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Traveling to Southern Spain, Morocco, and Portugal

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

My wife and I are recently retired (WooHoo) and have access to free accommodations (homebase) in the town of Fuente de Piedra (North northwest of Malaga). We are looking to take 4 to 6 weeks to explore Spain and some surrounding areas such as a number of day, multiday, and/or weeklong trips to Portugal, Sevilla, Granada, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Tangier, Morocco, and Casablanca (in no particular order). We are experienced travelers but have never been to Spain other than a weeklong trip I took to Barcelona in '86 when my fiancé at the time and wife now needed a break from one another after traveling Europe together for 4-months. LOL. We are likely flying into Madrid for a few days to explore and then take the speed train to our home base. After acclimating to the time zone and neighbors...we'll be ready to begin our travels. Any words of wisdom, thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are likely to fly mid-February and returning around the end of March this year. We will have access to a car, but we love taking the train(s).

Posted by
28082 posts

Use ViaMichelin.com for estimated driving times to places you'd like to explore in Andalucia. Of the big Three (Seville, Cordoba, Granada), Granada seems to be the fastest by car at less than 1-1/3 hours. Cordoba's closer to 1-1/2 hours and Seville's just over 1-1/2 hours. Seville in particular is a multi-day sort of place because of the number of sights and the size of the city. I always suggest at least 4 nights (3 full days) in the city, but with free accommodation not terribly far away, you might try to get an early start and just spend two nights in Seville. I wouldn't be happy with just a day trip to Cordoba or Granada, but I'm not the one with a free place to stay. Malaga is a very pleasant place to hang out, so I imagine you'll be hopping on a train from Antequera to Malaga often. I don't know whether there's any bus service from Fuente de Piedra to Antequera; you might need to drive and park the car near the train station.

Ronda's not much more than an hour away by car (more like 1-1/2 hours by train, maybe) and you could see much of what it has to offer on a day trip. Less well-known places you might explore include Priego de Cordoba (to which you'd probably have to drive) and Antequera. Antequera's quite close to Fuente de Piedra. You'll probably be visiting Antequera often, because it has a train station (FdP doesn't) where I'm pretty sure you can pick up a train to Malaga, Seville, Cordoba or Granada. It's possible trains will get you to those cities faster than a car. You can explore schedules on renfe.com. On some trains you can potentially save a lot of money by buying your tickets early, but take note of the change/cancellation policies for the various types of tickets.

I'm hoping some of the people on the forum who've driven in Andalucia will be able to suggest easy, short day-trips to places not far from where you're staying.

I don't recommend Tangier or Casablanca for a trip to Morocco. It's a fascinating country, but those are not among its most interesting cities. Tangier is like a border town, and Casablanca is quite modern. Places like Fes and Marrakech would be better targets. They have flights from a number of European cities, so they can be incorporated in a later trip. You don't have to settle for Tangier and Casablanca just because you're going to be in Spain.

Posted by
6790 posts

Unfortunately, you named the two worst places to go in Morocco (from a tourism standpoint - I'm sure there are some pretty grim places, refugee camps, etc. in Morocco, but I don't think any tourists go there). Casablanca is a bland, ordinary city, with just a single worthy sight (a very modern mosque by the sea). No Rick's American Cafe, and not much else to see. And Tangier is in many ways, Morocco's Tijuana, a bordertown. I wouldn't waste a day (or even an hour) in either, since there are so many wonderful other places in the country to visit. Stay away from the ferry ports, skip the grotesque, crass, scam-filled, made-for-daytrippers circus. Instead, go straight to the good stuff: fly directly to Marrakech, Fes, and the great cities beyond the range of ferry-based day-trippers. There are dirt-cheap flights to Marrakech, Fes and other authentically exotic (but surprisingly accessible, even touristy) Moroccan cities from all over western Europe, including multiple cities in Spain and Portugal. Take advantage of those, rather than getting the Moroccan version of Tijuana. It's easy, and wonderful.

Posted by
397 posts

What an awesome opportunity!

Based on a September trip to Andalucia:
Highlights were -
El Caminito del Rey
Cordoba for the Mezquita
Seville - especially the rooftop tour of Seville Cathedral
Also enjoyed Malaga and Tarifa

Portugal favorites:
Porto
White villages of Marvao and Monsaraz

Morocco favorites:
Fes
Glamping in the desert

Enjoy!