Itinerary Guidance

At that age, tapas spots were beloved in Barcelona by my kids, as well as park Guell and the other Gaudi sites. They also loved markets and picking foods to try.

6 in 14 solo? I’d say go for it. With 5? I’d cut it in half or add 7-10 days as it’s going to be a ton of work moving that crew every 2-3 days.

I think the order of your trip is fine having done a similar trip but starting in Madrid. I would consider adding Ronda, a “drive-thru” of the White Towns and possibly a stop in Arcos. If driving, visit Evora first and then lose the car when you get to Lisbon. People complain about driving in Naples. I have and I think Lisbon even more challenging! Drop off charges when renting in one country and returning the car in another are expensive. On my trip, the drop charge was $500 but I could have not done the trip without paying it. I’d call AutoEurope and speak with one of their customer service folks. Calling saved me a few hundred dollars on the drop fee.

Having a car, especially a family of 5, will let you travel on your own schedule. But remember to get one large enough to fit family and luggage. Train service in Span is good but I have no experience with it. Unfortunately the only way to get from Seville to Lisbon is bus, plane or drive. Seville to Evora is about 3 1/2 hours by car, more than 4 hours flying to Lisbon.

If you are looking for an exceptional restaurant in Evora, dine at Botequim Da Mouraria. I had my best meal of three week trip there. It is small, about 10-12 seats at a counter. Arrive before they open to get a seat or you’re in for a long wait. Check their ratings on line.

My hat's off to you to taking your family on such a great trip. We used to rent a car and drive as far and fast to as many places possible in 2 weeks and 3 weekends. $9 a U.S. gallon gasoline in Italy opened our eyes to traveling slower, and we now see so much more staying in great cities and doing day trips..

Don't forget that your first day and last day of a trip is wasted. And every time you move from city to city you also lose a day. Traveling with a group of five is also difficult--from finding transportation to finding accommodations. The good news is that short term apartment rentals in Spain are much less expensive than in places like France and England.

We've twice been to the Mediterranean coastal cities in Spain and found them to be very congested with high rise condos--too much traffic. Just prior to the Pandemic, we flew into Madrid for 5 days and then went to Granada for 3 days. We flew on Vueling over to Barcelona and spent a few days in an apartment. Then we took a fast train to Paris--650 miles and 6.5 hours away. We enjoyed inland Spain so well that my wife and her daughter turned around and went right back. Let me just warn you that Spain and Portugal together are very large countries, and two weeks is not long enough to see it all.

Your trip would go much smoother if you would choose 4 highlighted cities, and stay in apartments--doing day trips as time allows. And I can certainly vouch for Madrid, Granada and Barcelona to be three of those four cities as they're all very important places--full of architecture, history, religion, food and culture. You'll find the Spanish people to be very nice and incredibly beautiful too.

You can fly nonstop from Barcelona to Granada and from Sevilla to Lisbon. You can also take a train from Barcelona to Granada but will take 6h 30m and may require a connection. I don’t believe driving will be faster either. There are direct trains from Granada to Cordoba (1h 45m) and Cordoba to Sevilla (45-minutes).
You can take a direct train from the Lisboa Oriente station to Sintra (30-minutes) and from Lisboa – Sete Rios station to Évora (1h 30m). You’ll need a car for Marvão nor is it a day trip from Lisbon.

I did Seville and Portugal. Córdoba is an easy day trip from Seville. When we went you couldn’t rent a car in Spain and drive it into Spain, so we hired Suntransfers to take us over the border and picked up our car before continuing on to the Algarve then to Evora, then to Porto where we dropped the car and took the train to Lisbon.
I would skip a Evora. Takes a long time to get there and left earlier than planned. Consider Sintra (a day trip from Lisbon) and Porto both are easy by train.

Consider Sintra and Porto both are easy by train.

It takes 3h 15m to get from Lisbon to Porto.

What you have listed is by no stretch a 2-week trip. The four Spanish cities alone are about a 2-week trip if you want to pick and choose your sightseeing targets rather than seeing most of the top sights. Traveling between Spain and Portugal is a bear. I would definitely not do it on a 2-week trip. Portugal by itself would make a nice 2-week trip (though you'd have to pick and choose carefully).

