Hi. My husband, 15 yr old son and I are interested in spending 8-9 days during our Thanksgiving break in Southern Spain. I would to visit Seville, Granada, Ronda and Cordoba. We would love to spend a few hours on a day hike and possibly a day or 2 on the coast. Realistically, how many and which places should we visit? We enjoy strolling thru cities and eating great food.
Also, should we rent a car or take public transportation? Is driving and parking a challenge?

Your time frame is, IMO, JUST barely adequate for what you hope to see -- not counting the hike or coast. For my interests, I wanted 4 nights in Sevilla, 3 in Granada, 1 in Ronda, and at least 2 in Cordoba -- and that didn't count recovering from jet lag (as I was coming from Madrid). You could probably trim a day or so from some of those locations, but IMO, you need to consult a good guidebook or two to decide what, exactly, you want to do.

If you have the time, there are some wonderful hiking opportunities in Las Alpujarras in the Sierra Nevada outside of Granada.

For beach time, you might consider Malaga.

All of the above can be seen by public transportation and yes, parking would likely be a challenge. For specific options, see rome2rio.com

When you say 8 or 9 days does that mean 7 or 8 nights? To see everything that you want to see, not to mention a day hike and spending a day or two on the coast, you will be spending too much of that time traveling between locations and not really seeing much of anything. For this time frame I would stick to 2 places-- 3 tops. We had the same dilemma when we went to the area last year. Too much to see and too little time in the 9 nights we had, so we realized that we would just need to cut down our list and save a few things for next time. If I were you, I'd probably do Sevilla and Granada. Or Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. There is a lot to explore in these places, and you will be glad to have the time to do so.

We decided to fly into Malaga, arriving on Fri. Nov. 22nd arriving at 3pm, and flying out of Seville on Sat. Nov. 30th in the am. We plan to rent a car when leaving Malaga and drop off once we get to Seville. We definitely want to go to Ronda. My husband, 15 yr old son and I want to do some hiking. Should we spend a night in Granada or Cordoba? Or is there somewhere else we should visit? Below is our tentative itinerary. I’m up for any suggestions.
Nov. 22: Arrive in Malaga in afternoon
Nov. 23: Malaga. Plan to go the Caminito del Rey hike
Nov. 24: Malaga. Morning free. Go to Davis Cup tennis final in late afternoon
Nov. 25: pick up rental car? Stay in Granada or Cordoba?
Nov. 26: Stay in Ronda?
Nov. 27-Nov. 30. Stay in Seville

We did that trip 10 years ago. Including flying, we spent 10 nights, 9 days of sight-seeing, and that included hitting the gorund running. We could have saved a night if we didn't have to go through Madrid. The one place I could have easily spent more time in is Seville, so much there to see.

Here's the report: Our October trip to Andalucia!

Just noticed our hotel in Ronda was refurbished and renamed Hotel Palacio De Hemingway.

>> Nov. 25: pick up rental car? Stay in Granada or Cordoba?
Nov. 26: Stay in Ronda?

That depends on what you want to see. You can't see both Granada and Cordoba in a day, and when we went (in April last year) both the Alhambra and the Mezquita needed advanced/timed entry tickets. We also needed advanced/timed tickets for the Caminito del Rey hike, but maybe November might be less crowded. I don't know.

Good luck deciding, it's a beautiful area, you'll have a great time no matter what you choose.

On Nov. 25, we would pick up the rental car and either go to Granada or Cordoba. I’m leaning towards Granada. I will definitely get tickets to the Alhambra or Mezquita in advance, once we finalize which city we go to. We would spend the night, then go to Ronda on Nov. 26. Spend the night in Ronda.
For the Caminito del Rey, my son and I will take a day tour from Malaga.
I welcome any recs in any of these cities. We would like to have some great meals.

Here is a report I wrote about the food during my 5-night stay in Cordoba last March; it is a better food city than Granada, in my opinion:


https://www.hungryonion.org/t/cordob...march-24/38548

From the same trip..last March:


Live...from spain!!! Cordoba, costa de da luz (vejer de la frontera area, madrid

If you want to go to Granada, why not just catch the train. Less bother all over.