Portugal or Spain in the Fall?

You could try both! We've combined Spain and Portugal on two separate trips--one heading south (Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Granada, Salema, Portugal and Lisbon.) The other trip, Madrid, Salamanca, Coimbra, Portugal, Porto, Portugal, Santiago, Spain, San Sebastian and back to Madrid.

I like Sharon's idea...do both! A year ago we did XMas in Portugal, and loved it. We were walking in the water on the beaches in the south and tasteing Port in the North. The freeways are new in Portugal, not crowded, and travel is easy between countries. In fact tolls on expressways are charged by time...not by distance. Portugal is less costly, but both countries are simply beautiful.

But we were only an hour away from some great sights in Spain and missed them.

If you are more into meeting people I suggest volunteering for a program called English Town. It's a program that provides free room and board for a week in the Spanish countryside at a very nice venue in exchange for spending the week conversing with Spaniards who have been learning english, it is an english immersion program for them. Basically the only real requirement is the volunteer be a native english speaker. The Spaniards are usually students or business people sent there by the companies they work for. You don't need to know spanish, in fact they desire the native english speakers don't speak spanish. I've done it twice, one of the venues is near the Portugese border so after you've completed your week you'll be that much closer. My last time there we had a Portugese father and daughter in the group.

Their website is www.vaughanvillage.com or www.puebloingles.com

I echo Barry's experience with the English school....fantastic experiences....I go back at least once a year now, and have made some fantastic friends. Just a clarification....vaughan village and pueblo ingles are separate operations now. I prefer pueblo ingles because of the people I know working there, and because their programs are a week long instead of five days.