Spain Help.

I really enjoyed just relaxing and enjoying Granada. You could see the Alhambra, the main attraction, with one night...but if you can spend longer, and like just enjoying the city, I would spend longer. I really like exploring the Moorish quarter where we were staying. We were in Casa Martin, a house with rooms to rent that was reasonably priced and the owners were nice - one being an American expat (or Canadian, I dont remember).

The highlight of my weekend there was just sitting in the Moroccan Tea houses drinking tea and smoking hookah. Also, south of Spain is known for fried fish (look for cazon adobo or something to that effect) and also paella (which actually came from Valencia, but where you will be is closer to the real stuff than say Barcelona).

Toledo is an easy and typical day trip, but if you can consider staying at night (like Rick suggests). I really enjoyed eating cochinillo (roast suckling pig), which I recommend if you are a meat eater.

In general, Madrid is great, but a big city, so I would recommend your focus on the other towns if you want a real Spanish feel.

Just my thoughts, enjoy Spain!

We just did a similar trip over New Years -- Flew into Madrid and home from Malaga. Madrid (2 nights) Cordoba (1) Seville (3 including New Years) and Granada (3). We used trains between the cities with a bus to Malaga. I can provide more details if you like. For us that was a rushed trip but that was all the time we had. I believe that the roasted suckling pig is associated more with Segovia.

We did a month of Spain by car and train, 2007 It is a vast country and you would be spending a good amount of traveling in 8 days. I would concentrate either around Madrid or in the south. Flying into Granada and out of Seville. You would need a car for Arcos but a train does go into Rhonda from Granada(I would definitely recommend Rhonda. also if you do the south by car you could do Gibralter and along the coast
Madrid is big but if you stay central-Hotel Europa is central and excellent and reasonable, there is a lot to see in 2 days (Prada museum, Palace and Plaza Mayor-just walking the streets. Toledo yes and Seville by train 2 days. Whatever you decide have fun.

Thanks for all of your thoughts. If you don't mind, we have one more question/concern. Do you think with the amount of time we have (8 days/9 nights), that we would be rushing or packing to much in if we wanted to do Madrid, Granada and Seville.

Thanks again

No, I think that would be fine. As I posted earlier we did nearly the same trip with only one more than you proposed. You might want to consider departing from Malaga because it is an international airport with flights directly back to the US where as I think from Seville you may have connect through Madrid.

We were in Spain last year and our itinerary was:

Madrid: four nights. We did two day trips one to Toledo and the other to El Escorial. Both were easy to reach by bus. Toledo can also be reached by train and I believe by the fast AVE train. The other days in Madrid were spent at the Prado, Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor and area.

Granada: two nights. We spent a half day at the Alhambra. Make sure that you make reservations. We found two nights was plenty to see everything in the city.

Tarifa: two nights with a day in Tangier, Morocco.

Ronda: three nights. We spent the day we arrived from Tarifa in Ronda, a day via bus to Arcos, and then backtracked for a day in Gibraltar.

Seville: two nights was all we could spend, but a full two days. We took the AVE train for a half day trip to Cordoba, with the rest of the time in Seville spent at the Alcazar, at the Cathedral, and in the old town area.

Last night back in Madrid. If I was to do this trip again, I would fly out of Seville to avoid travelling back to Madrid for a flight home.

So, you could drop a day in Madrid, do only two nights in Ronda and have nine nights. Hope this helps.

If you want to rent a car, do your days in Madrid (and a day trip to Toledo), then head south to Malaga by AVE fast train (book dirt-cheap tickets 62 days in advance at www.renfe.es) and rent your car there. They have by far the lowest rates in Spain, and it includes ALL CDW coverage. You could then do a circuit from there to Granada, Ronda, and Sevilla,then back to Malaga to fly home. As for Madrid, the Hostal Santa Cruz and Hostal Cruz Sol offer very nice rooms for about 50 Euro/night, located in the quiet Plaza Santa Cruz about 50 meters from Plaza Mayor and about a 10 minute walk from Sol. Hotel Europa's exterior is still undergoing renovation at this time, with half the building along Calle El Carmen, and all of the building along the Puerta del Sol covered by scaffolding. Sol is also being pretty well dug up (again).

I was in Spain in 2003 during a month long trip through Spain, Portugal, Southern France and Italy.

We came up the coast stopping in Seville, Ronda, Jerez (side trip), went to Gibraltar, and Granada before heading to Barcelona.

I loved Ronda, we spent two nights there, the town is quaint and easy to navigate and the landscape is beautiful. The bridges are pretty awesome. We also went to the nearby Pileta cave where you can tour a cave with Paleolithic wall carvings-I thought this was very cool.

I was in Toledo in March and highly recommend it! one-half hour from Madrid via the train from the Atocha Train Station, leaving frequently all day. The Hostal Las Manolo, a few doors from the cathederal, is centrally located and well run. Dating from the 1400's and modernized a couple of years ago, I highly recommend it. Toledo is definitely a walking town, and all streets proved magical. The Cathederal, Museum de Santa Cruz, The Church of the Jesuits present many explorations, and the people are friendly!! I plan to return!!!

Madrid, Toledo and Seville, to me, are plenty for a 9 night trip, especially with a day trip here or there (El Escoreal from Madrid, for instance). Also, they're all linked nicely by Spain's high-speed AVE trains.

I think chooseing one of the additional cities mentioned would be workable, but any more than that, you'll not really get a good feel for each place (and Spain really is a nation composed of unique, almost separate regions...not separated officially in terms of politics, but in terms of culture).

We spent a week in Spain (including Madrid, Toledo and Seville) last winter. Here's a link to our report on that trip, including hotels, restaurants, guides, etc:

http://moltogentileitalia.blogspot.com/2009/01/report-from-spain.html

Patrick
I would also look at maribelsguides.com. She has some great tips in addition to Rick (and the readers here).

In Madrid, if you are up for an adventure, try finding the Cloistered Nuns convent. They sell cookies and sweets to raise money for the convent. It was on Samantha Brown's show, and if you're interested.. PM me. We found it and it was the best lemon cookies!