My family and I will be on a three week trip in August. We will Spend one week without a car in Madrid. Then drive from Madrid to Toledo stay three days in Toledo, drive to Cordoba stay three days, then drive to Seville stay five days, then drive to Grenada stay four days, then wind up staying in Nerja on the coast. I am starting to get really uptight about finding our way driving in the cities.
We have plenty of experience traveling but so far I have not come upon really good and specific road maps of each city. We are traveling from the US. Can anyone give us advice on where and how they got maps before arriving. Thanks in advance.

You can get online maps and driving instructions at

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichel...MaHomePage.htm

To get hard copy maps, try

http://www.michelintravel.com/

or your local Borders or Barnes & Noble.

this is my local shop for travel:

http://www.globecorner.com/

For driving between cities you need comprehensive Michelin maps.

For getting from the highways into the center of the cities use either mappy.com or viamichelin.com and print out the maps - in several different focus levels - from major highways in - to exact streets for the area where you hotel is. (These are good because they give directions - which helps you pick you one-way streets - often not visible on tourist office maps for walkers.)

I use the sites mentioned above but also I have asked by email, and got in the mail, maps from specific cities. I have written to the Tourist Offices ..

I found Campsa guides to be quite comprehensive (almost too comprehensive ). I got it once we arrived in Spain.

I also suggest downloading maribel guides off of http://maribelsguides.com/ and possibly checking out (if you have a ton of time! it is lo....ng) http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35001438 for additional information.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I am now printing them and will follow up.
Another thought that hit me. Any opinions regarding the price and stress of driving from Madrid to Toledo VS taking a train..Three adult fares and then getting from the train station w/o car and renting one in Toledo.

So long as it is just the thought that hits ya (as opposed to an automobile etc), you are okay

Madrid-Toledo is really not that far. Not much stress to me except that occasional cell-phone tallking, eating, newspaper reading, driver right in your comfort zone. Wait, if I skip the newspaper, I am describing myself

But you could easily take a bus or a train, as you said, and really enjoy the scenary. Then again there isn't much of scenary that I saw until you get close to Toledo. And I WAS awake!

Seriously, I prefer a good train any day. I rarely take'em at home (States) so enjoy them on vacation when possible.

Unless you are planning to take day trips from various cities, are you renting a car mostly to keep it in parking lots (11 days?). All the cities mentioned, except Nerja, have frequent train services.