how to get from madrid to granada

Diane, if you really have zero interest in Madrid or Toledo this trip, don't go there. Fly to where you want to be--Granada or someplace else on your itinerary (Sevilla? Barcelona? Malaga?) and proceed from there.

Adam's suggestion is a good one. Since Iberia is the only airline flying Madrid-Granada these days, it would probably be cheaper to book your flight right through. As a comparison, Iberia now is charging 140 Euro minimum, pp, for Madrid-Granada alone for next May....that's about $200. That way, at worst, you'll have to shift from the older terminals on one side of the airport to the new Terminal 4. The next fastest and easiest would be a car, picked up at the airport. Driving time is about 5 hours on four-lane divided highways all the way. The cheapest way is the bus....about 5 1/2 hours on modern coaches from the terminal to Granada, cost 16 Euro pp.

Diane...you won't have any problems with the drive. It's four lane divided highway all the way, and signs are well-posted. Barajas airport is on the northeast side of Madrid, but the city is surrounded by ring roads, so you just come out of the airport, access the ring road that goes right by there, swing around to the south and head for Granada. The only tight spot is penetrating the mountains north of Jaen....the southbound lanes are actually the old highway thru the mountains, so it's a bit windey, but some spectacular scenery. If you go to google maps and enter "Barajas airport, Madrid, Spain" and your destination address in Granada, it will draw you an excellent map. As for drive times, with a rest stop along the way, it'll take you closer to five hours than four.

We drove Granada-Madrid two weeks ago. The autovia is in wonderful condition and there are countless hotel/restaurant stops to break up the trip if you need a break.

How difficult is it to get from the airport to the highway to granda (neither of us speak/read spainish)? Once on the highway to granada, is it pretty straightforward? Rick Steves book said it was 4 hours by car? Was that your experience?
Right now I'm leaning toward flying into Granaga, but returning to Madrid by bus (mostly because the connections and timing work well).
thanks to evryone for input. diane

We drove it this year (with a stop in Toledo.) Very good roads and easy to navagate. You can pick up a rental car within a few feet of the baggage claim area. We enjoyed the trip which we did after an overnight flight.

Ah, Norm. I was wondering why the southbound route seemed a little scary but then coming back north it wasn't so bad. You're right though - the southbound trip has incredible scenery coming through that gap in the mountains. And also an overlook whose stairs were simply pooled with urine!

And I would say that 4 hours for the trip is definitely an understatement, if you plan to make any rest stops at all.

Make sure you learn the basic road signs before you hit the highway, but the trip is very easy, with literally only the exiting of the airport not on a 4-lane highway.

Thanks to everyone, this has been a very big help. I have a hard time with narrow windy roads so was considering flying both ways. but i think we'll fly to granada and return by bus (very frequent & same amount of time as car.

easy flight to Granada. Very small airport in Grenada and caught the bus to our hotel.