Spain & Portugal Trip September 2010

Where are you flying into and out of? It makes a bid difference.

Normally, I would plan my itinerary before booking tickets. It helps.

You should have bought open-jaw - into Barcelona and out of Lisbon or Porto, or vice versa. Is it to too late to change the tickets? Flying in and out of Barcelona you'll have to backtrack clear across the peninsula if you go to Portugal.

You can visit Grenada and Seville between Barcelona and Madrid. You should also look into trains and cheap flights with the amount of ground you want to cover.

Although at first glance it seems as if you have a lot of days (20 days), if I divide your number of days by the number of places you mentioned, it is 2 days per city/town. And the fact that some of those places are in opposite extremes of the Iberian peninsula makes it totally schizofrenic to try to achieve. The fact that you are flying R/T from Barcelona doesn't help.

I suggest as a first step you sit down with a map of Spain and limit yourself to a region that appeals to you and that can easily be reached from Barcelona. If you like beaches, I would head to the North, San Sebastian, Santander.

Seeing that you are flying in and out of Barcelona then I would also suggest you stick to the North, both the Med. coast and the Northern coast. Maybe just take a long loop from BCN say towards Girona and a bit further up the coast. Then head inland over the Pyrenees and onto the Basque country. Along that coast, then south to Madrid. From Madrid take the train or fly back to BCN.

I would drop Portugal on this trip it is just too far.

Look at Google maps and then add time for sleeping, sight seeing, meals, road works, traffic etc then you will realise 20days is not very long for your plans.

I would not hire a car whilst you stay in any big city like BCN.

One of the ideas above suggests that you fly into BCN and out of Portugal. If you hire a car for this journey it will be costly as there are repartition fees for the car.

Also when you look at the map have a good guide book with you.

I agree with the above posters in that there are way too many places (and geography) to adequately cover in 20 days. I usually start planning trips by listing ALL the cities I'm interested in visiting (which seems to be the stage you're in) then determining the MINIMUM number of days/nights for each. At this point I'm usually way over the # of days in my trip so I copy a map of Spain then highlight the cities. Then I start looking at distance/transportation and my general interest in the city and start eliminating.

My personal minimum's for your cities would be:

Barcelona 4 (without daytrips)
Madrid - 4 (daytrips to Toledo&Segovia)
San Sebastian -3
Lisbon - 3
Lagos - I haven't visited so I'll assume 2
Granada - 2
Sevilla - 3 (without daytrip to Cordoba)
Salamanca - 2
Coimbra - 2
Porto - I haven't visited so I'll assume 2

This is a total of 27 days with just the minimum in each city.

I agree with ribeirasacra about dropping Portugal - it's too far away geographically. This gets you down to 20 days but it's still tight considering you probably have to be in Barcelona your final night for the flight home. It also doesn't take into account transportation between cities.

You have 4 basic regions/cities left: Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid/Central Spain & Andalucia. Personally I'd limit myself to 2 regions for a 20 week trip - at most 3.

This is the part where you really need to research and determine which places are most interesting to you. On this forum no one will ever agree on the best way to spend a 20 day trip to Spain. Some people prefer the Basque coutry, others Andalucia, Madrid or Barcelona. A favorite area for one person may be least favorite for another.

I agree with Ribeirascara and CathyM. You could see all of those places but it will be exhausting. Spain should be an amazing, relaxing trip. My favorite parts of Spain are Andalucia and San Sebastian. (But I haven't been to Galicia or Asturias yet).

Egbert, well hurry up then and get yourself over here.

I also agree with both Riberiascara and CathyM, plus those who suggest you look into the possibility of changing your tickets to open jaw. It may be cheaper than what you will end up paying in transport costs.

I like Ribierscara's basic itinerary but also CathyM's warning that you should pick an itinerary that sounds likely to most please you, not what has pleased others in the past. For instance, the way you prioritize your interests, I am wondering if you really want to spend much time in either Barcelona or Madrid. Even though there seems to be a consensus that you should drop Portugal, it is a famous beach destination-- although you may want to read up on what kinds of beach scenes they are. Sevllla and Andalucia are not considered great food destinations in Spain. And so on.

I think you need to read up more on what are actually the attractions of the places you've mentioned, and decide if they are really all that important to you, personally, to see them all.

Thanks everyone especially CathyM. I've done some research and put together a rough itinerary. Please let me know your thoughts...

Sept 4/5 Flying
Sept 6 - Barcelona
Sept 7 - Barcelona
Sept 8 - Leave for Madrid
Sept 9 - Madrid
Sept 10 - Madrid
Sept 11 - Leave for Granada
Sept 12 - Granada
Sept 13 - Sevilla
Sept 14 - Sevilla
Sept 15 - Lisbon
Sept 16 - Lisbon
Sept 17 - Lagos
Sept 18 - Lagos
Sept 19 - Lagos
Sept 20 - Leave for San Sebastian
Sept 21 - San Sebastian
Sept 22 - San Sebastian
Sept 23 - Leave for Barcelona
Sept 24 - Barcelona
Sept 25 - Fly home

I think we will fly from Barcelona to Madrid or take the train. I have no idea how we will get from Madrid to Granada yet. Once in Granada we will rent a car and drive to Sevilla, Lisbon and Lagos and stop at small towns along the way if we please. From Lagos we plan to fly to San Sebastian and from San Sebastian we will fly home.

My next step is researching transportation. Please let me know your thoughts.

Question for thursdaysd.

You said that you can visit Grenada and Seville between Barcelona and Madrid. Can you tell me more? Would you do this by train?

Yes, I 'd take the train (I did, going Granada to Barcelona).

Barcelona to Granada, night train (book a sleeper) 21:30 - 08:35

Granada to Seville, direct, either 08:20 - 11:28 or 11:34 - 14:30

If you don't want to take the night train, and go Barcelona - Madrid -Granada, it looks like the best train from Madrid to Granada is 16:20 - 21:30.

How do you propose to get from Lagos to San Sebastian???

If you insist on including all these places I'd go Barcelona - Granada - Seville - Lagos (you could drive, but check the drop-off cost, otherwise bus) - Lisbon - Madrid (by night train) - San Sebastian - Barcelona.

Here is a lot og great information for many of the cities you wish to visit. Richard www.maribelsguides.com/

OP wrote
We are 26 and 27 years old. We like beaches, food, drinks art and architecture (in that order).

With that in mind, I would suggest you keep Portugal, and especially the Western Algarve in your itinerary.
You will hardly find better or more impressive beaches, both with the famous sandstone arches on the Southern cost and huge wide dunes on the West Coast. Lagos itself is quite nice, but does not require a lengthy stay. The most beautiful town on the Algarve is Tavira (IMO), unfortunately at the Eastern end of the Algarve.

What you should not do (or check fine print first) is to rent a car either in ES or PT and return in the other country, respectively. That almost always comes with a hefty extra fee.