Transportation in Spain

For those locations, absolutely take the train. The line between Sevilla and Madrid includes Cordoba and is high-speed. For Granada, you may find it more convenient to take a bus to/from Cordoba or Sevilla but there is train service. Based on a couple of your posts, I have to ask if you've bought the RS or any guide to Spain? As helpful as we are here, we are no substitute for a good guidebook.

Take the Train!!! 2 1/2 hours from Madrid to Sevilla, less than that to Cordoba. Go on the renfe web site up to 62 1/2 days before your journey to get discount ticket prices.

Something else: Get a copy of the Moon Guide To Spain...excellent and detailed as well...

Faisal, we just did your tour. We used the AVE from Madrid to Sevilla, rented a car for the trip to Tarifa (we wanted to day trip to Morocco and there is no train to Tarifa...). Kept the car until Cordoba. But... You can easily train Madrid to Sevilla to Cordoba and Granada. The ticket buying for the AVE trains has to be in advance for the best prices. I would recommend the spanish language Renfe site (that's where the discounts are). Getting in/out of stations in the cities is very easy. The trains are very nice. I see you asking about hotels too. Will add info there relative to parking if you opt for a car.

I thought I saw a question about accomodations, but now I don't. So I'll deal with parking. It is a hassle in all of the cities you are visiting. If you do rent a car, get GPS. And bring $$$ for parking if you stay IN towns. If you need accomodation pointers, let me know. We like to walk and found hotels with good prices where we could walk to sights with 20 minutes.

During our trip to Spain in October 2010, we flew on Vueling Airlines from Barcelona to Seville for less than the cost of the train. This is only recommended if you only have a carry on luggage, otherwise, the steep luggage fees will negate any cost savings. Good Luck.

for long distance between madrid and sevilla high speed train is great. there is a stop in cordoba. spain's long distance bus is also pretty good, cheaper than train and runs frequently, so you can keep it as plan b if you can't get train ticket.

Public transportation in Spain is great and relatively cheap. A brand new high speed AVE train route just opened about two weeks ago from Madrid to Valencia. You can rely on the trains or even buses to get you to the cities you want to visit. Once in Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada you can walk everywhere. In Madrid there is an efficient subway system or use the public buses. I have been to Spain five times and usually depend upon public transportation. Don't want to deal with the hassle and expense of a rental car, driving through narrow streets in unfamiliar cities, and finding parking which is often difficult, not to mention the cost of gasoline. I have never bought train tickets in advance. Just walked up to get them on the day I needed to travel.

Do the math. The whole loop is something like fifteen hours of driving time. You'd be using the car for a small fraction of the hours you'll be in Spain. Take the price of the car rental ($400 ?). Toss in the gas ($150 ?), parking at 25 euro/day ($450 ?). I'm probably off somewhere, but it's close to a grand, maybe more. Driving within any of those cities is counter-productive. You can walk anywhere you need (and faster than you can drive), except in Madrid which has a great subway system. I drive everywhere, but it's to get into the small nooks. More than one night in any of your spots one a single trip would probably never happen. To illustrate the point, it took me an hour and a half to get from the outskirts to the center of Seville a few weeks ago - - and I know the place. I'd bet that's real close to the time it takes to ride a train to Seville from Cordova. The previous posts indicate the presence of good public transportation between your cities. It's a no-brainer.