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Need advice on Portugal/Spain itinerary

Posted by (Grass valley, California) on

My girlfriend and I are going to spend a month in Spain and Portugal Sept 27- Oct 24 2015. She needs to work on the internet two time periods, each period being Mon - Friday from 3pm-11pm and she needs a good internet connection.

We have never been to either country and wanted some advice on our plan. By the way she is 54 and I am 65 but we are very young for our age.

here are our questions
Are we spending too much time in Portugal? too much time in Lisbon? should we cut down Lisbon to see more of northern Spain? are we spending too little time in Barcelona. We are going for a month and it seems too short.

So here is our tentative plan.

Sept 26 fly LA - Lisbon
Sept 27 arrive and spent one night in Lisbon
Sept 28 - Oct 2nd, rent a car and go to a Farmhouse in Redondo Portugal with another couple , friends of of ours from LA who are into wineries. They found this charming Farmhouse on a Cork farm.We will spend 4 nights there.
Oct 2 - Oct 5 Leave Cork Farm Friday and Drive to southern Coast of Portugal and ver the following 3 days explore the souther coast making our way back up to Lisbon.
Oct 5 - 9 Rent a house or apartment ( airbnb ) in Lisbon and this will be one of the weeks she will work from 3pm - 11pm. I will explore while she works and in the mornings we can make trips outside the city.
Oct 10 - 12 Fly to Bacelona. Spend 2-3 days
Oct 12 or 13 ( not sure, need help here because we don't want to be in too touristy areas) Here is where we have options. Get to Seville ( train? Fly?) spend the next week going to Seville, Arcos, Rondo, Nerja, Granada and making our way to Madrid on Oct 19th
Oct 19th rent an apartment in Madrid and this is another week where she works 5 days 3pm - 11pm. Oct 24 Madrid back home to LA

Posted by
355 posts

A couple of observations/ideas...
I just returned from 5 days in Lisbon and didn't see half of what I had planned so a week sounds great to me. I really enjoyed Lisbon and Portugal as a whole. You will definitely be able to explore while she is working but doing some workouts on stairs or hills between now and then would be to your benefit. I am also 65 and the hills in Lisbon were a great challenge.
Regarding Spain - you might want to consider flying from Barcelona to Granada, then working your way back up to Seville. Renting a car as you leave Granada and dropping it off in Seville would give you the opportunity to explore the hill towns but not have to deal with a car in the bigger cities. Taking the train from Seville to Madrid is very easy.

I would also suggest a stop in Córdoba even if for a few hours. The Mezquita is one of my favorite things in southern Spain.

Posted by
566 posts

Firstly, I don't think you have too much time in Lisbon, there is lots to see. I'm not sure if your flights from LA are already booked, but you have a bit of weaving back and forth in your itinerary. Seville is very close to the south of Portugal, and far from Barcelona. IF it would work I would do this instead:
Redondo
Nazare
Lisbon for your Oct 5-9
South of Portugal
Seville for 12-15
train to Madrid for 15-19
Barcelona with good internet for 19-24- Fly home from here

My only other comment with your original itinerary is I think you have given too little time to Barcelona. Sounds like a great trip, have fun!

Posted by
32 posts

Thanks Lisa, we haven't booked our flights yet but we have to fly into Lisbon to meet our friends on Sept 27 and we can fly out of Mardid or Barcelona, Wherever we leave from we have to spend the last 5 days in because Marcy has to work that week. We thought madrid because we would rather spend 5 days there then Barcelona from what we read about the two places. So flying from lisbon to Barcelona on Oct 10 is no big deal cuz flights are cheap, then we fly to Seville from Barcelona and spend a few nights there and then slowly make our way to Madrid for the last week. Should we be taking trains from Seville or rent a car. We want to stop at Arcos, Ronda , Granada and other places before madrid. I don't like renting cars but if it means we get to do a lot more then so be it. Trains are more fun to me.

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