We are on a small group tour of Portugal and Spain in October for 15 days, starting Porto ending in Barcelona. We are adding on 4 or 5 days at the beginning and 1-2 days at the end.
Here is the route, much on bus but also trains in Spain, without going into every detail. (2 or 3 nights in a city):
start Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon, Evora, Seville, Alhambra -Granada, Cordoba, Madrid, Toledo, end Barcelona.
We know it is not allowing us ideal time in every city, and this not how we commonly travel, but it was a good opportunity to see these countries without too much planning. From my research, the biggest miss for this itinerary is Sintra and the Algarve region. I am asking for help on deciding where to go prior to our start in Porto, knowing the rest of our trip. One note, we love a beautiful dramatic coastline (not just beach) and also plan for these first few days to be a little slower paced getting over jet lag and knowing the pace of the rest of the trip. These are the options considering.
A. Fly directly into Faro, rent a car and stay in one location there for at least 2 or 3 nights with drives, hikes, kayaking, (Algar Seco, Seven Hanging Valleys, …?) before either driving scenic routes up to Lisbon and then Porto (or some combination of trains or flights to Lisbon and Porto). We know it is 3.5 hours or so drive to Lisbon and total of 6 or more hours to Porto. We would probably miss Sintra, although we could consider trying to do that in route if we drove rental car up. That obviously makes this portion a bit more fast paced and we are trying to
B. Fly into Porto or Lisbon, rent a car and take a roundtrip or one way, and “settle” to see some of the best coastline in that region between Porto and Lisbon or within a 2 hour drive of Lisbon. Would probably plan to go to Sintra or Obidios for a day, although given all the other forts and castles we are doing for the rest of our trip, we are trying to figure out if these really are a Must do for our trip. *Flying into Lisbon is also the most expensive and we save $1500 flying into Faro so that is a factor too.
We know we have to sacrifice something and I know many of you will say we are not staying in one place enough to really experience these cities, but it helps that we are on a tour that is managing our luggage. This is our trip and with all the other areas of Europe and the rest of the world we want to see, at this point in our lives, reality is we not likely to get back. So all that being said, I really appreciate your advice.
We are adding 1 or 2 days in Barcelona too. I have ideas on that but hapy to take advice on that end if anyone wants to share, knowing this is the Portugal forum.