Spain for six weeks

I would take 2-3 nights from Madrid for Toledo. I would also plan Segovia for a day trip from Madrid.

You could look at the pueblos blancos between Sevilla and Granada and see if you’d like to make room in your itinerary for that area. My favorites of the white villages were Arcos, Zaharia, sentlis and Grazelema and Ronda, too. The white villages are perfect for wandering.

Two nights for Toledo is a good idea. I’d actually stay two in Segovia, as well. Take a day each from Cordoba and Seville, and two days from your Granada plan. That gives you 4 days for Toledo/Granada.

So many people want to include northern Spain, too, in just a couple weeks. That’s insufficient time. With six weeks, I’d actually be willing to trim additional days off of the cities you’ve included. and plan some nights in Bilbao, San Sebastián (aka Donostia), maybe Girona, and definitely Barcelona. But 6 weeks is plenty of time for many places, if 4 days to a week per place is acceptable to you.

I would vote to add Toledo. Also if going to Seqovia you have to include Avila. In fact, make it an overnight to Seqovia. Ten days in Madrid is way too much. I would seriously consider flying into Madrid and coming home from Malaga. Waste a lot of time and money returning to Madrid. Also suggestions above are good.

Your stays are long even by my standards, but all of those cities are great for just casually wandering around, so I don't see a need to reduce any of the stays unless you decide you want to overnight in additional places. I'd prioritize Toledo for that, myself, but I have also spent multiple nights in, and enjoyed, Segovia, Ronda, Cuenca, Salamanca and Ubeda.

Perhaps you're thinking of a few day trips to places like Toledo and Segovia. If you're open to considering some day trips, these are among the possibilities:

Madrid: Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca, Cuenca, Alcala de Henares (all worth overnights)
Seville: Carmona, Arcos de la Frontera
Granada: Priego de Cordoba

Cuenca requires forethought because it's quite far from Madrid and only a practical day trip if you take an express train. The local trains are just too slow. Express-train tickets on that route can be very expensive (even over $100 round trip--a lot for a day trip) if purchased at the last minute.

Thank you all so much for your advice. Because I've split most of the locations into two hotels, I'll be able to cancel some hotels and add other locations. It will depend on the boredom factor, but with it being our first Spain trip, and the first trip that is longer than the usual two weeks, we'll see how it goes. Thank you again for you input.

Piggybacking on other remarks I agree. I loved Segovia and Salamanca (we spent 2 nights each) and a day trip to Avila. I’m sure you know but buy the Tarjeta Dorada Card (senior card) for trains. We took the bus between the above towns though. Enjoy! 🇪🇸

Thank you, Renee. I wanted to book the long haul train tickets on line but Renfe wanted proof of age to get the discount. Then I tried to buy one of those discount cards but couldn't find a way to buy one which brings me to my questions. Can you only buy that discount card (I think it's $6) at the station. And is it worth buying?

I'm a fan of long, slow stays, but you could definitely carve some time off for other stops. You're probably particularly over-allocated to Cordoba and Granada—both great towns, but filling 8 and 11 days would be a stretch.

For those longer city stays I'd suggest you look at some apartments, rather than hotel stays. I prefer apartments for a number of reasons: getting a step off the tourist path, finding and maybe matching the neighborhood's pace and rhythms, more space to relax, a kitchen (because eating out 3x6 weeks is exhausting, not to mention expensive), doing laundry when you want without extra fees.

Given your itinerary I assume this is your first time in Spain and you’re traveling by public transportation. With six weeks, I’d add some smaller towns that have nearby walking paths and less visited by tourists. To me, you have way too many days in each of the places on your itinerary, but it’s your trip. If I wanted to enjoy the culture, I’d visit some places where you won’t hear any English.

I would suggest cutting your time in Cordoba and Granada and adding Barcelona and Valencia. Also, if possible add Salamanca.

Seville is my favorite city in Spain, but 10 days is a lot, unless you do day trips to nearby places.

If you have some spare days I'd reinvest to spend some time in Cadiz, the foodie capital of Andalucia, and very popular to visit with local Spanish nowadays.

As well I'd spend some time in the province of Jaén, exploring the renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza.

I would try not to overstretch yourselves by adding anything north of Madrid. Plenty to see in the south.

Thanks again for all your ideas.

....Can you only buy that discount card (I think it's $6) at the station. And is it worth buying?..... We always buy it at the station. Always want to see the passport for age. I think it is worth it. It gets 25% weekend and 40% weekday or the reverse -- I don't remember. You can get cheaper tickets on advance sales but they you are locked into that ticket. This gives decent savings with max flexibility.

Thank you, Frank.

You can only buy the discount at the station

A quick update: We are now into our 6th week here is Spain. Some of our plans changed as we moved around, but our core aim of relaxation, walks and enjoying the culture has not. Madrid (18 days) was out of this world, staying at four different hotels. We took a day out to visit Toledo, which was absolutely wonderful. Granada (9 days) was brilliant. We saw a flamenco show and had a stay over at Cordoba. Cordoba was a very "shoppy" place and didn't do that much for us, although we had a suite at the "H10 Palacio Colomera" which made the whole experience worth it. We are in Seville right now (11 days) and unfortunately we both got the flu a day after arriving. It is the worst thing ever. But my wife speaks Spanish and the health system is good, so we're on the mend. Hopefully we'll feel well enough in a day or two so we can do a city tour before heading back to Madrid for the final three days. I'll add a final update when we return to L.A. Any questions feel free to ask.

As a side note, we didn't get a flu shot before coming here. Please don't make the same mistake!

Thanks for reporting back, glad overall the trip was nice, getting sick while traveling is never fun though.

You sure it was the flu? Covid is have quite the resurgence across Europe these days.

Hi Carlos, yes, I guess we'll never know for sure. One positive thing is when you get sick it stops you in your tracks and forces you to enjoy the moment and what is going on around you.

"There's always a rainbow hanging over head." Kacey Musgraves

Hi Carlos, yes, I guess we'll never know for sure.

Plenty of at home covid tests available in Spain, just go to the local farmacia, if you're still symptomatic might be worth to take a test to make sure you're not unsuspectingly spreading it around 😉

I agree with Carlos. More likely COVID. Symptoms are very similar. We just got home from France. A day after we got home we started to develop symptoms and eventually tested positive for COVID. The main difference for me, is that influenza comes on like being hit by a truck. For me, COVID symptoms came on more gradually. I’ve had fever, chills, headache and symptoms like a bad head cold.

Thank you for reporting back about your trip and I hope you feel better soon.