Post cruise suggestions

Not sure what constitutes a few days. If you want a beach town then stay in the Barcelona area. If you want Toledo then you need to go to Madrid. Unless a few days is a week or more, I’d stay in Spain and skip Portugal.

Thanks. We have been debating & appreciate the feedback. We have five days & will book a flight home after we complete our itinerary.

Where have you already been in Spain? For me, Barcelona alone is worthy of several days of exploration (in the city) and then day trips and/or beach days are an option. So, four or five extra days, to me, could easily be a "disembark the ship, head to your hotel, and enjoy those extra days in Barcelona".

I've been to all the places you mentioned and they are all good.

Personally, I don't like to fly within Europe and prefer to visit places geographically closer together to save time and money.

I presume you have already visited Barcelona and that area (Girona is worth a day trip from Barcelona as well as Monserrat).

Toledo is my favorite city in Spain. It is an old city, well preserved and walkable. You could take the high speed train to Madrid, see that city, do the Prado and take the train down to Toledo. Also, if you have time do a day trip to Segovia.

Portugal is great as well, but I suggest you plan a future visit to take in Lisbon, Sintra, Obidos, Evora, Cascais, Porto and the amazing Douro River Valley. We did a 7 day river cruise on that river and it was fantastic. Do that or take the train up the river and visit Pinhao and Regua. The train runs along the north side of the river.

Good suggestions. We will save Portugal for another time & explore More around Barcelona & head by to Toledo.

If you only have five nights after your cruise, I would just enjoy all of them in Barcelona and fly home from there.

I find cruising to be exhausting. There are so many shore excursions and ship activities packed in a short time. It would be nice to relax a little bit after the cruise and not have to take another flight or multiple trains somewhere else.

Barcelona has a lot of exciting things to see and do. At least you would not have to switch hotels and waste a day on a train just to enjoy the beach because the beach is right there. I could sing the praises of the various well-known attractions in Barcelona but then the list could easily fill a 10-day itinerary.

Visiting Toledo would require at least a train trip to Madrid and then a second train trip to Toledo and a further train trip back to Madrid in order to fly back home. Were you planning to spend at least one night in Barcelona before going to Toledo? How many night(s) do you want to spend in Toledo or Madrid or both? Checking in and out of hotels are a big time waster. You only have 5 nights to play with.

Good luck.

Three nights in Barcelona & possibly three in Toledo. Traveling can be challenging but there is so much to see!!

Just a heads up on the El Greco museum in Toledo: It's lovely, but not much of a collection of paintings by El Greco. The building was not lived in by El Greco. It's a house inspired by classic Spanish style architecture which helped inspire California Spanish style design. So, if you're an architecture buff, it's interesting and it's has a pretty outdoor area. Worth visiting if you're in Toledo, but it's doesn't have many great El Grecos if that's what you're looking for.

The best museum for El Grecos is the Prado in Madrid, with the Art Institute of Chicago, and MET in NYC also having famous paintings.

My preference in such a situation would be staying in Madrid with a daytrip to Toledo, but obviously you may have different interests.

Any fan of El Greco should, in my firm opinion, visit the Prado. Also see the Goyas, and especially the Black Paintings. They are magnificent, though quite troubling.