We will be traveling in Portugal for 25 days in December and will be using public transportation . We would like to visit the Algarve and work our way up to Braga. We would also like to visit Sevilla and Valencia in southern Spain. Any suggestions/ideas would be helpful.
Posted by
Land of La
8688 posts
Have you purchased and read the RS guidebooks for Portugal and Spain? Lots of practical information that would help you design your routes and days out.
Posted by
271 posts
We were in Portugal for an extended winter trip stayed in Braga and Algarve also visited some places in between.
Wrote a trip report about it if you want to check it out ( it's relatively long, scroll to the info that is relevant)
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/extended-trip-to-portugal-1711933/
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6584 posts
Sevilla isn’t too far from Portugal but Valencia is across the peninsula. I would save it for a separate trip. Excluding crossing the border with public transportation, it would be easy to visit the main sights in Portugal as well as Sevilla and the Extremadura region in Spain.
Depending on which places you want to visit in Portugal it would be easy to spend the entire 25 days in Portugal. I have no idea what the weather is like in Portugal in December so it could affect your plans.
Posted by
Washington DC
27187 posts
The first thing to understand is that, geography to the contrary, the ground-transportation links between Portugal and Spain are poor. Service is limited and infrequent. We often recommend that folks not try to combine the two countries on the same trip, though I can understand that with 25 days available, the temptation would be very hard to resist.
What cities are you flying to and from? This sounds as if it should be a loop trip: Algarve up to Braga, across to Valencia and down to Seville. But that may not turn out to be the best option, depending on your first- and last-night stops.
There is bus service from Faro on the Algarve to Seville. From Braga to Valencia you'll need to get to the airport in Porto (by bus, taxi or rental car, I'd guess) then fly. In December there are non-stop flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as scattered flights on some Mondays and Tuesdays. My spot-check uncovered just one flight a day, on RyanAir, but that may vary with the day of the month. Check skyscanner.com to see what you options are. Be sure to buy your tickets from the airline.
Alternatively, you could fly from Porto to Seville. At a glance, you again have RyanAir flights on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and on some Mondays. It looks like one flight per day.
So those are your possible border-crossing routings--again, depending on your arrival and departure points. I'd try very hard not to have to cross that border twice; I'd hope to fly home from Valencia or Seville, but you may not have a choice at this point.
Between Valencia and Seville you're looking at--in most cases--between 4:40 and 6:30 on trains, which really isn't bad; the cities are over 400 miles apart by road. Most departures require a transfer in Madrid.
You'll need buses or a rental car to see the Algarve. When you're ready to head north, a train will be an option from Faro to Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto. Or there are buses.
A lot of folks who know the Algarve tend not to recommend it all that highly, especially in the winter. I suppose it depends on what you plan to do there.