Seeking reasonable itinerary
 

Reposting due to forgetting to tag the countries!

DH and I (65 and 57), active and adventurous, will be disembarking in Barcelona after a 14 day transatlantic cruise. We have 16 total days/nights in Spain and Portugal, flying back home from Lisbon on day 17.

We have been going around about the itinerary, I'm leaning towards a few days in Barcelona followed by 12 in Portugal. We could fly to Faro and explore around for a few days, train to Porto for a few days. I'd like to include a day or two in the Douro Valley, then off to Lisbon for the rest of the time.

DH is slightly more interested in a Barcelona/Madrid/Porto/Lisbon trip, leaving out the south of Portugal.

Our interested include food and wine, local markets and color, exploring local areas. Not keen on renting a car, we typically are fairly frugal travelers and rely on public transportation and AirBNB for lodgings, keeping it pretty basic, but are not opposed to a big splash out hotel if a certain town merits it.

Any recommendations regarding appropriate amounts of time in any particular place, merits of Madrid vs. south of Portugal, or really, anything you want to share with us..

Thanks in advance,

Gin

I think the north of Portugal has more to offer than the south and given your airports and timelines, an itinerary that goes;

Barcelona - Madrid - Salamanca - Douro Valley - Porto - Lisbon

would work nicely. AVE train to Madrid, and then Salamanca, and then a closing train from train from Porto to Lisbon keeps you out f the airports and moving very quickly.

The only bit of a "challenge" in this is the Salamanca - Douro - Porto leg. There is no reasonable train option, but there is a bus that takes about 6 hours and it is direct, meaning you would have to visit the Douro from Porto, but that is certainly "douro"ble.

Haha - I kill myself - thank you, thank you, I'm here all week, try the bacalhau.

I would not trade Madrid and its awesome day trips like to fabulous Toledo (and Salamanca) for the Algarve area - IME except a few old neat cities like Lagos and TAvira - is a modern seaside resort area.

Then you can take an overnight hotel train from Madrid to either Lisbon or to Porto - daytime connections such and nothing direct except flying.

Lisbon-Porto

Both fab cities.

Barcelona 1-4
Madrid 4-8
Porto 9-12
Lisbon 12-16

with potential day trips - Porto has many, including Duroro Valley (hard by public transit but lots of guided day tours) and Guimars and Braga - research why those are really nice too.

Try to do daytrip from Lison to Sintra.

For good info on trains check www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com-latter keen on valuable tips for booking your own online discounted tickets if do so far enough in advance to get them.

daytime connections such and nothing direct except flying.>

should have been daytime connections suck not such

Also direct buses but 7 hours - also a direct night buses - some like Flixbus as low as 25 euros or so.

If not into night trains fly.

Forget the Algarve, and visit Portugal from Lisbon north and east.
Porto is wonderful. Madrid and day trips, 4/5 days, Barcelona , same.

No bad choices, IMO, just some difficult ones!

I can imagine a pleasant trip involving Barcelona (4 or 5 nights, and maybe another night or two for day trips, e.g., Montserrat and/or Tarragona) and then Lisbon and other parts of Portugal, or that same amount of time followed by Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca, with maybe a day trip or two from Madrid (e.g., Segovia or Cuenca).

Enjoy!

So much to choose from! Thanks for your time and consideration. Looks like Madrid over Faro, etc. We recently took an overnight train in Thailand and enjoyed the experience, so many do that again.

Check www.renfe.com - Spanish Railways for booking discounted Spanish and night train to Lisbon tickets. Again www.seat61.com has very helpful tips on doing that as the RENFE site can be a real tough one for novice encounterers to get to work sometime.

Ola!

Wimby has one itinerary on Barcelona and a few more for Portugal, I've linked them below, as well as my favorite Portugal one called "Surf the South" I've gone through with this itinerary and it was spot on!

It doesn't match up 100% with your requirements and timelines but its a good place to bounce ideas off of.

https://wimbytravel.com/category/eng...-by-the-beach/

https://wimbytravel.com/2017/06/05/w...-in-barcelona/

The Barcelona itinerary is great! Has anyone ever rented bikes for a day? Do they come with locks?

I've never seen a bike rental anywhere that did not come with locks - Barcelona has Bicing - a scheme for locals to pick up bike in one place and return it in others across the city but it is for locals only.

We recently took an overnight train in Thailand and enjoyed the experience, so many do that again.>

Can't imagine these hotel trains being any less whatever - some private rooms even come with WC and shower - at an extra price of course: https://rail.cc/en/night-train/madrid-lisbon-th-332/71.

I think Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon should be included in your itinrary as they are must see cities. I personally have been in these cities and litrally loved them.

So, a perfect one would be:
Barcelona
Madrid
Duoro Valley
Lisbon

The north of Portugal is better than the south and is more developed. There's much to see. You can also spend some day at beach.

Some 3-4 for days in every city would be perfect.

Have a look here: https://tripplannera.com/destinations
You can find Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon in the list. It may help you somehow to plan your stay.

However, you have chosen the best cities.

Have a good vacation :)

Thanks for that link to tripplannera. It's fun! So much info.

So, a perfect one would be:
Barcelona
Madrid
Duoro Valley
Lisbon>

Duoro Valley and Porto maybe - public transit poor in Duoro so rent a car or take an excursion from Porto, which to me was a really neat city with its own cachet.

I would add don't miss Evora, east of Lisbon. We drove and it was just a beautiful easy drive through the countryside. You don't want to miss the cork oaks. We spent a night there but wished we had another day there.

Evora is a possible day trip from Lisbon by train or bus and going thru those cork plantations around it is sweet.