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Traveling from Portugal to Spain. What are the best cities to visit over 10 days?

We are landing in Lisbon from the US on August 27th and we need some advice on travel! We are thinking of taking a train to Porto for a few days, then flying to Seville, Spain from Porto. We want to try and visit a nice beach resort also. Would it be hard to get to Ibiza from seville or should we go back to portugal to the algarve? Any travel ideas/advice would be much appreciated!! We fly back out of Lisbon on the 7th of September. Would you suggest we spend a few days there as well?

Posted by
6113 posts

Sorry, but I think that you are trying to cover too many locations in your timeframe. Lisbon can easily fill 5 full days including day trips to Sintra and Cascais. Porto and the Douro Valley can fill another 3 days including getting there from Lisbon.

Transport links between Spain and Portugal are limited. There are no direct flights from Porto to Seville for example.

I would recommend that you drop either Porto or Seville. If you went to say Tavira from Lisbon, you could then take a bus to Seville. Note that Tavira’s beach is out on the barrier island, reachable by a short water taxi ride. Porto to the Algarve will take much of a day travelling door to door.

It would have made more sense to buy open jaw tickets rather than losing a day back tracking to Lisbon.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you so much for this!! We thought we may be trying to do too much so this helps!!

Posted by
26834 posts

Seville's average high temperature in August is 100F. The record is 117F. Those figures only include dates through 2010, so I imagine the real figures are even higher. Anything is bearable for 2 days, but August is really not a good time of year to go to Andalucia.

Posted by
768 posts

You'll arrive in Lisbon August 27 (I'd guess between 7:00-8:00 Lisbon time), and you fly out of Lisbon on September 7 (at what, between 10:00 and 14:00 hr)? You didn't say where you're flying from, I'm guess it's 7 to 10 time zones west of Lisbon? If you're like many of us, it will be a challenge to "hit the ground running" until you've had a few hours sleep. If you can sleep on the train (easier than on an airplane--at least for me and my wife), head straight to Porto and stay the night of the 27th through the 31st, then take the train back to Lisbon and spend the rest of your time there.

If you're compelled to make another stop, spend the night of the 30th in Porto then take the train to Lisbon, when you get to Lisbon head straight for the airport and fly to Seville (we're doing the reverse for our visit in late October) there are a number of flights between Lisbon and Seville. Spend the night of the 31st, 1st and 2nd in Seville, then fly back to Lisbon on the 3rd and spend the rest of your time in Lisbon.

I know, there's no beach in either of these itineraries, but, arguably, a beach is a beach; spend your time at marvelous venues in Porto, Lisbon and (if you choose) Seville.