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Portugal and Spain Help

We are planning a 16 night trip with our 1 year old to Portugal and Spain. We are renting a car to make getting around easier with our son. We have the following amount of nights in each location. We are looking for help picking the best places to stop for lunch or the afternoon when traveling between destinations.

Flying into Lisbon renting a car and driving to Sintra for two nights.

Driving from Sintra to Seville and looking for a stopping point for lunch. Maybe Merida?

Staying 7 nights in Seville.
Planning two day trips from Seville
1) Jerez
2) Ronda and Acros de Fonteria on the way back

Driving from Seville to Vilamoura and looking for a stopping point for lunch. Maybe Tavira?
Staying 3 nights in Vilamoura.

Driving from Vilamoura to Lisbon and looking for stopping points along the way. Maybe Lagos, Salema or Sagres?

Staying 4 nights in Lisbon
Any recommended day trips from Lisbon. We have 3 full days there after our travel day. We will have already seen Sintra.

We typically keep a pretty fast pass when traveling but with our son we likely will be going slower on this trip. This our first time to both Portugal and Spain. Any advice on must see destinations is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for the help!
Dana

Posted by
1669 posts

Just a couple of thoughts. While in Sevilla, Córdoba is a must for a day trip. The Mezquita there is an amazing site and very close to Sevilla.
Tavira is a nice town and would make a good lunch spot.
When driving to Lisbon from the Algarve, the towns you mention are very much out of your way. Especially Lagos is worth a day trip while in that area for the amazing rock formations.
You can easily fill three days in Lisbon, especially if you visit Belem - which you should.

Posted by
5 posts

Thanks! If you did a day trip to Córdoba from Seville would you drive or take a train?

Posted by
15582 posts

The train is much faster and it's more comfortable than being buckled into a car. It's a short taxi ride from the train to Cordoba's historic center. Tickets are much cheaper if you buy early They usually go on sale 62 days in advance. It's my understanding that you don't have to buy a ticket for a child under 4 if he sits on your lap. Chances are the train won't be full and he won't have to. Promo (cheapest) tickets for the fast train (45 min.) can be as low as €15/pp each way. Or you buy last-minute tickets for the slow train (close to 1.5 hours) for €22.40/pp round-trip.