Bonjour,
We are fortunate to have 2 months to spend in Portugal and Spain. We will be flying into Porto in January and have til the end of February or so to explore. I would love some dream itineraries for slower travel? We like a week min in any place we go.
Porto looks great, then thought we could travel down to Coimbra, we are not beach goers but love a good coastal port type of town with so history. So I know Algarve is where most go, but is it a must see? We like markets, history, seeing what people do who actually live there, old towns, parks, more outdoors than in mostly? Museums we do on rainy days, but also love a good factory tour!! Train is our mode of transport, but can do a short 1-2 hour bus if need be.
Thinking of sourthern swoop and ending in a city in Spain that flies into Toulouse where we will need to be sometime the end of February/beginning of March.
Love to hear what cities are the ones you would pick for 1-2 week stays for 2 months! Thanks.
kat
Posted by
8248 posts
Forget going to the beach in Portugal and Spain in the Winter.
We have been all over Portugal and Spain (except for the Basque region - we are going next month).
The Douro River Valley is great, you can take the train up to Regua and Pinhao. The tracks run along the north side of the river.
Coimbra is great, also consider taking a day trip to Santiago de Compostela from Porto. We found a local tour company for the great day trip.
Sintra, Cascais, Lisbon, Obidos and Evora are worth some time.
SPAIN,
Madrid is worth a few days, also you can do day trips to Segovia, Avila and especially Toledo.
Seville is special, spend at least 3-4 days and do Cordoba on your way to Seville. Granada and Rhonda in the SE. Valencia if you have time. Barcelona and Girona are good for 4-5 days.
Posted by
Washington DC
28100 posts
One thing you'll need to figure out is how you will cross the border. There aren't many options. One of them is by bus from Faro (and probably a few other places) in the Algarve to Seville.
I trust you are not planning to spend more than 90 days in Portugal/Spain/France and other Schengen countries if you're traveling on US or Canadian passports.