I'm having trouble with my itinerary. The places I want to visit are Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, Granada and maybe a coastal town.
I have 9 days and don't know how many days to spend in each. I realize I may have to cut out a few places from this trip.

Any suggestions?

Dear Tonja,

Cordoba is only worth one day. Visit the Mesquita and Alcazar while there.

Granada, in my opinion, is worth a two day stay. Of course see the Alhambra and take a tour of the town.

My wife and I stayed in Madrid for only a few days. I wish we had blown off Toledo and taken day trips from Madrid instead.

Seville is wonderful. I would love to go back. We did Ronda but I hear that Malaga is nice.

Working on the assumption that you are flying out of Madrid I would start there then take the high speed train to Sevilla (2.5 hours). Rent a car at the train station there to get to Grenada and what ever coastal town stikes your fancy. Drop the car in Cordoba then take the high speed train back to Madrid.

As for timing suggestions, assuming you are flying into and out of Madrid, you might try something like this:

1. Begin in Seville and spend 4 nights; you can make the day trip to Cordoba or one other nearby town, but you will probably want to spend most of the time in Seville itself.

2. You can drive or take a train to Granada (I made the trip in about three hours by train between Granada and Seville) and spend two nights.

3. Spend the last three nights in Madrid. If interested, you can always use one day for a nearby destination from Madrid.

Just some ideas...

MMM

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'll be flying in and out of Madrid.

So how about two nights in Madrid, train to Seville, spend 5 nights and rent a car. Use car for daytrip to Cordoba and Rhonda, then train to Granada 2 nights, then fly back to Madrid for the flight home.