Andalucia, Spain questions/ Itinerary help- mucho appreciated! :)

you don't have very much time on this trip so you will miss a lot of good towns around madrid, i.e. salamanca, toledo, etc. with that said 1 week to see madrid + andalucia is a big rush, so you may have to forget about cardiz, ronda, white villages, etc, just so you can see madrid, sevilla, and granada properly. you can squeeze cordoba in on you way to sevilla.

I think your plan is unrealistic. Be honest with yourself. You have six days - six. Are you flying from California to Madrid? Do you sleep well on long flights? Will you arrive well-rested and ready for action, or will you need a day to recover from all the excitement and stress of getting ready to travel and then flying half way around the world? Many people are barely functional their first day due to exhaustion and jet lag, so be realistic - maybe you really have 5 good days. You can not count your arrival or departure days, period. I would pick 2 places, maybe 3 if you can move between them quickly (been to Europe before and comfortable traveling in foreign lands?). Your choices are Madrid + what? Madrid + short overnight stops in Toledo and Segovia. Or maybe Madrid + Cordoba + Sevilla (do Cordoba as a 1/2 day stop on the way to/from Sevilla - it can be done if you're efficient, no need to spend the night there). You might be able to do Madrid + Granada or the White Hill towns (Ronda is one of them) but not both, but that still sounds tight to me with 5 days. Keep in mind that traveling in November, days will be short and you may (probably will) run into some rainy/cool weather, which will limit your ability to blitz through a full day.

Like the others said, this itinerary sounds overly ambitious and the shorter days will impact your sightseeing. You said that Spain is part of a trip to Europe so hopefully you will have already dealt with the jetlag elsewhere, if not then your first day might not be very productive. I would suggest something like spending 11/9 visiting/sleeping in Sevilla and going to Cordoba for the day on 11/10 returning to sleep in Sevilla. On the 11th head to Cadiz or Tarifa and explore there on that day. 12th go to Rondamaybe spend the night there and see other villages on the 13th? (you will be dependent on bus routes and schedules in that area). By the 14th get to Cadiz/Jerez/etc to catch the train back to Madrid. You're not going to be able to see "everything" in Sevilla or Madrid with that schedule but you should have time for a few highlights. Here is a schedule from one of the bus lines that serves the Cadiz-Ronda route: http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_16_english.htm

Thank you for your input all. I appreciate it. I know it is quite ambitious so I've decided to just drop Granada since it seems quite a bit out of the way of what I really want to see. I really prefer smaller towns over cities. I can spend a good whole day to a day and half in the city center if I do go to the city but I don't like to shop and hit the touristy traps. I'd much prefer to wander smaller towns- spending time taking pictures, you know- really old, charming and unique towns. So here is my question- should I really be looking into renting a car? for about 3 days or so? so I can navigate amongst the towns and not have to be stuck planning around a train/bus schedule (and the limitations that come along with public trasport)? It is most important for me to see Cordoba, a bit of Seville, Ronda, the white villages (Mijas?, Arcos? any suggestions)... if that is all I had time to see, I would be a happy cat. Im thinking I could rent a car in Seville and loop around the south thru Jerez over to Algeciras and up to Marbella and Mija and then over to Ronda (yes, I'm aware it's a crazy road) and back up to Seville or maybe Cordoba where I would return the car and take the AVE back to Madrid. Is this a pipe dream? or somewhat doable now that I've trimmed off Granada? Oh- and I'm actually flying in/out from amsterdam where I'll be staying for a week before and after my spain trip. so no worries on needing to catch up on sleep!

Renting a car would certainly allow you to see the White Hill towns, especially those not served by bus. The only Hill Town we visited was Arcos, driven by someone who lives in Rota and had been there before. Supposedly there are some public parking lots but we didn't see them, we eventually found metered street parking. The streets are very narrow and there is extremely limited parking at the top so its better to park in the lower town and take a taxi to the top, then walk back down. We also drove to Cadiz and Cordoba and easily found public pay parking lots. If you do drive, I suggest becoming very familiar with your route before setting out. The road signage and interchanges can be rather confusing.

We drove from Madrid to Toledo, Seville, Tarifa, Ronda, Acros, to Granada this in 2 weeks. Spain is a huge country. The roads are great and scenery suburb, However, like the other posters PLEASE to get the flavor of the country pick 2 or 3 at the most to see and drop the others. As RS says count that you will be back. My suggestion Day 1 overnight flight to Madrid Arrive day 2- If you are not too tired explore Madrid Day 3 -Take a train to Toledo for the day - then train to Cordoba - spend the night Day 4 Spend the day in Cordoba - then train to Seville (spend the night in Seville Day 5 -Seville- it is not too big and well worth the site seeing bus tour to get a feel for the city. spend the night in the old town and walk around at night to the Tapis bars - Day 6- Take train back to Madrid - could be 4 hours- see a bit more of Madrid - have a nice dinner - relax
Day 7- If your plane does not leave til 4 - take a quick early morning jaunt up to Segovia and then straight to the airport. Regardless of the route you decide on - Enjoy