Hello all. I'm a new member here. I thought I'd share some details about our upcoming trip to Spain this coming September to garner some feedback and ideas about how to make our stay there more fulfilling and enjoyable. I have only been to Europe one time, a school travel club trip in 2019 to Italy and Croatia with my daughter as an accompanying parent, to fill the leftover seats on the tour bus. I was the only father with 10 mothers. It was fantastic and though it was fast paced and jam packed, it was a life changer for me for sure and left me wanting more. My wife knew what she was doing when she said for me to go instead of her.
Four years ago, my wife's brother escaped Venezuela and with his Spaniard wife and their kids, moved to Tenerife into her parent's apartment, which is now theirs outright. We've been salivating at the chance to go visit since the move and feel that now is the time. This will be the first trip ever to Europe for my wife and of course, my second. Our proposed itinerary :

Sept 11: Fly Vancouver -Toronto-Madrid
Sept 12: Fly Madrid-Tenerife. Spend 9 nights in Tenerife with wife's bother's family,relaxing, eating, drinking, and seeing what the island has to offer.
Sept 21: Fly Tenerife-Madrid. Spend four nights in Madrid centro. We have an airbnb booked that looks fantastic with a good host in a good location. we have four days to discover and enjoy Madrid and what it has to offer.
Sept 25-Oct 4: We are taking a tour of Spain that will include 2 more nights in Madrid,1 Cordoba, 2 Seville, 1 Granada,1 Valencia. and 2 Barcelona. It's a motorcoach tour like we did in Italy. I wanted to do Spain this way and tour tour director in Italy now works for the company we are going with and has endorsed it and I've also researched it to death. Total driving distance over the course of the tour will be about 1600km.
Oct 4-7: Three more nights in Barcelona after the tour ends to get to know and see Barcelona better . I have yet to book the accommodations but here, I am finding better prices for hotels than Airbnbs, the opposite of Madrid.
Oct 7: Fly Barcelona-Toronto-Vancouver

That is it in a nutshell. I have read a few posts about people trying to cram overseas flights and multiple countries and cities into a two week period and did not want to subject ourselves to that. Being recently retired though affords us the opportunity to take our time.
So, I guess I just wanted some feedback from anybody regarding some ideas on what to see and do with our spare time, any can't miss items. My wife is looking so forward to the incredible architecture whereas I am more motivated to explore the culinary aspect of the country. I want to try as many delicious dishes as is humanly possible lol.
I'm not sure how many in this forum have done the organized tour thing for a country in Europe. I have known maybe a couple from our town who have done it in Central Europe and liked it and it was fantastic for Italy and Croatia, though with a group of 55 and most being high school kids, that was the only way. I am 57 and my wife is 50 so I don't know if we are likely to be on the young side of the tour group of if all ages tend to frequent these types of travel modalities. I like the aspect of a preset itinerary with the prospect of free time in the afternoons and evenings. We will do this for this trip and in the future, when I take my wife to Italy, we will do it on our own as we will likely want to take a month to explore that country and see all the major cities and exist in Tuscany for awhile.
Thank you all.
Diharv

Well, I think your motor coach tour is a bit too rushed but, if you are happy with it, that's what counts. I recommend buying a guidebook (I like Rick Steves' books) which will help you figure out what you would like to do in Madrid and Barcelona that your tour won't cover. I haven't visited Tenerife so can't comment on that portion except for saying 9 nights is a long time to visit with family. It's great that you will have extra time to explore on your own in Madrid and Barcelona.

We took a food tour` in Madrid that we really enjoyed: https://www.walksofspain.com. It was 5 years ago but we still fondly remember how much we enjoyed it, We did this our first night in Madrid and got good recommendations of other places to go. It was a little expensive but you will have more than enough to eat and it was a fun experience.

Are there major sites you will be seeing on your tour? Might be good to know what you will already be visiting. No shortage of architecture for your wife.

We've been to Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and Cordoba.

For Madrid, if you have time, you should do a day trip to Toledo. We did 2 nights in Toledo and quite enjoyed it, but many do a day trip.

You will have no shortage of great food either in all of these destinations. I'll try to dig up more info on other cities from our visit, but in Seville, be sure to enjoy the Tapas. Good tapas info on this site. https://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletapas/barrios/

A lot of great Tapas restaurants in the Santa Cruz district on Calle Mateos Gago. Also, try to get across the bridge to the Triana district for Tapas.

Check you itin in detail. Where are you staying? Close to where you want to walk in the evening or in the outskirts?
Tenerife, eat drink swim and go up Tiède.

Thank you all for the advice. Yes, I have gone over the itinerary in detail and have an idea as to what we will be doing at the stops. I believe Toledo is a stop on the way to Cordoba and some of the highlights will be taken in. One thing I was thinking to do during one of our pre tour days in Madrid was to take a day trip to Segovia. Thoughts on that? And I have been checking and saving the locations of our hotels in Google Maps on my phone, along with alot of eateries. The hotels seem to be in good locations, quite walkable to the cores of the cities. I must admit though that most of my research so far has been tapas bars and mercados and I have learned about the Triana district in Seville, as a place to go for tapas, of course. For the tour, I did prepurchase a couple of the optionals including a Flamenco show in Seville and a trip up to Montserrat in Barcelona