The last leg of our March vacation is to get back to Madrid from Granada (no open jaw).

My current plan is to pickup a rental car from Seville and drive to Granada, touring the white hills town with an overnight in Ronda. We will not use the car during our 2 days in Granada. We'll drive from Granada to Madrid on the last day and probably spend our last night in a hotel close by the airport.

Is the drive from Granada to Madrid interesting? Rick Steves' said it's a boring 4-5 hrs drive. Is there any worthly stop along the way? We'd have done Toledo already as a daytrip from Mad the week before.

I'm thinking if it's there is not much explore along this route, then perhaps we can ditch the car 2 days earlier in Granada and just bus/train/fly to Madrid on that last day.

We are a family of 4 so I need to price out the options too.

First thing,it's a fairly easy drive, motorway all the way. The first part, through the AR of Jaen is quite pretty as the whole province is covered with olive trees and it's hilly. Ubeda is an old town and worth a visit. You come out of Jaen province and suddenly you are in the bare uplands of La Mancha and yes, the drive from here to Madrid is boring. A flat parched featureless landscape. But there are places worth detouring for. To the east of Valdepenas, there is a little town called Almagro, which has an interesting square. This town is famous for handmade lace and you can buy it in the square (but remember, in Spain everything closes from about 1.30 to 4.30 ish, for siesta). Nearer to Madrid there is a town called Aranjuez where the Spanish Royal family used to escape the heat of summer in Madrid. You can visit the royal palace. (The name may sound familiar to you from Rodriguez' guitar concerto "En Aranjuez con tu mi amor&quotBut I agree, if all you are doing is driving from Granada to Madrid airport, then yes, it is a boring drive.

Ainhoa's advice is about as good as you will get. Having done it twice before, some general details. Look for Parador Castillo de Santa Catalina in Jaén. Baeza and Úbeda have good samples of Gothic and Renaissance architecture and, largely undiscovered by tourists. Aranjuez is a nice stop too with a sprawling royal palace built burned and re-built by generations of kings.

Alternatively, you can drop off your car in Sevilla, and take the high speed train to Madrid (2-1/2 hours.... roughly $65 a pop, reduced fare for kids).

Thanks for the suggestions on stopping in Jaén, Baeza, Úbeda, or Aranjuez. I've seen these towns mentioned before. What about Consuegra with all the windmills? Would it be interesting for the kids?

I'll be mindful about the siesta time so that we're on the road during that period. Perhaps the best is to map these towns on route and stop by one of them for lunch. That may turn a boring drove into an interesting day.