DriNL

I have been to Salema following Rick Steve's advice and was super disappointed. I am brazilian so I know a lot of the portuguese traditions and I can tell you that Salema is not more "portuguese" that the other cities as Rick Steves says. I stayed in Lagos instead and loved the city. I was there in the beginning of october and thanks to a heat wave I was able to even get some tan. Be aware that in the beginning of october ( 5 oct I guess ) is a national holiday, I couldnt find a place to cash travellers and my PIN card didnt work on Portuguese ATM's. I had to cash a traveller at a Hotel with absurd comission or I wouldnt have money to get the bus to Lagos. Have a nice trip!

bobert

Hi all!

Final plans are made:
Madrid 2nites
Train to Granada 2 nites
Pick up car and drive to San Jose 2 nites
Sevilla - Marchena (monastery) 2nites
Cascais, Portugal 3 nites
Caceres (monastery) 1 nite
Madrid 1 nite..we are going to crash at an airport hotel as we will arrive late in the day and leave early the next morning.

Still have to work out the car rental..hope picking it up in Granada and returning to Madrid will work out...by taking the train to Granada we don't have to worry about parking the car and it will give us a chance to rest and read travel information after only a couple of days in the country.

We know this is still an ambitious itinerary as we are covering alot of ground..so easy to be ambitious sitting at the kitchen table planning the trip! If the trip is too tiring we will cancel a reservation along the way and slow down a bit.

Now that everything is "in place" I will probably have to "reinvent the wheel" when I can't find appropriate lodging!!!!

What do "you" think???