Along with a friend, I am planning a first time trip to Spain for the beginning of June. As we are young and will hopefully have the opportunity to return, we have decided to travel more places and just hit the highlights rather than see fewer places more in depth. Either way is a trade off, we realize this. Also, we will be renting a car, so our travel time will be punctuated by stops and sightseeing.

Night 1 – Barcelona
Night 2 – Barcelona
Night 3 – Santa Pola
Day 4 – includes Grenada
Night 4 – Algeciras
Day 5 – Day trip to Morocco
Night 5 – Algeciras
Night 6 – Sevilla
Night 7 – Ciudad Rodrigo
Day 8 – via Salamanc, Avila and Toledo
Night 8 – Madrid
Night 9 – Madrid

Any suggestions/recommendations are welcomed, thanks!

ttt...

You are going to spend must of your vacation in the car. You are planning a lot of driving and moving in and out of cities,like Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada and Madrid. That need time to move around ,find right parking ....
I will suggest you split your trip in two, Barcelona one side and Granada-Sevilla-Madrid the other side.
I suppose Santa Pola is just an "on the road night".
Forget about a day trip to Marrocco, you will see nothing and spend money and time in ferries and avoiding touts.
Salamanca,avila,Toledo are really worth a visit so use some of the time you will save in Algeciras.
You don´t need a car in barcelona so you can fly or train to Granada.
Check rates of droping the car at a different location.

From Algeciras to Morroco's ferry is longer than if you drove down to Tarifa and take the fast boat.

The last poster mentioned the visit to Morroco and I agree 100%. Day visits are wasted time. If you want to visit Morroco, take time to visit the other parts of that country.

Blackduff

Santa Pola to Algeciras is six hours driving time, no stops, pedal to the metal all the way. Into and out of Granada plus parking the car is an hour each way. So now we're up to eight hours. Fancy a bit of lunch, that's another hour. Tour the Alhambra Palace (we spent five hours there, but it wasn't enough). Total is now 14 hours. Stroll round the Albayzín and look in some of the shops there, maybe 2 hours as long as your wife isn't a serial shopper. Now we're up to 16 hours. Oh, you wanted to eat dinner too? I've never done dinner in Spain in less than two hours, and three is better. So the final total is 19 hours at a very conservative estimate. It's a good job God put 24 hours in a day. What a pity he made us want to sleep through some of them.

Skip the ferry to Morocco unless you are planning to spend a night or two away from Tangier, say in Fez or Rabat. You might check airfares from Spain and fly to one of the major tourist destination cities in Morocco. Easy Jet (the British airline) flies one flight a day from Madrid to Marakesh and, at times, the fares are really low (I have a roundtrip ticket for a two day visit two weeks hence and it was under a hundred dollars but Easy Jet's fares seem to have a wide swing so you may to hunt a bit if you decide on that option). I have been to Tangier (thumbs down), Rabat and Fez (thumbs up) and looking forward to seeing Marakesh. Good luck with your trip; Spain is a wonderful country to visit and do consider going to Toledo and Segovia while in the Madrid area

If you avoid Morocco, then you can save another day: Algeciras is not a must. Instead of it, take your time in Granada and spend at least a night there (Alhambra deserves half day as a minimun, you'll like to go to the cathedral, and, of course you'll need to rest for a while).

A think that Salamanca, Ávila and Toledo, and then after to Madrid it's not doable. Much better IMHO: Salamanca, Ávila (you can even go to El Escorial while driving towards Madrid), night in Madrid, and the following day, day trip to Toledo. But, once you're in Madrid, you must allow enough time for Prado, Palacio Real ...

And, as someone wrote, from Barcelona to the other part of the trip you can take a plane (some fares are really great --> check Puente Aereo for instance to Madrid)

Hope u'll enjoy

No way, no way can you see Salamanca, Avila and Toledo in one day! And I'm just concentrating on one day of your trip. Part of what makes Spain great it's to sit at a bar or cafe in the afternoon and watch people go by, you don't leave yourself a minute for that anywhere. Also, towns outside Madrid and Barcelona still tend to close shops, etc for about 3 hours in the afternoon, you need to account for that.
Best to fly Barcelona to Madrid, which is pretty cheap these days. Or take the overnight train and arrive early, then take another train for partial day in Toledo, then on to Sevilla on the Ave. Do the south, then take Ave back to Madrid. Next day take a day tour (if you must see a ton of places) and see Avila and Segovia. Salamanca is lovely, but you can't make it for a couple of hours and make it worthwhile, plus it's stunningly beautiful at night.