Hi everyone,
I (40s F) booked a Virgin Voyages cruise with my parents (70s) out of Portsmouth in September for 13 nights which ends in Barcelona. The cruise will call on La Coruna, Lisbon (with an overnight stay), Casablanca, Malaga and Ibiza (another overnight stay) and then ends in Barcelona and have 5(!) sea days.
I haven’t booked the flights yet but was planning to fly into LHR at first and then check out Windsor Castle and Cotswolds (or Dorset instead as I have been advised by others in the England forum). We have been to London, Paris and Barcelona on previous European trips. Although definitely haven’t visited all the sites in the three cities.
My mother have a very close childhood friend who lives in Normandy region and I was thinking we can visit her while on this trip given my parents are getting older and traveling in the future will be harder for them.
So I am thinking of instead of flying into LHR to fly to CDG and get a train to Bayeux and then stay there a few nights (visiting Mont St.Michel and perhaps doing tour of Normandy beaches), and obviously meeting up with my mom’s friend before taking the Eurostar back to London and do some sightseeing in Windsor and London before taking the train to Portsmouth and visit the area before embarking on the cruise. And then visiting Seville and Madrid post-cruise and fly back from Madrid.
I was wondering if it would make more sense to tack on Normandy pre-cruise or post cruise? As I do want to visit Seville and Madrid as well since the cruise does not stop there. My mom also is very sensitive to heat but I hope that in September southern Spain should be better.
I know it will be pretty jam packed itinerary but my dad likes to visit multiple places in one trip given the distance of flying from Canada to Europe and the expense. And I’d like to avoid zig-zagging across the continent. I will likely take 4 weeks PTO (or maybe a bit more as I do have the vacation days) for this trip.
Anything else I should be thinking about? Thanks for your help!