Hello!
We are arriving in Lisbon on 9/23 with two young children. For the first 7 days we are in Portugal but we need to be in Oviedo, Spain on 9/30. As of now, I have no transportation reserved. We were shying away from a rental car (especially in Lisbon) but are open to getting one on our way out of town. Our other thought was to use the Euro rail to work our way north. Does anyone have any recommendations on getting a family of 4 from Portugal to Oviedo?
Assuming that you want to go from Lisbon to Oviedo, fastest way, of course, is non stop on TAP Air Portugal for a flight of about two hours. Iberia and Vueling offer flights with 1 stopover and will take 2-3 hours longer. Other options are 12 hours by train and bus, 7-8 hours by car. If your car rental is one way and you are returning it in Oviedo, you'll have to pay an additional drop charge of $300-500. Unfortunately, hard choices.
Although Vigo is sort of an obvious place to spend the night on the way from Porto into Spain, it was by far my least favorite Galician town last year. It is not a bad place, but if you can work it out to spend the night in Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, or A Coruna, I thinkyou'll find your surroundings more attractive. Galicia also has a bunch of attractive coastal towns. The small border town of Tuy has a nice historic area and a cathedral with an English-language audio guide.
Orvieto has some important, very ancient churches located outside the center of the town. If you do part of your trip by car, it would be worth trying to see one or more of the churches before dropping the car.
Thank you so much, SteveB and acraven. This is amazing and appreciated!
