Spain itinerary: drive or train?

There's nothing special about driving in and out of Ronda. The drive from Granada to Barcelona will bore you to tears.

I little rushed for me, but each to his own. I would have said Madrid to Seville is also tedious and time consuming by car. If inclined toward train travel, your route is obviously train from Madrid to Seville, bus to Ronda, train to Granada. Do you need anymore information?

I would opt for the train myself. Easier on the stress!

I'm still wrestling with the same question for our upcoming trip to Spain/Portugal. You missed the most obvious third option, bus. Spain's train service can be so-so to many small towns but bus service is cheap, faster in most cases, and comfortable. I would use the train for the big legs, Sevilla to Madrid, and Madrid to Barcelona, but use bus or rental car for the short legs. In Mexico, it was easy to stop by either a bus station or a travel agent in town to get bus tickets that fit our itinerary. While I expect it will be the same in Spain, few people talk about it on sites like this so I'm tempted to simply plan a car.

Train + car. Train Sevilla or Granada-Madrid-Barcelona Rental car Sevilla, Ronda, Granada People on RS helpline tend to exaggerate the troubles of driving in urban environments in Western Europe. Save for specific cities (namely those in Italy where traffic is more chaotic), you should be fine driving in/out most big capitals in Europe provided you already have a pre-determined place to park the car (hotel or public -paid, always- garage). The most trouble is to use the car for intra-city travel, like going from hotel to museum A to park B, like we'd all do in US. Entering or exiting is doable, just give yourself time, GPS and expect to take a couple wrong turns in the process, and you will be fine.

Neil makes a good point on getting from Madrid to Seville, especially if you take what's probably the faster route - - through Merida. If you spend another half hour of road time you can hit Ciudad Real and Cordova, but you can't do both in one day and a half day is almost too short for Cordova.

This has been very helpful. Any more feedback is welcome! If those 6 days sound too hectic, should we skip one of the cities/towns? I really want to see the white hill towns.
Thanks.

It doesn't look that bad to me if you drive. Day 1 - - Madrid to Seville - - six hours plus a three-hour stop in Cordova. Day 2 - - Seville Day 3 - - Seville with an early-starting day trip to Ronda (two hours each way) or Arcos or Jereze (one hour each way). My pick would be Arcos. Four hours is enough for any of the hill towns. Day 4 - - Seville to Granada - - three hours. You can see the Alhambra and the cathedral in an afternoon. Day 5 - - Granada to Barcelona (ugh on driving, fly as you're thinking) Day 6 - - left over - - I'd go back and plug it in at the beginning, stopping for lunch at Ciudad Real, and spending the night in Cordova. Optionally, you could come down through Ciudad Real, stopping for a while, then pressing on to Seville. You could then extend the driving time to four hours enroute to Granada and spend three hours in Cordova. In this case you could not see Granada on the arrival day, so all of your days would then be used up. One note, getting into Seville is a bit of a bear. I know the city pretty well and a few months ago it took me well over an hour to get to the core area from the southern bypass (five miles ?). If you haven't been there, you probably should not time it for an after-dark arrival.

Tracy~ Six of us are staying in a TS in Marbella and using it as a base in 5 weeks. We have rented a van and have planned day trips to Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Ronda. With only a week to see these sites we did not want to pick up and move. We realize there is much driving but there are 3 drivers and we felt driving gave us some flexibility to see some other things. On the 6th day my husband and I are leaving for 10 days in Morocco and the the others will drive us to Tarifa and then go onto Gibraltar. They are taking the car back the next morning dropping it off at the Malaga Airport and will fly to Madrid and then back to the US.

I would say you will have a lot more time to enjoy your chosen destinations if you take the train from Madrid to Sevilla. The ride only takes 2.5 hours, and the Web fare for advance purchase is 33 euro. With mo car to worry about, you can stay in the charming barrio Santa Cruz, just steps from the cathedral and Alcazar. Pick up a car when you leave Sevilla to tour the white towns of your choice. Then either retune the car at Sevilla and take the train to Granada, or drive there and turn the car in. Again, you have the option of more charming and historic areas to stay without the car. With six nights, you could spend two in Sevilla, two in the White Towns, and two at Granada. I cannot imagine trying to see the Alhambra in an afternoon. We did a night visit on arrival, a five - hour walking tour the next day, and a regular " general visit" of the fortress, palaces, and gardens the next day. We took it all in and used all of the time allotted to our morning visit ( 9 am to 2 pm) and then enjoyed lunch on the patio at Hotel America before leaving the Alhambra around 4 pm. Bar Oliver is a great place for tapas in Granada.

Thank you all for great ideas! I think it will be train to Sevilla, drive to Ronda and Granada and fly to Barcelona. We snagged a splurge room at the Parador inside the Alhambra and hope that will be very cool. Thanks again for helping. Still open to suggestions!