First Spain Portugal Trip - advice on trip logistics

I think u are covering a lot of ground for 2 wks. Realize upon arrival in Barcelona u will have some jet lag, so your first day will be a short one. Also leave more time for Lisbon. Even without seeing the great gulbenkian museum there is a lot to enjoy on foot or by trolley there,suggest min 3 days then fly out of Lisbon to Seattle. Train to Madrid and out to airport wastes time and lotsa euros. So scenario 1 is better but looks rushed.

This is an aggressive itinerary covering a vast amount of geography thus leaving a minimal amount of time to achieve one of your objectives, hanging out with people (an objective I highly prioritize and typically provides the fondest memories).
Please investigate use of an open jaw ticket to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your trip.
Please take a deeper dive into the locations you list while viewing a map. There are some sizeable distances you are considering traveling in a short time and leaving far too little time to visit the locales. Granada stands out as an example, it is far from being s day trip.
Is this your first trip to Europe? Are you traveling solo?
Why the need to rent the car?
RS just provided a short list of travel tips and I strongly advise taking a gander of hus experise.

Also, given your proximity to the RS office I strongly advise scooting over to meet with on their travel experts.

Since Barcelona and Lisbon are non-negotiable, it makes sense to start in one and end int he other. I think you will use up too much time backtracking from Lisbon to Madrid.

Cordoba is worth an overnight. It's one of the best Andalusian towns in the evenings. Granada is too far for a day trip. The train itself takes over 3 hours from Seville to Granada and you have to include getting to/from the hotel and to/from the Alhambra (presumably that's what you most want to see).

I think scenario 1 makes more sense, to see Madrid early in the trip and to fly out of Lisbon. The only train from Lisbon back to Madrid is an overnight, and either taking that train or dropping a Portuguese rental car in Spain will easily cancel out any savings in the flight price. You don't need a car for Salema-Lisbon, unless you have plans for other stops en-route.

The timing of your plan sounds consistent with Rick's advice in the book, with the most notable exception being that Granada is a long day trip from Seville, 3 hours each way, with not frequent departures, and you'd have to plan the timing carefully around your Alhambra reservation time. It would be easier to stay overnight in Granada.

I would recommend this routing...
1-3 Barcelona
4-6 Madrid (day trip to Toledo)
7-8 Granada
9-11 Seville (day trip to Cordoba)
12-14 Faro & Algarve (road trip)
15-16 Lisbon
Granada definitely NOT possible as a day trip from Seville.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I often agree with the advice given by Chani and Marbleskies and so many others who give very useful travel tips. In fact, there are several posts in the last few months that I have bookmarked for later perusal. To answer some of the questions: yes, been to Europe 4 x, twice as a child; yes, traveling solo this trip; the car in the Algarve is to explore the Southern Portugal coastline a bit, possibly to include Sagres.

I often visit ETBD in Edmonds. In fact, I routinely take their travel classes in the Spring and Fall and, just two weeks ago, took my Dad to purchase packing cubes and have lunch in wonderful Edmonds. If you know me at all, I am a lurker on the Forum (Helpline) and really only post when there is a subject I can definitively help with OR if I have specific questions.

Yes to using the multi-city option for booking flights. Probably SEA-BARC and LIS-SEA; I have had Scenario #1 planned for 4-5 months now but guess I started over thinking. So, given all your suggestions, I am going to try real hard to add another day somewhere and to also try overnight in Cordoba. Still working full-time with little more than 10 days a year for vaca. As it is, I am carrying over 4-5 days from last year just to make this trip and still have some days in the summer for my family here in Seattle.

Additional questions:

Should I first go to Granada from Madrid and then work my way to Seville, stopping in Cordoba one night?

Which is easier/quicker: train Madrid > Granada or Madrid > Seville, with stop in Cordoba? I really want to work both Granada and Cordoba into my trip.

Again, I have learned so much from this Helpline and from the wonderful posters here.

Linda

Madrid to Sevilla via Cordoba is about 2-5 hrs by high speed AVE with at least hourly departures
Madrid to Granada is much slower at 4.5hrs and only 2 direct services per day.
It still makes more sense though to head to the Portuguese border from Sevilla.

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the compliment.

Tough question: Is Madrid high on your list? The big attractions are the museums and the palace. Would you consider skipping it in order to spend 2 nights in Granada and see the Alhambra? You could drop Madrid from Scenario 1, just connecting there to Toledo and then Granada. From Granada to Seville with a day trips to Cordoba and Jerez.

I don't see how you can reasonably fit in Granada without skipping something else, unless you can somehow extend the trip by a day or two.

If time is tight I would suggest you make your travelling in the period from say 6pm to 9pm.
This sees you arriving at your destination rested, ready for dinner and the Spanish night life in the streets/bars/clubs.
Personally over the years I have done lots of waiting around for things to happen during these hours.

