You helped me pick Spain over Ireland for our trip - now can you help me edit my itinerary? Thanks!

Hi Katie. After reading your title, I feel obligated to respond . . . and happy to do so, since I loved my first visit to Spain (will be back in a month for the second time and very excited about it). Overall, your itinerary is fast-paced but certainly doable. You've traveled enough to know what works for you.

Nerja wasn't on my radar, so I'll leave that to others. I went from Sevilla to Jerez for a few days. I did a day trip by train to Cadiz and another by bus to Arcos. Then I picked up a car (very easy) and to Ronda for 3 nights (I'm a slow traveler). I spent most of a day stopping in the white hill towns (pueblos blancos) on the way to Ronda, one day sightseeing there and one more day visiting other hill towns. You may want to spend the day in Arcos and continue driving to Ronda and have a 2-night stay instead. You'll have lots of daylight in June, since sunset will be after 9.30 p.m. Driving between towns was pleasant - good roads, great scenery. Driving in some of the little towns is tricky - very steep, narrow roads with sharp blind corners. It was easy to drive in and out of Ronda, on to Antequera for a night and then Granada. Even Granada wasn't difficult to drive. That's where I dropped the car (at the train station). The walk back to my hotel, near the Cathedral, was about 10-15 minutes.

You may need to add a night to Granada, depending on your arrival/departure times - it's a long trip to Madrid and few trains or buses. You'll want most of a day to see all of the Alhambra. I recommend taking the evening tour on your first night in Granada, then going back the next day for the daytime visit. In June, the evening visit is from 10.00-11.30 p.m. (it won't be dark before then). The palace is so different (and romantic) at night! It occurs to me that you should check on flights from Granada to Barcelona. You could stay in Madrid before or after Toledo, then fly from Granada to Barcelona and avoid the shlep back to Madrid.

I ate only vegetarian food for 3 weeks in Spain. There's plenty to eat without seafood, with or without meat.

You probably don't have enough time anywhere in your itinerary, but that's what return visits are for.

Since you're landing in Madrid, why not spend time there at the beginning of the trip instead of later on? It would cut down on travel. You could also consider making Toledo a day trip out of Madrid. Segovia and El Escorial are other worthy day trips from Madrid.

As you will be in that general area, a side trip to Gibraltar might be fun (you'll have to ask at the border for them to stamp your passport, but it'll break up the monotony of all the EU stamps).

Enjoy!

Thank you both for the comments thus far. I think I am leaning toward perhaps adding an extra day to hill towns to travel more slowly and the other day to Granada (thus eliminating Nerja). I was considering using Ronda as my base rather than Arcos because I liked the hotel options better....

I have considered Gibraltar - wasn't sure if it was worth eating up the time to and from.....Though I always love anything British (studied abroad in London; Grandmother was a Londoner)

I didn't pick staying in Madrid at the beginning solely because everyone has been warning me about the hot weather in the south, so I was trying to get south as soon as possible then return north as the month progressed.....Though it would make it easier to stay in Madrid first.....

Given your interests, I would suggest adding time to Toledo. I spent over a week there and really enjoyed it – but I particularly love for El Greco. It's a wonderful town, with a number of well preserved buildings, and the evenings there are delightful. Avila is also a wonderful small walled town that's a relatively short train ride from Madrid.

I decided to skip Nerja on my trip because I read some rather unsavory things about cleanliness and water quality/sewage control. However, people who have been there recently would be a better source of information on that question.

In June it will already be hot. I was there in early May two years ago and it was over 100 degrees in Sevilla and Cordoba that week. Except for the hill towns, it seems like it would be so much easier just to take the train to your other destinations, and save the gas/parking dilemma. I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference doing Madrid first or last. Certainly airfare might be different flying in to, say, Sevilla instead of Madrid (and I think maybe you fly into Madrid anyway and change planes, but I'm not sure about that). One thing I would suggest, outside of Sevilla, is Italica. It is a Roman settlement ruin where you can see several of the original tile mosaic floors, roads, and the ruin of a coliseum.

