Spain

Hi Bill!

We're just back from Spain and loved it--we traveled to Portugal on other trips and it's great as well. The cost of traveling is low compared to other European countries and the people are great.

When I start to plan a trip I start Rick Steves' (in this case, Spain and Portugal Guidebooks) and then also consult others. There are so many possibilities for itineraries!

When are you traveling? Do you already have airline tickets? If not, open-jaw would be an option to consider--into one city and home from another, for example, into Madrid and home from Lisbon.

When renting a car look at drop-off fee for renting in one country (Spain, for example) and dropping off in another (Portugal.) One consideration for renting a car is that parking in some smaller Spanish cities can be challenging (to find a parking space) and also expensive (San Sebastian, for example.)

You could consider having a loose plan with options for getting from one point to another combining car, bus, and train.

If I had three weeks, I'd make a great big loop along this track:

Madrid, Segovia, Avila, Salamaca, Santillana, la Coruna, Fisterra, Santiago, Porto, Lisbon, Lagos, Sevilla, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, Madrid.

Google maps says it's something like 2100 miles and claims forty hours to drive it. I've driven it all, although not exactly in that order and would think maybe fifty hours on the road would be a better number. Regardless, that's only an average of a hundred miles a day. You can make it easily with only a dozen overnight stops. You can hit several of the places (notably Madrid to Salamanca) in one day, leaving plenty of flexibility for the places that beg for multi-night pauses.

You'll miss eastern Spain. I like the Pyrenees, some people could give a hoot less about them. Barcelona/Catalonia is no great loss to me. There's not much to see in the southeast corner except condos.

I'm only a tad younger than you guys. We did pretty much the same loop a couple of years ago (starting and ending in Barcelona, running the Pyrennes and north coast after ducking into Biarritz and Andorra, but skipping Madrid, Cadiz, and Gibraltar). I took us less than a month. We've also criss-crossed the country on a few other trips, so I know the roads. The driving is easy except for Madrid and Lisbon, both of which have excellent local transportation. We've never had reservations except for Madrid and that's because we have one area in the city where we really enjoy staying -- most people don't like it, but who cares.

I agree completely with Ed's itinerary...a great way to spend three weeks, giving you a taste of a couple of different regions of Spain, plus Portugal, and avoiding a high drop-off charge. Just make sure there is parking for the hotels you book, and that you prepare yourself for driving along some narrow streets. It's not impossible, but a place like Sevilla is not somewhere where you want to be checking a map, looking for street signs, and searching for your hotel all at the same time. If you don't need the "experience" of a local B & B style hotel, you can easily find places that are a bit of a distance from the narrow streets of the core, yet easily accessible by public transit.

I would add one city to those listed above -- Zamora...fascinating, clean, and easy to see...it is near Avila and Salamanca. .. Spent a week there and loved every day...

We recently finished up two weeks in Spain that included many of Ed's recommendations, all of which we loved. The only place we would differ with him is onb Barcelona. We spent three nights that and could've stayed longer. We enjoyed the city very much.

On Ed's itinerary I'd suggest you look at Salema (perhaps in place of Lagos). We stayed in Salema a couple of years ago and really loved it. One day, we caught a bus into Lagos, which was a nice town for a day's visit but more 'touristy' (in our opinion). Salema is a "Rick Steves place" but, as of our trip, it had not been overrun by blue-covered book toting Americans. (hoho) However, on the day we left, a BIG RS bus did pull up at the end of the street....

Re. Norm's point about Sevilla. On our first visit we were right in the center of the town/tourist area. Lovely, but would NOT have wanted to have a car there. On our second visit we had a car and stayed at the Ibis on the edge of town. A car there was NO problem and we were right next to a bus stop with frequent buses into town. We would do that again, if traveling by car.

When we were 70/71 we traveled for four weeks in Spain and Portugal. As suggested above, we did a big loop beginning and ending at the Madrid airport. We traveled clockwise and left Madrid itself for last when we had returned the car to the airport. We did this in May 2008 and had a wonderful trip.

I would encourage you to take at least three weeks. You can easily use the time. We found Spain/Portugal to be slightly less expensive than other european options. Consider the Paradores. They are very nice, usually well located, and offer steep discounts (concessions) for reservations in multiple locations and also for seniors. We also stayed in B&Bs. You will find the highway systems to be very good and to have considerably less traffic than we do in the USA. The only place we had difficulty driving was in the center of Seville but Seville was very interesting and shouldn't be missed. We stayed outside Lisbon and traveled in by train.

We did have reservations and routes planned before we departed. We prefer to travel with a plan but that's just us. We had a great trip. You will too.

To all of the above:
Thank you for your valuable responses and encouragement. There is nothing like getting advice from those that have been there and done that in terms of travel. My opening remarks were a little misleading. “Traveling one day at a time“I meant taking one day at a time. We may well spend 2-3 days at one spot. “without any tight itinerary’ Means having a plan that allows last minute changes with new information.
When is there a good weather time to do all this? Any festivals we should catch, (or avoid)?

Bill

Ed lays out a pretty decent plan for you. We do like Barcelona though and will be going back there a few more times, hopefully!

I spent several weeks two years ago on a tour of Spain and Portugal with ETBD. There was some rain, two days as I recall. May was a perfect month for travel there. Not hot yet, and not cold. We all loved the flamenco performance we attended in Seville. Two members of our group went to a bullfight. Three weeks would be good. You may find places you want to stay for a few days. Driving/parking in Madrid may be a problem. You won't need a car in Barcelona. Train travel between Barcelona and Madrid is fast. You might consider combining train travel with a week or so of car rental in the area of smaller towns in the southern part of Spain. Salema is a great place for a beach vacation; there seemed to be plenty of parking.

If I had an extra week, I would stay in Salema and drive to the nearby towns on daytrips. The area is beautiful.