Itinerary feedback western Spain / Portugal
 

Hi! Planning a trip in late June with husband and kids (19/17). Flights are booked so starting and ending locations and dates are set but everything else is flexible (have a few hotels booked but refundable). I have been to Madrid a long time ago but otherwise everything will be new to us. Want to see the top tourist destinations, get a feel for local culture, enjoy food and wine, maybe a hike or two. Appreciate any recommendations. Also - is public transportation ok or should we consider renting a car? ( maybe in Portugal?). Thanks!

Fly into Madrid. 3 nights.

Train or bus to Granada 2 nights. (Normally don’t like 2 night stays, but want to see Alhambra and gardens and day trip from Seville didn’t look like fun).

Train or bus to Seville 3 nights.

Fly to Porto. ( looks like will need to connect in Madrid, not booked yet). 3 nights. Possible day trip duoro valley.

Train or bus to Lisbon for last 3 nights. Day trip Sintra.

fly home from Lisbon.

Forget the North of Portugal it is out on a limb.
You can only fly between Sevilla and Lisbon Portugal direct.
Public transport is good, especially when visiting cities only.
Renting a automatic is more expensive then stick If you do not drive stick then do not learn those skills when driving in foreign land.
Some Trains have to be prebooked read about it here https://www.seat61.com/

Train to Granada is much better than the bus now that Alsa bus lines has eliminated its comfortable, non-stop Premium service (with wifi, hostess, leather seats, etc.). There are only 3 direct high-speed AVE trains per day; the rest of the high speed trains are a combo of AVE-AVANT combo with train change at Córdoba (easy change).
www.renfe.com

Yes, if you try to connect from Sevilla to Porto you will need to change planes in Madrid, Terminal T4. And this could take up most of your day.

Personally, I would skip Porto with just 14 nights and add an extra night to Madrid for a day trip either to Segovia or Toledo, an extra night in Sevilla so that you can at least make a day trip to Córdoba by high-speed AVANT train and the 3rd extra night in Lisbon, because there is a great deal to see there and the day trip to Sintra will take up a huge amount of time these days if you hope to hit 3 of the now 6 monuments, because of the crowds.

I have flown the Sevilla-Lisbon route. The only carrier is TAP and the actual flight is White Airlines metal.
Currently there are only 3 nonstop flights per day, at 6:30 am, at 10:05 am and at 3:35 pm. On Thursdays there are only 2 morning flights and no afternoon flights. Flight takes one hour. Bus takes forever, as does bus-train combo through Faro (Algarve).
www.flytap.com

Just some ideas.. Spain, surprisingly, is not well connected to its neighbor at all. Transportation options are very limited.

confused by Granada being in the West of Spain

Thanks for the feedback! Will think about cutting out Porto and staying a little longer at the other cities. By western Spain mainly meant that we aren’t trying to include Barcelona.