Advise for month long trip to Spain/Portugal- June/July 2017

I would advise to drop into Cadiz on your way to Portugal. It is a charming city with stunning old town (if I am not mistaken, it is one of the oldest towns in Europe). And have a dinner in La Isleta de la Vina, tapas there are the best!

Andalucia (Sevilla/Cordoba and south to the Med coast) is the hottest, driest part of Europe. I don't know if it will make much difference (Madrid gets very hot too), but I'd try to start in the south and end in the north. . . . unless you don't mind temps in the high 90's and above.

In the planning stages, use bahn.de for train schedules and also read this article about Spanish trains. You can use the Renfe website to check prices with these caveats: 1 trains only show up once they are offered for sale, generally tickets go on sale 62 days in advance (Renfe is erratic, sometimes it can be 3-4 months in advance, sometimes only a week or two); [2] there are a few seats at "promo" prices, they only go up, never down; [3] they are still working on upgrading the tracks to Granada for high-speed trains, they may be finished before you go - work was originally scheduled to be completed nearly a year ago. Use viamichelin.com to find driving times and routes. It also gives you estimated costs - fuel (based on the type of car) and tolls. Try both autoeurope.com and gemut.com for rental prices as well as rental companies. If you've never rented and/or driven in Europe, gemut has a very good article on "what you should know."

A month sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. On my first visit, I spend 21 days in Andalucia thinking I would then cross it off my list. It took about a week to realize that I'd be back . . . and I have, twice already since my first visit 3-1/2 years ago!

3 nights = 2 full days. That's barely enough for Sevilla considering you have a long drive to get there and a long drive to your next destination. Cordobe deserves the better part of a day. One night in Tarifa will give you enough time to visit Tangier (more like a border town - think Tijuana vs. Mexico) or Gibraltar and get to Ronda, but not both. I haven't gone to either yet, my research always indicated that there was more to see in Spain itself. If you want to see any of the places after dark, you will have to stay overnight - sunset will be between 9.30-10.00.

Consider open jaw flights for Madrid/Lisbon.
Connect Spain and Portugal by flying Granada to Porto. Even with a month you may have to drop some options from your wish list. You may have to choose between the Algarve and Gibraltar, Tarifa, Tangiers.

Fly in to Madrid
Segovia - 3 nights (Avila, Salamanca)
Madrid - 3 nights
Toledo - 2 nights
Córdoba - 2 nights
Sevilla - 3 nights
Hire car from Sevilla to Granada
Gibraltar, Tarifa, Tangiers (???)
Ronda and white hill towns - 3 nights
Nerja - 3 nights
Granada - 2 nights
Fly via Madrid to Porto
Porto - 2 nights
Coimbra - 1 night
Lisbon - 3 nights (Sintra)
Hire car for Algarve - 3 nights
Fly out of Lisbon

I urge you not to plan to pick up a car, drive to Segovia, drive to Avila and drive to Salamanca in one day. That's over 4 hours of driving, which doesn't account for time needed to pick up the car and find parking in Segovia and Avila. Segovia is worth a lot more than a quick view of the aqueduct. Although it's a slightly less direct route, I'd suggest going first to Avila, then to Segovia to spend the night. That will allow you some flexibility in how much time you spend in Segovia. If a few hours on that driving day is enough, you can leave for Salamanca the next morning. If there's more wandering you want to do, you can leave for Salamanca in the late afternoon.

I can't comment on Zamora, which I haven't seen, but the most direct driving route from Salamanca to Coimbra seems to run past Ciudad Rodrigo (Spain) and Guarda (Portugal) and very near Viseu (Portugal). Those are all nice cities to visit.

Four days on the Algarve and four days in Nerja seems like a lot of coastal time to me, but I am not a beach person at all.

Try to allow more than half a day (after driving up from Nerja or Granada) in Toledo. It's one of Spain's top sights.

I think you're better off with 2 nights in Tarifa to accomplish a full-day trip to Morocco, then visit Gibraltar on your drive toward Ronda.

Although I've only used train and bus in these two countries, I've driven in the rest of western Europe and would be happy with the one-month driving plan for freedom and flexibility (picking up and dropping off within the same country).

Some central Lisbon hotels may have parking and will charge for it, or you can expect to pay €20 per day to park in a large underground garage like Praca dos Restauradores (mentioned in Rick's Portugal book). The Belem district also looks like it would be easy to drive into via the A36 and has both sites to visit and tram and bus service to the city center.

Hi Katiemarie, My husband and I did something very similar for almost a month last April. It was wonderful! I can't recommend it enough! Our route was kind of reversed from what you are contemplating, but it's all good. We started in Madrid, then headed to Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, Seville. (We also stopped briefly at Ubeda on the way.) Then we drove to La Linea, across from Gibraltar where we spent an afternoon (enough for us.) After that we headed to the White Hill Towns, stopping at Ronda, and then spending the night in Arcos. From Arcos, we headed to Merida--very cool place, especially if you like Roman ruins, before entering Portugal. On the way to Lisbon, we stopped in Evora (I would not waste my time on the Almendres Prehistoric site, though--very difficult to get to and underwhelming when you see it, especially if you've been to Stonehenge.) In Lisbon, we stayed in a hotel in the suburbs and took the train into town, which worked very well (we also did that in Madrid.) Driving is wonderful out in the countryside and getting to smaller towns, but we find it very frustrating in big cities, so that always works best for us, especially with the great connections into the city on trains and local buses. Now that I think about it, we also stayed on the outskirts of Seville, and took a local bus to the old city (fun if you know a little Spanish.) From Lisbon we went to Coimbra, stopping at the really cute medieval town of Obidos on the way. We didn't make it up to Porto, although I hear good things about it. From Coimbra, we went back into Spain, first to Ciudad Rodrigo on the way to Salamanca, then to Zamora, Avila, El Escorial, and Segovia. Originally we were planning to head back to Madrid, but ended up adding a couple of days to the trip, and went on to Zaragoza, Teruel and Cuenca before going back to Madrid. I should point out that we had already visited Barcelona on a Mediterranean cruise, which is why that wasn't part of our itinerary and why we hadn't originally scheduled stops in Zaragoza, Teruel, and Cuenca--which turned out to be a real highlight of the trip! Sorry to be so long and rambling, but as you can tell this subject excites me. We have done a lot of travelling, and this was one of the best trips ever. I would say that weather could be an issue for you--as in hot! We travelled between April 8 and May 5, and had only a little rain, and warm temps with lots of sunshine (and sunburn!) So not sure how hot it might be in June and July. If you have waded through this posting and still want to hear more, you can send me a private message. Good luck!

Sounds like a very good plan @katiemarie1042! We’ve been many times on summer holidays with my wife and 2 children. I suggest you add Valencia and Malaga to your trip. Valencia is the city which has the perfect equilibrium of history and innovation with its old historical city centre and the out-of- space buildings in the City of Arts of Sciences create by the architect Calatrava. Malaga is a very cosy city in Andalucia where you’ll be able to visit to Museum of Picaso.