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Spain/Portugal in the late fall.

My husband and I are traveling 10/27 - 11/10. We would like to be able to spend some time in Spain and Portugal. We are interested in local life, food music. Not to much interested in a lot of museums for this trip. We would like to spend 3 nights in each location if possible to limit the feeling of too much running around. We know that we are not going to be able to see everything. Any thoughts on getting us started? We would be willing to travel any way that makes sense ie car, train and flights.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Posted by
28085 posts

One thing to figure out relatively early on is how you're going to move between the two countries. Ideally, you'll fly into one of them and out of the other so you don't have to deal with the border crossing more than once. Ground transportation between Spain and Portugal is quite limited, to the point that I, at least, would suggest that you pick one of the two countries for this trip. Portugal is fairly small but has way more than enough to keep you busy for two weeks, and Spain--well, I spent 89 days there in 2016 and didn't get to Andalucía.

Because of the international drop charge, you will probably find it cost-prohibitive to pick up and drop off a rental car in different countries. So that leaves the overnight train between Madrid and Lisbon, a bus from southern Spain to the Algarve (and I wouldn't include the Algarve in a short trip like this), a bus or train from Porto up to Santiago de Compostela, or a flight. You can take a look at flight options on Skyscanner.com.

Oops: I forgot the bus from Badajoz to (I guess) Lisbon. But it's very unlikely you'll find yourself in Badajoz.

Posted by
7175 posts

October
27. ARRIVE Lisbon (4N)
28. Lisbon
29. Day to Sintra
30. Day to Belem & Cascais
31. Fly to Seville (3N)
November
1. Seville
2. Seville
3. Early train to Cordoba (for Mezquita), then later on to Madrid (4N)
4. Madrid
5. Day to Toledo
6. Madrid (or day to Segovia)
7. Early train to Barcelona (3N)
8. Barcelona
9. Barcelona
10. DEPART Barcelona

Posted by
15 posts

Thanks for the input. This looks like good information to start with. I would assume with this we would not need to rent a car.

Posted by
212 posts

We spent the weekend in Sintra in late Sept 2016 before our Rick Steves Portugal tour and it was lovely - early morning and dinnertime on when all the day travelers are gone. Our B&B was one block from the train station so we were easily able to be the first ones in line for the first bus up to the castle after eating a nice breakfast. I would not have enjoyed it if I just visited for the day. Others on our tour that made a day trip from Lisbon before the tour started were very disappointed.