Best routes from Barcelona to Andalucia to Portugal (and best places there)

Are you planning to take trains and buses? It is likely to be very expensive if you rent a car in Spain and drop it off in Portugal.

Actually thinking of taking a short flight from Barcelona to Granada (and hour and half flight for around $80 vs. over 8 hour drive). From Granada, I thought we could stay in one of the hill villages and likely take to train to Portugal.

-Lynn

Flying from Barcelona to Granada will work fine. That's a good idea if those are the two cities you most want to see.

The issue is with getting from Granada to Portugal. There is no rail service beyond Seville, so you'd probably need to take a bus from there to Faro. It will mean a bus from Granada to Antequera, a train from Antequera to Seville, a bus from Seville to (I think) Faro, then a bus or train to wherever you really want to go (which is likely not Faro).

What it comes down to is that it's really not a good idea to try to combine Spain and Portugal when you don't have much time, unless you just want to do a two-city trip (Madrid/Lisbon or Barcelona/Lisbon) and fly between the two cities.

Have you already bought your airline tickets? If not, I'd definitely drop Portugal from this trip. By the time you deal with difficult ground transportation from Granada to an attractive place in the Algarve (Tavira and Lagos seem to be the most frequently recommended these days) and allow time for getting to Lisbon the day before your flight home, your 3 days for Portugal will have turned into one day. Those last three days will be mostly about transportation, not sightseeing. Frankly, this doesn't sound like the kind of itinerary that would appeal to someone who like the amenities.

It's just a guess, but I'm betting you don't have much time scheduled for Barcelona, either, so I'd shift that Portugal time to Barcelona and figure out a way to fly home from Malaga.

It would be easier for us to make suggestions if we had a picture of your entire trip.

Your time estimates don't seem realistic. An hour and a half flight takes about 5 hours door-to-door, possibly more depending on whether you have to check luggage (low weight limits on many short flights) and if you encounter traffic. Most people take the better part of a day to see the Alhambra - it's big. So you need 2 nights in Granada. Then you'll use about 1/2 day to get to your "little gem" and then another 1/2 day (or more) to get to Lisbon. Looks like you can fly TAP from Malaga or Sevilla or Madrid. I might have missed something, but it looks like the only flights from Spain to Faro are from Madrid. Granada to Madrid is a 4.5-5 hour bus or train ride, add getting to/from the station and the to the airport . . . .

What you need to do is work out how many nights you have on the ground. You need 2 nights for 1 day of sightseeing, 3N=2D . . . That will give you a better idea of what is feasible.