SPol

Looking for suggestions regarding southern Spain trip. 9 days of travel including arrival day and departing day 10. Travel early August

we are looking at in/out of MADRID with train direct to Malaga

1) i was considering Malaga start (to allow day trips to Caminito Del Rey & Gibraltar)
—3 nights

2) Granada — Alhambra & Sacramonte neighborhood

3) Seville — cordoba day trip?
4) Madrid — Segovia or Toledo day trip?

so 3 nights in Malaga to allow day trips to CDR & Gibraltar followed by 2 nights in the other cities

i realize there is so much to see and we have limited time & many different opinions on how to travel. My family of 4 (20 & 18 yo) enjoy exploring.

Is Malaga a good choice to start? I know Gibraltar seems to be a point of debate with this being a bit of a reach to include & if we didn’t go there we could start in Granada and do CDR from there but certainly much further and then do 3 nights In Granada/Seville/Madrid each

appreciate any input. I’m trying to sort thru all of the options

Moderator1

Welcome to Fodors. We removed the Trip Report flag and tagged your topic for Spain.

SusanP

Welcome to Fodors. Two nights in those places only gives you a day or day-and-a-half in each place. Definitely no time for day trips to anywhere else. As it is, four places with only nine nights is a lot.

KarenWoo

I agree with everything SusanP says. Two nights gives you only 1 full day so it would be impossible to do daytrips. You wouldn't see much of anything in the city you are staying in.

As much as I love Malaga, and I think it's an under-rated city, I would exclude Malaga from your itinerary. In Andalucia, the more historically important cities are Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. Have you looked into open-jaw or multi-city airline reservations? For instance, you could fly into Madrid and home from Seville to save time by not having to backtrack to Madrid.

A possible itinerary could be:
OPTION 1:
Fly into Madrid and depending on what time you arrive, continue on to Granada that same day by plane or train, if the schedules work.
Granada - 2 nights
Seville - 4 nights
Cordoba - 1 night (Cordoba is a wonderful small city but is better appreciated when you stay overnight at least one night. I normally suggest 2 nights but you don't really have the time for that)
Madrid - 2 nights

OPTION 2:
OR you could visit Cordoba for the day on the day you leave Seville. So take an early morning train to Cordoba, visit the Mezquita and other places if you have the time, then continue on to Madrid by train. You could then add the extra night to Madrid. But this also means you need to find a place to store your luggage in Cordoba. I know that was possible in the past, not sure if it is now.

OPTION 3:
Another routing could be to take the train from Madrid to Cordoba the day you arrive in Madrid if that works better with train schedules.
Then do Cordoba (1 night), Granada (2 nights), Seville (4 nights) and Madrid (2 nights)

OPTION 4:
Because I do think that 4 places in 9 nights is a lot, you could omit Cordoba (even though it pains me to say this), and add that night to Madrid. It's less moving around, packing and unpacking. I guess it depends on your family's travel style. And how much energy you have.

Cjar

Depending on what you want to see and do I suppose that itinerary could work, but Spain is wonderful and you may find yourselves wishing for a bit of time to savor the experience. Any chance of a multi city flight as Karenwoo suggests? I too would support dropping at least one place and I am an itinerary crowder myself. Perhaps save Madrid for another time and spend your time wholly in southern Spain. Just a thought.

joannyc

Are you used to extreme heat and humidity?

SPol

We are ok with the heat — prior Europe travels around same time due to school

i am intrigued by the suggestion of leaving out Madrid and truly focus on southern Spain. Unfortunately flights in/out of Madrid still make most sense due to cost and direct flight/time