Need advice Lisbon Porto Seville

If it was just my wife and I, we would arrive in Lisbon then train to Porto, unless you can book your flight from Seattle to Porto with a stopover in Lisbon (or any other flight with a stopover in Europe but arriving as a final destination in Porto). Assuming you fly into Lisbon, then we recommend train to Porto, fly to Seville, fly to Lisbon, then end the trip in Lisbon, The flights from Porto to Seville and Seville to Lisbon are probably around a hundred dollars each way per person. But you save lots of driving, tolls, possible rental issues and insurance costs, fuel, etc. It will probably be cheaper to fly between these cities then rent a car!

Depending on your interests, and Rick's books give great ideas as to how many nights are worth each destination, you will have to decide. For us we think Porto is worth 3 nights, Seville...maybe 3 nights at most, and Lisbon at least a week. There are lots of great day trips outside of Lisbon to warrant extra days there.

If you do decide to drive, as we did but we had 3 weeks and stayed in the Algarve for a week and did 2 days and 1 night in Seville, I would choose option "B". However, I would save my last week in Lisbon, and drop the car off as soon as I get to Lisbon. I hope this helps to give you some thoughts to ponder to tweak your plan a little. Happy planning!

Carl's transportation suggestion makes sense to me. Your international transport options here are limited to:

• Drive - and return rental car to the same country of rental to avoid extra fees, but it's a lot of driving if you don't plan/need any rural stops along the way
• Fly - see www.skyscanner.com
• Overnight train between Lisbon and Madrid
• All day bus ride

Hi Carl and Laura, thank you for the response.

I know it's a matter of personal opinion, but Carl, do you think we should skip Seville? And if we did skip Seville, what would you think would be a good trip to add on to one week in Lisbon and then 3 nights after Porto? Also, you mentioned day trips out of Lisbon, if you could pick just one really good day trip, what would it be? My husband and I love just getting to know the neighborhood and people, architecture, seeing something we couldn't experience back home, going where locals would go. We like to combine doing some touristic things with non-touristic things as well. Thank you!

I was hoping to see more responses for what you want to accomplish, so I will keep going on my thoughts...A great day trip just outside of Lisbon is Sintra...Rick's ideas in his book are spot on! Or if you don't mind a bus tour, do a full day tour like we did: http://www.grayline.com/tours/lisbon/f-tima-sanctuary-bidos-batalha-and-alcoba-a-monasteries-nazar-5876_21/

Now, MY idea would be to skip Seville, and use the 4-5 days and head over to the Azores to end your trip. I am helping 3 others on this forum to do this and you can read up on why I recommend going there (just look over this forum with Azores in the title). I know by departing Ponta Delgada and arriving in Boston there are many nonstop flights to the West coast, and Alaska air has them to Seattle. I think hands down you will really experience much of what so many travelers miss by just seeing the mainland of Portugal and not visiting either the Azores or Madeira. Easyjet and Ryanair are in competition with SATA and offer great prices for flights between Lisbon and Ponta Delgada, Azores. Ryanair also has flights from Porto to Ponta Delgada as well.

Doing this option, you will have to tweak your airline options and stopovers, but it is worth it!! I can help more if you decide to take a chance on the Azores...either way good luck!

Hi Carl,

Thank you for the Azores suggestion. I saw that you were helping some people with their travels. That's so wonderful that you take the time to provide so much details and tips for people on this forum. We know our Lisbon and Porto leg and now we're trying to figure out the last part and will take some time to research this and hopefully make a decision in June. If I have any questions about Azores, I will look through your forum responses. Just one last quick question, anything you personally didn't like about Seville? Some people told me I absolutely cannot miss it, some said I should stick to Portugal, so we're trying to weigh all these options.

We visited Seville in July 2013, and there was one thing that we did not like and actually stopped me in my tracks...the HEAT! The late afternoon temp made swimming in the hotel rooftop pool more appealing than walking around. But you might be there in September so this will not affect you :-). We loved Seville and highly recommend visiting this compact, easy to sightsee city...if it can work into a stress free itinerary. Is it worth staying a couple of days in the Algarve then finishing off in Seville for 2 days vs 4 days exploring the island of Sao Miguel, the Azores? Decisions, decisions, decisions... I have learned after many years of European travels to take Rick's advice that you can't see everything on one trip, assume you will be back....and I would like to add "and start planning for the next trip once you get home!"

My two cents? Don't miss Seville, and don't start in Lisbon. Start in either Porto or Seville, and rent a car. If I were to do the trip, I'd fly to Seville and take a cab into the city. After a few days in Seville, I'd rent a car and drive to Lisbon (4 hours or so, with a nice lunch on the Spanish coast along the way) and find a hotel in Lisbon with parking. The whole rental shouldn't cost more than about $150 per week (probably less) which is about what you'd spend on the train. Plus, you'll have the car available for day trips- trust me, you'll be glad to have it. Then drive to Porto and do the same thing. Then drive to Madrid (maybe 5 hours, with a nice lunch somewhere along the way), turn the car in and fly home.

I have traveled last year from Lisbon then to Porto via train(2 hrs). I would stop in Aveiro (the Venice of Portugal). We missed this and we plan on stopping there this September. Then, we took a bus to Madrid then to Seville. I plan on taking a plane next time. Once in Seville we took a plane via Lisbon and then flew to New York then onto Seattle and to Portland, Oregon. It was long, but worth it.

I have been to Spain and Portugal many times, 6 times to Spain, 5 in Portugal.

Even though the countries share a border, it is not as easy to combine the 2 countries in one visit as you might think. Not impossible, just cumbersome and somewhat complicated connections.
And my travel style, which may be different from the OP is to slow down and enjoy the location(s).
Personally, I would save Seville for another trip. From Madrid you could go to Cordoba, Segovia, then Seville very easily spending several days in each place, returning to Madrid directly from Seville via fast train. You could also go from Granada to Seville via the train. Lots of options once you are in Spain.
Also you would not need to rent a car, driving from Spain to Portugal IMO would be a time consuming,expensive, stressful journey.
Both Lisbon and Porto (cooler in temp) both have benefit the cooling effect of the Atlantic, and both Lisbon and Porto in my opinion have plenty of wonderful options, day trips etc. that will make you wish you had more time in these places.
If you need a change from Lisbon or Porto, a visit to one of the Azores Islands for a few days would be wonderful.

Last year we flew into Barcelona, did two weeks in Spain (Granada, Almunecar, Estepona and Seville - also doing a day trip to Málaga.

We met up with friends in Seville, spent 3 nights, saw Flamenco and did a couple of the walks from Rick's book.

We then rented a car and drove to Lagos. Saw Cape Sagres (a big deal for me, since I grew up in Brasil), Salema and some other coastal towns. Took the bus to Lisbon for 3 nights, the train to Porto for three nights and then we flew to Madrid for a few nights before back home.

My main advice would be to do 3 or 4 nights mínimum wherever you go. We cut out Coimbra in order to do three nights at each city in Portugal we went to. We did spend 5 nights in Barcelona and only 2 in Almunecar and Granada. We were in Granada for the Alhambra and decided two nights would do.

Hey, guys, original grant said they were going in mid-September.