We would love to go to Lisbon and southern Spain, including Barcelona in a two week time span without going in a helter -skelter schedule. Is it possible? Or should we just concentrate on southern Spain? Once you fly in what is the best way to travel thru the countryside? Travel would be in early October. Is renting a car the best option or by train? Any advice and tips you can provide would be most helpful. We have never been to Portugal or Spain.

Al

Barcelona isn’t in Southern Spain, rather Northern. If you fly into Madrid, take the high speed train to Cordoba and Seville. Bus to Granada.You may want to rent a car when leaving Southern Spain. car in Spain or you will pay a huge drop off fee. Portugal is wonderful. Stop overnight in Evers en route to Lisbon. If you are set on Barcelona too, there are high speed trains to Madrid or cheap flights throughout the country..

If going to mainly large cities like most first-timers do trains are best as cars and cities don't mix well.

Possible two weeks:

Lisbon - 4 nights
Day trip by train to nearby Sintra
Fly (or several hours bus ride) to Seville
Seville - 3 nights
Cordoba - 2 nights
Granada - 2 nights
Malaga - 2 nights
Fly home from Malaga

Those are highlights of Andalucia

For lots of info on trains check Renfe (book your own dicounted tickets online if book early enough to get those limited-in-number discounted tickets; www.seat61.com - has great advice on booking discounted tickets - general train info BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

Cut out Lisbon and fly into Barcelona and take train to Madrid and then to Andalucia.

How any nights do you actually have? You can’t see all the places you have listed in 2 weeks.

I agree with PalenQ that you can see Lisbon and Andalucia OR Barcelona and Andalucia.

Are you interested in seeing Madrid?

To give you an idea of how long to stay in each place, this was our itinerary from last September:

Madrid- 4 nights
Toledo - 1 night
Cordoba - 2 nights
Granada - 2 nights
Malaga - 2 nights
Seville - 4 nights

This is the minimum number of nights I would recommend.

We took trains or buses everywhere. A car is not necessary and will be stressful driving in the cities and trying to find parking.
Hope this helps!

I can’t imagine providing advice about how to manage this itinerary within the stated time frame – it depends WAY too much on what you want to see and experience, what they are willing to forego, etc.

What I can do is tell you what times worked for me, as I solo traveler who packs every single moment of every single day I have on the road. I felt hard-pressed to see everything I wanted to see in Barcelona with 5 very busy days. Turning to southern Spain (I haven’t been to Portugal yet)
· Cordoba: 2 full days
· Granada: 2.5 days. Note that seeing only the Alhambra requires a full day, and 2 nights, for most people.
· Sevilla: 3 full days, not counting day trips
- Ronda: 1 day
- Malaga: I skipped it, but would include it if I were going this year.

Public transportation is excellent in Spain. You would NOT need a car for any of the places just mentioned.

Fly into Lisbon (4)
Seville (4) includes day trip to Cordoba . You could also do another day trip from Seville - perhaps to Ronda.
Granada (2)
fly to Barcelona (4) and then home.

It is doable if you want to do Barcelona. But getting from Lisbon to Seville will require either a plane or train/bus which would take you most of the day.
You would also need to fly to Barcelona from Granada to save time.

A day trip I also enjoyed from Seville was Jerez de la Frontera home of Sherry and those huge Andalucian horses - visit sherry houses and practice sessions of horse shows in the horse ring. Cordoba a must of course. Ronda is a nice trip by bus that goes thru the iconic white villages.

Millie2112, it is doable to see Barcelona based on your suggested itinerary, but it does seem rushed to me. The OP will be spending lots of time traveling, and won't have much time at each destination. If your numbers are nights, then that means they will have 3 days in Seville, but one of those days will be a day trip to Cordoba. Personally, I think people who do a day trip to Cordoba are missing out on a lot of Cordoba's beauty, sites, and ambiance. But everyone is different. This might work for the OP. what is important is to know how many nights they have for this trip. How many days will they be on the ground.

Millie2112, it is doable to see Barcelona based on your suggested itinerary, but it does seem rushed to me. The OP will be spending lots of time traveling, and won't have much time at each destination. If your numbers are nights, then that means they will have 3 days in Seville, but one of those days will be a day trip to Cordoba. Personally, I think people who do a day trip to Cordoba are missing out on a lot of Cordoba's beauty, sites, and ambiance. But everyone is different. This might work for the OP. what is important is to know how many nights they have for this trip. How many days will they be on the ground.