We are renting a car in Cadiz for an eight day road trip in the south. We will be dropping it off at the Malaga Airport before flying to Barcelona. Should we look for someplace else in Malaga for drop-off to save money? Do we need to buy all the insurances they offer? I also read that it is impossible to drive into Granada????

We picked up a car in Granada and dropped it off at Malaga before flying out. It was a fairly painless process. If you are flying out of Malaga, it is indeed the most logical place for a drop off.

We did not drive in Granada. Even if you have a car it is easiest to just park it somewhere and use local transport I reckon. We did that Cordoba but even getting to and out of the city was a nightmare.

We rented leaving Seville, drove to Jerez, Arcos, Ronda, Granada, and Marbella. Dropped car f at Malaga for our flight back to Madrid. We had to leave VERY early and Malaga was jammed-packed at 5:00 a.m., but the drop-off process was extremely easy, you use a key drop as it was before anyone was on duty. Now, driving Granada was insane because as of last April there was major road construction; we went around the same loop at least three times with 3 navigators in car + GPS! Then, the problem is our hotel was located in a pedestrian area so the maps and GPS cannot "find" it. You must get a couple major cross streets for your hotel location and just park as closely as you can once finding a garage. Same in Marbella, our hotel was so, so close to a certain street/intersection but the fact that it was pedestrian zone only, we kept driving in circles. Finally, receptionist told us to park in the nearby whoever-hotel garage, walk to certain sculpture and wait, and she came out to retrieve us. (Town House of Marbella, you are so so special and a heavenly place iin which to end 3 weeks in Spain.) Simply, do not drive in these cities, park as soon as you can and walk. One note on that, we waited patiently for the many buses in downtown up to the Alhambra, but they are a push & shove scenario at best-- we took a cab which was not alot of money and it got us there in time for our timed entrance-- BEWARE and leave lots of time for access and ticket clearance, it is not the most efficient operation and it's a walk down path to Palace. But it's divine!

You may want to check the fineprint of your potential rental car company, but in my experience you do NOT pay the airport surcharge if you do not rent FROM an airport. Regardless whether you drop the car at an airport or elsewhere.

Granada is a pretty large city. You can drive easily into Granada, just the Old Town is mostly pedestrian streets.
Costs for parking are the more or less usual €2 per hour. And you walk just a few meters/minutes to the Old Town.

If you just want to visit the Alhambra, you will be guided on the motorways around the city to a huge parking lot near the entrance.
If you plan to stay in Granada, you should check the hotel's location and availability and costs of parking.

Exactly as Cowboy says. We always drive to Granada but dump our car and go to the sites in a taxi/ by bus. There are hotels at the edge of city with free parking, or just pay the 15-20E/night parking in town.

Drop your car off before your fight since you already have it unless you find playing around with your reservation that you really don't need it and the taxi fees would compensate being carless.

Thank you everyone for your help, now we need restaurant suggestions in Madrid , Seville, Cadiz, Nerja, and Barcelona . Some can be $$$$ .

Check: www.maribelsguides.com/mg_repolsun.html, for a complete list of the top restaurants at your destinations. Nothing in Nerja is on the Repsol list.