1. Fly into Alicante
2. Rent a car
3. Drive to Granada
4. Stay 2 nights in Granada
5. Drive to Lagos via Cordoba
6. Stay 2 nights in Lagos
7. Drive to Sevilla
8. Stay 3 nights in Sevilla
9. Drive to Algeciras
10. Take ferry to Tangiers and back
11. Stay 1 night in Algeciras
12. Drive to Alicante
13. Stay 1 night in Alicante
14. Fly home

Naturally, the best laid plans... Due to various reasons, here's what we actually did:

1. Flew into Alicante
2. Rented a car
3. Drove to Granada
4. Stayed 1 night in Granada
5. Drove to Sevilla via Cordoba
6. Stayed 2 nights in Sevilla
7. Drove to Lisboa via Faro and Lagos
8. Stayed 1 night in Lisboa
9. Drove to Faro
10. Stayed 1 night in Faro
11. Drove to Tarifa
12. Stayed 1 night in Tarifa
13. Took ferry to Tangiers and back
14. Stayed 1 night in Tarifa
15. Drove to Nerja via Gibraltar and Ronda (No, Ronda isn't en route to Nerja.)
16. Stayed 1 night in Nerja
17. Drove to Alicante via Granada
18. Flew home

We tried to have a nice, peaceful vacation, but we just couldn't do it. There was too much to see to spend much time in a single city.

The highlights of the trip for me were the Alhambra in Granada, Jerónimo's Monastery in Lisoa (Belem), and the Cathedral Mosque in Cordoba. Morroco was neat, but Tangiers is the Tijuana of Morroco, so we really didn't see much but a bunch of hustlers.

The food was almost without fail excellent. We tried to eat as authentically as possible. We have very good luck asking hotel staff members for recommendations. All recommendations we got were honest, not a prepared photocopy of tourist dives. I think my favorite meal was in Tarifa at a little hole in the wall a block off the main drag. The waiter/bar tender/owner didn't speak a word of English, but he was very insistent about recommending the best dishes, and he was right. The flan was to die for.