Spain, Portugal, Morocco May/June 2024

Posted by defuscofamily on 11/08/23 02:04 AM

I am in the very very early stages of planning a trip to Spain, Portugal and possibly Morocco next summer for my family of 4 (2 adults and 2 teens 17 & 16). We pack A LOT into our vacations so I am not worried about crazy timelines. For perspective we did England, France, Germany and Italy in 2018 over the span of 18 days.

I would love all the suggestions and recommendations as I start to tackle this next trip. So far my husband has thrown out the idea of Spain and Portugal as a base to start. I am thinking we will fly into Madrid and then slowly make our way along the southern coast. High points so far: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, and Lisbon.

BUT I just found a blog that discusses taking a ferry over to Morocco for a day and doing a tour there. They reference this private tour nabiltangiertour.com. Does anyone have experience with this? It sounds very cool including camel ride along the beach and exploring Hercules cave.

I have the Rick Steves guidebooks en route to start my deep dive into research but I thought I would post and see if anyone wanted to throw out must see spots or don’t bother spots to help guide my research. We are not opposed to all modes of transportation.

Thanks in advance! You guys are always a wealth of great information, tips and tricks!

Posted by Priscilla

California 🦋

11/08/23 03:14 AM

5293 posts

How many nights are you planning for this trip?

I’m intrigued by your previous trip of 18 days.
How many days did you spend in each country?

High points so far: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, and Lisbon.

If you have the time, you may consider visiting Córdoba & Granada.

I’ve read that Tangier is not the best place to visit if you want to experience Morocco.
I’ve not visited Morocco so will let others chime in with more information.

Enjoy planning!

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

11/08/23 09:43 AM

28082 posts

How long will this trip be?

You may not need a car at all. You won't want to pick a car up in Spain and drop if off in Portugal because of the very high international drop charge. There are super-fast trains connecting Madrid, Toledo and Seville (plus Cordoba and Granada).

Unfortunately, ground-transportation links between Spain and Portugal are very limited. That's one of the first things to nail down, because it may affect your itinerary. You may find you need to fly--something I really don't like to do in the middle of a trip. The best option for crossing the border might be a bus from Seville to Faro, but many of us don't consider the Algarve a particularly interesting part of Portugal.

A day trip to Tangier is not a good idea. Morocco has many interesting cities. Tangier is way, way down the list. It's basically your typical border town. And it's not easy to get to. The ferry doesn't depart from a Spanish town you would otherwise go to. There are flights to the fascinating cities of Fes and Marrakech (as well as the much less interesting capital of Casablanca) from many cities in Europe, so you can have a nice visit to Morocco in conjunction with a later trip to Europe; you don't need to settle for a disappointing day trip to Tangier this year.

You mentioned traveling "along the southern coast". I'm not sure what you mean by that. None of the top three destinations in Andalucia is along the coast. Malaga is worth a visit if you have time, and/or Cadiz.

Southern Spain is likely to be getting quite hot by June or even in late May. Be sure you know what you're going to be facing. The website timeanddate.com provides actual, day-by-day, historical weather data for most cities of tourist interest.

Seville weather June 2023

Weather varies a lot from year to year, so you should check additional years. Use the pull-down box at the right, just above the graph, to display other months/years. Use the Search box near the upper right to see weather statistics for other cities.

Posted by geovagriffith

11/08/23 12:58 PM

8246 posts

1) Eliminate the ferry trip to Tangier. It is just not worth the expense and effort. If you want to do Morocco right, visit Fes, Marrakesh, Agidar and Rabat.
2) 18 days you could spend just in Spain and not see it all, still, if you want to do Spain and Portugal, you need to plan 4-5 days in the Lisbon area, and 2-4 in Porto and the Douro River Valley. Also, a day or two between those areas. So you need 8-9 day just in Portugal.
3) Spain, is a large country and make sure you visit Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, Madrid, Segovia and Barcelona. You need about two and a half weeks for that. You still haven't seen the Basque country in the north, Valencia on the east coast or Santiago de Compostela and Salamanca in the NW.