I will be traveling to Barcelona, Seville, Cordoba and Madrid in one month. I just ordered the RS book that says Spain 2017. It says it covers all of my locations. I also see many other RS books with each city separately. I don't want to have to carry around 4 different books. Will this one book be ok and give me a lot of information that a first time visitor to Spain will need?
Yes. This one will be fine. It has plenty of info in each of those four sections(cities).
Thank you, Nicole!
We are doing a similar trip in the fall. Youmight like using RS "Best of Spain 2017 " book---it includes the areas you mention plus a few more (Andalucia and Granada, for example, which we are including). The same basic info as Spain 2017 but in a smaller book.
You have plenty of coverage in that one book. In fact, the only book with any additional coverage is the Barcelona book, which has more self-guided routes for museum and walking tours. The books titled Snapshot: Madrid or Snapshot: Sevilla are simply chapters pulled verbatim from the book that you already ordered.
After looking at the RS book, you can do some additional research on your own. For larger cities like you're going to, TripAdvisor is a nice resource to check out things to see and do. You may find additional places not in the RS book that are of interest to you, but very close to the ones in the RS book, so you can better utilize your time.
Just remember that Rick takes what I call the 'tapas tour' of countries. He leaves out a lot. Don't leave it to him to decide all of what you should see. There are plenty of other good places to go to and things to see besides his recommendations, so use it as a base and add to it. Granted it I have it for my Spain trip because of his self guided tours and details on trains, etc. and also Lonely Planet as an ebook. There are numerous museums and things of interest to me in each of these main cities that are not in Rick's books, but I'll just add notes and dots on maps.
Also remember to download his pod casts and audio guides to add to the guided maps/
thank you!
In addition to the books, I found RS' Spain Travel Skills quite helpful, and amusing.