Spain itinerary

This is a regularly travelled route in the order you have given, but usually in this manner. Madrid with a day trip to Toledo (saving on time expended packing/unpacking/changeing accommodation). Madrid to Seville - day trip to Cordoba (same reasoning). Seville to Granada. Granada to Madrid. OR Madrid to Granada, Granada to Seville, Seville to Madrid. All trainable (is that a word), except only two journeys a day Granada to Madrid but by bus many more and similar time. Train - http://www.renfe.com/ and read at least this - http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm#How_to_use_www.renfe.com for use of the site and probable discounts, at least on the Madrid to Seville journey. Bus - http://www.alsa.es/portal/site/Alsa

Mark we hit many of the same destinations on our trip years ago. One of the smartest things we did was to spend our first night in Toledo. It was about an hour by bus from Madrid. Toledo is an ancient city with real duende. It's a great place to de-jetlag. Your remaining destinations form a triangle from Madrid. Maybe, if your flight home is late enough, you could take the early AVE from Cordoba and get to the airport in time for your flight. If so, you should do that, and travel the triangle counterclockwise (Granada first). Otherwise it doesn't matter if you travel counter or clock. Apart from the AVE lines, which are sleek, modern, and fast, buses in Spain can be at least as good as the train. Much nicer than those here in the states. You might consider that for your Andalusian segment.

We did that trip last May, with the addition of Barcelona, and had a great time. Neil and Adam have given you great advice, describing the way most people visit these cities. We do not mind changing hotels, and really enjoy spending the evening and night in historic places like Toledo and Cordoba, so we spent the night in each instead of a day trip. Actually we spent 2 nights in Toledo and were glad we did, as it gave us time to walk the whole city, see a wedding party, run the path along the river, and meet local residents out fishing, etc. We traveled entirely by train and bought our tickets in advance on Renfe to get the Web fares (60% off). For example, Madrid to Sevilla for 33 euro instead of 83. This tripmis on the fast AVE train which is smooth and comfortable. Granada back to Madrid is on a regular train, but you can still get Web fares or Estrella fares of 27 or 41 euros instead of the full price of 68.90. You have to start looking for these 62 days in advance and they are not offered on every train. I highly recommend reserving tickets for the Alhambra in advance. We saw many disappointed people who thought they could line up and buy tickets for that day. They disappeared in 10 minutes.

I agree with Neil that Toledo can be an easy day trip. 2 days in Cordoba should be plenty. In fact depending on when you get ther 1 night might be enough. We cut a day out to go to Ronda for a night.

I'm a strong advocate of spending the night in Toledo - it's one of those places that is so popular that it's nearly ruined by the crowds of day-trippers.. everyone does Toledo as a day trip. If you spend the night, you get a completely different experience - the place is magical after the day-trip crowds roll out, and before they show up again the next day. Those hours are worth savoring. Conversely, I think Cordoba makes a perfect, efficient 1/2-day stop on the fast train between Madrid and Sevilla - I don't think it needs 1 night, never mind 2. The primary sights in Cordoba are not open at night. Hit them during the day and move on in the early evening, arriving in Madrid or Sevilla in time for dinner.

A guilty pleasure of overnighting in Toledo: Standing on the city walls at 5:30 in the afternoon, watching the hoards of day trippers trudging to their buses.

Whether you visit Toledo as a day trip or overnighter, be advised that you must return to Madrid to take the train to anywhere else. The Toledo line is like a "spur" in that the train only goes there and back. Its about a 30 min trip to/from Toledo and uses the same station (Atocha) as the departures for the other cities that you wish to visit.

Elizabeth is correct. But since it's such a short connection, I would certainly not let that be a deciding factor. It's not like you're at the end of some long, dead-end line. It just means you'll have to change trains in Madrid if you're on your way to somewhere else. Not a big deal at all (pretty trivial IMHO). We actually took the train to Toledo, spent the night, then mid-day the following day (as the streets became filled with day-trippers) we picked up a rental car and headed off to Avila (a short stop to walk the walls) on the way to Segovia, where we dropped the car. After a day and a night in Segovia, we took the fast train straight to Madrid. Worked out great.

I did this basic trip in November but added Barcelona. It was a short, cheap flight there from Granada but that was more off season. We did Cordoba as a day trip from Sevilla and covered it fairly well. I think you could also get away with two days in Granada and two days in Madrid. But if you're the type that likes to really get a feel for a place, there is nothing wrong with taking longer in any of those places. Spain is very underrated in my opinion.

We did the same route with an over night in Cordoba on the way to Seville. But we flew home from Malaga to save the time and expense of back tracking to Madrid.

I would probably do one night in Toledo, to see it without the daytrip/guided bus tour hordes. You will have to go back through Madrid, if you train, or you can bus to Cordoba. I would probably also cut it to one night in Cordoba. The train routes are good between Madrid, Cordoba and Seville, and between Seville and Granada. I'm not sure what you get if you try Granada to Madrid (probably all backtracking) a bus might be faster and cheaper. If I save one night, I lean toward spending it in Seville.

"I'm not sure what you get if you try Granada to Madrid (probably all backtracking)." No backtracking. There is a separate (not AVE) train line from Granada up to madrid, so you can do the trianble (MadridCordobaSevilla-Granada-Madrid) with no backtracking. Here is a schematic map of the Spanish rail system, courtesy of Petrabax: http://petrabax.com/renfe/spain_map.html However, when we did the trip, we put Granada between Sevilla and Cordoba, so we did not take the Granada to Madrid train. Or original plan was to head to the Madrid airport from Cordoba, skipping a laast night in Madrid. That is a realistic plan if one has an afternoon flight. But in th eend we decided to spend our final night in Madrid instead.

We did this exact trip flying round trip Madrid in spring 2008. We slept in Madrid for four nights, then flew to Granada for three nights (arrived late and left early, so two full days). We took the train to Seville for three nights, then AVE to Toledo (changing in Madrid - trivial). We were in Toledo for three nights, including our last night in the country. We caught an early train into Madrid and then went to the airport. That took a bit of time (half hour into Madrid and then maybe an hour on subway to the airport), but for us it was preferable to returning to Madrid for the last night. We enjoyed having two days to slow down and really see Toledo in a way that you just can't on a day trip. Two days was also good for Granada, although I felt we left more unseen there. We basically spent one day at the Alhambra and one day at other sights. The one thing I would have changed about that trip was leaving Seville on the morning of our fourth day there to stop in Cordoba for a half day on the way to Toledo. We didn't need the extra half day in Seville and we missed Cordoba.

Many thanks for the thoughtful suggestions.