"Help" Spain and to the South

Four cities in "almost nine days." That works out to 2 days/city, not counting travel time. With nine days, you have time to do only three of the four, and even that will be rushed. It takes 5 hours to make the train-or-bus journey to Granada, 3 hours from Granada-Sevilla....then a high speed train back to Madrid in under 3 hours. Each of those journeys will chop about half a day off your touring schedule. You certainly won't have time to see the sea.

I did a similar route 3 years ago: fly in -->Madrid (1 night) --> Cordoba (1 night) --> Sevilla (2 nights) --> Granada (1 night) --> Madrid (2 nights) --> leave. I'm also a "very going person", and I think it worked out fine for me. I didn't feel very rushed. If I had more time, I would've loved to stay longer in Sevilla or Granada or take a day trip to Toledo. Have a great trip!

Need to consider an open jaws route. We did the same route over New Years -- Madrid (2) to Cordoba (1) to Seville (3) to Granada (3) and home from Malaga. Malaga is on the coast so you could spend a day or two there.

Unfortunately, my flight is booked. Had I known that I needed more time in Spain, would have added days but can't now. I will be leaving from Madrid to fly to Rome, Italy. I will be staying in Italy for 2 weeks. I never knew how much I could see in Spain.
I booked too early and now have tickets that are non refundable. Would love to have more responses and a place to stay in Seville or Granada?
I can't afford a lot. Around 60 euro is in my price range. Location is of course, Impportant

We recently stayed at the following hotels and I'd heartily recommend either of them (note the prices we paid were for a double room and both hotels are Rick Steves' suggestions):

Granada: Hotel Anacapri. We paid €80/night, including breakfast, wonderful location and hotel staff and clean, comfortable room.

Sevilla: YH Giralda. We paid €57/night, NOT including breakfast (but many inexpensive breakfast options nearby), fantastic location and a spacious, clean, comfortable room.

It's helpful to look at Expedia.com, Hotels.com or other online hotel booking sites because we found the Sevilla hotel on Expedia for less than what the hotel quoted us directly - and happily booked it that way!

We stayed at the following locations in Sevilla and Granada. Both locations are very central within walking distance to the major attractions. Both rooms came with a private bath but no breakfast. We enjoyed our stay at both.

http://www.sleepngo.com/hostels/pension-alcazar.htm

66 euros/night

[email protected];

50 euros/night

I so appreciate the response. I posted a few months ago and hardly had any responses.
With not a lot of time. What shold I most focus on in Granada, Cordoba and Seville. Is there any central location to sleep and not bounce around so much?

The great attraction in Cordoba is the Mezquita. We stayed at the Hotel Mezquita, which is just across the street and, I think, near your price range. I advise renting the audio tour so that you know what you're seeing and to get some of the historic background. That's about 1/2 day. Wander about peeking into patios. The doors are open just so people can do that. Stop at the tiny 14th century synagogue on Calle Maimonides. IMO, Granada's Alhambra is the only thing worth seeing there with such a limited time, so a day is enough. However, you should spend at least one night, maybe two, to avoid feeling frantically rushed. In Sevilla, we took the walking tour with the guide recommended by Rick, and it was very worthwhile. You should give Sevilla at least two days, three would be better.

This is just wonderful. Thank you all for your replies. If anyone else has any imput, please do so. This is my first time to Spain and I am greatly looking forward to this part of my journey. I am very leery in big cities so Madrid kinda Scares me.
My city is only 63,000 people. I have never been worried when I go to Italy. I am sure I will find so many lovely places to photograph in Spain.

I spent the last semester in Barcelona and traveled to many of the cities you plan to visit. I really loved Granada. When we went, we took the night train from Barcelona on Thursday night and then back on the Sunday night train, so I had roughly three whole days there. Of course, you have to visit the Alhambra - which if the weather is nice can definitely take up half a day. After that, I would suggest exploring the Albacyin (spelling?) which is the old Moorish quarter of the town. We spent a lot of time just wandering around the little shops and stalls and drinking tea and smoking hookah in the morrocan tea houses. Overall, it was the most relaxing weekend I spent in Spain. Hope you enjoy!

Forget to put it in my earlier post. And this will help your budget. For 5E you can buy a senior pass that will give a 40% discount for weekday rail tickets and a 25% on the weekend. In fact, I could mail you our pass since it is good for a year.