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Advice on 7 days - Spain/Portugal?
My wife and I are leaving a family vacation near Périgueux, FR on 29 July and would like to explore Spain and/or Portugal before heading back to the US on 6 July. Since we only have 6.5 days & 7 nights, we want to make the most of our time. Our departure flight is out of Lisbon so we need to end up there in order to make it home.
This is our first trip to Europe. :) We will have been in France for two weeks – Paris, Normandy, then the Dordogne region. We will have visited a lot of that regions – castles, gardens, and historical sites. We are looking forward to a little more relaxation, a little city life, a little beach life, good food, & drink. Our thought had been to travel via train from Périgueux to San Sebastian, SP, and then a flight to Lisbon (minimize travel time) to explore that region before leaving. Train FR to Spain (early AM) 29 June, explore San Sebastian 29 June - 3 July, fly (early AM) 3 July, explore Lisbon 3 July – 5 July with flight home early 6 July. We are looking for recommendations on a couple things: · For those of you who have traveled in these areas – are we spreading ourselves too thin? · Are we not giving enough days/eves to each area? · Does this itinerary sound feasible? Suggestions on both San Sebastian and Lisbon: · Places to stay – neighborhood recommendations, hotels, rentals? · Places to visit – we love food, drink, local flavor and people. · Surrounding areas you would recommend (Bilbao comes up, of course – but what else do you think is worth heading out to do?) We had also really wanted to visit Porto. Not sure if it would be too much on this trip though (3 nights SP, 2 nights Porto, 2 nights Lisbon)? Or would it be better all around to just head straight to southern Portugal from France? Not asking for anyone to plan out our trip in detail but open to any suggestions, keeping in mind our starting & end point. (oh – and plan to rent cars when need to when rails not most timely option so no concerns about getting around) Thank you!! |
It really depends on what YOU want to see and experience. For my tastes, your plan would be WAY too rushed; YMMV. Remember that you really don’t have the 29th in San Sebastian, since you are traveling that day, and you don’t have the 3rd in either San Sebastian or Lisbon – maybe just bits of time in one or both. Whenever you change locations, you need to plan on time for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented/lost, etc. These “extras” can be particularly important when you plan to fly from one place to another, as airports are often somewhat out of town and because you must arrive at airports substantially in advance of your flight, so each flight can actually take 3 or more hours more then the flight time itself (and that doesn't count the other things I mentioned, like checking in/out, packing, etc). Also note that many things in Spain are closed on Monday, and often for all or part of Sundays too; and many things in Spain will also be closed daily for a very long mid-day break; I suspect Portugal is similar.
Given that you must be in Lisbon, you might consider skipping San Sebastian this trip and adding to your time in Portugal, and maybe adding a bit of time to some of the other very worthy destinations you will visit in France. Good luck! |
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