I am planning to fly into Madrid, stay one night to see the city, travel to Seville (how best?), then car (?) along the coast up to Valencia, fly out to Majorca, then back to Madrid for return flight home. How does this sound? Any special places of interest along the way that I should not miss? Any advice about places to stay that would be charming but not exorbitantly priced?

I'd have to plug Granada and Barcelona--they were my favorite parts of Spain.

In November stay to the southern part of Spain.<BR>We were exchanted by Rhonda, one of the Whitewashed hillside villages.<BR>Spain has incredible hotels known as Paradores. They are all very different and are state run. Great luxury and marvelous dining. We stayed at the one in Carmona while seeing Seville. Also stayed at the Paradore in Rhonda.<BR>In Granada, the Paradore is on the grounds of the Alhambra and it is small. Reservations are hard to come by, but it is definately worth the trouble.<BR>Ask the Spanish tourist office for a brochure. If you are over 55, they have a Golden Ages or some such rate. Same luxury at a lower cost.<BR>Between several cities the High Speed trains provide luxury travel with meals, wine, rtc. Be sure to ask for a reserved seat.<BR>I am envious, we LOVE Spain.<BR>Let me know if I can answer any specifics.<BR>Oh yes, we did rent a car on our first trip to Spain and combined it with the afore mentioned trains. Great way to travel and the roads are good.<BR><BR>Have fun,<BR>Maryann<BR>[email protected]

Your plan is very similar to the one that we just took two weeks ago. We flew to Madrid and took the AVE (high speed RENFE train) train to Sevilla and we also went to Cordoba and than Granada. From Granada, we flew to Barcelona then took the ferry to Mallorca where we rented a car to drive to a village. We didn't stay in Palma. We flew home from Barcelona with no incremental charge than a round trip ticket from Madrid. If I were you, I would also spend a day or half a day in Cordoba to visit the Mesquita. I may have the spelling wrong. It's the mosque with red and white brick arches inside. It's magnificent next to the Alhambra in Granada which is also a must see. For this, we booked tickets in advance. Check out www. alhambra.org for more info. Barcelona has some very distinctive architecture by Gaudi which makes it a little different than just another European city. If you want to try the train hotel from Granada or Sevilla to Barcelona, I would book the tickets soon to avoid disappointment. I tried to book this train a month a head but were sold out; so we flew instead. We didn't try the driving route in Andalucia. It's just prefrenece. <BR><BR>Check out www.sol.com for some hotel and hostals choices. For Granada, www.granadainfo.com is quite helpful. Generally, www.tourspain.es has a lot of hotel listing. <BR><BR>In Sevilla, Granada, and Cordoba, some of the hotels in the old part of town may be quite challenging to reach if you have a vehicle. The side streets are very narrow and some have steps.

I forgot to mention. For Mallorca, these sites offer some local info including hotel and car rental:<BR>www.mallorcaonline.com<BR>www.toptravel.com