Spain Transport Planning - Madrid, Toledo, Alhambra Palace (Granada)

First read this article about trains. Among other things, buying tickets in advance can save you some money. Note that Renfe (the official train site) only shows schedules for trains when the tickets go on sale, usually about 2 months in advance. Schedules don't change much, so just use the current month's schedule for planning.

Granada is a long way from Madrid, closer to Sevilla and Malaga which both have airports and you may find direct flights from there to London. According to viamichelin.com, it's nearly 5 hours net driving time from Madrid. Taking the train is 4 hours. It's important to buy your Alhambra tickets well in advance as they nearly always sell out.

The only train service to Toledo is from Madrid. The line is used both by commuters and the many day-trippers to Toledo from Madrid, so trains do sell out especially early and late in the day, so it's a good idea to buy tickets a couple days in advance. Because of the many day trippers, Toledo is best as an overnight stay, so you can enjoy the relative quiet in the early morning and evening hours. You could go to Granada from Toledo, transferring in Madrid. Allow at least 1/2 hour to get through the train station, including security. If you want to spend more than one day in Toledo, it may be easier to change hotels than to commute - remember you have to get from your hotel in rush hour to the train station, then get from the Toledo station to the center. That's going to eat up an hour or more in each direction. Note that there are no early morning trains on the weekends. What you can do is take a small overnight bag to Toledo and leave the rest in a locker in the Madrid train station. OR you could go directly to Toledo when you land, then Madrid, then Granada.

Granada has a small airport with limited flights. According to the Wikipedia entry, it does have flights to London City on a British Air subsidiary, and beginning next February will have flights to London Gatwick on Easyjet. Those flights should be loaded into booking systems now (unlike trains for your dates, which aren't loaded yet as Chani said).

If flights from Granada to London don't work out for you, Malaga airport (about 2.5 hours from Granada) will have a much larger selection. Seville's airport is not as large as Malaga's and is also farther away from Granada, so that would be my third choice.

As Chani said, the trains from Toledo only go to Madrid, where you'll have to change for trains to Granada. Right now, they're building the high speed line (called AVE) on this route, so you change from train to bus in Antequerra (the connection is coordinated, and the bus arrives at the Granada train station rather than bus station). By the time of your trip, the AVE may be completed, in which case your trip will be faster and easier.

One thing I found was that the Renfe website didn't show all connections available. When I searched for Toledo to Barcelona, it only showed two options for the whole day, although there were many more. So, I used the Bahn website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en to learn all my options, then booked separate segments on Renfe.

When booking on Renfe, use Paypal from the outset; don't waste time trying to get your credit card to work. To book on Renfe, you will need to use the TripAdvisor site Chani gave you. In the end, it took me five websites to book Spanish rail tickets (Renfe, Paypal, Bahn, TripAdvisor - and Rick Steves to learn about all of them!). But in the end, it worked out fine.

Definitely spend two nights in Granada, and book your Alhambra tickets for the morning after your arrival. That way, even if your arrival is delayed, you won't miss the Alhambra. By going as early in the morning as you can, you'll see the palace before it fills up with crowds (even though palace entry is timed and strictly enforced, once inside you can say as long as you like, so it does fill up).

We hit the same cities in 2015. You might want to go directly to Toledo the same day you arrive to Madrid (about 1 hour by bus). You are already packed and you can spend the night there. We bought the ticket the same day and buses leave on the hour. The next evening you can go back to Madrid for 2-3 nights. Buy your return ticket to Madrid the day you arrive to Toledo to guarantee that you have a seat. Take the train from Madrid to Granada. The train will stop at Antequera and you will do the last hour by comfortable bus. Malaga's airport is about 2 hours away on bus and it seems to have more international flights.

Wow I can't believe how much I learned reading your answers Thank you

I read the article linked and that was so useful And then the alternate links for finding all trains

I think the idea about reorienting the trip is great
Toledo first then Madrid

Going to follow up on the other airport to go on to London ideas

So glad it looks like no need to drive Not sure why what I found before was so much longer Maybe those were not Ave trains