Spain/Portugal/Gibraltar - Sevilla through Andalucia to Madrid itinerary

Took advantage of the recent excellent fares on US to book a trip to Spain with my dad (who is 73 but in good shape) in late March and early April and trying to work through a good itinerary. This is our first trip to Spain (and the first time my dad has ever been out of North America!) and a semi-get in touch with our roots trip for my dad so that is why we are concentrating on this general region. Trying to avoid some of the holy week craziness but I can't totally avoid it! So I need to move fairly quick in finalizing things so I can book some hotels. We are not planning on renting a car although we could if we had to (dad would have to drive because I don't). Would this be a good itinerary?

March 28 - Fly

March 29 Arrive Madrid, head straight to Sevilla

March 30 Sevilla

March 31 Sevilla

April 1 day trip to Cordoba

April 2 head to Cadiz

April 3 Cadiz to Ronda

April 4 Ronda

April 5 Ronda to Granada

April 6 Granada

April 7 Head to Madrid

April 8 Madrid

April 9 Madrid

April 10 Day trip to Toledo

April 11 Day trip to Segovia

April 12 Fly home

My suggestions:
1. Cover less territory. Spend a night in Madrid when you arrive to allow time to get over jet lag.
2. If you are going the whole way to Cadiz (a wonderful city) allow an extra day. This may mean dropping one of the other cities.
3. You may need to be flexible re: your route depending upon the availability of hotel rooms within reasonable distance of the train stations.

Córdoba is on the way to Sevilla, I would suggest stopping on the way there.

One small thought.
Most stores in Spain are closed on Sundays. However, that is the day of the week in Sevilla that families stroll about the town and parks.
There are several open air restaurants that you can sit and have a drink while enjoying the scenery.
You may want to be in Sevilla on a Sunday and do the Cordoba trip on Saturday.

Also, in the smaller cities especially, pay attention to when restaurants are open. Typically, they are open for lunch and dinner much late than in the US.
We ended up starving at times and ending up eating fast food or snacks.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I actually did realize after I posted that the Sunday was Palm Sunday, and that it would be better to be in in Seville on that day, so am planning to do Cordoba on Saturday. Did some tweaking of the itinerary, it now is:

March 28 - Fly

March 29 Arrive Madrid, head straight to Sevilla

March 30 Sevilla

March 31 day trip to Cordoba

April 1 Sevilla

April 2 TBD (it would start in Seville - could be another day in Seville, could be a stop in another white town on the way to Ronda), spend night in Ronda

April 3 Ronda

April 4 Ronda to Granada

April 5 Granada

April 6 Granada (poss. day trip nearby)

April 7 Head to Madrid

April 8 Madrid

April 9 Day trip to Toledo or Segovia (whichever would have more things open on Monday)

April 10 Madrid

April 11 Day trip to the other of Toledo or Segovia

April 12 Fly home

Other than some flexibility on a couple of days, this is pretty much it, and I have booked hotels already since things were going fast during Semana Santa. Our Madrid hotel is set in stone (non-refundable), and I have Alhambra tix booked for April 5 so we have to be in Granada then. We arrive at MAD quite early on the 29th, and knowing myself, would get little to no sightseeing done anyway that day, so may as well just go all the way to Sevilla and get there mid-afternoon, and then hit the ground running sightseeing on the 30th rather than travel more in the morning.

I would seriously consider adding Gibraltar to your trip. It's only about 2 hours by train from Ronda to Algeciras...from there you take a local bus to La Linea, where you cross the border into Gibraltar.

I thought it was a blast. First, to walk into town from the border, you will need to cross the runway of the airport. You will be held up until all the planes land and take-off.

There is lots to see including Europa point at the top of the Rock overlooking where the Med meets the Atlantic Ocean, the old WW2 cannons, St. Michaels Cave, the siege tunnels inside the rock, and the Barbary macaques

Secondly, it's like entering the UK. You can use UK currency notes, visit British pubs, and eat Fish & Chips or an English breakfast. The official language is of course English.

It's a unique place, and well worth the effort.

I agree that going to Gibraltar is a good suggestion. I would add a day or two in there just to take things easy and get some rest in. Don't try to do too much.

Planning a similar trip to the south of Spain mid April and working on hotels and transportation. Any suggestions on the hotels you chose and also how are you planning the trains between cities?

Deleted information already posted elsewhere.

Planning a similar trip to the south of Spain mid April and working on hotels and transportation. Any suggestions on the hotels you chose and also how are you planning the trains between cities?

I went about half apartment-type accommodations (in Seville and Madrid) and half regular twin rooms in small hotels (Ronda and Cordoba). Went apartment type to have some flexibility with meals, especially breakfast (both my dad and I watch the carbs). The apartments are central but a little bit removed from the main tourist areas (Salamanca in Madrid, over by the river near Plaza de Armas for Seville), for a better chance of a quiet night. I moved quickly on booking as a lot of the trip is during Semana Santa, which is big in Andalusia. I did manage to average under $100 per night for our accommodations, which was limit we set. Most of it was done via booking.com which seems to be the go to spot for Spain.

