I would love an itinerary and recommended amount of time to spend in Spain and Portugal in June 2027. What are the crowds like? We would like to include Catholic sites, food experiences, beach time, etc. Thank you!
Posted by
6652 posts
Welcome to the forum! Here’s how this works best: flip through a guide book or tourism website to see what stands out to you, make a rough outline of an itinerary, then post that here for feedback. Wide open inquiries aren’t as fruitful. So think about when you chose Spain and Portugal, what did you envision? Any places already on your list or special interests are helpful to include, as context (who is “we”, open to car rental or public transport only, etc.). Good luck!
Popular places will be very crowded, as will the seaside.
Posted by
NY
612 posts
Hi and welcome! As valadelphia alludes to, this forum is not really a "plan your whole trip" service -- there's a reason that those services tend to cost money!
It's comprised of travel enthusiasts who are by and large happy to contribute their time and resources to answering questions, but tend to appreciate when posters come here having done at minimum some basic research and have more specific questions. You will get much better responses if you come back with questions like:
- "I am interested in X, Y, Z Catholic sites and A, B, C beaches -- which ones make sense to pair with each other?"
- Or "We are interested in beaches but are looking for one near a major city that has good transport to X, what would you recommend?" etc.
Good luck!
Posted by
OP
3 posts
I understand. This is new to me. I am at the beginning stages of thoughts on a trip. I just wanted some initial insight on travel that time of year. No more replies required.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
3232 posts
Welcome to the forum!
Just so you know, there is lots of basic get you started info available on the website:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you! I appreciate the direction.
Posted by
Washington DC
30318 posts
It may be useful to know at this early stage that there are few good ground-transportation links between Spain and Portugal, no matter what the map suggests. It's possible to cross the border via public transportation north of Porto and in the far south between Faro and Seville (that link would be by bus). There's also rail service (with transfers) connecting Lisbon to Madrid, but there are only two trains a day taking less than 17 hours. The fastest is a 12:30 PM departure arriving at 10:05 PM; this is only good for people comfortable with relatively tight transfer times.
It's extremely costly to pick up a rental car in one country and drop it off in another; the international-drop surcharge is likely to be many hundreds of euros.
Spain is a very large country. Even if you have a full month and spend minimal time in Portugal, you'll need to be selective about where you go in Spain. For the purpose of keeping the itinerary manageable, you may want to consider the likelihood of really, really hot weather in southern Spain (and possibly also in Madrid). Here's an example:
You should look at weather for additional years, because temperatures can vary a lot. Seville is about as hot as any place you might go in Spain. If that area is a must-visit on this trip, I'd recommend beginning the trip there, because you have better odds of not-miserable weather in early June than in late June.
If you aren't up for spending too much time in areas likely to be hot, you can concentrate a good bit of your time on and near the northern coast of Spain, which tends to be cloudy/rainy and cool even in the middle of the summer.
I can't help with beach info, but I know there are a lot of touristy developments on the southern coasts of Spain and Portugal popular with package-tour groups. If you don't want to be surrounded by pubs and German sausage joints, be sure to ask for opinions here about beach towns you are considering.