Madrid, Seville and Granada: The Best Way to Plan the Route

For a first trip linking **Madrid, Seville and Granada**, the cleanest structure is **Madrid → Seville → Granada** or the reverse. Do not bounce back to Madrid in the middle. A strong 9-night split is **Madrid 3 nights, Seville 3 nights, Granada 3 nights**. With 8 nights, use **3 / 3 / 2**. With 10 nights, add the extra night to Madrid or Seville based on interests.

Madrid is the most likely international gateway and the easiest city to absorb an arrival or departure day. It also benefits from extra nights because the city spreads beyond one historic core: Royal Madrid, the Prado/Retiro corridor and neighbourhoods such as Malasaña, La Latina and Chueca all compete for time.

Official Madrid tourism publishes both 48-hour and 72-hour itineraries, which is a useful reality check. Two days is possible, but three is a much stronger first visit. If your flight schedule steals half a day, count that honestly rather than calling it a full Madrid day.

Seville is the broadest Andalusian city in this route. The Cathedral, Giralda and Royal Alcázar form the monumental core, but the trip becomes much better once Triana, Plaza de España, Macarena and Alameda enter the itinerary.

Three nights is the best default because it lets you dedicate one day to the major monuments, one to a wider neighbourhood circuit and one to slower exploration without turning every meal into a scheduling problem.

For the deeper breakdown, see How Many Days Do You Need in Seville?.

Granada is more compact, but the Alhambra changes the calculation. Give it a protected half or full day, then keep enough time for Albaicín, Sacromonte and the historic centre.

Two nights works if your onward travel is convenient and your Alhambra reservation fits neatly. Three nights is safer because it protects the Alhambra day from arrival logistics and gives the city a slower evening.

Only if the trip has enough slack. Córdoba is geographically tempting because it sits on the Madrid–Seville corridor, but adding a one-night stop means another checkout, station transfer, luggage handoff and check-in.

With 10 or more nights, Córdoba can work beautifully. With 8 or 9, I would usually keep the three-city route strong rather than turning Córdoba into a box to tick.

A two-hour train does not cost only two hours. Add checkout, travel to the station, waiting, boarding, arrival, hotel transfer and the mental reset of changing cities. That is why the itinerary should never count a transfer day as if it were a full sightseeing day.

Sortie treats travel rows and hotel handoffs as part of the itinerary structure, which is especially useful on this route because each move changes the usable time in the destination.

Use **Madrid → Seville → Granada** as the default route. Give Madrid and Seville at least three nights each, Granada two or three, and only add Córdoba when the trip is long enough to survive another hotel change.