I'll be taking a tour in Portugal for 10 days. Then I'll stay on for additional days before I travel to Spain by eurail or bus?
The difficulty I'm having is determining my route into and thru Spain and the departure City in Spain back to USA.
I don't know if I should travel into Madrid first, stay over go to Toledo stay over Cordoba stay over Sevile stay over, Granada stay over up to Valencia stay over the end in Barcelona stay over and depart from there OR first go to Barcelona from Portugal travel the route Valencia,Granada,Sevile etc. heading towards Madrid and depart from there to USA?
Please someone advise me. I'm leaving May 21 for Portugal but I need to make airline reservations asap as to what city I'll be departing from Madrid or Barcelona. I just don't want to back track. get it?
Can someone advise me. I'm not city person like Barcelona. I've had enough of it in NYC and LA.
Thank you so much
Posted by
California 🦋
5293 posts
- Where will you be at the end of your Portugal tour? Lisbon, Porto?
- How many days/nights will you have in Spain?
- I'd probably fly to my first destination in Spain to save time.
- Seville to Cordoba takes about 45" by train.
- Seville to Granada ->3hours by train or bus.
- Granada to Valencia-> 6 hrs 40 minutes by train.
- Valencia to Madrid will take 1 hr, 50 minutes by high speed train.
- Madrid to Toledo-> 32 minutes by train-- easy day trip from Madrid.
- Fly home from Madrid
Here is an example; If you end tour in Lisbon, you could fly to Seville, with day trip to Cordoba (train)--> Granada (train)--> Valencia--> Madrid with day trip to Toledo.
Depending on how many days you have in Spain, you may want to skip Valencia & Barcelona.
Given this fact:
I'm not city person like Barcelona. I've had enough of it in NYC and LA.
If above fact is true for you, then why are you considering going to Barcelona?
Barcelona is way out of your way especially if you're starting your trip in Portugal.
Posted by
12 posts
Madrid is not really interesting, museums and night life are ok but too crowdy and hot. So I'd reccomend you to stay there for 1-2 days and then go to Valencia. It's at the seaside and The City of Art and Sciense there is amazing!
Posted by
OP
2 posts
It's been recommended I visit Barcelona for the museums and architecture also there are some areas of town I'd like to visit.
The part that is puzzling is what city do I travel to first from Lisbon? Which of the two routes I described is the best way? I recognize Barcelona is far away from Madrid. It's like Los Angeles to San Francisco 500 miles.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
For flight options, see www.skyscanner.com. From Lisbon, your primary ground choices are direct bus to Seville (7 hours), direct bus to Madrid (8-9 hours), or overnight train to Madrid. The bus is a perfectly fine option, don't discount it right off hand. Try to keep your travel in the most straight line possible, avoiding backtracking. If you start with Seville, then you can head north in a logical manner and end in Barcelona, which is a big city, but not really like NY or LA.