The girls and I are headed into Barcelona June 4, leaving Madrid June 19. We want to stay near the coast and work our way to Sevilla, then to Madrid at the end. The question is, would it be cheaper, or less time consuming, to take day trips around Barcelona for 5 days then fly to Sevilla, take day trips for 5 days and fly to Madrid to visit for 3 days before leaving (allowing 1 day for travel each time, we like to relax) OR would it be a better overview of the country to take the train between these cities and stop overnight in various small towns/ hop off the train for interesting sights & beaches?
I leave for london n

Sorry, I hit enter too soon!
I leave for London in a week!
PS we are all experienced travelers
Thanks

You cannot hop off the train here in Spain and take it again the next day with the same ticket I mean, you will have to have tickets for all your stops ..it makes the trip more difficult to organise I would do the day trips option, except for a day in Seville where you can go to Granada and overnight there.

Can we get off and use the same ticket to get farther down the line during the same day? Is Granada worth the overnight from Sevilla?

Annika- if you are getting off, you have to buy separate seats. For example, let's say you want to go to Granada from Madrid stopping in Albacete. You will have to buy your ticket from Madrid to Albacete, then from Albacete to Granada. The seats are assigned, which is why you must do this.

Per Granada, I think it is definitely worth seeing if only for the Alhambra, and it is only a few hours from Sevilla by train. In fact, you could do an early morning train, see the alhambra, eat lunch and have drinks, then head back in the same day. Ambitious but possible, indeed.

laclair,
sweet, thanks, ambitious is okay, the pre trip jitters are setting in and my brain isn't covering the obvious.

Annika
Why don't you just rent a car and head your pleasure's wish. With three people paying train and airplane tickets, you should be able to pay for the car instead.

You'll also see a lot more to see.

I see many people on this board mentioning not to bring a car to Sevilla, Madrid or Granada. Forget this-it's easy. Plus, you won't needed to haul your bags into and out of trains.

Driving direct from Barcelona to Sevilla takes about 11 hours behind the wheel. Since you have three girls to drive, you can break down your intinerary and stop when you want to see anything notable.

Blackduff

I think that there are parts of your trip where a car would be helpful. I think that having on while visiting cities like Madrid and Barcelona is a waste and a pain because you have to pay for parking (unless you find one of the coveted and rare free spaces on the street) and you won't really use the car in the city. However, having it to get around the South is wonderful.

You said: "We want to stay near the coast and work our way to Sevilla, then to Madrid at the end." I don't quite understand that because you can't really stay on the Mediterranean coast and get to Sevilla easily.

Barcelona is far from everything else you are seeing, so I would just take a plane there (rumbo.es or vueling.com are good sites) and then back to Sevilla. From there, you can easily get to Málaga, Córdoba, the white villages, Granada, etc, and if you have a car, it is even easier.

Then go back up to madrid and end there.

If you want beaches, then you might want to re-think spending time in Madrid, as that is so inland.

Is Granada worth the overnight from Sevilla? Yes, definitely. In fact I would take two overnights. Book your Alhambra tickets in advance, stay overnight in Granada and get to Alhambra early. Invest some of your hard earned cash in a good guide book, a good guide, or both. Alhambra is impressive to look at but when you've got someone to explain all the bits you might have missed, the experience is unforgettable.
Another reason for spending a few days in Granada is that it's got a reputation for the best free tapas in Spain.
If you're heading for the coast anyway, take a day or two to explore the mountain villages between Granada and the Andalucian coast.
Be prepared for HOT in Granada and Sevilla in June.

A friend and I are doing a smaller version of your trip, leaving next week, and we are definitely going by car. We think that the train is going to be too restricting, not to mention that you can rent a car for under $150 total for 5 days. We are driving out of Barcelona then down the coast, ending up in Sevilla where we will drop the car off and take the train back to Barcelona to catch our flights to the next leg of our trip.

We just completed a 19 day trip. I would not want a car until I got to Costa Del Sol. This was our itinerary in short form. Madrid(train to Toledo for a day trip) .... train to Cordoba (one day is sufficient)..train to Seville(2 days)... bus to Granada (2 days) picked up car for Costa Del Sol where we did day trips to the villages. The trains were a delight to use, clean and fast.

Craig...
"Be prepared for HOT in Granada and Sevilla in June."

I flew from Stockholm to Madrid and walked out from the airplane. It was being into a sauna.

Then I got onto another plane and head towards Jerez. Again, it was like getting into a sauna again.

Andalucia gets very, very hot. It get up to the 40+ C during the summer days. Walk in the shady side of the streets. After three in the afternoon, find a nice restaurant which has a nice cool garden. Don't go outside again until 6 pm. or later. It's a way of life but it's beautiful.

Blackduff

Blackduff, you're not wrong about the sauna. These hombres knew what they were doing when they invented the siesta.

Of course they knew !! They also invented the late dinner to be able to dine "al fresco" and not when the sun is still there

Annika, Just returned from a wonderful 17 day trip with a similar itinerary as you are suggesting. In short, flew to Barcelona, spent 3 days there, rented a car and drove south staying one night near Valencia and the next near Almeria (in a wonderful hotel recommended by another fodorite). Then drove along the coast where we stayed in a condo on the beach 45 min. south of Marbella for 5 days. From here (with the car) we took day trips to Ronda, Gibralter, Granada and Marbella. Drove to Sevilla, dumped the car at the train station on the way into town, spent 2 days in Sevilla then the high speed AVE to Madrid for 3 days then flew home from there. We covered a lot of ground but it never felt like a "whirlwind". I agree that you definitely don't need a car in the big cities (Barcelona, Sevilla and Madrid) where the public transport is so wonderful. Just buy the hop on hop off bus tickets and use that to get around town! The highways in Spain are exceptionally easy to navigate and the only difficulties we encountered were when driving into Granada and Sevilla. But with a couple of maps and someone with a good sense of direction you'll do just fine!

I agree that a car is the best way to see some of the white hill towns many of us envision as the "real" Spain. Perhaps you could fly from Barcelona to Granada and pick up a car when leaving there, and stop at one of the smaller Costa del Sol towns (we happen to like Nerja) and then drive to Ronda for an overnight stop, and then through some beautiful mountain scenery with a lunch stop in Grazelema and then turn in the car at Seville, and on to Madrid by train.
Roads in Spain, both highway and secondary, are excellent. But don't always trust the maps to show current route numbers: My 2006 Michelin map of Andalucia shows Rte 376 from Ronda to San Pedro on the coast, but the highway markers (apparently brand new) disagree. When in doubt, navigate by following the generally excellent signage to the next town on your route.

I agree with lots of the posters on this thread, especially about granada. to get the most out of it, you should book to do the night-time tour as well [yes really] and stay at least one night to enjoy the tapas and the flamenco. If you stay in a hotel opposite the alhambra, there is a huge car park just across the road, and a bus that runs up and dwon the hill to the town all night long. you'll love it!