Spain-Portugal 10 day Itinerary

Absolute minimum time for each: Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon - - three Seville - - two Granada - - one Absolute minimum transit time between each: half day - - four times point five = two Total days required = fourteen and it still sinks. It doesn't matter how you order them, it won't work.

Hi Sandeep, Let me try to help you as a Portuguese...
The road map seems to be ok and I would like to recomend that you follow the same order, starting in Barcelona and ending at Lisbon, if possible during the weekend. Take an internal flight from Barcelona to Madrid it is a long way without interesting points even for a train view and save some time. After Madrid, rent a car and drive to Granada and Sevilha leaving the car in Lisbon and crossing the Estremadura in Spain and Alentejo in Portugal, two country side regions special and unique areas in the Mediterraneum and south of Europe with a lot of arabic influence once they were in the region more then 500 years ...reason why all words starting with AL are originally from Arab language as weel as white houses flat and very typical. Food and wine are special in the area and not expensive...on the way to Lisbon , visit EVORA with Roman monuments and full of history...but you do not have too much time...10 days is not enough for countries with more than 1000 years, like PORTUGAL the oldest country in Europe. But enjoy your trip Jose

Sandeep, do one country this year and one next year. You can't do all of those cities in 10 days and see even the bare minimum. We did Portugal in Dec of 2007, and then did Spain this year. Even though we had 14 days in Spain, we still did not have time to do Madrid. We stuck with the south. and we even flew betweeen some of the towns. By the way, the winter is a good time to see the south, because it can still be in the 50 to 60's, and sunny at times. When we did Portugal at XMass we were wading in the surf. But when we headed North, it was raining like mad. If you rent a car in one country and drop it off in another you will incur huge fees. Pick up Rick Steves Spain and Portugal book. He does a good job explaining the transportaion options, and the time it takes to get from one town to the next.

From my experience Sevilla will need two full days to explore...a good guide service is Really Discover Sevilla - small groups, well informed and very professional. I would suggest staying in the old jewish quarter - it is near most of the sites you will want to see. Madrid - three days at least The Place (with its armory - a must see!) will have long lines most likely, but they do move at a good pace. Hand held tour guides are available. The Prado - one half day or more, depending on your interest in art...even with no interest, you will be impressed by all that is found there. A good cafe is inside the museum. Follow this up with The Park Retrio - several hours to walk through it. Amazing peace in the heart of the city. And then the Plaza Mayor, The Puerta del Sol, Gran Via, and the other museums as well. Train travel from Sevilla to Madrid is 2 1/2 hours via highspeed train. Very nice. Cafe car on board for sandwiches and soft drinks. Barcelona about 3 hours from Madrid on the AVE highspeed train. And two or three days to see most of it Gaudi, the cathederal, Picasso Museum, Old Roman Center of the city, Las Ramblas, Sangra Familia, Park Guiel/ And you will be sightseeing on a non stop schedule if you take it all in. I am not familiar with Lisbn, Gradada. But I think you will be covering too much territory to see all within 10 days when you allow for jet lag, etc. from the states.

Agree with others - 10 days isn't enough for this - it's probably not even physically possible. I love Portugal but I'd skip it on this short trip. I'd also suggest skipping Barcelona, because it's so far from the rest of what you should be focusing on in Spain. With 10 days, you can do Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Toledo and that area. That's plenty for 10 days. Keep in mind that in mid-November, your days will be short (and expect some rain), so don't plan for more than you can comfortably do in a day. Lots of great stuff to see and do there.