Best of Spain Help

Usually not possible. Flights to the US usually leave in morning or early afternoon. You need to be at the airport 3 hours early. The fast train takes 2.5 hours and arrives at Atocha. Then 40 minutes to the airport. There might (or might not) be a train that early but you are really pushing it. Any delay or track work and you miss your flight, it’s counted as for your fault so you and have to pay for a new one. My last few flights have been on the earlier side, like 10-11, which would be impossible.

What you can do is take the last train one night and then stay at an inexpensive hotel near the airport

OR book your flight home from Seville. It’s a small airport and will likely require a early AM flight to Madrid or Barcelona somewhere else in the region, connecting to the US from there.

John, choose bankruptcy over rushing, after all you can’t take it with you! LOL! Unless you have a late afternoon or evening flight out of Madrid, trying to get through the same day would be difficult and risky. There’s plenty to do with an extra day in Seville, or even a visit to Cordoba on the way to Madrid. When I took the wonderful RS Best of Spain tour in 2016, i took a few extra days in Seville, Cordoba and Jerez, then flew back to the US out of Seville, with a connection in Frankfurt, I believe.

You won't make it for a same day flight. Do consider an extra few days in Sevilla with a day trip to Cordoba. Although the tour was great we considered the Mezquita in Cordoba one of the highlights of our trip. Then train back to Madrid, overnight for your flight. We got a good rate returning to the first hotel ( and a much better room). No need to stay near the airport. The hotel can arrange a taxi and you'll have another late evening to enjoy Madrid.

On a tour last year one party left for the train station right after our farewell dinner in the evening. I think their flight was the next day from another city.

You may be able to fly home from Sevilla, just will add a short hop to somewhere from there. Do a multi city search on Google Flights (fly to Barcelona, home from Sevilla or Madrid) to see what your options might be. It looks like the tour does end on a Sunday, so if you do decide to go back to Madrid, make sure to purchase your train tickets before hand to ensure you have a seat.

When I did this tour, the morning of the "last tour day" (the one with breakfast) I took a train from Sevilla to Madrid and visited the Madrid art museums I didn't get to see while there with the tour (Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia). I spent the night at the tour hotel in Madrid and then took a cab to the airport for a pretty early morning flight home. In hindsight, I wished I would have taken the train to Cordoba for a half day stop over, then taken the train to Madrid and stayed at a a hotel near the airport. But I would find a way to make sure you had the final dinner with your group - it was one of the most memorable of the four RS tours I've been on.

We also are doing the Best of Spain in May 2018. There is no way there is enough time to take train to Madrid same day.
Flights are expensive out of Seavilla and also if just one way. Madrid to/from.
We plan to arrive in Madrid - train to Barcelona.
Depart train from Seavila to Madrid stay extra day. Bull fight festival ;) Enjoy!!!!

Have you checked flights into Madrid and out of Seville on a multi-city ticket? That's sometimes a decent option; other times, the price premium is much too high, in which case you should definitely head back to Madrid and spend the night before your return flight there. Anything else is just too risky with so much money on the line. If you buy the Seville-Madrid train ticket far in advance, it will come at a reasonable price.