We are planning a spring (either before, or after Easter) trip to Spain. We haven’t traveled there, although I spent part of a week in Valencia some years ago. We’re planning on around 12 days (not including travel there and back). We prefer to stay in no more than 3 locations in a 12 day trip. Have been reading up some and realize we can’t see more than just a few high points so have landed on Madrid and Andalusia. Thinking of starting with 3.5 days in Madrid, take the train to Seville for 3 days. Maybe a day 4 day trip to Cordoba? Jerez? Cadiz?

Then move to Granada for 3-4 days, Malaga day trip? Finish by returning to Madrid for departure. Any suggestions for other worthwhile day trips would be appreciated.

Also- considering renting a car in Seville or Granada for day trips to nearby sites if local trains are inconvenient. If renting in Seville, might just drive then to Malaga. I have only rudimentary Spanish. Will driving be challenging with minimal Spanish knowledge?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Draft itinerary-

Day 1 Arrive madrid AM

Day 2 madrid

Day 3 madrid

Day 4 madrid

Day 5- to Seville 2.5 hr train

Day 6 seville

Day 7 Seville

Day 8- Seville/cordoba

Day 9- Seville/other day trip? Jerez? Cadiz?

Day 10- drive, train (2.5 hr) to Granada

Day 11 Granada

Day 12 granada

Day 13- Granada/Malaga

Day 14- return to Madrid, stay ON at airport. Leave day 15

My only thoughts are that, one, you may not need to rent a car at all, and two, why not fly home from Granada, connecting in Madrid?

It really depends on your interests, but from my perspective, trying to visit Andalusia and Madrid in the same 12-day trip is doable, but ambitious. I felt rushed with 4 full days in Sevilla, 3 full days in Granada, and 2 full days in Cordoba. (Many people visit Cordoba as a day trip … I was glad to have 2 full and very busy days there.) And if you’re going to Andalusia, do you not want to have time for Ronda or Malaga or Jerez or Cadiz, etc.? Similarly, depending on your interests, 4 nights in Madrid might be enough – it wasn’t for me and I didn’t have jet lag when I got there. In addition, 4 nights in Madrid is unlikely to give you time for Toledo or Segovia or Salamanca, etc. So my recommendation would be to do some research to decide what, exactly, you want to do and see and mark up a calendar.

If you decide to keep Madrid and Andalusia in your itinerary, I agree with ekscrunchy that you might want to explore some options for flying open-jaw – into Madrid and out of one of the airports in Andalusia or vice versa.

As ekscrunchy has noted, you would have no need for a car for these areas. Public transportation in Spain is excellent. You can explore your options using rome2rio.com. If you do decide to rent a car, it is easy to drive even if you don’t speak Spanish. (That said, I strongly encourage you to learn at least the civilities.)

Spain is delightful – enjoy!

If possible, I would try to spend a night or two in Cordoba - it really is lovely.

You don't need Spanish to drive . But you do need to know the road signs. How comfortable are you with EU standard road signs?

Before Easter and Spring doesn't really work next year. Easter is April 5th. That means you'd be in southern Spain for Palm Sunday etc . I guess.

The other side of Easter IIRC Seville has a major festival.

I'd think about which event you want to see and experience. Seville I'd expect to take Easter pretty seriously.

I'd think about flying home from Seville if you can.

You can't really comment on your time table without an idea of your interests.

For example you have three days in Madrid. For some people that's one day for each of the three more famous museums. For some people that's one day for the palace. One day to wander the city. A day to peak at one museum.

You need to think about what you want to see before you start rationing out days

It is not an EU standard road signs are in accordance to various conversions the last being Vienna Convention. In WIKI explains more.
There are aspects of some signage that are not covered by any convection. These will be unique to each country.
WIKI writes about Spanish road signs. I do not think it is 100% accurate . I have never seen a priority sign in Spain and sign R-120 means Entry prohibited to vehicles based on environmental criteria

The point about the standard signs is they're standard across countries and languages. Saying you've never seen a priority sign won't help you if the road crew puts one up and you ignore it.

If the OP decides to drive he needs to know the various signs . Knowing Spanish isn't a big help. If you look at the Wiki page I'd argue the English language explanation of some signs are clumsy enough to confuse . OTOH just the sign itself makes sense if you understand how the signs work.

Thanks. One of our tickets will be frequent flyer seat- I haven't yet checked to see if United will let us fly out of Malaga.

Thanks for your suggestions. I did list some of your suggestions as possible day trips. Extending Madrid time might be a thing we will consider. I have read in some places that some of the outer areas of Andalusia may be difficult to get convenient transportation. But I appreciate your comments and will definitely be studying Spanish over the winter. I spend part of a week in Valencia some years ago and am looking forward to returning to Spain.

