Top Spain sights in 17 days

Skip Mallorca, islands are islands -- sand, rocks, water, etc. I lived in Bilbao for years as a kid, been back, still like it, but not much to see that's different from anywhere else except the museum (unless you have interest in Basque stuff). Salamanca is a bit off the path for a cathedral and universtiy, but a great place. Around the Madrid area, get to Toledo, Segovia, and Avila (probably at the expense of the other two spots I prattled about). If you have to cut a southern city, make it Cordoba. If you want to see something really different try the Altimira cave paintings, Santiago de Compstela, or Santillana del Mar. Last three might be a transportaion challenge without a car. You never really said how you were going to travel within Spain, but you could to the whole thing in two and a half weeks of easy driving (maybe dump the car and use train to Barcelona and back at the end).

With 17 days, Rick's suggested loop is the best way to go. To save a bit of time you could leave early from Madrid, stop in Cordoba for the day, and be in Sevilla that evening. You can get superb discount fares at www.renfe.es 62 1/2 days in advance of your travel...up to 60% off, which may be cheaper than a rail pass. Remember, too that there are curently only 2 train/day Granada-Madrid...at 9:45 am and 6 pm...each takes just under five hours. The intercity coach buses are far less expensive and take about 5 hours...and there's some wonderful scenery.
With all the stops on the Rick loop, plus the day trips out of Madrid and Barcelona, you won't have time to do a loop through Bilbao, then train to Salamanca....you might want to drop them from your itinerary For the same reason, you should also probably drop Mallorca....a nice place, but not something you should include at the expense of one of the other destinations you've listed.Make sure you book tickets for the Alhambra in Granada as far in advance as you can....likely next May or June...so you will be able to get in. Admission is strictly limited, and it will still be a busy site in September. www.alhambra-tickets.es

Where to begin....

First, you are totally wrong about flying open jaws on United miles, I do it all the time - investigate your options, there are a lot more than you think.

Second - I'd skip Mallorca - unless your top priority is to stay up all night "clubbing" with those who live for the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities. Coming from Hawaii, I doubt you would be knocked out.

As suggested above, start with Rick's itinerary and make adjustments as needed. The things to not be missed are mostly pretty obvious: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Granada, Cordoba, white hill towns...Barcelona if you can manage it without doubling back (Barcelona is a long way from everything else). Unless you have some special reason to go there (big architecture fan? Basque heritage?) I'd skip Bilbao - you don't that many days and there's plenty to see without going half-way across Spain just for a museum.

You'll like Spain more than you expect to.

Robin, if you are looking to use miles on United open jaw, you need to call them; the book with miles option on their website does not show this but you can do this through one of their agents. I have gotten an open jaws ticket using miles, but I called and spoke with an agent.

Dear Ed, Norm, David and Laura:
I am really grateful for your advice on where to go and how to get there. I will concentrate on the Madrid region (Toledo, Segovia & Avila, Escorial), the South (Sevilla, Granada) & Barcelona. Maybe Cordoba & Salamanca if I can get it to fit. Good suggestions Ed! Although Portugal & Galicia will probably be a separate future trip.
Rick's book mentions a day trip to Morocco, but if that is only to Tangiers, I don't think that its worth it. Doesn't seem worth to go to Morocco without going to Marrakesh.
I had planned to train most of this. Norm, super advice on the advance purchase being < that the Spain Flexipass. And the advice on the Alhambra tickets. David, Laura, I'll try to see if I can do an open jaw with the miles that I have (barely enough for 2 r/t from HNL->MAD).
Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas) & Aloha!
Robin

Flying a multi-city route ("open jaws" seems a really archaic term to me, and I think it only confuses people) costs no more miles than does flying "round trip".

There are LOTS of little known options you can take advantage of when using FF miles - be sure to explore those options thoroughly before "settling" for something less than what you really want. The problem is, the airlines will not inform you of these options - you have to find them yourself (and, in fact, the airline's agents will incorrectly tell you that no flights are available, when in fact if you are a good detective, you can indeed find flights that they can and will put you on - but you need to research the flights and tell them to check each leg for you - not the whole trip at once).

For example, on United (and their partner airlines - don't forget those!), on a single round-trip FF ticket, you can actually fly to THREE places, using their "stop over" rule (which allows you to "stop over" in an intermediate city for an extended time).

On a single FF ticket, I once flew from Seattle to Bali (Indonesia), spent 3 weeks there, then on the return flight we flew from Bali back to Seattle, with a 2 week "stop over" in Bangkok. It was complicated to put this itinerary together (it consisted of 7 flights, only 2 of which were actually on United, the other legs were on Singapore and Thai Airways) - but the whole thing only "cost" the miles for one round-trip between the US and Asia.

The airlines do not make it easy for you, in fact, they obfuscate things and their agents either lie or are lazy/ignorant about such details. It's up to you to know the rules of the game.

BTW, I agree about your thoughts on a day-trip to Morocco: I think a good analogy is a day-trip to Mexico (Tiajuana, Juarez, etc.). Morocco is well worth a deeper visit (Marrakesh, Fes, etc.). If all you you'll have is one day for Morocco, I'd save that for another trip.

Hope that helps - have a great trip.

In our trip, we flew into Barcelona and spent several days, then flew from there to Granada to save a lot of time. We then did Nerja, Seville, Cordoba, Toledo and Madrid and eventually took the train from Madrid back to Barcelona (spending a night in Zaragoza on the way, which was an interesting place). This was before the existence of the high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona, so doing a southern loop and a Barcelona loop might work out more easily now. But whatever you do, don't skip Barcelona!