This is a trip in mid-March, hopefully flying into Madrid and out of Lisbon. The dates/number of days isn't flexible (except that I can make the trip shorter). I plan on staying in hostels, but I haven't made reservations yet. I plan on mostly traveling by bus, which I haven't done before. I would prefer to take the first busses out every morning, but everything is fairly flexible I guess (in that I'd like to see all these places, but I'm not opposed to stopping somewhere along the way if I like it better and modifying accordingly & it's not an emergency if something falls through). I'd like to keep costs down as much as possible. I speak minimal Spanish and no Portuguese, but I've heard such great reviews of Portugal lately that I'm still pretty set on making it over there. Any suggestions? I have Rick's guidebooks for Spain, but I haven't looked much into Portugal aside from general internet searches.
F: Arrive Madrid midday. Sleep Madrid.
Sa, Su, M: Madrid (day trips to Toledo & Segovia?). Sleep Madrid.
T-W: Granada. Sleep Granada.
Th: mainly transit day to Tarifa, stop somewhere for a few hours to stretch the legs along the way? Sleep Tarifa.
F: Tangier. Sleep Tarifa.
Sa: Gibraltar. Sleep Tarifa.
Su-M: Seville. Sleep Seville.
Tu-W: Lagos. Sleep Lagos.
Th-Sa: Lisbon (w. day trip to Sintra). Sleep Lisbon.
Su: Depart. Afternoon & overnight layover in Paris (will spend in city).
M: Depart Paris.