Old Travelers Wanting to Enjoy Spain

I just returned from Spain. Reading your post/question, it sounds like you would benefit from taking the trains when they have regular schedules to where you want to go. Some travelers here find that automatically doing what American travelers are used to doing traveling in the US, i.e., renting a car, usually isn't the best solution for travel in Spain and other places in Europe.

Rick Steves, and probably other travel guides, provide information on the Spanish train system, where it goes and how to manage it for a more enjoyable and less stressful travel experience.

Of course, when you want to drive the backroads, trains won't go there, and then a car rental makes sense. But you'll have a less stressful vacation in Spain if you avoid driving into the historical centers of Spanish towns and cities.

April and May is the perfect time of year to visit Andalucia weather wise. Summer temps are very, very hot. However, I don't think a month is long enough to see every place you mention in your post.

A possible rough itinerary could be to fly into Barcelona first. You could spend a week to 10 days visiting Barcelona, Costa Brava, and a bit of the Pyrenees. Then take the AVE train from Barcelona to Madrid.

Spend 4 to 5 nights in Madrid and Toledo.

Then spend about 10 nights or more in Andalucia (Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, and Seville). Then fly from Seville to Lisbon. Spend a week or so in Lisbon and Sintra, or possibly go to Porto.

I haven't been to Santiago or Bilbao so can't comment on those places. If you try to include them, I think your trip will be too rushed and you will spend too much time traveling. Haven't been to Picos de Europa either.

Forgot to add that you should buy open-jaw tickets (multi-city tickets) to avoid backtracking. You could fly into Barcelona and home from Lisbon.

We spent the summer in Spain with a rental car. I will take trains, local buses, and some cabs on my next trip as I find that driving takes proportionally too much of my energy these days. - over the hill but not out of gas. Plan ahead to visit the caves! WHy go to the cities if you've already been to them since you love the backroads and small towns?

I agree that your tentative travel time sounds too short for the territory you want to cover, irrespective of your ages. I'm 67 myself.

If the trip begins in April, I would certainly start in Andalucia. I am doubtful about the advisability of visiting most of northern Spain at that time of year. Much of the area near the northern and western coasts is cool and damp even in mid-summer, so I'd push places like Bilbao and Santiago de C. toward the end of the trip. There's very limited public transportation into the Picos de Europa until July, for example.

All the places you've mentioned are absolutely worth visiting with the caveat that the town of Andorra-la-Vella doesn't seem to be recommended by those who've been there recently. It was no great shakes back in 1972 and is now reportedly a tax-free shopping haven.

I've spent 4-1/2 months in Spain since May 2016, and I certainly didn't get to every worthwhile place. Portugal is also a great destination, but as you dig into guidebooks I think you'll find Spain l has more than enough to keep you busy. In fact, you may decide you need to make two trips to Spain, as I did.

Based on your preference for back-roads and smaller towns, I think hiring ("rental"), a car is a good idea. However, you could mix and match - using the train or flying for the longer distances to get between the regions that appeal and then a hire car when there.

For Andalucia, for example, I'd consider hiring a car and staying in smaller towns, just taking occasional day-trips from these to the bigger cities that interest you. For example you could start with a base in the East for 4 or 5 days, take a day-trip to the Alhambra, but otherwise tour the Alpujarra mountains, the desert-like parts and the coastal national park east of Almeria.

Then you could switch to a base in the West. From there you could visit Sevilla & Cordoba, but also tour Sierra de Grazalema (it looks a bit like Picos de Europa - they're both mainly limestone) and the Atlantic coast or white villages

All these areas have plenty of smaller towns to visit.

With enough time, you might add a third base in the north, perhaps Baeza, from where you can visit other towns in Cazorla, Jaen province. Cazorla area is relatively green and has lots of caves.

If you ended this portion near Sevilla, you could then catch a coach to southern Portugal, a flight to Porto/Lisbon or a fast train north to Madrid with connections onwards.

'Just' Andalucia has more than enough to offer for a month especially if you like quieter places as well as the main attractions, we spent almost six weeks there last autumn and didn't have time to see many things....This is a short version of our trip report to get some idea.. you have to scroll down because the trip is divided into several posts.
https://www.sloweurope.com/community/threads/two-months-around-andalucia-2018.4178/
I think the weather is going to be better there than in the north. We like quiet out of the way places too but there are lot of those in Andalucia, the vast majority of tourists seem to just stick to Seville, Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada, all of which are worthwhile but not the whole story - Granada is definitely worth at least a few days, there isn't 'just' the Alhambra.
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2019/04/slow-travel-in-granada.html
The only place we found really touristy was Ronda, but only during the late morning. We were there by our car but took it easy and if you already have experience of driving in Europe I wouldn't exclude it. It's nice not to have pull luggage around even if one does travel light, and being able to pile back into the car when you've had enough or are feeling tired is sometimes a lot easier than hanging around waiting for public transport...and some of the smaller places such as pueblos blancos in Sierra de Grazalema for example are really complicated to reach by public transport.However I agree it's not wise to try to access the big cities by car. You mention April/May. Bear in mind that holy week around Easter is going to be very busy and expensive so unless you are interested in the processions etc you might want to avoid that.

Holy Week also means some attractions are closed--not usually all week, but on one or two days, based on local activities. And other attractions may close early on some days. I found it not easy to discover those special schedules, which were often not disclosed on the websites of the venues. Even the local tourist offices were sometimes unsure about the situation, though they made a serious effort to assist visitors by preparing special schedule sheets for Holy Week. It simply seemed that they sometimes weren't given accurate information.

If you're interested in the festivities and OK with paying 50% to 100% extra for hotel rooms, you'll have a more interesting visit during Holy Week, but I'd suggest adding time at all the key stops to allow for the inefficiencies in your Holy Week sightseeing schedule.

Something else to deal with: Most if not all the Granada sights switched to their summer schedules (with long mid-day closing periods) on or around May 1. I suspect the same may have occurred elsewhere. On May 1 the Granada Tourist Office was still handing out a "Good through April 30" schedule chart for the city and was unable to answer my question about when places would be switching over to their summer schedules. That, too, caused some wasted time.

Thank you for your thoughts. It is particularly helpful to know that Holy Week drives up prices. It's in mid-April next year, so you've helped us decide to push our start to later in the month. Do any of you have thoughts on Cordoba's Festival of Patios and the Seville April Fair, especially the closing night with fireworks? Clearly there are crowds but it looks like they could be fun too.

I haven't been to either of those festivals, but I traveled with,a list of specific Cordoba streets to check out and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the patios. I think the festival would be fun. I'm sure it increases tourist traffic and brings out even more locals, but I doubt that it's worse than Holy Week in that regard.

Once you have an itinerary and an approximate route you plan to take, look into some of the small towns between the larger cities. Many are delightful to visit and there are a lot of off the beaten path sights worth stopping at. Those places that most tourists never get to can be very memorable, but it does take some research to find them. Yes, Santiago de Compostela is worth visiting; for a couple nights, one full day.