Lisbon to Barcelona with kids in February

You arrive in Lisbon on Feb. 10. If that's from the US or Canada, the overnight flight is likely to leave you sleep-deprived and jetlagged. I, personally, don't count my arrival day as a real sightseeing opportunity. It's more a day to walk around outdoors and try hard (not always successfully) to stay awake until after dinner. You need to travel to Barcelona no later than Feb. 16, so that gives you only five full days in Lisbon. You can easily fill that time with the city itself and Sintra. If you want some time in small towns (don't know whether they will be dead in February), you can try Obidos or perhaps a bus tour that takes you to several places. If none of those options appeal, you can head to Barcelona a day early.

If you arrive in Barcelona on Feb 16 and leave on Feb 22, you have only five full days in Barcelona. That is not a long time for that sight-rich city. I definitely would not plan to take 3 day-trips if I had only 5 days and a few hours in Barcelona. It's very time-consuming to change hotels, so I would not choose to do so in order to spend one night somewhere else. My first choice for a day-trip from Barcelona would be Girona rather than any of the places you mention, but of course that decision depends on what sort of things your are interested in doing.

If I had your fixed parameters (the flights), I'd probably opt to spend the first five nights in Lisbon, travel to Barcelona on Feb 15, and either spend all the remaining nights in Barcelona or spend 2 in Girona and the rest in Barcelona. Figueres is a shorter day-trip from Girona than from Barcelona, but I'd only change hotels if I valued the opportunity to spend two nights in a charming smaller city that is a lot less hectic than Barcelona.

However, before deciding on how many nights you want to spend in Barcelona, you need to spend some time with a guide book to the city so you know what sights you want to visit. Barcelona has many that require prepurchased, timed tickets, so if you have an interest in those sights, you really cannot wing it and will have to lay out a partially-fixed itinerary. You cannot simply start out each day with vague plans and cram in as much as possible, which makes Barcelona not the place for a hit-and-run visit if you are the typical tourist. You also have the soccer game to attend.

I agree with acraven. Spend 5 nights in Lisbon with a day trip to Sintra, and then spend the remainder of your time in Barcelona. Barcelona has an enormous amount of sights. We were there for 5 nights and didn't see everything. We also spent 5 nights in Lisbon with a day trip to Sintra, and didn't see everything. IMO, if you spend less time in each place, you will be frustrated because you won't be able to see everything.

If you haven't already done so, please purchase some good guidebooks, such as Rick Steves, Fodors, Rough Guide, etc.

With only 10 full days for both Lisboa and Barcelona I would not try to get bogged down by adding another city in between the two.

Ground transportation between Portugal and Spain is rather convoluted, you would first have to take the bus to Mérida then take the bus to Madrid and then hop on the AVE to Barcelona, a total travel time of 12 hours, yikes! I think that your best bet would be to just fly direct from Lisboa to Barcelona, which is only a 1:50 hr flight. It will save you precious vacation time and ultimately money, if you can fly with a low cost carrier.

As for day trips from Barcelona, there is such a variety, that it really depends on your interests. I was thinking that your children may find the Roman ruins in Tarragona interesting. Tarragona is 1:15 hr south of Barcelona via train and has some of the best Roman ruins in Spain. Including a Roman seaside amphitheater and Praetorium tower, which are both designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. They also have a great Roman history museum called Museu Nacional Arqueològic (MNAT), showcasing various treasures from antiquity. The twisting medieval center of Tarragona also makes for a nice place for walks and dining.

About 2 miles west of Tarragona, at Pont del Diable, there is a totally intact Roman Aqueduct that is worth a look too. You can actually walk over it like a bridge (if you dare!). The surrounding forested area is great for some casual hiking too.

February
10. Arrive Lisbon (4 nights)
12. Day to Sintra
13. Visit Belem & Cascais
14. Train to Porto (2 nights)
16. Fly to Barcelona (6 nights)
17. FC Barcelona
18. Visit Montserrat
20. Day to Girona
22. Depart Barcelona

Thanks everyone for taking the time to give thoughtful responses. I think we will take the advice not to try to add another major stop in between Lisbon and Barcelona. Thoughts are we will spend 5 days in Lisbon with some quality time in Cascais and Sintra and then fly to Barcelona on the 15th. We will have 6 days in BCN and will narrow down choices for 2 day trips in that time but probably keep our hotel in BCN the entire time. Thanks so much!

