Spring trip to Spain and Portugal

Do you already have your air tickets into Barcelona and out of Portugal?

If not, I would just pick one of the two countries - you’ve got way too much here for a weeklong trip.

You don’t give any other info about your past travels, your areas of interest, your budget, or where you’re flying in from but I would say that if this is your first trip to Europe, I would just do Madrid and Barcelona in that time period. They’re both great cities, well connected by train, with lots of easy day trip options, should you want to branch out.

You definitely don’t have time for 4 cities in 7 days.

Hello from Wisconsin,
Here is a brutal reply. With landing on the 7th (or maybe the 6th) and flying out on the 15th (or maybe the 16th) if you try to see all four places, you won't see any of them. Traveling is like a buffet, endless offerings. If you try to eat everything...you surely won't enjoy any of it. You can eat on the run, or spend a few hours with a nice meal. The best meals offer quality food and time to enjoy it. Think about just two cities, Madrid and Barcelona or Lisbon and Porto. That would be my first suggestion. Then I might try choosing one of those two cities with maybe a day trip or two to somewhere near by. All four cities have great, world class, menus of offerings. Like a quality restaurant, to continue that analogue, going on two different nights lets you try several of the offerings.

The Prado in Madrid. Do you want to say you were at it, or do you actually want to see what it offers. You can rush into the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and see Picasso's Guernica or spend hours there and see many great pieces of art. I once forced my brother-in-law into the Whitney Museum. I literally mean we stepped in, turned around, and left. We never even got to the ticket stand. I told him he could now say that he had been to the Whitney.

Have you looked at travel times between these places? Yes, you could fly and each flight appears at first glance to be well under two hours, but there is packing, getting to airport (1/2 hour minimum), ahead there a head of time (2hours?), then the flight, then getting into the city (minimum of 1/2 hour) from the airport, unpacking... Train connections between Spain and Portugal takes 8 hours or more. But at least the stations are centrally located.

I hate to be bummer, I would prefer you really enjoy your meal, I mean your trip. Anyone one of these cities is a winner. While you are there, try a hazel nut gelato, stand still while you eat it and think, My goodness I am in ____ eating a hazel nut gelato. Does it get any better?.

wayne iNWI

I agree wit the above. Id even say that the amount of time is tight for the two Spanish cities, where four full days each, excluding day trips, is a good guideline minimum. your time might be better spent in Lisbon and Oporto.

A week is not enough time to do all 4 cities, IMHO (we have not been to Madrid, but have been to the other 3). That's a lot of time on transportation, cutting into touring. You could spend a week in any one of those locations, but maybe pick 2, almost any combo. Flights can be cheap (I was in Porto spring 2022, my brother flew in from Barcelona for a day for about $25 RT - long day for him, but doable and we packed a lot of stuff into the day).

The list of things to see and do is endless, and varies per person. Check out the Rick Steves guidebooks for a start. Do you like museums, cathedrals, food tours, just wandering about? You could also do what I used to do with the kids - ask your companions what are the top 3 things you want to see in this location. That helps narrow things down and everyone gets to check off something they wanted to do.

You need a minimum of three nights for both Barcelona and Madrid, otherwise why go and that doesn’t include day trips. You need a minimum of four nights in Lisbon and that too doesn’t allow time for day trips. Porto requires two nights and this definitely does not allow time for day trips.
If you want to spend a few hours in each place, take a cruise. Cruises are designed to make people want to return to a destination where they hope to return to.

We went to Lisbon (with day trips to Sintra and Cascais), Madrid (with a day trip to Toledo), Barcelona (with a day trip to Montserrat), and Nice (with day trips to Cannes and Monaco), and we spent three weeks (overnight flight to London with transfer to Lisbon, and then 5 nights/4 full days in each city.) So, if you cut out Nice and cut out the day trips, that would make 11 nights visiting Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona. We flew between Lisbon and Madrid and took the high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona. We felt it was a good amount of time, but I don't think we could have also fit Porto into that amount of time.

If the 7th and 15th are travel days for you, then you might consider cutting out one city. If those days don't include your arrival and departure days, then I think it's doable if you don't want to do day trips.

Sights

In Lisbon: Castelo St. Jorge, Se Cathedral, Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower, Discoverers' Monument, ride Tram 28 around to see some lovely parts of the city. Get the Lisboa Card for transportation and admission (or discounts) for many sights. (I normally don't recommend city cards, but I think this one is worth it.) I really think Sintra is worth a day trip, if you can fit it in.

In Madrid: the Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia museum (Guernica), the Atocha train station (which you will see anyway, if you are taking the high speed train to Barcelona), El Retiro Park (near the Prado), Debod Temple (cool, but skip if time doesn't allow). Again, I think Toledo is very worth a day trip if time allows.

In Barcelona: the Gaudi stuff (book in advance!!!!), but especially the Sagrada Familia, the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Gothic Quarter, the Basilica di Santa María del Mar, Montjuic, the Picasso museum, the port area. Montserrat is one of my favourite sights EVER, and it's an easy day trip from Barcelona, but you may not have time.

Restaurant suggestions: The Chapito a Mesa in Lisbon (circus school by day; restaurant by night). Teresa Carles in Barcelona (vegetarian restaurant. We aren't vegetarian, but we liked it so much, we ate there twice).

If this is all the time you have, and what interests you, then you are bound to make it work, but perhaps without the addition of Porto. There are interesting day trips from any of the other 3 cities to allow for exploration so you can feel you are maximizing your limited time there.
I would also suggest sticking to one country, but I also appreciate some want just a taste of key cities in several countries in a limited period of time.

lharkins, I see you posted a question about a similar trip to Italy in 2019 where you hoped to see Rome, Florence and Venice in one week. What did you decide to do? Did you do all three or just two? Did you feel rushed on that trip? Did you feel like you missed out on some things? Your answers to those questions may help you determine what you can do in one week. Just remember to factor in travel time when moving between locations. Each time you move will cost you about a half-day of sightseeing.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts. I definitely think I will ask my group and possibly revamp. We were originally thinking of just Spain but one wanted to add Portugal if possible, so we'll have to rethink. Yes, Trotter, you remember me from 2019. We skipped Florence on that trip. That was with my 16 year old daughter, so there was more need for creativity. We ended up flying into Venice, did a day trip from there to Lido to enjoy the beach. Then moved onto Rome with a day trip at the end to Pompeii. It was wonderful and while I'm sure we missed some stuff, we were very happy with our trip, especially since the world shut down just mere months after. Thanks for asking. I think travel time trips me up. I appreciate this site for that reason. You guys think of everything. Happy Travels!

If travel time trips you up, you need to subtract at least half a day for every move. If changing countries or including flights, subtract 3/4 of a day.
This is taking into consideration packing and unpacking luggage, getting to transport, transport time, getting resettled into new lodgings. All that being said, there are so.e very efficient folks that travel very light and are logistical geniuses. I recall one woman who gave a complicated multi city itinerary for review. We all recommended changing it, but she came back and in detail described how much she was still able to see and how finely she had managed to fine tune the moves. She was impressive....bit most of us are not that good.

You have a week and can't do Portugal well in a week.

To do your itinerary right, you would need three weeks.

You could do Barcelona and Madrid in a week, but miss quite a lot. There is a high speed train between the two cities.

There is more to see than just Madrid, if you go there, Toledo and Segovia are nearby and deserve a full day minimum.

If you do Portugal, Lisbon is of course, the place to start, but you should also visit nearby Evora, Sintra and some places like Obidos on your way to Porto. Also, from Porto, you should spend a couple of days minimum visiting the amazing Douro River Valley.