jayc-
I'll give you suggestions on what I would personally do with 3 weeks (21 days) but Egbert is correct when he says "we all have our different opinions". Admittedly I am biased towards Spain (I've visited Portugal once for about 2 weeks) and in particular Andalucia and the Basque regions. iris1745 provided a link to maribel's guides - they are excellent, in particular for the Basque regions.

These are only outlines of cities and the timing - subject to moving around depending on your tastes:

# 1 (more aggressive):

Madrid & area- 5 nights; daytrips (Toledo, Segovia)

Andalucia (7 nights): Sevilla (4)w/daytrip to Cordoba; Ronda (1); Granada (2) - fly from Granada to Bilbao

Basque regions (5 nights): San Sebastian (3); Getaria or Lekeitio (2) also visits to Bilbao & Hondarribia; rent a car to really see the area

Barcelona (4 nights)

This is covering a little too much geography (more my style) but may work for you. Itinerary # 2 is more relaxed(but you also cut Barcelona - everything's a trade-off).

# 2:

Madrid & area-4 nights; daytrips (Toledo, Segovia)

Andalucia (9 nights): Sevilla (4)w/daytrip to Cordoba; Ronda (1); Granada (2) - fly from Granada to Bilbao. Take the additional 2 days and visit Malaga, Cadiz, Priego de Cordoba (etc... see my previous ideas).

Basque regions (7 nights): San Sebastian (3); Getaria or Lekeitio (2); Bilbao (2) daytrips to Hondarribia, St Jean de Luz, Biarritz; rent a car to really see the area. Alternatively take the additional 2 nights and visit the Rioja area.

Madrid - return for final night

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all of the information guys, its really appreciated.

Here is my current itinerary. I have been so busy I haven't had much time to plan but I think we are going to go with Cathy M's #1 plan but modified to include the Algarves (my wife really wants to go). Any input or comments would be appreciated. I have made our stay in Madrid short. Its not our first choice but our flight has to fly in there so I figure we mine as well stay a few days. Particularly the logistics of travel, is this itinerary doable? we are open to flying, bus or train, whatever makes most sense.

April 6: Depart Victoria BC
April 7: Arrive Madrid
April 8: Madrid
April 9: Madrid daytrip to Toledo
April 10: Madrid to Andalucia
April 11: Andalucia
April 12: Andalucia
April 13: Andalucia
April 14: Andalucia
April 15: Andalucia
April 16: Depart Algarves - Arrive Algarves
April 17: Algarves
April 18: Algarves
April 19: Depart Algarves – Arrive Northern Spain
April 20: Northern Spain
April 21: Northern Spain
April 22: Northern Spain
April 23: Northern Spain
April 24: Depart Northern Spain/ Arrive Barcelona
April 25: Barcelona
April 26: Barcelona
April 27: Barcelona
April 28: Depart Barcelona

You also seem to have started a new thread
Here is that thread with my response.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-272674-2.cfm

I am in San Sebastian right now about to take my first run at kimhe pintxtos routes. I haven't eaten in 8 hours prepping for this!!
Will check out Elkano Restaurant tomorrow night for all the fish I can handle. God is it wrong to be this excited!

But your schedule said you should be in Andalusia on the 12th...what went wrong you your deatiled planning?

Hope you enjoyed your pintxos tour!

Maybe they decided to spend all 21 days in San Sebastian? Not a bad idea!

To be honest we were not really enjoying the South of Spain. I have a website called www.tastytravels.ca if you want to follow along. Will post my trip report after. The Pintxos were great. I didn't get everything I wanted though. A bit intimidated to order so we just pick and chose off the bar which was great, but not quite the same as ordering. Will be here for a week so I will try, try and try again! Any suggestions on restaurants? We are going to Arzak Friday, I am really looking forward to that.

By the way, we LOVE San Sebastian. The climate, the people, the city, the light traffic, the shopping. Any suggestions on daytrips? We were thinking of even going in to the South of France for a day.

jayc,
Would you mind a little detail on what didn't appeal about Southern Spain? Nothing on your blog.
Thanks.

I have it ready to go I just need to publish, stay tuned

Sooner would be great.
At the end of trip planning for beginning of May and taking all into consideration.

welch go north!!!!!

The Pays Basque in France is very lovely and varied and a different variation on Basque food. Very close to where you are.

Well you should go to Lekeitio and Getaria and have the grilled fish at Kaia or Elkano in Getaria. You could go to Eduardo Chillida museum, do checkout the food market in SS under the mall. Please let us know if Arzak was worth it.

Elkano closed for holiday :(. We are out of Spain until Barcelona. We have decided to head to Greece (Santorini) for a week. Fun in the sun, time to relax. WIll have a full Spain trip report in the next few days, I promise. Welch I agree, the north is where it is at. Beautiful driving highways, fantastic landscape, great food, friendly classy people. I would stay longer but my pocketbook can't take it! its a bit chilly too for swimming.

You travel the way I like to- on the fly!
That's why I'm interested on your take on Southern Spain. I hate making advance reservations and changing them.

So that was a waste of our time trying to get an itinerary sorted out for you...hope you enjoy greece.

Why would you chose Santorini over other less touristy places in Greece?