My wife and I are leaving a family vacation near Périgueux, FR on 29 July and would like to explore Spain and/or Portugal before heading back to the US on 6 July. Since we only have 6.5 days & 7 nights, we want to make the most of our time. Our departure flight is out of Lisbon so we need to end up there in order to make it home.
We love to travel (are adventurous, low key, & efficient), do it often, and have been all over the continental US as well as Central and South America; however, this is our first trip to Europe. :) We will have been in France for two weeks – Paris, Normandy, then the Dordogne region. We will have visited a lot of that regions – castles, gardens, and historical sites. We are looking forward to a little more relaxation, a little city life, a little beach life, good food, & drink.
Our thought had been to travel via train from Périgueux to San Sebastian, SP, and then a flight to Lisbon (minimize travel time) to explore that region before leaving. Train FR to Spain (early AM) 29 June, explore San Sebastian 29 June - 3 July, fly (early AM) 3 July, explore Lisbon 3 July – 5 July with flight home early 6 July.
We are looking for recommendations on a couple things:
*For those of you who have traveled in these areas – are we spreading ourselves too thin?
*Are we not giving enough days/eves to each area?
*Does this itinerary sound feasible?
*Suggestions on both San Sebastian and Lisbon:
**Places to stay – neighborhood recommendations, hotels, rentals?
**Places to visit – we love food, drink, local flavor and people.
**Surrounding areas you would recommend (Bilbao comes up, of course – but what else do you think is worth heading out to do?)
We had also really wanted to visit Porto. Not sure if it would be too much on this trip though (3 nights SP, 2 nights Porto, 2 nights Lisbon)?
Or would it be better all around to just head straight to southern Portugal from France?
Not asking for anyone to plan out our trip in detail but open to any suggestions, keeping in mind our starting & end point. (oh – and plan to rent cars when need to when rails not most timely option so no concerns about getting around)
Thank you!!