Things RS Book Leaves Out for Spain/Portugal?

Hi Sarah,

The Azores islands are not in his Portugal book. I hope one day he will include these magical islands. Madeira is also not in the book.

I have a guide that I put together for 4 of the islands I have visited, and will add 3 more islands in September after my upcoming visit in August. I am planning on visiting the final two islands in 2019. I am confidant that this destination will blow you away with all that it has to offer. September is gorgeous there.

If you think this might be an option worth exploring, let me know and I will send you the link to my guide. Take care, Carl

Hi Carl,

I'd absolutely love to read your guide, this is exactly the kind of information I'm looking for!

Sarah,

We're active travelers in our late 30s, we like history, art, museums,
and are especially interested in the Moorish/Muslim aspect of Spain's
history.

I’d recommend visiting Andalucia on your trip, namely, Córdoba, Granada and Sevilla. BTW, you can travel via train or bus to reach all of these cities.

Andalucia will still be hot in September, so try to book hotels with a pool.
Some hotels have pools on their terrace, and it’s so refreshing to go in for a dip in the hot afternoon.

If you decide to visit Granada, do make sure to book your Alhambra tickets now, three months in advance.

IMO, Portugal should be visted on a separate trip.

Have a wonderful trip!

None of Rick’s guides are meant to be comprehensive. Choose another one such as Fodors or Frommers, Rough Guide, Lonely Planet if that is what you are looking for.

If you like wine check and see when the Rioja wine festival in Longrono takes place in September. It's all about fabulous pintxos and of course, rioja wine but you'd need to have a car to get to Logrono. And, I heartily recommend Bilbao and the Basque area of Spain which is easily combined with the Rioja wine festival. I also agree with the recommendation for Cordoba and Granada - not to be missed if you are interested in the history of the Moors in Spain.

Sarah,

I just sent you a Private Message with the link to my Azores guide. I hope it helps, no matter where you choose :-). Carl

Sarah, you mentioned visiting the Prado and last time missing Guernica...I wasn't sure if that was two separate thoughts, but so you know, Guernica (as well as a LOT of works by Dalí) is at the Reina Sofia museum, not at the Prado.

Reina Sofia is quite close to the Prado, so you can do both on the same day if you do the "essential highlights" type tour of the Prado that I've done the two times I've gone. When you do the Prado, just don't miss Las Meninas. Also, bring a pocket mirror with you if you can bring a small purse in or in your pocket. There is a cool 3D effect if you look at it in the mirror over your shoulder. There is a way to get it with a rolled up paper tube too but I don't remember if you keep both eyes open or squint or what.

Yes, I'm aware that RS guides don't cover everything, but often they omit a place (or places) that are extremely worthwhile. That said, I prefer RS books for general travel planning because they're opinionated and focused, whereas many other guide books are not, they just cover everything in a routine way. And I don't care to buy two guidebooks if I can help it, so I supplement my RS books with internet research, as I'm doing here, right now.

Hmmm...thanks for the rec on the wine festival. I think we're going to have to make a decision between Madrid and the North/Basque area or Madrid and Andalucia. I've heard fantastic things about both areas, so this will be tough!

And yeah, I'm aware that Guernica is in the other museum, last time I traveled with friends we'd made arrangements to do both, but the line for the Prado was long enough that we just ran out of time to do both museums. (And because they dilly-dallyed when I was trying to get us to move, but I digress...) Thanks for the tip!

I often check out multiple books from the library and copy specific pages of interest. My library also has travel videos by RS and other authors that i find helpful for planning. For guide books, I like RS of course, but I also use Eyewitness Travel (love the pictures!) and Lonely Planet. I have noticed a few times that RS has left out things in countries that I really enjoyed, so its a question worth asking.

Portugal !
We had a wonderful 22 days there.
Some links:
https://portoalities.com/en/category/food_wine/
https://juliedawnfox.com
https://www.geekyexplorer.com (Bruno is from the Azores)

The people are very friendly.
The trains are reliable and cheap.
The food is good to excellent.

What I think 2 items Rick leaves out are:
1. AirBnB. We are converts (we want a washer in our unit).
2. Eating. He is not focused on food the way I am. I plan the day around food. My wife plans the museums.

I find TripAdvisor and Yelp to be very useful.

I don't know what your guide book includes, but does it cover Zaragoza (aka Saragossa)? That's an easy trip from Madrid and has the Moorish Aljaferia (changed & adapted over the years but still worth seeing and, apparently, partly the earlier inspiration for the Alhambra). Otherwise, as already suggested for Moorish sights, coast, national parks for walking and good (sea or other) food, I guess Andalucia has all that you want - but I assume that definitely is already covered in your book. One of the main Sintra sights outside Lisbon is the remains of the Moorish castle.

Thanks for the further recommendations. I'm going to try to nail down this trip this week. Husband is being indecisive which doesn't help. I was set for Andalusia, but research into Portugal has me second-guessing that, and then I just had a tour this week with a gentleman who spends a lot of time in Northern Spain and his pictures were amazing. I'm just going to have to flip a coin at some point. Thanks for the help!

The Rioja wine festival doesn't take place during our visit, so I think we've narrowed things down to Andalucia. I'm thinking 2 nights Madrid, 2 nights Toledo, and the rest of the time (6-9 nights) in Andalucia.

Now, for this region, anything of interest the book leaves out? I've read most of the guidebook so far, so I'm starting to get more of an idea of how we want to split up our trip...

Not left out, but mentioned dismissively: the secondary, "bracelet" sights in Toledo. They are six or seven sights for which you pay a single entry fee and receive a bracelet to use as a "ticket". I kept the bracelet on through a shower, so you can spread the sights over two days. Most include a brief bilingual tour, and I found those very interesting. An electronic map will probably be necessary for navigating between sights when you're trying to hit back-to-back tours.

Thanks, that's super helpful! I saw that and thought about the good deal we got for a pass to churches in Palma and wondered that I might be into the bracelet scheme. Thank you!

A big plus is that those sights are lovely but generally very lightly visited. And getting to them will take you off the too-well-trodden path between Zocodover Square and the Cathedral. I can't really relate to complaints that Toledo is super-touristy, because I spent most of my time along the back streets.

One other thing: Toledo is distinctly hilly. Allow more time than you think you'll need to get from place to place.

Not exactly on your route, but I really enjoyed both Burgos and Leon. Both have stunning cathedrals. Burgos has a very good Evolution museum that took quite a few hours to see since it was so extensive and all the text was in English as well as Spanish. They were having a cool Medieval fest when I was there (late Sept, or early Oct.) Gorgeous horses and costumes, big parade, lots of stands selling stuff. The cathedral in Leon has the most massive collection of stained glass in Europe I believe. Not fond of audio guides, but the one here explained much of the symbolism in the windows which I hadn't known before.