Six Weeks in Spain/Portugal

I’ve been renting through Enterprise our last few trips. Prior to that I used Avis. If you are a Costco member check its prices as you could save some money. Some rental companies have limits on how long you can rent a vehicle for, so do a dummy booking to see which will allow a 5-6 week rental. if you intend to drive in Portugal familiarize yourself with its toll system and how to register your Spain rented rental car. Some tolls are all electronic while you need to get a ticket for others. Driving in either country is about the same as the U.S. Drive at or below the posted speed limit to avoid getting a ticket. Traffic cameras are everywhere.

There could be some weather issues during the January-February timeframe. By that I mean some outdoors/nature activities may be limited.

With your timeframe you could reasonably visit Portugal and parts of Spain. My caveat is, if you spend half your time in Portugal spend the remaining time in western Spain, e.g., Galicia, Castilla y León, Asturias, Cantabria, Extremadura, or western Andalucía. One could easily spend six weeks in just the areas of Spain I mentioned. Once you come up with a basic itinerary where you know your bases, check the surrounding areas for those small places few tourists ever get to. This link is to a website on Spain’s prettiest villages. For lodging, depending on where you decide to go, consider Paradors. It is a government run hotel chain with many being in historic buildings. Many are in smaller towns off the beaten path.

On our September trip we picked up and dropped off the rental vehicle in Madrid. Renting from Madrid cost much less than renting from Lisbon or Porto.

Picking up a car in one country and dropping it off in another is costly. Public transportation is excellent in both countries so renting a car may be more feasible when needed, not for the entire trip.

Spain’s national rail, Renfe website is: https://www.renfe.com/es/en and Portugal’s (PT) is https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en. If a train doesn’t go where you want to visit or involves transfers a bus might be more feasible. It’s best to check bus schedules once there.
Skip PTs Algarve which is best during summer. Cities is where you don’t want a vehicle and can be a great place to drop it off. Where are you flying into and where are you departing?

Resist the urge to try to see places all over Spain. Six weeks wouldn't be long enought to do that even if you didn't want to include Portugal. Spain is large, and it has great destinations all over. The best weather at the time of your trip will be in the south (Andalucia); among the many very interesting cities to consider are Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Cadiz, Jerez if you like sherry or horses, Malaga, Ronda and Ubeda/Baeza/Jaen. There are also attractive smaller towns; a comprehensive guidebook will fill you in on places like Arcos de la Frontera, Grazalema, Zahara de la Sierra, Carmona, Priego de Cordoba and some attractive (though possibly very touristy) towns along the coast.

I believe the weather would be pretty pleasant in Barcelona and Valencia, along the east coast. Given your time constraints, I would postpone the northern coast of Spain (likely to be cool and overcast) and the area around Madrid (with considerably chillier midday temperatures than you'll find along the east coast and in the south) until a later, non-winter trip.

I'm not sure what sort of winter temperature you can expect in northern Portgugal (including Porto). January-March isn't when I'd choose to take a trip to the northwest corner of Spain, which isn't all that far from Porto.

The problem with renting and dropping off a car on opposite sides of the Portuguese/Spanish border has already been mentioned. The easiest place to cross the border via public transportation is in the south; there are buses from Faro to Seville. Of course, there are also flights between the two countries. Skyscanner is a good place to check airline schedules.

I'd first figure out where I wanted to go, then I'd try to arrange my itinerary so a car is required just for short spans of time. A car will only be a costly-to-park burden in places like Lisbon, Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona. When all is said and done, you're likely to spend the lion's share of your time in cities with great public transportation, not bopping around the countryside.

There are many disadvantages to renting a car:
1) huge drop charge renting in one country and dropping in another;
2) Parking in major cities is difficult and expensive;
3) Driving instead of riding the trains will be more tiring and perhaps slow down the driver;
4) Leaving valuable in your car subject to theft and damage to the vehicle.

Yes, there are some advantages to have a car to drive where you want, but you will need a GPS or NAV system to navigate the roads. Maps are a great backup. You can use Google Maps if your cell phone works in Europe, but you will have to pay extra to download the countries you are visiting. This usually means deleting the current North American maps on your phone (this is what I found when exploring visiting England in 2017.

If you do rent a car, suggest renting only when moving from one major city to another if you want to visit places in between.

As for where to visit, I recommend:
Spain, Barcelona, Madrid (take high speed train), day trips to Toledo and Segovia, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Malaga and Rhonda.
Portugal, Lisbon, Sintra, Obidos, Cascais, Coimbra, Porto, Douro River Valley to Regua and Pinhao. Also, day trip to Evora.

I am so impressed with the thoughtful and thorough replies. And in less than 24 hours! What a great forum! Thanks so much for taking the time and sharing your knowledge. Our first trip to Spain (and maybe Portugal) will be greatly enhanced! And please share more!
Cheers,
Nabiel

Lucky you.

I spent four nights in Lisbon last October and it was not enough. I hope that maybe you might be able to spend a week there. It is a wonderful city.

I stayed in the Baixa neighborhood and if you are looking for a three star very nice hotel, I can recommend Be Poet Baixa.

There were four different hop on hop off buses each costing 22 euros but if you bought three, you got the fourth free. I did not do any.

I went to Sintra and Belem and highly recommend both.

I also spent a few hours in Braga Portugal and also wonderful. I was on a cruise excursion and a few hours was not enough.

In Spain, I ported at Bilbao and went to the Guggenheim Museum and a coach tour of .Bilbao. Wonderful.

And I took an excursion to Santiago Spain from another port. If you can get to Santiago, do so. Like all the previous places mentioned, I loved it.

I am getting ready to begin a discussion from Travel & Leisure magazine noting that the top three cities for expats are all in Spain.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/cities-where-expats-enjoy-life-the-most-8413352?hid=235dfce4c1a13326a720825aed70752da224c384&did=11384712-20231225&utm_source=tal&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tal-nonewsubs_relationship-builder&utm_content=122523&lctg=235dfce4c1a13326a720825aed70752da224c384