First time travelers to Spain need to know if the following is do-able: <BR> <BR>day 1 Madrid <BR>day 2 Madrid <BR>day 3 Madrid <BR>day 4 Seville (via AVE train) <BR>day 5 Seville <BR>day 6 Cordoba or Granada (by train or car?) <BR>day 7 Marbella <BR>day 8 Barcelona <BR>day 9 Barcelona <BR>day 10 fly out of Barcelona <BR> <BR> <BR>Thanks so much!!

Yes, but do-able and enjoyable are two different things. As far as I am concerned, do whatever you want, but I wouldn't enjoy that pace.

Sorry, long day at work today. Just took a couple of minutes to slam someone else and make myself feel better. It worked a little, but I apologize. <BR>Back to work...

Doable? Yes. <BR> <BR>I'd skip Marbella, though, and spend that extra day at Granada (or Cordoba, to whichever you didn't go), or going to Toledo while in Madrid.

Doable, maybe, enjoyable, maybe. Spain (the size of Texas) has great public transportation, but you are going up and down, sideways and then up again. I would skip Marbella and on DAY 6 I would overnight in Cordova and arrange DAY 7 to be IN TRANSIT (Malaga-Barcelona; a couple of hours, about $70-80/pp?). On DAY 3 I would visit Toledo.

Thanks for the advice. However, I need to go to Marbella to visit a client. Maybe pass on Cordoba or Granada (what a shame!!) Toledo on a day trip is a great idea. <BR>Is it very difficult to drive from Marbella to Barcellona? It looks kinda far....

From Marbella to Barcelona I'd rather fly.

Marbella-Barcelona is nice road, highway, but the distance is about 1000 Km, so you are going to lose 1 day in the road. <BR> <BR>I also should take an airplane (about 10,000 pesetas or 55$ pp).

Although I like Barcelona, I'd opt our of it to avoid the long trip from Southern Spain, and just spend the limited time you have there. That way you could include Cordoba and Grenada, and possible either Toledo or Ronda as well. In other words i'd just stick with the one region!