Spain/Portugal Sept-Oct 2024

Here are some broad comments to get you started.

Although you'll have 7 weeks, you will still have to pick and choose. Spain in particular is large, and there are interesting and varied destinations scattered all over the country. You should start by reading a guidebook for each country and jotting down places you are not willing to miss and places that would be nice to see. Note key sights that would be more than walk-bys, because that will help you estimate how many nights you'll need to spend at each stop. If you are serious about getting off the beaten track, I think you'd do better not to try to cover so much geography. Once you have a list of must-see cities, we can suggest nearby secondary locations that will slot conveniently into your itinerary.

It will probably be best to purchase a multi-city airline ticket, arriving in and departing from different cities. That's not two, one-way tickets; choose "multi-city" on the airline website rather than "one-way" or "round-trip".

The warmest, driest area you will (presumably) be visiting is Andalucia is Spain. That's Seville, Cordoba, Granada at a minimum. Maybe also Malaga, Ronda, white villages, Ubeda/Baeza, Cadiz, Jerez... (I spent a month just in that area a few years ago.) For reasons of weather, I'd try to end the trip there. It could still be unpleasantly hot in early September.

The coolest, wettest area you may be visiting will be northern Portugal and the stretch of Spain along the west and north coasts: Porto, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruna, Bilbao, San Sebastian. There are many interesting cities between A Coruna and Bilbao, mostly inland, and attractive towns along the coast. Although some cities are touristy, this is a great area for less-visited destinations. I'd try to position that area near the beginning of the trip because of the to-be-expected increase in rainfall in October.

Unless you skip all the major cities (not recommended!), a car will be helpful for only part of the trip. The express trains will get you between major cities a lot faster than a car, and you won't have to look for (or pay for) a parking space for the train. Keep in mind that picking up a car in one country and dropping it off in another nearly always comes with a very high extra charge--many hundreds of euros. You'll probably want to avoid that.

Unfortunately, Spain and Portugal are not well-connected by ground transportation--quite the contrary. There are some flights, of course, but if you prefer to travel at ground level, it's useful to know that for most travelers the easiest places to cross the border are in the north (between Porto and Santiago de Compostela) and in the south (via buses between Faro on the Algarve and Seville). A lot of us don't rate the Algarve very high, however.

We too recently returned from a Spain/Portugal trip, but it was just over three weeks. As acraven mentioned, you need to decide what interests you and where you’d like to visit. Since you’d like to visit some off the beaten path places a rental car will come in handy to get to those.

Once you come up with a rough itinerary (I.e., the main stops) you can begin filling in those off the beaten path places. If you have a number of those already identified, they might help with the overall itinerary.

For our recent trip we flew via Madrid because the rental car was literally $1000 less than renting from Lisbon. For ideas, if you wanted to see photos from across Spain and from our recent trip, visit my website. From the main page, click on the image from any of the Spain trips and it will take you to that trip’s photos. Starting in 2011 our trips have focused on smaller sections of the country and smaller off the beaten path towns and villages.

Thanks to everybody that has replied to my Spain/Portugal missive. A lot of great information… On top of the reading I’ve been doing and will continue to do it. Thanks for your input. It’s greatly appreciated.

Consider carefully where you will want a car and where it will be a hindrance. Much of Portugal and Spain have very good rail systems and most of the cities are horrible to drive in and worse for parking. There is usually a huge drop-off charge for a car rented in Portugal and returned in Spain. If you plan to do a lot of driving in Portugal you'll want a toll reader - there's a daily rental fee but it's well worth it because stopping at frequent toll plazas will add too much driving time and I'm not sure you can even pay as you go at all the toll plazas.

I was told by a local (still haven't managed the trip myself though it's high on my list) that the Basque area and Galicia are best in Sept-Oct. You may want to spend 2-3 weeks doing a loop through the north with a rental car from Porto and then flying to another part of Spain.

I spent 3-1/2 weeks in Portugal and had to be very selective. I had a car for about 10 days. I did not travel north of Porto/Douro valley. I've spent 3 weeks in Andalucia twice and only used a car for a few days, mainly in the white hill towns. In several visits to Barcelona/Catalonia, I never needed a car. On the other hand, I love spending time in cities, large and small.

Regarding the car, keep in mind you likely will not like the price for picking up in Spain and dropping off in Portugal, or vice versa, if they even will allow it.

We did find a car much more valuable to have in Portugal for part of the trip (you do not want a car in Porto or Lisbon) than Spain. For Spain, unless you have a specific plan, nearly everything can be done by train and bus. If there is a region of Spain, like Galicia, the Basque region, or one of the less visited interior regions, that benefits with a car, rent for a week or two locally.

I would suggest something like planning Spain as one section, primarily using public transport, then Portugal by car, winding up doing Porto and Lisbon after dropping off the car. While at first glance it might look like it, jumping back and forth between Portugal and Spain really does not work, especially with public transport, so you really are doing two trips in a way.

Regarding tolls in Portugal, they can be confusing. Some roads are all electronic and some still use the paper ticket. The portugaltolls website explains them. Since we rented and returned in Madrid, what we did was register the rental vehicle on the website and added our credit card information for the electronic only tolls. A couple days after passing through the toll readers the charge showed up on my CC. For the paper ticket toll roads, stop and pick up the paper ticket like it used to be in the states, and pay when you leave the road. We chose the manned lane in case there was an issue with our CC.

When registering a foreign vehicle it’s for a period of 30 days, so you need to remember to cancel the registration after you leave Portugal for the last time. If you rent and return in Lisbon, the rental company will have a transponder for the vehicle. I’m not sure what that cost is.

Just a heads up if you're considering Barcelona. They are hosting the America's Cup yacht race in 2024. There will be events throughout the area from August through October.

Aldeias do Xisto (Schist Villages) in Portugal are small villages with houses made of locally available Xisto stone; they are off the beaten track and quite interesting.
https://wetravelportugal.com/schist-villages/

Hi,
Thanks for the heads up on the Americas Cup!! and we will look into the Schist Villages as well.
Thanks to all who have responded it has been most helpful.

Hello fellow travelers! We, too, are heading to southern Spain in October and November. My. biggest question is getting from Sevilla to Porto... looks like flying is the best option as we have to make the trip in a day... leaving in the morning and arriving by 3pm to catch a Douro River cruise. What are the best options to make this trip? Right now, Ryan Air does not have any flights listed after late October and we need a one way on the 6th of November. So, looks like Iberia is the best option and has a connection. Looking forward to hearing from you! Be well, L