Spain, Sept 2024, 3+ week itinerary ideas

The places you've names in Spain could justify 3 weeks (or longer) by themselves without any side trips, so I wouldn't try to squeeze Portugal into this trip. Since you like nature and some hiking, you'll want to have a bit of time to get out of the cities.

Even if you had additional time, there would still be the issue of poor ground-transportation links between Portugal and Spain. There are few places to cross the border. You can cross by train or bus in the north between Porto and Galicia (the area where Santiago de Compostela is located), or you can take a bus from Faro on the Algarve to Seville. However, a lot of us don't find the Algarve as interesting as many other places in Portugal. Traveling between the capitals, Lisbon and Madrid, means a 7-1/2 to 10-1/2 hour slog.

AirBnBs solve the laundry issue. For us, it is one of motivators for AirBnBs over hotels.
We are 4-night minimum stays.
I love Portugal, but it is GU.
I would do (cities we have visited and enjoyed) (via train/bus):
Barcelona
Zaragoza
Iruñea
Donostia
Bilbo

Thanks acraven! perhaps just Lisbon if we want a small taste of Portugal for 3-4 nights. And then fly onto Spain. Or tack on an extra 3-4 nights in Lisbon at the end of 3 weeks in Spain.

Thanks davebarnes!
I’ll have to check out your suggestions (all in Spain, right?)
What is “GU” for Portugal?
Thanks!

I would not add Portugal to your trip unless you can add an extra 4 nights minimum to visit Lisbon.

Three weeks is a good amount of time for Spain, and you can certainly see a lot. Can you plan to arrive mid-September? You could fly to Barcelona first and then take a train to Madrid, and then visit Andalusia after Madrid. Andalusia will be warm to hot in September so if you could leave for Spain mid-September and visit Barcelona first that would be better. We were in Andalusia from mid-September to very early October. In most places the temperatures were in the 80’s but Seville was in the 90’s. This was 2017. I’ve been reading that Spain has gotten hotter due to climate change.

So a possible itinerary could be:
Barcelona - 5 - 6 nights
Toledo - 2 nights
Madrid - 4 nights
Cordoba - 3 nights
Granada - 3 nights
Seville - 4 nights

You don’t need to rent a car. In fact, a car would be very stressful for this trip. Take trains or ALSA buses to all the destinations.

My itinerary doesn’t include hikes. I think there is some hiking in Andalusia around the white villages. You would need a car to do that.

If you include Granada, be sure to purchase your Alhambra tickets well in advance.

Regarding getting to Portugal from Spain, I know that TAP Airlines flies from Seville to Lisbon. I would assume there must be flights from Madrid to Lisbon as well.

I took a cruise in October which ended in Lisbon.

Lisbon was incredible. It is a wonderful city and I loved it I was there four nights and it was not enough.

It was still very crowded in October and it rained every day. The rain was usually off and on but still rain every day.

An old friend came up to see me. She lives in Lagos, Portugal which is about a four hour train ride to Lisbon.

We ported in Oporto for a few hours and I took an excursion to the Minho Province which was awesome.

Since you’d prefer fewer large cities consider some smaller ones like Zamora, Logroño, León, Zaragoza, and Santiago de Compostela or even smaller ones like Olite or Teruel. There are plenty to choose from. With a rental car you could take day trips to sights such as Foz de lumbier, or Albarracín and its short walk around town, Camino Natural del Rio Guadalaviar, Cañón del Río Lobos with the Hermitage of San Bartolomé, etc.

We’ve always look up self-service laundromats prior to trips so we don’t have to find them once there. I bookmark them on Google maps so we can go right to them. Many really small towns do not have laundromats.

If you have a rental car you can reserve lodging a short distance away from the city center with its own parking, but with easy access to the city center.

Thanks kwkwoo, I will do another forum post with a proposed itinerary. And to avoid the hottest temperatures, start in mid to late September? I think the 4 of us want almost everything in a 3+ week trip. Very difficult! We’re hoping to visit Lisbon for 4-5/nights, the Andalusia area for about a week, then fly to Bilbao for 5-6 nights in Basque Country, again fly(?) to Barcelona for 5-6 nights. Whew! And that would be skipping Madrid. We could rent a car for a few days in Seville to visit Granada and Cordoba, and again in Bilbao to visit San Sebastián. We’d get a taste of Portugal and hit three different areas of Spain.

Thanks bostonphil7, we’re gonna try to start with a tastes of Portugal, Lisbon anyway.

Thanks jaimeelsabio, I’m thinking we might be able to see the high priority sites and skip over Madrid. I’ll post another proposed itinerary for late September 2024, still warm enough correct?

It will not help to have a car on a trip from Seville to Cordoba. There are many trains per hour, often taking only 47-48 minutes. The fastest route by road is 85 miles and is estimated by ViaMichelin.com to take 1 hr. 48 min., more than twice as long as the train.

Granada's a bit trickier, because there aren't a lot of fast trains running between Cordoba and Granada, and linking Seville and Granada will require a transfer in Cordoba. However, there are some Cordoba-Granada trains taking less that 1 hr. 45 min. ViaMichelin expects the drive to take 2 hr. 42 min. by the fastest route. It's 97 miles, but evidently not all on freeways.

If the train schedules to/from Granada are not convenient for you, very comfortable buses are also an option. It would not be an advantage to have a car in any of Spain's large cities; you'd only have to pay to park it.

Because rapid ground transportation into Granada is a bit thin, it might be tempting to try flying from Granada to Lisbon. Unfortunately, there are no non-stop flights (most require a change in Madrid) and involve a flight on a small airline. There are non-stop flights from Seville to Lisbon on TAP, the Portuguese airline, so you might travel Cordoba-Granada-Seville to facilitate onward travel to Lisbon.