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6 week Itinerary Spain and Portugal

Posted by (Australia) on

Hi,

My husband has decided to do the Camino walk in April 2025.

Our plan is to meet in Santiago and then do a trip for 6 weeks in Spain and Portugal. We both fly into Madrid.

I really need some help with my itinerary bases and time frames as I think Im trying to fit far too much in to the trip. We plan to do parts with a car and longer trips by train. We do prefer to stay in one place for 4 or so nights and use as a base but not sure this is possible for this trip. Neither of us has been to Spain before but have travelled extensively throughout Europe. Here is my rough draft so far.

  1. End April meet in Santiago and stay 3 nights (im not sure how tired he will be and me travelling from Australia)
  2. Pick up car and travel along the north Coast possibly staying at a small town like Lastres 2 nights, happy for other suggestions
  3. 1 night Bilbao
  4. 3 nights San Sebastian
  5. 2 Nights Pamploma Train To Barcelona 6.Barcelona 4 nights with day trip to Girona Train To South to Malaga
  6. 2 nights Malaga
  7. 2 nights Granada
  8. 2 nights small town in the area suggestions welcome 10.4 nights Seville day trip to Carmona Go to Portugal
  9. 4-5 nights on a beach type town suggestions welcome
  10. 4 nights Lisbon 13 2 nights suggestions please 14.3 nights Porto Train To Madrid
  11. 4-5 nights Madrid..... Fly Home
Posted by
8727 posts

Yes, you have six weeks, but your itinerary includes places all over the Iberian Peninsula.
Skip the beach, we did Costa del Sol and were very disappointed. Our beach in Georgia was way nicer.

I suggest 3 nights in Bilbao and 2 in San Sebastian.

Porto is great, but you ignored the very, very scenic Douro River valley. Take the train up to Pinhao and/or Regua. Spend at least one night in one of those towns.

Lisbon deserves 4 nights, but you should also visit Sintra, Obidos and Cascais.

You didn't mention Cordoba, do at least a day there.
Toledo is my favorite city in Spain, do NOT miss it. You can do it on a day trip from Madrid.
If you go to Malaga, do not miss Rhonda.

Posted by
431 posts

Looks like you're going to have a great time!

If you haven't already, I'd suggest you read Rick Steves recommended itinerary on this website for both Spain and Portugal.

Here is Spain's to get you started:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/itinerary

Since you commented on wanting longer stays and fewer stops, modify it meet your tastes. Also I see you've sketched out a stop in Malaga as well as some other beach type town. While there is less iconic sites to see on the beach, it is lovely to relax on the beach and there are some nice things to see in Malaga. My wife I spent a month there on beach while taking Spanish classes and had a great time. EDIT: Removed Barcelona mistake.

Have fun planning and traveling!

Posted by
28926 posts

I agree that one night in Bilbao seems short. It has more to see than San Sebastian and is much, much less touristy.

I don't think there's a great deal to see in Pamplona, so I'd be inclined to stop there for no more than one night.

Four nights in Barcelona with a day trip to Girona will give you not much more than 2 full days in Barcelona. That could be painfully short, depending on your sightseeing preferences. Barcelona has a lot of sights for which you'll need to prepurchase timed entry tickets to avoid very long ticket lines and possible sellouts. That makes it hard to be an efficient sightseer, because you can end up with bits and pieces of time between scheduled sight visits. Problem sights include La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila/La Pedrera, Casa Batllo, Parc Guell and the Picasso Museum. Tours of the Palau de la Musica Catalana probably won't sell out completely, but tickets to the English-language tours may very well do so.

It is a very long train trip from Girona to Malaga--at least 7 hours. Malaga is a very pleasant city where I enjoyed more than a full day, but seven hours is a lot of train time to a secondary destination like that.

Carmona is a good day trip from Seville, but it rather pales in comparison to Cordoba, which can be reached by very frequent trains in less than 45 minutes--though I'd prefer between 1 and 3 nights in Cordoba.

And I agree about Toledo; I wouldn't spend time in places like Pamplona and Carmona while passing through central Spain and skipping Toledo. If you felt you didn't have time to give Toledo the attention it deserves on a shortish trip to Spain, that would be different.

Four nights in Seville with a day trip puts you at a risk of short-changing Seville, but that depends on how long a sightseeing list you have for Seville. That time allocation may be sufficient for you.

Your trip from Seville to the Algarve will involve a bus, probably to Faro as a start. I assume those buses are comfortable.

There are few rail departures from Porto that connect well with trains to Madrid. It will be a long slog and could involve a station change in Vigo (which is not a very interesting town, incidentally). There are non-stop flights between Porto and Madrid on several airlines; much as I hate to fly in the middle of a trip, I'd explore those. A better idea would be to visit Madrid while you're traveling south from Barcelona and fly home from Portugal.

Posted by
2 posts

Thankyou all for your great suggestions and feed back I think iIhave now been able to add and delete and tweek my plan.

Posted by
503 posts

The Atlantic Coast is wonderful all the way to France. Lots of lovely little fishing villages. There is world class cave art. The Picos de Europa are amazing mountains. Oviedo is a very nice city. Agree with acraven our day trip to San Sebastian was quite enough, Bilbao is great though. The La Rioja is beautiful lots of vineyards and charming towns perhaps an alternative to Pamplona?
Brad

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