It's a long way to Barcelona (BCN) from Lisbon (LIS) or Porto (OPO) if you stay on the ground. Use Google Flights to find airlines, flights and prices. Then go directly to the airlines for potential booking. Keep in mind that there are a variety of prices and that most of the airlines make it difficult to carry-on 2 items and/or charge extra for hold baggage, so don't get too excited when you see the lowest prices. You will have to add to them.

Sounds like a pain, and it is, but nothing like trying to go by bus and train. Rome2rio says the fastest (13+ hours) is by train and bus. The multiple change details are here.

Flying will take roughly 4-5 hours when you count getting to the Lisbon airport, going through security, waiting to board, getting from the Barcelona airport to town and the time zone change. Spain is in the Central European Time Zone and is an hour ahead of Portugal which is in the Western European Time Zone, so you lose an hour going east.

Play around with Google Flights and Rome2rio using your travel dates. I agree with those who say to concentrate on Lisbon and Barcelona. I'm sure the kids will love all the things you can do in both cities, many of which have already been mentioned.

I became a Salvador Dali fan after my 5th grader knew about the melting clock from math class. We enjoyed Dali’s house in Port Liigat, it is unique and right on the Mediterranean. Next we stopped in Figueres for Dali’s museum. With kids, I like going to gift shops first so they can look for things they found interesting like post cards in the museum. We did rent a car to get around on our own.

Hi I was wondering what you will be doing. I am doing the same trip in August and wanted to see what will be your itinerary.

Hi there! We are sticking pretty much to the plan outlined in a post above. We arrive in Lisbon on the morning of the 10th and will spend the 10-14th in Lisbon with time in Cascais/Sintra. Fly out to Barcelona on the 15th and then stay in Barcelona through our flight out the morning of the 23rd. We will do a day and one overnight in Girona and may visit Figueres but playing that by ear a bit. As the place in Girona was pretty inexpensive, we are just keeping the same place in Barcelona the whole time so we won't have to move all of our luggage and we will just bring a day's worth of items for Girona.

In Lisbon, we are staying in the Baixa-Chiado area and plan on spending time wandering around the Alfama, eating and drinking and people watching. Hope to visit Belem, St. George's and some of the lookouts that offer amazing views over the city. The kids are usually pretty happy if they have good food and if we can stop somewhere to buy a soccer ball and then kick it around in a park or city square, but we may hit the aquarium as well if they are getting antsy. If we were going in the summer we would probably schedule a bit more time at Cascais/Estoril to enjoy the beaches but I'm still hoping we get some sunny weather so we can walk the beach promenade and enjoy our time down there. Being from Seattle, we are used to cold, windy, rocky beaches so any sun and sand will be appreciated even if it is chilly!!

In Barcelona, we are staying right near the Block of Discord and will do a lot of walking and exploring the gothic quarter and I'm sure we will hit the Ramblas, La Boqueria, Placa de Catalunya and the Cathedral as we wander around. We will go to the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and would like to go up to Montjuic if we have time. It looks like you need to buy tickets ahead of time for SF and Park Guell so I will probably do that a little closer to our departure so I can factor the weather forecast into it. We have tickets to the FC Barcelona game which was moved from the 17th to the 16th so we need to rearrange some of our plans around that. In Girona, I think we will explore on our own, but being big Game of Thrones fans, I have been looking into some of the guided tours that visit the filming sites.

I bought the "Mission Barcelona" scavenger hunt book for the kids which looks like a lot of fun. Any other suggestions for things to do with the kids in either Lisbon or Barcelona is very welcome! Also - we would like to avoid the very touristy restaurants and want to try local food so if anyone has any recommendations there we would love it.

Thanks everyone - I love all of the help we receive from this community!