Thoughts on Visit to Madrid/Granada/Seville/Lisbon next March

Seville is larger and has more, and more-scattered, sights than Granada. With an extra day, I'd definitely give it to Seville, though I liked Granada a lot.

Cordoba is great. Although it would benefit from about as much time as Granada as far as I'm concerned, few visitors have that much time in the area. Many visit Cordoba as a day trip from Seville (just over 40 minutes away by train). Another option is to see Cordoba in transit on your way from Madrid to Granada (train goes through Cordoba, but there aren't many trains, so check to be sure the schedule is suitable) or between Granada and Seville (train likely goes through Cordoba here, too, but again you must be sure there's a departure time that works for this plan).

If you decide to day trip to Cordoba from Seville, I'd recommend shifting one day from Granada to Seville.

Seville and Cordoba will probably be warmer than Granada (which is at altitude) and Madrid. Madrid's average high temperature in March is close to 10 degrees (F) cooler than Seville's. Still, the temperatures should be reasonably comfortable.

Although Lisbon doesn't get a lot of rain in March in absolute terms, rain is a frequent occurrence that month.

In addition to a private driver (probably quite costly), you can get from Seville to Lisbon in two other ways:

• flight (non-stop on RyanAir or TAP)
• bus from Seville to Faro, then train

I believe there may also be buses all the way from Seville to Lisbon, but I haven't researched those.

The temperatures are mild 60 degrees in the day with the sun and chilly later at night.
We were there in January 2019 and it was 70 degrees one day.

Thank you both very much - this is very helpful information! I'll definitely look into a flight or bus as another option for the trip to Lisbon.

Seville to Cordoba is only 45 minutes on a high-speed train— so it’s an easy daytrip. A bus takes about 5.5 to 6 hours from Seville to Lisbon. There are direct flights from Seville ( SVQ) to Lisbon ( LIS) taking about one hour. www..Skyscanner.com
www.TheTrainline.com
www.GetByBus.com

In 2023 we visited all those cities during a trip to Portugal and Spain. We flew between Lisbon and Seville. Based on input from other travelers we added a night in Cordoba and found it worthwhile. Details are in our trip reports:

• Spain: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-spain-aug-sep-seville-ronda-granada-cordoba-madrid
• Portugal: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-portugal-aug-sep-porto-coimbra-lisbon-then-to-spain

This is some fantastic info here - seems like a good idea to just go ahead and fly between Seville and Lisbon...

Love both Spain and Portugal. Having taken a dedicated trip to Portugal (hope to return) and three (so far) to Spain, would suggest focussing on one or the other. Fourteen days in Portugal would allow for a good sample of that beautiful…delicious…country though Lisbon, for us, was not a favorite. Fourteen days in Spain is just a taste. Of the cities you have listed, would recommend 2 days Granada, 2 days Madrid, 3-4 days Sevilla, 2 days Cordoba. Also, consider Malaga, Cadiz and, if you like to walk, El Caminito del Rey. Other options are a daytrip from Madrid to awesome Segovia, and if time allows Avila. Enjoy!

My last visit to Andalucia was in March (the others were in February). One day in Sevilla I was sorry I didn't have sandals with me. By mid-March the orange trees were in bloom - the heady scent was everywhere. . . wonderful.

4 full days in Madrid is a lot unless you plan to use 2 of the for the art museums and at least 1 day trip. I think 2 full days in Granada is enough, 3 in Sevilla would be my minimum.

Still working out some logistics and it looks like perhaps rather than a day trip from Seville to Cordoba we could take a train from Granada in the morning - see Cordoba (just plan on wandering the old Jewish Cooridor and visit the Great Mosque) - and then take the train from Cordoba to Seville. If we get into Seville in the early evening that would allow us to pretty much do what we could accomplish in a day trip anyway. Seems like a more efficient way to do this rather than going from Granada to Seville then round-trip again from Seville to Cordoba and back. Any ideas? Of course it all depends on the trains..... It does look possible to leave early morning on a train from Granada to Cordoba and then depart early evening from Cordoba to Seville but I'm not 100% confident since it appears that train schedules might not be set this far in advance? Curious if anyone has ever done this - Granada - stop in Cordoba - then on to Seville?

Yes- seeing Cordoba as a stopover on the way from Granada to Sevilla makes a lot of sense and it will save you 90 minutes of train time plus the roundtrip fare from Sevilla to Cordoba.
There are many luggage storage companies near Cordoba’s train station including right across the street at Cordoba’s bus station. Simply Google “Cordoba Train Station Luggage Storage.”
The train schedules will not change much in March from what they are today. If you take a look at www.TheTrainline.com you can get an idea of all the trains scheduled for the Granada to Cordoba route. If you know what day of the week you’ll be training from Granada to Cordoba and then to Sevilla Santa Justa station— just enter any arbitrary date in November that is the same day of the week in March. There might be a change in departure/arrival times of a few minutes on a train or two next Spring— but 99% of the train schedule then will be the same as today.
Renfe only runs 3 early morning trains from Granada to Cordoba, with more afternoon trains. You might also look at Alsa buses which cost about $5 to $9 versus $29-$35 for the trains. www.Alsa.com
www.Renfe.com

Thank you SO much for this information. Exactly what I was hoping for. Your advice worked very well and I think I can now put together this part of our trip.