1) am jealous of your proximity to RS office
2) you are wise to take advantage of what exists so near to you
3) great advice given to travel during the early evening. BTW: AVE second class is equal to USA airlines business class. Carefully learn how to boot tickets online in advance to save much money using the RENFE site, BUT you must be committed to making the train on the day and time purchased.
4) I am enthralled with Granada, Chani (whom I someday hope to meet) is likewise with Cordoba; we are both "right". However, to meet the time and logistics of this trip and hopefully allow you more time to make connections with people. I recommend (wah!) skipping Granada. ;( I can't believe I just wrote that. BUT................. make the sacrifice and give yourself more time to enjoy your trip. I am just feeling there will be too much travel stress added by attempting to make all these locales during this trip.
5) Totally understand about vacation time, it was the biggest challenge I faced while working in corporate America. However, our older daughter recently graduated college and joined the work force and negotiated the following understanding into her first job; in addition to her paid vacation she can take up to 5 additional days a year unpaid as long as her immediate manager approves. This is a tactic I used and found acceptable to HR as they figured as long as the company is not paying for it how could they refuse the request.
6) somewhere on thus trip go get LOST! Make a wrong turn and/or get off on the wrong metro/bus stop and then find the local cafe offering food you cannot describe and a matching drink. Sit down and enjoy the flow of humanity and make a wonderful memory.

Thanks for your compliments, Happy New Year and enjoy a great trip!

Again, thank you all for your tips and tricks for this itinerary. The advice about going straight to Granada from Madrid and then making Cordoba a day trip from Seville makes sense but that train ride is long compared with going to Cordoba from Madrid. I don't want to cut out Madrid because I have always wanted to visit the Prado and there are other places near Madrid, like Montserrat, that intrigues me. Saying that, not sure I will even be able to fit Montserrat into the Madrid plan though. We'll see. Traveling solo, like I do most of the time, makes it somewhat easier.

Last night, I pulled up the Renfre site, as well as, the Portuguese train site to look at logistics of train travel. Also, the bus in Portugal looks like the best way to get around for the most part, if I decide not to drive. Haven't yet found how to get to Sagres if I am not driving. Perhaps a scheduled tour or something.

Well, I will continue planning this itinerary and have pretty much decided to add at least one more day so that I can stay in Granada for a night. Don't usually like one night stays but will possibly this time around. I'll keep posting my questions. Thanks again.

Linda

Montserrat is near Barcelona, not Madrid...

Thanks Kathleen. Got mixed up.

Linda,

I'm looking to do the same trip in October from Seattle. Could you share what the average going airfare is to fly home from Madrid and Lisbon?

I was tracking airfare with various different arrival/departure cities and, for the most part, the airfares have been hovering around $1350 to as high as $1470, open jaw or multi-city flights. Finally, I nabbed a flight from Sea-JFK-Barcelona and return Lisbon-Philadelphia-Sea for $1,210 on American Airlines. Good luck with your search.

I'm back from my wonderful 18 days in Spain in February. I went mostly to towns I'd been to before. I liked Cordoba more the second time around (it was my favorite the first time!) when I got to explore more of it. Then I went to Toledo for the first time. It is also my favorite now - along with Cordoba. First time in Barcelona and loved, loved loved it, even though I am not a fan of Gaudi. Learn a little about the major architects before you go. The locals talk about them the way Americans talk about tv stars.

Chani: Sounds like you had a fabulous trip. Now, even more, I want to spend some time in Cordoba. Thanks for updating me on your favorites. I have re-worked my itinerary and will post that soon.

Hi all, now that I have made my airline reservations and have committed to certain days, here is what my new itinerary looks like. I know it is still somewhat crowded. That being said, I do move pretty fast to include some must-sees/dos and I will be travelling solo; if I want to change plans on my day-to-day activities, I will have that flexibility. What do you think of the new schedule?

9/3-Thur Barcelona Arrive from Seattle early a.m.
RS Eixample Walk & Park Guell

9/4-Fri Barcelona: Sagrada Familia, Bari Gotic walk,
Las Ramblas & Cathedral

9/5-Sat Barcelona: Montserrat or Montjuic

9/6-Sun Barceloneta: Beach Morning
Renfre AVE train to Madrid

9/7-Mon Madrid-Prado Museum

9/8-Tue Madrid & Toledo day trip

9/9-Wed Madrid to Granada by train in a.m.
Alhambra-night tour possible

9/10-Thur Granada: Alhambra, early a.m.
Train to Seville

9/11-Fri Seville

9/12-Sat Seville & day trip to Cordoba

9/13-Sun Seville

9/14-Mon Seville to Algarve: train & bus

9/15-Tues Salema

9/16-Wed Salema

9/17-Thur Sagres & travel to Lisbon (train/bus)

9/18-Fri Lisbon

9/19-Sat Lisbon

9/20-Sun Fly home Depart Lisbon, mid-morn