I am basically only buying the Madrid-Seville train before we leave. Although, now this is complicated by the one-day general strike being planned for the day we arrive! I dropped the first night in Seville and we are spending it in Madrid instead (as long as our flight goes...). I might book our Seville-Cordoba train before we leave too, but will wait til the very last minute for that given the impending strike. All other transport we will buy when we get to Spain (either a few days before or morning of). Taking the bus Seville-Ronda, train Ronda-Granada, bus Granada-Madrid, and trains for the day trips to Toledo and Segovia.

Thanks for the info. Will save me some research time on the transportation.
Boy, that's tough about the strike. Glad it's just a 1 day. I'm getting there on the 13th.

i looked at Friendly Holidays for Spain rentals but they are pretty expensive and geared for families. I like the idea about central apts but a little removed. How did you find those?

Thanks for the info. Will save me some research time on the transportation.
Boy, that's tough about the strike. Glad it's just a 1 day. I'm getting there on the 13th.

i looked at Friendly Holidays for Spain rentals but they are pretty expensive and geared for families. I like the idea about central apts but a little removed. How did you find those?

I didn't look at apartment agencies, there are a lot of aparthotels listed on booking.com, just looked at places within our budget and read reviews there and Tripadvisor to make sure the places were OK with us (generally anything rating 8 or above on booking.com).

That's a good suggestion about booking.com. I sometimes use venere too.
Only issue I have with them is if you sort by price then they aren't central and if you sort by area they aren't by price. That's why often my first go to is Priceline.

Did you do your research on Spain online or from books? I'm at a disadvantage since I'm in the DR now so I don't have access to bookstores or librarys. It just takes longer to pull this trip together than I'm used to. Difficult part is figuring how to divide the 2 weeks. Your itinerary is helpful. We also are going to throw in a day trip from Tarifa to Morocco.

I researched both books and online, although I seem to be consulting books more for this trip.

I thought about a day trip to Tangier but thought it might be a little bit overwhelming for my dad, at 73 this is his first trip outside North America and really his first "touring" vacation ever. That's why I'm really really really really hoping this strike doesn't interfere with the flight over, he's so excited!

Meant to post this yesterday. Wishing you and your dad a great flight and
trip. Turns out my flight lands on a Friday in April so I maybe effected by a strike too.

I am back from my trip, and had a fantastic time! My only regret is that I did not have more time in Madrid, I really liked that city. anngi, you are already there, but I should say about transport is that one can buy transport tickets a couple of days in advance, but shouldn't wait until the morning of - our desired bus from Granada to Madrid was sold out two days in advance - but we just booked an hour earlier bus (although that one only stopped at the main south Madrid terminal and not Avenida de America, which was near our accomodations). And we had to put off our Segovia day trip by a day because we waited until the morning of to buy tickets but the train sold out (although there were seats available the night before).

The general strike did not hinder our trip - our US flight from PHL did depart and arrive on time, and we got through immigration and got baggage just as quickly as normal. No trains but plenty of taxis, and we were able to check into our room early. Later, the streets were crazy though, hundreds of thousands (millions?) were out in the streets in the center, but things remained peaceful (although there was some violence in Barcelona and a few other northern towns). Most inconvenient thing was that many of the ATM's had paint thrown on them or were stickered over by protestors, so it was difficult to find a useable one. Everything was cleaned up though by the time we got back to Madrid 10 days later. So I am ready to go back to Madrid already, think that will happen someday as I still need to tackle Barcelona as well! :)

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. We are still in Benidorm and haven´t headed south yet. Hope too in the next week or so. So far looking at bus to Granada and then on to Cordoba and Seville with maybe a trip to Morocco in the middle. Any recommendations on lodging in Cordoba, Granada or Seville you´d recommend or number of days to spend in each?

Just seeing this now - you probably already made arrangements. But after our trip, I'd say two days is sufficient for Granada, 4 days for Seville including one day for Cordoba as a day trip. Could overnight in Cordoba but one day is sufficient to see things there.

As far as hotels - we stayed in Apartamentos Metropolis Sevilla. We had a studio which was pretty small for that type of accomodation. Everything was modern and very clean though, including the kitchenette. A bit on the edge of everything, but quiet at night and only 15 minutes walk to the center of the action. And very close to a big supermarket, was good to do our own breakfast each morning, and I cooked a dinner one night too to save some significant euros.

We stayed at the Carlos V in Granada - very well located and the room was fine and clean (although small too). Had a few quirks though that make me hesitate making a blanket recommendation.

I love the ambition, OP, but I definitely recommend seeing more at fewer places. Especially since your dad is a bit older and not a seasoned traveler. But even for you, I think less moving around will be much more rewarding.

Also on your next trip, look into an open jaw ticket which means you wouldn't have to circle back to Madrid.