everything i've read says to avoid having a car in those cities because it is such a hassle. my husband wants to rent a car for the duration of our trip, from madrid to seville, and down to the coast and along southern andalucia. i figured we'd take the train to seville and get a car from there, he thinks its cheaper to have a car the whole time.

any advice?

I think what you do with a car depends on what you want to do in the time you have. I do not think you need a car in Madrid and I do not think you need a car to visit destinations near Madrid such as Toledo or Segovia. It is faster to get from Madrid to Seville by train than driving and you do not need a car in Seville.
Seville is one of the more difficult places to drive in due to a lack of road signs to navigate by. I would imagine GPS would help here. Driving in Andalucia is fun and easy and helps greatly in touring.

we live in spain so we do have a car most of the time when we travel here. however, in this case i would not stay IN madrid for more than a night or two unless you are outside at the airport hotel area, where you MAY find free street parking.

staying at a small town outside madrid, using the car to do the hub around madrid, would not be a bad idea, but driving into and out of madrid everyday or so is not wise.

besides the gridlock you will most likely than not encounter, the daily parking fee in madrid, i am sure is close, to 17-20 euros.

however, if you stay IN madrid at the beginning of trip with NO car, see madrid, then rent a car to begin your sightseeing, and then stay at these smaller towns outside, continuing then onto sevilla, taking advantage of stopping along the way (almagro, for one, is a nice stop and has a parador and the oldest theater in pain)., then..this could be logical.

but SEVILLA is a definite "no drive zone."

return the car there, using it beforehand for your excursions, leaving seeing sevilla city at the end with no car.

it´s not only the gridlock but once you get to your destination.. many times you can´t even find a parking LOT to leave the car.

i would try this idea around madrid, and see how it goes, and you can return the car earlier than thought if you are not comfortable, or happily continue if it is providing additional pleasure to your experience.

I suspect complicating driving in <b>some parts</b> of Seville <b>might be</b> the ongoing Metro construction.

You certainly do not need a car in Madrid if you are willing to use the comprehensive Metro system to get around (or even a taxi) and I would agree you do not need a car IN Seville to see the main usually-visited sights in that city, either.

It might appear to be cheaper to have a car the whole time but when you add the cost of fuel and possibly insurance and parking and the time it could take to find parking in those two cities that &quot;economy&quot; could come at a much higher &quot;price&quot; than expected in terms of hassle, time spent, possible frustration, etc.

good points. fuel is about $5 a gallon, parking at lots is about 1.5/ 2 euros/ HOUR.

defintely not cheap here.

parking tickets ( if you naively park where others are parked, but it is an illegal area, and they get out before the cops come.. the ticket could be up to 60 euros, towing is about 150 euros).

Having a car in Madrid will only cause unneeded problems. The traffic is awful, parking scarce and expensive. Rent the car after you have spent a few days in Madrid. Take the train to Sevilla and rent the car when you are ready to leave.

We always drive while on vacation and consider ourselves rather good navigators but Sevilla is listed in our top-five &quot;most difficult driving experiences ever&quot;. When we finally found our hotel, we parked the car and did not move it for three days until we were ready to leave.

Driving in the rest of Spain (with the exception of Cordova and a certain narrow street in Granada) was a pleasure.

I think the key is to plan a route that allows you to have a car where you want it and then deposit it outside the city. For example, my husband and I spent several days in Madrid without a car (definitely do not need one or want one there!), then picked one up for a wonderful drive to Toledo, Granada, Ronda, and Sevilla. We enjoyed the flexibility and scenery, and the driving was easy. Then we dropped the car off at the airport outside Sevilla because there would have been absolutely no place to put it there, much less drive it around. From Sevilla we took the train to Cordoba and then back to Madrid -- very fast and easy.