I would ask you to look at flying on to Granada after your arrival into Madrid.
Then consider this itinerary suggestion ...

June 8 Land in Madrid, book connecting flight on to Granada
June 9 - Granada
June 10 - Granada
June 11 - Pick up car and travel to Ronda
June 12 - Arcos/Jerez
June 13 - Sevilla (return car)
June 14 - Sevilla
June 15 - Sevilla
June 16 - Cordoba
June 17 - Cordoba
June 18 - Madrid
June 19 - Madrid
June 20 - Madrid
June 21 - Toledo
June 22 - Barcelona
June 23 - Barcelona
June 24 - Barcelona
June 25 - Barcelona
June 26 - Fly home

I wouldn't choose connecting to Granada because it makes for a really long journey. You're going to have one stopover between Madison and Madrid, then a few hours in the Madrid airport before you get to Granada. Then you will be jetlagged and really really tired when you get to Granada. Chances are you'll be too wiped out to enjoy the Alhambra on your first day in Spain!

I was not particularly impressed with Italica. It took a long time to get there - shlep from the Old City center to the bus station, long wait for the bus, and the site has few explanations in English and much of it hadn't yet been excavated (2 years ago), then another long wait for the bus back to Sevilla. There are a few very good mosaics and the amphitheatre is pretty good, but if you've been to Roman ruins in Italy you've seen better.

I took the TI 1/2 day tour to Medinat Al-Zahara with the guided tour and it was excellent (and not expensive) in Cordoba.

You don't need to tell an Australian about "really long journeys".
Honestly you northern hemisphere lot are 'lightweights' when it comes to long journeys.
Sorry, just having a gentle dig.

I think this is a very thoughtful itinerary. I doubt you can improve on it except to take a longer trip.

You have come in for some criticism for doubling back to Madrid, but given the lay of the land I think this is entirely justified.

I won't give any specific itinerary suggestions, but tell you how we allocated our time on our last (short) trip to Spain - made during our daughter's fall break from school, in October. Our interests are mainly cultural and art; my interest in Bosch's paintings at the Prado were the genesis of our Spain trip thoughts. But also, I did a lot of reading on the Spain and its Moorish history, so was very interested in those cities where the remnants of culture remain. We did not go to the hill towns, because we didn't have time, and those were of less interest to us. I will say that the hotels were stayed in were uniformly gorgeous and comfortable and cheaper than in Italy or France.

In terms of logistics, the train system in Spain is very good (I think), except that there are no trains to Granada. And from what I heard, driving in the cities is difficult and stressful (especially Granada). So we built our trip around those facts. We arrived in Madrid and picked up a rental car, driving directly to Toledo and parking directly under the walls of the city. Most people seem to do day trips there, so we enjoyed spending the night, when fewer people were there. We spent about half the next day there, then got in the car and took the well-maintained highway from there to Granada.

We stayed at an inn in the old part of the city, which I thought would be delightful, and it was, but did not feel up to driving in that area. So using every-helpful Google maps, I found a pay parking garage very close to the highway, and we parked there. We walked from there to our hotel - a VERY stupid decision, though we did see a lot of the city and got some good exercise. We spent two nights (one full day) in Granada. The Alhambra was everything that I expected it to be. Granada, however, was my least-favorite city of those we visited.

After lunch in Granada, we drove to Cordoba. As capital of Moorish Spain, I really wanted to visit. It was an easy drive to Cordoba, where we dropped off the rental car. Note: the EuropCar desk is IN the train station, and you drop the car in the adjacent parking garage. We spent two nights (one full day) in Cordoba. The Mezquita is magnificent; I may have enjoyed it more than the Alhambra. It's free in the mornings, so we visited two separate mornings. Lots of other places to visit, including a former synagogue, an ancient residence (have to figure out the name), and the House of the Luna family (I think that's what it was).

