Spain and Portugal - wine and food

Santiago De Compostela is a city in Spain, not Portugal. I have never heard it spoken of as a good area for wine, but then I haven't been there yet. The Rioja is a good wine region, but not the only one (Ribera del Duero, Castille y Leon, etc.) Your first itinerary makes sense. Flying into Madrid would put you in the middle of where you want to be, so you would be backtracking at some point. Whether you take the train or fly is going to depend totally on where you go in what order. What time of year are you planning to go? What is your budget? Does the two weeks include your arrival and departure days or do you have two weeks plus two travel days? A few more details would make it easier to help you.

Thanks for your reply. I'm planning to go between 11/23 - 12/7. My budget is around 3-4k USD. Yes, the 2 weeks includes arrival and departure. How many days should I stay from each place? And how/where can I find the best route? Currently, I have the followings: Barcelona -> Rioja -> Madrid -> Porto Please advise. Thank you.

Rioja is a region, not a town. Do you have any idea what town you want to see? What winery? What happened to Lisbon? Have you looked at these places on a map to see how far apart they are? If you fly on 11-23, you arrive on 11-24 and by the time you get out of the airport and into town, it will be late morning. That leaves about a half-day on Day 2. Your last day will be of limited use for sightseeing, depending on when your flight home is. You will need to allow 2+ hours for security and such before flight time. That means you have only twelve days to see anything. Any time you change areas you will lose a half to a whole day in travel getting there. You can use www.whichbudget.com to see what budget airlines fly between any of your planned cities. If there are none, then you are left with the train or the bus.

Based on your second itinerary suggestion, it seems that you really need to look at a map. Also, be aware that travel between Spain and Portugal is not as easy as you'd think it is. I think you can take a train between northern Spain and Porto, but aside from Madrid and Lisbon there are not really any other train connections, as I understand it.

You might want to check out my review from our trip to Spain (It's something like "Spain: clean toilets, affordable lodging") I'm not really a foodie, just committed to eating local when traveling. In my review, I go over a bunch of words you will see on a menu and what they mean. I also talk a little about the types of wine sold in the country. If you really like wine and want to tour Bodegas, it's best to plan a couple days ahead and make reservations - unlike here, most of the wineries aren't open to the public for drop-in tours/tastings. The best wine regions in Spain, as far as I know, are the Rioja region, which centers around Vitoria (north of Madrid between Burgos and San Sebastian/Donostia) and Valdepenas (south of Madrid toward Granada). Both offer some really nice Reds. Sherry is a specialty and centers around Jerez (SW of Seville). Jerez is the only place the Bodegas are open for drop-in public tours/tastings. Other places have wine museums that are open. They're interesting because they were once Bodegas, but the ones we visited had wine bars that weren't open when we visited (probably have to let them know you're coming).

You have an aggressive itinerary, that's a lot of territory to cover. If you love wine, Porto in Portugal is the place to go. I stayed at Guest House Douro (http://guesthousedouro.com/english/welcome.html) and had a great time. Joao and Carmen take great care of you. Try to stay in a room facing the quay. Just across the river are the port lodges of Vila Nova de Gia. All of them are good, although I was turned off by Sandemans. My favorite is Graham's, but it's a bit difficult to get to. If you have a car, the drive into the Douro Valley around Pinhao is fantastic. Happy traveling!