Modified Lisbon/Spain Itinerary - Critique?

Thanks Harry,
One nice thing about the Lufthansa flight into OPO is that it lands at 3:10PM. So we will get a bit more of the evening for dinner and some catch-up sleep.
I haven't checked the train (or bus) schedules yet to plan any of the smaller trips between towns.

I think that the revised itinerary looks good! It's covering a lot of ground but you'll see several regions of Spain and Portugal. It would be nice however, if you could see or stay in a smaller city or two in Spain.

My husband and I are also planning a Portugal / Spain trip for this spring. I didn't realize there was a direct flight from Seattle to Portugal, however I cannot seem to find it online. Steve, do you mind sharing the Lufthansa flight number so I can track it down?

Erin,
There aren't any direct flights from SEA to Portugal. I'm going to Porto (Port, Oporto, etc...) via the direct flight from SEA to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa.
Our original plan was to take the British Air direct flight from Seattle to London and on the way to Barcelona and then from Lisbon to London and back to Seattle.
There are a lot of ways you can get to Lisbon with only one layover, however.

Looks good - glad you were able to find a good cheap flight to eliminate some of the runaround. :)

We recently did a trip to Spain & Portugal, and really loved it. I'd strongly recommend suing one of your Lisbon days for a side trip to Sintra...it was one of the highlights of our trip (but the rest of Lisbon was great, too).

Have a great trip!

Thanks David,
We may end up having to do something about Lisbon since we'd be there on a Monday when a lot of stuff is closed.
We'll only be booking the air for the first and last days, once I feel the price is right. It's still hovering at $878/pp. I think it may go lower. I signed up for their notifications, so if it does I should be ready.
I also noticed that SAS is going to do their Advent Kalendar again this year, so there could be possibilities there too since SEA is one of their usual departure points for those specials.

The itinerary looks great....I wouldn't cut days out of Sevilla or Granada for another day in Porto....if you do, you'll miss one of those two fantastic Spanish cities, and that would be unfortunate. The only issue you may have is finding cheap air Lisbon-Sevilla. There are no direct links, and the best bet (Air Berlin Lisbon-Mallorca-Sevilla) will probably take eight hours or more, door to door. The alternative is the train to Faro and a bus to Sevilla....cheaper than even the cheapest airfares I've seen.

Thanks Norm,
I actually hadn't looked, but I assumed that some of the cheap airlines would fly to Sevilla from Lisbon.
Now that I've checked, it looks like TAP Portugal flies direct to Sevilla. Wikipedia is actually pretty handy for showing which airlines fly in and what cities they fly directly from. On TAP Portugal right now it comes up with 116,18 EUR total for two which ends up about $75/per person. It flies at 11:05A and lands at 13:05P, which would allow us breakfast in Lisbon and then plenty of time to get checked in and walk around Sevilla in the evening.

Steve....that's great news! I'm glad to see that TAP is filling a hole that's long been the bane of travellers to southern Spain and Portugal. Not a bad airfare considering they don't even have competition on this route...at least, not yet! In case you weren't aware, the flight time's only an hour....there's a time change between Portugal and Spain. As well, Sevilla-Granada can be done by comfortable bus in about the same time as rail, at about 1/3 the cost. And if you haven't already considered this, I would suggest buying your tickets for the Alhambra in advance, since admission is limited. Go to www.alhambra-tickets.es . You can purchase up to three months in advance. Have a great trip!

Thanks Norm,
When I first figured out this itinerary, I just assumed there'd be a Lisbon/Sevilla flight. Glad I found one as that was one of the monkey wrenches in my first itinerary - getting between Spain and Portugal in a timely manner with my 3/27 Porto requirement
I've got both Rick's Portugal and 2009 Spain books and saw about reserving for the Alhambra ahead of time. I usually take care of the air and hotel reservations while my wife is the social director for once we're there. I saw the bus/train options between Sevilla and Granada too - interesting that they're the same time. We'll fly Vueling from Granada to get to Barcelona. It leaves at 3:30 and lands at 4:50. Once again giving us a good time spread.
The main tripping point is the Monday (3/30) spent in Lisbon. It looks like a lot of museums, etc... are closed - the same goes for Sintra. I was thinking a day trip to Obidos may make for an interesting day. My wife is an architect and we both enjoy photography. It appears that Obidos doesn't have the Monday closures of many of the other areas close to Lisbon - and the bus/train travel isn't too long to be prohibitive on a day trip.
Eventually we're going to have to do a trip of places we've been but cities we didn't see - the "we'll always come back tour". There's obviously many great places that we'll miss, but we can only do so much in a couple of weeks.