Hola!
I am planning a trip to Portugal and Spain in Sept 2017, 7 nights in Portugal (4 Lisbon, 1 Fatima, and 2 Porto). From Porto over to Spain, I will have 8 nights at the most for Spain. My husband can really only take two weeks and I am stretching that with flying over to 15d days. My husband definitely wants to go to Barcelona so I think 4 nights there is the plan. I have 4 nights somewhere else and would like to go to smaller town/cities or just one place? I will skip Madrid. I have taken two college semesters of Spanish, so I am looking forward to using it :) .( I am 51 years old)
So, if you had the choice and had just 4 nights, where do I go? Do I fly from Porto to Valencia? Or Porto to Sevilla? Or take the train north into Spain from Porto?
This is my first trip to Spain/Portugal. I can't wait!
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
2942 posts
Hola!
If you do visit Barcelona, I'd strongly suggest to make it "the" base for the whole of your vacation in the second part of your trip and spend some days in the city and make some day escapades to other parts of Catalonia. There are wonderful places worth visiting. It's obviously down to your style of travel, but myself I've never been fond of too much packing/unpacking and wasting time in lounges and stations during my holiday if I can avoid it, so instead of rushing from one city to the next hardly seeing anything, why not be based in one and do day escapades in the region? After all, eight days is a merely a sigh to be wasted moving about all the time, isn't it? :))
Anyhow, have an initial look at these websites so you can prepare your own 'bucket list'
http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/
http://www.infocatalonia.eu/
http://www.timeout.com/barcelona
http://lameva.barcelona.cat/en
As per some suggestions on day escapades from Barcelona: GIRONA - FIGUERES, note this and Girona are very close - SITGES - MONTSERRAT - TARRAGONA - VIC - BESALÚ - ROSES - TOSSA DE MAR... plenty more, this is just a small sample of course. You can do (most of) this by public transportation, it's easy, safe, cheap, clean and very convenient.
...
again, more text based info here:
http://catalunya.com/ -Catalonia’s Tourism Agency
http://en.costabrava.org/ -Costa Brava Tourism Agency
http://www.girona.cat/turisme/eng/index.php -Girona City Council
http://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/ -Tarragona City Council
As per your Spanish, I don't want to disappoint you too much... of course you'll be able to use it as we "also" speak Spanish (it's co-official), BUT know the local language in these shores, in the whole of Catalonia (which capital city is Barcelona), is Catalan and that's what you'll see most street signs in and also what you'll hear many of us speaking among us. Just sayin'.
Enjoy!
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
San Sebastian, Pamplona and Bilbao are close to one another, allowing you to experience all three over 4 days.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15582 posts
If nothing especially "calls" to you, Valencia is nice for a couple nights and the rest in Barcelona - or just Barcelona.
Posted by
OP
Virginia
3 posts
Would anyone recommend three to four nights traveling the northern part of Spain and then flying from San Sebastian to Barcelona? We would travel from Porto Portugal to Vigo Spain by train and then pick up a car and drive to San Sebastian along the northern coast.
Or? go to Seville Spain for three to 4 nights and then on to Barcelona
Or the Valencia then Barcelona route?
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
With only 8 nights I would suggest one or the other, before flying to Barcelona.
Either, hire a car in Vigo, then spend a few days touring Galicia, before flying to Barcelona from Santiago de Compostela.
Or, fly from Porto to Bilbao, hire a car for a few days touring the Basque Country, before flying to Barcelona from San Sebastian.
If you were leaning to Valencia then this is a good routing to make your way to Barcelona.
Valencia (2nts) >> Morella (1nt) >> Tarragona (1nt) >> Barcelona
Posted by
OP
Virginia
3 posts
Hola!
If we were coming from Porto Portugal, it seems the easiest way into Spain is to take the train to Vigo. From Vigo, if we rented a car ( I have read taking a car from Portugal and returning it in Spain is a very expensive, so we will have to rent a car in each country. Please correct me if I am wrong.).
From Vigo, we could drive over to San Sebastian and then fly to Barcelona.
Mid September, I am guessing the southern part of Spain may still be super hot, but I am thinking Northern Spain will be nicer temperatures?
If we were to drive along the coast of Northern Spain. Where would you go? What towns would you make your 4 nights? Our trip would end with 4 nights in Barcelona.
Or we could fly from Porto to Valencia and then train up to Barcelona after a few days. This is our first trip to Spain and I want to get a feel for the different areas. I am getting more and more confused as to where we should go. Help! And thanks in advance!
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
I would prefer a minimum of 5 nights for either of these 2 routes ...
Santiago de Compostela >> Oviedo >> Santander >> Bilbao >> San Sebastián
Or ...
Santiago de Compostela >> Leon >> Burgos >> Pamplona >> San Sebastián