How are Spain and Portugal in February and March? Crowds, weather and prices?
Is the water swim-able?
And how is the train service (prefer to expensive rental cars - at least in France)?
Thanks
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
The water (assuming you mean the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, not a heated pool at a fancy hotel) is not swim-able then, unless you really like it cold.
The trains in each country are fine, but less extensive than in some other countries in Europe. Instead, people use buses more. The buses and bus stations in Spain (can't speak for Portugal) are substantially nicer than Greyhound ones in the US; you get a seat assigned with your ticket.
Also, don't overlook flights, particularly to connect places not on the high speed rail lines. Granada, in particular, still does not have AVE connections (they're working on it), so flying from there to say Barcelona can work well.
One BIG problem is connecting the two countries in the same visit. They are next to each other, but the connections between them are far sparser than you would think. There are a very few trains, there are some buses, and there are flights. But before you plan to see them both on one trip, investigate how you will get between them.
On the same note, before you buy your ticket from the US to Spain, plot an itinerary, and see which airports are best. Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Porto have nonstop flights from the US. But with a change, you can fly anywhere. I often see people post that they have already bought round trip tickets to Madrid, when they would have done better (for example) to have flown into Granada and out of Barcelona.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15784 posts
I've been to Andalucia and Madrid twice, both in February. The second time, I also went to Barcelona. The weather was pleasant, sometimes warm enough that I took my jacket off, sometimes a bit grey and drizzly, but mostly dry. I did not take a day trip to Segovia from Madrid, because the forecast was for snow. Madrid was dry and not particularly cold. Friends went to Portugal in March and had great weather.
If you are going in 2016, Valencia has a huge festival from March 15-19 and March 20-27 is Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is huge in Andalusia (especially Sevilla and Malaga). Both are high season. Other than that, it's low season, so there won't be big crowds and you'll find bargain prices on lodgings.