Limiting the trip to Spain would greatly simplify the logistics. If budget is a concern at any level, you won't want to deal with the international drop charge that would come with picking up the car in Spain and dropping it off in Portugal.

There are very fast trains on the Barcelona - Madrid - Cordoba - Seville line. They are much, much, much faster than driving those legs. I believe the last time I looked, the travel times by train and car from Granada to Seville and from Granada to Cordoba were similar enough not to really factor into a decision about transport.

Valencia is a nice place, but it's not as special as the others, and I suspect the children would vote for a day at a beach near Barcelona rather than going to another city. There are many good day trips from Barcelona. Incidentally, Barcelona is the only Spanish coastal city on your list. That's the easiest place to plan time for water activities.

I've never bothered with Gibraltar. It just hasn't seemed interesting enough to me. To do it efficiently calls for a rental car. Should you decide to include Gibraltar, you might like to know that the driving route from Seville takes you right past Jerez. I haven't been there, but there are occasional horse shows there that others have enjoyed. Also sherry bodegas, but I doubt if they'd do much for the kids.

Are you aware of how hot July is likely to be in Seville (the hottest place on your list--maybe the very hottest in all of Europe), Cordoba and Granada? Here are the actual, historical, day-by-day weather statistics for Seville in July 2021: https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/spain/sevilla/historic?month=7&year=2021

That website, timeanddate.com, has similar data for most cities around the world, going back about ten years. I like to check five years for any place I'm going that might be uncomfortably hot or cold. Andalucia is the summer definitely falls in that category.

There are many wonderful places in Spain you could add. If you had more time. If you want to squeeze something else in, I'd do it in the north. Barcelona may be pretty warm (and sometimes it gets humid). but Andalucia is an entirely different universe. Before anyone suggests Zaragoza: It's a very attractive place, but it is likely to be scorching hot, too. Coastal breezes or the Pyrenees would be what I wanted after roasting in Andalucia. And the Pyrenees (car pretty much necessary) wouldn't be a one-day side trip, I don't think.

Hi Mary, You have a fantastic itinerary. Were you traveling solo or just with your partner, I would say go for it. But having been to Spain and Portugal, I really think you will have a much more enjoyable trip reducing the destinations. Barcelona, and places you could daytrip to—Girona, Tossa De Mar, and maybe Montserrat could easily fill 10 days. Add Granada and Seville and your dance card is full.

Keep in mind the average temperature in July in Barcelona is 84 degrees; in Granada it’s 94 degrees and in Seville it’s 96 degrees. Knowing the parking situation in these cities makes me loathe to suggest a car rental. That, and I think the would-be driver should also be able to enjoy the trip. Check Skyscanner.com for flights between Barcelona and Granada. You can get to Seville from Granada in about 3 hours by train. Visit Cordoba as a daytrip from Seville,

Concentrate on a trip to Spain. You might want more time in coastal cities in July, but Barcelona, Granada and Seville/Cordoba are plenty to make your family vacation a fantastic one,

When my children were 11 and 14, back in the mid-90s, we took them to Spain for 18 days or so. My daughter only wanted to swim and my son to play basketball and see castles. We had no intention of doing a deep dive into any one place, rather, introduce them to the country and some highlights. In that time we visited Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Córdoba, Gibraltar, Pamplona, Mérida, Trujillo, Rota (my son was born there), Sevilla, and Granada. We also crossed into France to visit Lourdes. We had a rental car and camped most of the time. While I can’t say I’d do the trip the same way now, other than the summer heat, both children loved the trip and the places we visited. Back then parking wasn’t the issue it is now.

As Acraven mentions above, inland Spain is hot in July, especially Andalucía and Madrid.
How well do you cope with 95-100F temperatures (with lower humidity than on the US East Coast, but still)? If the answer is "poorly", I would skip Andalucia altogether and just fly from Barcelona to Portugal, where you can spend more time. Evora will be hot but the coast is very pleasant.

If the heat is OK with you, then for logistics/ time reasons I would leave out Portugal, and perhaps add Valencia instead. You could drive or take the train from Barcelona to Valencia, then drive to Andalucia, returning the car at the start of your stay in Seville.