13 nights- Barcelona, Andalusia, and Nerja
 

We are planning a 13- night trip to Spain. Arriving in Barcelona on June 22 and departing from Malaga on July 5th. So far I have 12 nights planned and need an advice on one more night: where to spend it and how to use an extra day.
This is our plan so far:
4 nights in Barcelona including one possible day trip to Girona or Figueres;
3 nights in Seville including a day trip to Cordoba, We fly to Seville from Barcelona
2 nights in Granada (train from Seville)
3 nights in Nerja ( just to rest on the beach and explore the caves). I am thinking to rent a car in Granada and drive to Nerja. From Nerja we will drive to Malaga airport and drop the car there.

We have one more night and are not sure how to use it. I was thinking to add it either to Barcelona or Seville for possible side car trips using a rental car. If we add it to Seville, we can possibly rent a car to go to Arcos or Cadiz. But we can do a side trip in Barcelona too. I am open to any idea. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advace.
Dimitry.

I suggest you add a night in Sevilla, and perhaps make a local day-trip out of it into the local atmosphere Alameda and Macarena districts. Alameda de Hercules is all kinds of tapas bars, terraces and people long into the night, and it doesn't get much more local atmosphere than bustling Calle Feria with the nice food market, the churches and everything. http://www.theguardian.com/travel/20...macarena-spain
Calle Feria and the market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGEkQ9KXxZM

Or go to the ruins of the close by Roman city Italica, 30 mins with bus from the Plaza de Armas bus station. Italica’s amphitheater seated 25,000 spectators, the third largest in the Roman empire, and it's very much intact. Roman emperors Trajan - allegedly the best of them all - and Hadrian were born here. Italica was founded 206 BC: http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/italica.htm

I'd add the night to Seville also. I would never spend my time and trouble renting a car for a day trip when staying in a big city, but that's just me. I definitely wouldn't do it in Barcelona as it will be a lot more trouble, as it is even bigger than Seville. When I say trouble, I mean to get the car (and return it) and to drive in the middle of a city. If you don't rent it in the middle of the city, you are going to be spending time going to/from whatever car rental site you choose. There are plenty of buses and trains in Spaain that you could use for day trips. For example, you can easily go by train direct from Seville to Cadiz in less than 2 hours.

If your time in Barcelona doesn't include a day trip to Montserrat, I'd do that instead of renting a car and going elsewhere, you can get there by local train.

We just did a version of this trip the last two weeks of December. We flew into Malaga and stayed three nights before renting the car from the city center and driving to Ronda(afternoon stopover),Seville(4 nights) over to Cordoba(1 night) down to Granada(two nights) and then back to Malaga.I highly recommend just doing a circle tour rather than wasting a day doing a daytrip from Seville to Cordoba(we stayed at the NH in Cordoba that has its own parking and then walk two blocks over to the old town area).Driving is easy and the countryside is gorgeous.

Our family really enjoyed Seville so I would recommend an extra day there or even spending a day/night in Malaga. We enjoyed both the old and new in downtown Malaga and found some wonderful sherry spots to enjoy this speciality of the area.

It will be extremely HOT in Sevilla in July!
I would spend the extra night somewhere on the coast, Málaga for instance.