Spain Itinerary

Is anything booked?
Madrid is often paired with Andalucia. Of course, you should always plan the trip you want and the masses are not always the end-all-be-all, but just about everyone who has ever commented on them both has had little positive to say about Tangier or Gibraltar. In this case, I think the masses are correct--Morocco is too great a destination to waste a day trip on that will be time-consuming and not give you the best experience. Gibraltar just pales in comparison to the stunning cities of Cordoba, Sevilla, and Granada to me. Again, if it is something you feel passionately about, you can certainly squeeze it in.
Madrid is smack in the center and the transport hub, so you can really do anything with it, but don't forget you'll need to be back the night before your flight out (That is at least 7 hours of travel from Tarifa for example), so that means at least one night devoted to Madrid. Decide first how many days you would like to spend there, then you'll have a better sense of what else you have time for. I would delve into an Andalucia book first. Good luck!

What time of year will you take this trip? The south is miserably hot in the summer.

Exactly how many nights can you spend in Spain, not counting the night on the plane? I think 9 to 10 days (which would be 10 to 11 nights) is about right for Madrid, Cordoba, Seville and Granada. It will help if you don't want to spend two full days in the Madrid's art museums. It's questionable whether you'd have time for side trips from Madrid to the wonderful options like Toledo and Segovia.

With only nine days I’d stick with a smaller geographic area to minimize travel time between places. If you want to visit Tarifa and Gibraltar select other locations near there. If using public transportation you also need to consider ease of getting to the places you want to visit.

Stick to Spain, forget Tangier, you would be disappointed if you went there.

Madrid is great, but do day trips to Toledo (my favorite city in Spain) and Segovia.
Cordoba is between Madrid and Seville. Seville is my second favorite city in Spain. If you can take in Granada, do so.

Just wondering, since you mentioned Cordoba. I’m looking for one place to stay in the south and do day trips, as we really don’t want to stay two places here and two places there. Would Cordoba be the best place to stay and do day trips to Seville and Granada? Thanks

The problem with day-tripping from Cordoba to Seville is not the distance (less than 1 hour by express train) but the number of sights in Seville. Seville really is not a one-day sort of destination. Actually, Granada isn't, either, but it doesn't take as long to see a fair amount of Granada as you'll probably need in Seville. the problem with day-tripping to Granada from Cordoba is the distance. The fast trains take 2-1/2 hours each way. You'll have time to see the Alhambra (buy those tickets way, way ahead of time) and get something to eat, but maybe not much else. Lots of folks spend more than half a day at the Alhambra. Note that the ticket is timed; you must enter the Nasrid Palaces at the time on your ticket.

Nine to ten days isn't really quite long enough for Madrid, Seville, Cordoba and Granada unless you mainly just want to see building exteriors. There's definitely not time to go all the way down to Tarifa and take side-trips to Gibraltar and Tangier. I wouldn't recommend Tangier even if you had a month. Morocco is a fascinating country, but Tangier is really not the place to go. You can fly to great cities like Fes and Marrakech from a number of places in Europe, so I'd recommend holding off on Morocco for now and adding it to a later trip by flying to one of its good destinations.

With 10 days max I would not do more than 3 stops.
Doing Sevilla, Granada and Madrid will fill your time completely and you still would not see everything.
Cordoba can be done on a day trip from Sevilla very easily (we did it).