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3 days in Spain, near the coast!

Hi everyone,

My fiancee and I are going to Porto Portugal for a week in July. We would like to add 3 days onto the end of our trip, to visit Spain! We were thinking of Seville or Madrid, but someone made a good point about the temperature in July and suggested we go somewhere closer to the coast.

With that being said, it would need to be somewhere that has an airport, as we need to get home to Canada. We also need to get there easily by plane from Porto (no more than a 4 hour airplane ride, if possible).

A few places we have heard of so far: Alicante, Valencia, and Malaga. Do you have any more suggestions? Or any opinions about those 3 places?

We are looking for: a romantic, short getaway where we can stay somewhat cool by the water, stay in a nice hotel (for a decent price) and be surrounded by amazing food!

Thank you.

Posted by
362 posts

For Spain, Valencia. Great food, beach, boardwalk, beautiful architecture at Arts & Science centre.
There's also direct flights to Toronto on AirCanada.

Posted by
7280 posts

I'll give a ¡ segundo! for Valencia.

We stayed for a week near Malaga years ago, which was full of holiday makers from England, and the grocery stores were stocked with English specialty foods, like Weetabix. There were English football (soccer) games on the tele in every br, and it was more like being in England than in Spain, albeit maybe a bit warmer.

Posted by
829 posts

What about Galicia? Galicia is the part of Spain that is north of Portugal. The climate is cooler, delicious food, interesting culture.

Posted by
26840 posts

Galicia is a possibility if you can get a good connection home. It would probably be from Vigo, which I would otherwise suggest that you ignore. Santiago de Compostela is a lovely, historic city. I also liked A Coruna and Pontevedra. Galicia has a lot of picturesque coastal towns as well.

But, honestly, as little time as you have, I wouldn't want to deal either with airports or with the complexities of crossing the Portuguese/Spanish border. Why not see Lisbon, Coimbra, or a few of the smaller towns in northern or central Portugal? I haven't been there recently, but I liked Viseu, Guarda and Guimaraes.

Posted by
7175 posts

If you only have three nights I would be looking close by in Portugal. Porto has high speed train services via Coimbra to Lisbon and southern Portugal. Fly home from Lisbon. Much easier.

Posted by
45 posts

Howdy.

If you're going to be in Porto, have you considered going towards Basque country?

Bilbao, San Sebastian, and maybe cross over into Biarritz and Bayonne. There are some lovely beaches and mountains in Basque country. The food is divine and Basque culture is really quite unique from Spanish, French or Portuguese cultures. Plus there are cheap flights from Porto to San Sebastian if time is a consideration.

Alternatively, you could go up to Santiago de Campostella an A Coruna.