Planning Trip-LIsbon to Basque Country to Barcelona

Most people would fly the first leg; try www.skyscanner.com. Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it.

The only direct train between Lisbon and the Basque country is the overnight train to San Sebastian. (If you had more time, and wanted to visit Santiago de Compostela and other stops in a leisurely manner, then there are a few daytime bus and train options on the route, but not very convenient.) Direct daytime trains to Barcelona take 7 hours from Bilbao or 6 hours from San Sebastian, running 2x/day, which is a pretty easy ride.

All of Rick's info about local guides and local transport are in his guidebooks to those regions. You could get the "Snapshot" versions for Lisbon and the Basque Country, plus one of the two variations on Barcelona.

The Barcelona Tourist Office also offers cheap walking tours (15 euros).

I think the San Sebastian tourist office probably offers a walking tour. Certainly commercial companies must.

The Guggenheim had a good mid-day English-language tour in 2016. Rick mentions it in the "Spain" guidebook.

A lot of the top sights in Barcelona are best with pre-purchased (often timed) tickets, else you will spend a painful amount if time in ticket lines (and possibly miss out on a few things entirely). These don't generally need private guides; audio guides are available at most places.

• Camp Nou soccer experience (sells out)
• Picasso Museum (tends to be mobbed even after you get inside, but strategic time-selection might help)
• La Sagrada Familia (first time-slot less busy, but if you ascend a tower that apparently has to be done at the beginning of your visit, and the lower church will be much busier when you are ready to see it)
• Parc Guell (outdoors; consider weather when choosing time)
• Casa Mila/La Pedrera (tends to be very crowded)
• Casa Batllo (tends to be extremely crowded)
• Palau de la Musica Catalana (site-operated tour required)

Places that generally do not call for pre-purchased tickets include:

• Sant Pau Modernista Site
• Miro Museum
• Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
• the many other museums in the city

A day-trip to Montserrat can also be managed on your own.

I agree with the suggestion to fly between these destinations. The trains between Portugal and Spain are limited and from the Basque Country to Barcelona would be a long way by train. You will be amazed at how inexpensive flights within Europe can be.

We drove this itinerary and had six weeks. You need to fly or cut out Barcelona which is to far away otherwise.

We've dropped the idea of Lisbon: its now Barcelona and Basque country- we plan on a couple of days in Bilbabo, rent a car, drive to San Sebastian, maybe French Basque area, Pamplona, and back to Bilbao in 7 days. Flying in and out of Barcelona to Bilbao.

Any suggestions for our road trip?

From Pamplona it's only about a 4-hour train ride to Barcelona, so I'd plan to drop the car in Pamplona rather than driving back to Bilbao and flying.

I haven't driven in Europe so don't know what parking issues you might encounter, but I liked Hondarribia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Burgos and the odd little town of Olite (with good castle) considerably more than Pamplona. The coastal towns of Zarautz, Getaria and Zumaia are pleasant for brief stops, and the hill town of Laguardia (near the Rioja wine country S of V-G and SW of Pamplona) is very atmospheric.

We drove from Salamanca to Barcelona by going north through Basque country a few years ago. We made stops in Segovia, Burgos, and then visited a succession of mostly small towns Santillana del Mar (to see the cave paintings), Bilboa, Hondaribbia, Sos del ray Catholica, and Ainsa, and some small towns in the mountains of Pyranees. To do this efficiently you really need to rent a car.