I've driven a number of weeks in France so EU signs will not be a problem. My post may have been confusing, we are planning to travel before or after Holy Week. Feria de Abril sounds exciting but probably hectic.
One day at each museum in Madrid might be just fine for us, We may add another day for El Escorial and another for a day trip. We started thinking of a two week trip but may expand, if we can afford it.

Thanks for the heads up, I've driven in France a number of times so familiar with EU signs.

Thanks, I've driven in France for a handful of weeks so I think I'll be ok.

I think they all sound lovely! We want to minimize pack and move pack and move pack and move... but will hope for time to do a Cordoba day trip.

FWIW, Madrid is the easiest of your potential destinations to reach from the U.S., and so the easiest to revisit. If I had to short-change anything, that's what I'd shortchange. JMO.

I did a slightly longer trip to Madrid and Andalusia in 2018. You can click on my profile to see my report. We picked up a car when we left Seville (saw some pueblos blanco and Gibraltar) then dropped it off when we reached Granada.

Hi Ted. There are many people on this forum with much more experience in Spain than me but we've been twice now and will be going back this upcoming February. As a note, we've only used public transportation - no rental car. BTW - we live just North of you, in Canada.

On our first trip, we spent 2 weeks of our European trip in Spain. When I was planning, I had a hard time narrowing down where/what to visit as everything interested me. We ended up doing 7 nights in Barcelona and then splitting the second week between Seville (4 nights), Cordoba (2 nights) and Ronda (1 night). I try not to do destinations like Cordoba as a day trip as it's nice to experience these types of places when all of the day-trippers leave - but that's how we like to travel. Found Seville and Ronda to be just right, could have done 1 more day in Cordoba. I also would have loved to go to Cadiz or Jerez. For me, I could do 12 between these, adding Cadiz to have some time on the sea or Granada. Although, the other comment I'd make is that if I did Seville,Cordoba and Granada in the same trip I'd be on sensory overload as they all have great but similar type of sights - but that's me.

As we dropped Madrid and area from our first trip, we spent 1 week in the Madrid on our second trip with 5 nights Madrid and 2 nights in Toledo before we had to move on to our next destination. We're not into big cities and museums as much, so the 5 nights in Madrid was plenty and we enjoyed the 2 days we had in Toledo. We didn't get to Segovia or Salamanca and that was disappointing. I wanted to spend a couple days in Segovia and a few in Salamanca. For me again, I could do 12 days between Madrid, Toledo, Segovia and Salamanca.

We're heading back in February for 14 full days plus flying time to and from Canada. We're going to spend 8 nights in Malaga with day trips to Gibraltar, Antequera and possibly Cordoba or Ronda along with checking out some beach towns in the area. We then are finally getting to Granada for 4 nights with a day trip to the Sierra Nevadas and then 3 nights in Madrid (considering staying in Segovia instead) before flying home. So, its obvious I can spend 12 days in this area as well.
I think we'll really enjoy this day trip from Granada for a change of pace - https://www.getyourguide.com/granada...s-high-t42922/

I'm not sure what your interests are or your preferred pace of travel but I thought I'd share my thoughts. No matter what you choose, you will enjoy those destinations as they are all great. Have a wonderful trip.

I stayed in Cordoba for three nights and it was fully justified. One of my favorite cities in Europe. Architecture is phenomenal.

In 2017 we spent 15 nights between Madrid, Toledo, and Andalusia. In case it helps you decide, here is our itinerary:

Madrid - 4 nights
Toledo - 1 night
Cordoba - 2 nights
Granada - 2 nights
Malaga - 2 nights
Seville - 4 nights

We flew into Madrid from Marseille because we spent a few weeks in France first. We flew home from Seville. So definitely look into open-jaw/multi-city flights.

Could we have used more time at each destination? Yes, to be honest, it would have been nice to have an extra night in each place. However, our itinerary worked for us. We still saw the important things we wanted to see and do. And I am a firm believer in staying overnight in places if you have the time, instead of doing a daytrip. I believe that people miss out by seeing Cordoba, for example, as a daytrip. But seeing it as a daytrip is better than not seeing it at all.

I would travel by train and bus. No need for a car. The public transportation in Spain is awesome!

I hope this works- I want to add an updated question, I'm the OP. Thanks everyone for your comments, they've been very helpful.
I am thinking of traveling AFTER Easter because it seems the weather may be more pleasant than 3-4 weeks earlier in Mid-March. I would stage our trip so that we are in Seville the week BEFORE the Feria starts. Will it already start getting busy and crowded, and expensive because hotels will jack up prices? Or we could even go to Seville the week right after Easter, to put more space between us and the Feria.
I know that the Feria will be a spectacle, but maybe a bit overwhelming.
Thanks again for any suggestions.

Have you checked hotel prices for those dates on booking.com? That should give you an idea.