My fiance and I are going to Portugal/Spain in a few weeks. We arrive in Lisbon and will be spending a few nights there before heading to Seville. Since there is no direct train service between Lisbon and Seville, I am not sure what the quickest way to get there would be (without spending a fortune). I have considered:

1. flying to Seville
2. flying to Madrid and then taking a train to Seville
3. flying to Malaga and then taking a train to Seville
4. taking a train to Madrid and then connecting on a train to Seville

Has anyone ever traveled direct to Seville from Madrid? If I do decide to fly, would you recommend purchasing an airline ticket from the US before I depart or waiting until we are in Portugal? How much should I expect to spend? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

There is a great post by Sue_xx_yy titled "Seville to Lisbon by Public Transit.." where she details all the alternatives with times.
I recommend you search and review that post. I printed it out yesterday for my similar situation.

majmaj4, I'm glad you found the post useful.

Since this question comes up often, I have prepared a "Seville to Lisbon by Public Transit - Cheat Sheet" which includes an option that takes one via the Algarve. (The reverse direction would use the same information.)

You can do a search using the above quoted title, or if I've done it correctly, this link should work:

http://tinyurl.com/39xxxo

There are a couple of MotorCoach lines that do that route: Eurolines (about four days weekly in off season) and I believe EVA-Bus (Portuguese). They leave either from Sete Rios or Oriente.

For convenience and price I think Bus is the way to go. Buy your tix early! Sevilla can be very busy during Semana Santa and later during the Feria de abril.

Thanks for the feedback. We have decided to catch a flight to Madrid (Veuling Airlines) and then take the high speed train from Madrid to Seville. It appears to be the quickest way and the total cost is around $150/person. I highly recommend looking at Veuling if you are considering intercontinental air travel.