mentioned. Coastal Cadiz I'd guess would be reasonably moderate. Granada and Ronda are at altitude and will likely be cooler.

For info on precipitation, I usually just check the climate-summary charts in the Wikipedia entries for cities I'm interested in--keeping in mind that precipitation patterns can be highly variable over the course of a short trip.

As already mentioned, transportation in and out of Ronda is a bit awkward. On a trip of this length, I wouldn't try to include it.

Comfortable buses serve smaller cities in Spain and can be useful in supplementing rail service. Rail service between Granada and Seville isn't terribly frequent, so you may want to consider a bus for that leg of the trip if you cannot fly into one of those cities. If you can begin your trip in Granada or Seville, taking the train and spending a night or two in Cordoba along the way makes a lot of sense.

If airfares dictate flying into Madrid (as they did for me back in 2019), you'll be faced with the common train-booking problem: Do you snag a low-cost ticket for your arrival day way in advance at the risk of missing the train due to a flight delay? That would mean having to buy a new ticket at full price unless the original ticket is refundable or changeable. Check the change/refund options on the rail website(s) to be sure of what you're buying. It's worth considering making Cordoba your first stop if you have to fly into Madrid, because Cordoba is closer to Madrid and the train ticket will cost less.

Note also that Spain, unlike most of Europe, is a place where express trains fairly often sell out a day (or a bit more) in advance. Renfe (with brand including Avlo and AVE) has the most frequent service, but you may find Iryo or Ouigo has a schedule you like. Buy tickets from the operating railroad unless you have trouble getting your credit card accepted, in which case I'd use thetrainline.com. There are some bad players (definitely including Rail Ninja) in the train-ticket market; if you use them, it will probably cost a lot of extra money.

I use Google Flights to check schedules and fares for transatlantic flights. I don't try to guess which airline will be best. I just took a quick look and didn't find any non-stops in February, even into Madrid. (In April/May 2019, there were non-stops into both Madrid and Barcelona; I guess winter is different.) If you're going to have to make a stop anyway, try to find a routing into Seville or Granada so you don't have to travel twice between Madrid and Andalucia. I'd fly into Granada (if you decide to include it in your itinerary) if possible, since rail service in and out of Granada is much less frequent than for Seville. However, there aren't many flights into Granada.

Fares don't look awful (but I'm a summer traveler and have very little experience with winter fares to Europe.) I would not assume your best bet is a connection in Madrid; that would mean two stops along the way. I see that TAP has a relatively fast one-stop connection if you don't mind the using a small airline (Portugalia) between Lisbon and Seville.

Mention, above, of Canarias brought to mind a ten day trip to Lanzarote I took in spring 2023. An astoundingly interesting and beautiful island so different than I had imagined, away from the resorts. One high rise on the entire island. April should bring great weather. Paradise for architecture and nature lovers.