Planning a week in western Spain, post-Camino
 

I’m planning a week with my sister in May 2023 after a small group of family and friends walk the final 100km of the Camino. We’re looking to stay in western Spain and likely end in Lisbon so she can fly home and I can meet a friend coming over for a week in Portugal. My sister and I have both toured Portugal so the focus this week is on a part of Spain neither of us has been to. We’ll likely rent a car in Santiago de Compostela and head south. After walking 70+ miles the week before, we’re looking to take it easy and not change locales every night. And we’ll save Seville and Andalucía for another trip. Possibly a parador or two, and a bed and breakfast on a a farm, agri-turismo-style. Cáceres sounds amazing, Salamanca has always beckoned and bird-watching in one of the national parks appeals. We like albariño so maybe something in that region. Does anyone have recommendations for paradores or agrí-turismo in Extremadura? Or a can’t-miss small city or town?

If you rent a car in Santiago de Compostela and return it to Lisbon you'll be facing a very stiff drop off fee, in the hundreds of euros, for picking up in Spain and dropping off in Portugal.
There are ways around this, not easy but feasible, for example-

a. if you drop your car off in Badajoz, Extremadura (Europcar), then take a taxi for the short ride over to Elvas, Portugal and take the Rede Expressos bus (3 hr. 15 min) from Elvas to Lisbon.

b. If you drop your car off in Salamanca and take the Rede Expresso bus to Guarda over the border (2 hr. 40 min), then pick up another rental car in Guarda (Europcar) or take the bus (4 hrs.) to Lisbon

But because you only have a week from Santiago and want to take it easy and not change hotels every night, I think you may not want to drive as far south as Extremadura. The distance between Santiago and Badajoz, routing through Salamanca and Cáceres is 715 kilometers. But if you do want to drive as far south as Extremadura from Salamanca, I've stayed at the Paradors in Plasencia, Cáceres and Mérida on the direct driving route.
Other Extremadura Paradors (Guadalupe, Trujillo, Jarandilla, Zafra) would require a detour east or south from that route.
Bird watching is great in Monfragüe National Park, south of Plasencia.

You might simply want to go no further than beautiful Salamanca, with several nights there to make an excursion or two.

On your route south from Santiago to Salamanca, I've stayed in the modern but lovely Parador in Puebla de Sanabria, a very pretty town, and from there I've taken a gorgeous detour to charming Bragança (one of my favorite towns) for an overnight in its delightful and restful Pousada, then back to Spain to the historic Parador in the center of Zamora.
Salamanca's Parador is modern, not historic, but comfortable with easy of parking and easy of access for touring down to Ciudad Rodrigo (where there's another Parador) or down to the scenic Sierra de Francia to the very atmospheric, highly photographed town of La Alberca de Salamanca.

For albariño. you'll be headed in the wrong direction. The albariño grape is primarily grown in the Rías Baixas, south of Pontevedra, Galicia. But the Salamanca province has vineyards (not albariño) just south in the Sierra de Peña de Francia area.

The rural Paradors and Pousadas offer very favorable rates these days, ime.

Thanks so much, Maribel, for the great information! And that’s a good plan for returning the rental car in Spain, which I hadn’t even thought about. We’re re-thinking our itinerary and leaning toward a few days in the Rias Baixas region, likely Cambados, and a few days in Salamanca, with day trips like you suggested. Maybe we’ll break up the trip between cities with an interesting overnight somewhere.

Question: any idea about the ease of traveling without reservations in late May/early June? We were wondering about doing that, in case it’s rainy in a place for days or we’re not loving a town, then we could just move on. We don’t usually travel without hotel reservations but we’re considering it this time. For paradors or pousadas, we would definitely make a reservation.

claudiapark,
I love Cambados. It's my favorite Rías Baixas wine town, and we had a very memorable stay there at the Parador. There are several wineries that you could visit in the area, if that has any appeal. In Cambados itself, we enjoyed our visit to the Palacio de Fefiñanes, where they make a lovely albariño.
https://www.fefinanes.com/en/.

