I'm planning a 3-4 week trip to take my twins to Scotland and Portugal for a post Graduation trip. June 26-July 25 roughly
Visiting my Portuguese roots and their Dad's Scottish heritage. I am wondering how best to do this? I want to incorporate at least 5-7 days in the Azores where my family is actually from. Trying to figure out where best to fly in and out of and how much ground travel to incorporate in Scotland and Mainland of Portugal. ie: better to fly directly to somewhere like London and use it as a hub to other or do an open jaw type trip and go in via UK and back from Azores. Any suggestions appreciated as this is complex and it's been decades since I traveled in Europe.
I'd like to see Porto, Lisbon, Algarve? and I've never been to Scotland so researching high points. Feel badly if I miss showing them London. Feel like I could get carried away and could use some perspective!
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
8001 posts
Our Portuguese trip, 17 years ago, involved flying economy airline, Vueling, from Spain, where we’d been earlier, then renting a car in Lisbon, driving thru some of Portugal, and then driving back into Spain. Since then, many lowish-cost (and with passable customer service and on-board services) airlines have arisen to fly throughout Europe - easyJet, Ryan Air, Norwegian Air, Virgin, etc. not sure if you have a good connection from Vancouver to London, or Paris, or elsewhere, but an easy connecting flight to Lisbon from there should be available. Does anyone have a direct flight to the Azores, from, say, London? If you flew to London Heathrow Airport from Vancouver, you might have to transfer to another London airport to catch your flight to Portugal. Then, from the Azores, take another plane, or maybe a boat, to the mainland? Evora, Portugal was a surprising treat, and I’d recommend some time there on your journey!
All our flights to Scotland, whether Edinburgh, the Shetland islands way up north, or Glasgow, have been via London, after flying to London from Denver. You might have other options, I don’t know. If you were to spend a few days seeing London, a train up the eastern coast to Edinburgh’s also an alternative to flying. We’ve also had trips where Scotland was the focus, and having had some times to see some parts of London on other trips, we just connected at the London airport and headed straight to Scotland, without sightseeing in England. Unless you have direct flights from Canada to Edinburgh or Glasgow, you’re likely going to be connecting thru a London airport at some point. The twins are lucky to have their Dad!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6814 posts
Where do you live? And when is your trip?
I ask because there are now a few (very few, and seasonal) direct flights between the eastern US/Canada and the Azores (I believe Boston, Toronto and Montreal). I haven't been to the Azores (but I have been to Portugal and Scotland a few times). Whenever I've thought about going to the Azores, it always struck me as inefficient to fly all the way to Europe, then turn around and fly back 1/3 of the way across the Atlantic. That may ultimately work out best, but before concluding that, I'd investigate a triangular route: from home (presumably somewhere in North America) to Scotland, then from Scotland to Portugal, from Portugal to the Azores, then directly back to North America from the Azores (or reverse the order). Because the Azores are not a major tourist destination, it might work out to be less expensive (though more indirect) to just shuttle out between the Continent and the Azores...need to check prices to see what makes sense.
Sounds like a very fun trip and a unique combination.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
David
I live in Vancouver BC Canada. I have flown to the Azores from Lisbon before and also direct from Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Sao Miguel usually) I'm going in the final days of June 2020. I was thinking to try to begin in the UK either direct to Scotland or via London then fly to Porto or Lisbon and then to Azores then home...if I can figure it out! I may omit the Algarve because it's more beach resort and not really what this trip is about.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11957 posts
"Graduation trip" implies it starts sometime in June. ?
If so, I would do the southern part first and finish in Scotland due to weather considerations.
Doing a circular ( "open jaw") kind of routing is most likely going to be the same challenge clockwise or counter-clockwise.
You can look at the 'Itinerary' tab for the RS tours for Portugal and Scotland to get some inspiration
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
You hit school holidays from mid June onwards, but particularly once you get into July, when flights become more expensive and places get busier. Flights within Europe have been available for some time and prices only head in one direction.
The weather in Scotland won’t be much different between June and July, but the Azores will be busier in July. Where in Scotland are you heading? There will be more flights between Portugal and the Azores than Scotland and the Azores, so it would make sense to do Azores - Portugal - Scotland or vice versa. Check out your options on Skyscanner.com.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4088 posts
From Vancouver you can fly through Toronto to the Azores direct on Sata, the Azores airline. TAP, the Portuguese airline, has service out of Lisbon to the islands and to many points in Europe and North America. To get around Portugal, consider the train.
Rather than try to patch together an itinerary yourself, try a multi-destination search function for the trans-Atlantic flights, returning home from a major Scottish airport. I like cheapoair.com but there are lots of others. Within Europe,, skyscanner.com shows budget flights that don't appear on most of the trans-Atlantic sites.
For the trains, always consult seat61.com