We took the train from there, easy trip, on to Sevilla. LOVED Seville, especially the food and the atmosphere. While not totally unknown, I've got to say my favorite place to visit here was the Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija, "one of the most complete and astonishing collections of Roman mosaics of the region." Amazing. I love Roman mosaics. Two nights there; I would have spent more nights here if we had more time.

Then took the train from Sevilla to Madrid, another easy trip. I liked Madrid more than I thought I would. We of course focused on the museums - we spent almost one entire day at the Prado. And the tapas bars. Wonderful.

Some further (serious) thoughts on the effects of a long journey.
In some respects it is easier to keep going when you are in that 'zombie' state after 24 hours on the go.
It is often more difficult to pick yourself up the next day, get organized and moving again.
Hence the preference to get settled for 2 or 3 days at the start of a trip after making a long journey.

I would point out that both itineraries have the possibility to keep the car for a day or two in Seville. You certainly don't need a car to see Seville. But you could, if you wish, use the car to visit Italica and Carmona, and even Jerez from Seville. I question the need to spend a night in Jerez.

We liked Italica very much, although it was hot and unprotected from the sun. We didn't have time to drive over to the amphitheater, which is easy to do with car. We did have to pay off one of Rick's "Bogus Traffic Wardens" to watch the car across the street from Italica. Carmona is perhaps more polished and sophisticated than Ronda, but a very nice visit - with a Pousada if you care to stay there.

I personally prefer Madrid to Barcelona, but that's very much an opinion, and I like art museums. Although it was eight years ago, we found the night-time visit of the Alhambra to be very poorly lit (in terms of seeing the interior architecture) and a waste of time. Having dinner in a "Carmen" [outdoor hillside restaurant] with a view of the sunset on the Alhambra was much better.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful responses. I have decided to cut out Nerja. I do think we are going to stick to our original plan of flying into Madrid and traveling directly to Toledo. Cost is one factor, but we also considered the fact that since we are ending the trip in Barcelona, Madrid would be a nice way to break up the long journey. Otherwise, we would be hauling from Granada all the way to Barcelona.

We did decide to cut out Nerja. We are going to visit Italica and Medinat Al-Zahara, per your suggestions (thank you!). That being said, we need to pick which of the following cities we should spend 3 nights, rather than 2.....
Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, or Granada? Is there one that stands out as being more ideal to have that extra night?

Also, is picking up a car in Sevilla a major stressful headache? Is returning a car in Granada difficult? As I'm sure you understand, we like to rent/drop off cars in the outskirts of cities, rather than traffic filled confusing places.

As to long journeys - We are always impressed when we meet fellow travelers from Australia who make such difficult trips! I have some medical issues that make long travel days especially draining, so I admire how strong you are! :)

Definitely go with Sevilla for the extra night.
I think those of us who enjoy travel will endure an uncomfortable journey of any length.

I would vote for an extra night in Sevilla. We were there for two nights and wanted more time there.

Contact the guys at Gemüt.com for car rental advice and a quote. We used them. Very helpful suggestions for where to pick up and drop off cars. We picked up at the downtown Hertz office in Granada on the way out of town, and dropped off at the train station in Sevilla when we arrived there. You don't need a car in either of those cities or in Barcelona or Madrid. It is more expensive to pick up rentals at transit hubs like stations, airports, etc, but typically no extra charge to drop off at them. We used the car for exploring the white hill towns and a side trip to Tarifa and the nearby coast for swimming. The hill towns can be seen in a few hours each.

There are great trains in Spain. Take full advantage of that and book ahead of time to get the deep discount tickets on RENFE (see my posting under Transportation.) We used trains for Barcelona to Madrid, Madrid to Granda (there are two trains per day in that direction, and they are working on a high speed link), and Sevilla to Barcelona.

We arrived in Barcelona after flying from the West Coast. Decided to use that as a rest day to get over the jet lag and to start exploring the city a bit.

I'd work out the timetable for arrival and departure from Granada. If 2 nights gives you the better part of 2 days, that's probably enough. But if you're arriving in the afternoon and leaving in the morning, you may want to add another night. Otherwise, Seville is probably the best choice.