Moving from Cambados to Salamanca, I would take the southern route on the A52 through Ourense and Puebla de Sanabria (really pretty, atmospheric mountain town) with that detour down the spectacular to N 103-7 to charming Bragança (Pousada) then back east on the A 52 to Benavente to the N630 in Zamora and from there, down south on the N630 to Salamanca.

For the Pousadas and Paradors I would make reservations. The Pousadas belong to the Pestana hotel group, and if you sign up for their Pestana membership, you received a discount. With the Paradors' Amigos program, you do get a welcome drink and are sent emails alerting you to special discount rates only for Amigos. Salamanca is a busy place on weekends, as many couples choose to have their weddings in the two cathedrals.

A route that I like to explore south of Salamanca is to the Sierra de Francia-Las Batuecas mountain region, first to La Alberca, one of Spain's prettiest villages and on to the relatively unexplored but very interesting small medieval mountain hamlets of Miranda del Castañar (with castle) and Mogarraz--it's truly like stepping back in time. All 3 of these towns do have lodging.
A little info about this area-
https://www.turismosierradefrancia.es.

Thanks so much! That’s such great information to have. We’re going to think about our plans and maybe check in later.

For those who may be interested: the Madrid leg of the Camino
https://www.esmadrid.com/en/tourist-...ia-de-santiago

Don't miss the white Valdeorras made from Godello wine grapes either.

Camino website and forums are the place to find out just how hard it can be. Pick a less traveled route. The French way is way too busy, even after Covid.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/

The Camino in general, but especially the Camino Frances is busy this year for 2 reasons - pent up demand after the pandemic and that the Pope extended Holy Year to include 2022. A good friend just walked the Frances though, and he said it was ok - he made a point to stay off-stage for his overnights, which helped, particularly the last 100km, which is the busiest section. By 2023, the number of people walking may be more or less back to normal - and more alberques and other lodging is likely to have reopened, which will ease some of the crowding. If I was walking the last 100km this year though, I'd probably choose the Camino Portuguese.

However, it sounds like the request by the OP was for what to do AFTER the Camino :) When we walked last time, we stayed in Santiago for a couple days after our walk, which we really enjoyed. We had planned to go somewhere else, but it just felt right to stay in Santiago, so we did. It is a wonderful town to wander around it - plenty of good sights to see. It was also fun to hang out in front of the Cathedral and see people arriving, especially people we had met along the way that were a day or two behind us. After that, we went directly to Lisbon to spend a little time there before flying home. We were in a different head space where we wanted to keep moving (a body in motion wants to stay in motion...) but we didn't want to have to think too hard or plan anything. Lisbon was the perfect city to hang out in because it's laid back while still having plenty to do and see.

I've made two trips to Extremadura (in western Spain), and loved every minute of it. I've spent at least three nights in each of Caceres, Merida, and Zafra, and could easily have spent three in Trujillo if I had had those nights available (instead, I could make only a day trip).
I should advise that what I like may not be what anyone would like: I'm a contentedly slow and inactive traveller, and I like "getting into" quaint, historic towns that are off the tourist trail, as opposed to following the crowds from one "must-see" spectacle to another. If you incline towards the latter view, note that Merida, with its fine ancient Roman remains, probably comes closest to being a "must-see" site, though for some reason it seems not to have become an official one yet (too far from beaches perhaps, or maybe it just can't quite compete with the Alhambra).
I realize I'm mainly seconding much of what Maribel listed in her first comment farther above, but perhaps an affirming opinion can be reassuring. I've also visited, with pleasure, two other cities she mentions, Pontevedra and Zamora.
(Incidentally, after several trips to Spain I still haven't stayed at a parador, so I can't offer evaluations, though the ones I spotted in the above-mentioned towns looked nice from the outside. The one in Zafra looked particularly impressive, though as I said, I'm not qualified to judge.)