Spain and Portugal Itinerary for active retirees
 

My wife and I wish to visit Spain and Portugal from New Zealand in May 2025 for 3 weeks. About 2 weeks in Spain and 1 week in Portugal. Key places of interest to include Barcelona, Andalusia region and Portugal. We do not want to spend too much time in big cities but understand big cities have some places of must see interests.
We do not want to rush and know we cannot see everything so we wish to focus on the must sees. We can use a mixture of transport and if required in smaller places to rent a car. We like a variety of activities from walking, biking and sight seeing.
After 3 weeks we will fly to Scandinavia. Any suggestions for a suitable itinerary would be much appreciated.

where do you plan to fly into?

I think you will face a challenge finding a suitable 3-week itinerary that combines Spain and Portugal. Barcelona can take up to a week; Andalusia easily merits 2 full weeks or more. In Portugal, Lisbon and Porto easily take a week ... and that doesn't count Sintra or any other time outside of Portuguese cities. All of those places can be seen without a car, though you might need to fly from Spain to Portugal.

You might consider skipping Portugal on this trip. Or more radically, skip Scandinavia this trip. I say that even though I love Scandinavia!

A huge ditto to what kja says!!

Thanks for the replies, we will have a rethink, So, if we had a good 3 weeks for Spain and not got to Portugal any suggestions for an itinerary. We could fly into Barcelona or Madrid

Years ago my husband and I did a three week trip to Spain in which we flew into Madrid and out of Barcelona, traveling by car, picking up car when we left Madrid and returning the car. We did Toledo as a day trip from Madrid which can be done as a long day trip or a stay overnight or two. We traveled North to Segovia with a stop on the way at El Escorial, headed West to Salamanca and stopped at Avila and then south stopping at various places including in no particular order Caceres, Merida, Ronda, Cadiz, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia and before arriving in Barcelona a stop at Monserrat. So we never made it north of Barcelona and we never made it to Bilbao or San Sebastian, so another trip is needed. We did revisit Barcelona as a stop back home from Israel. I had been to Spain previously but it was back when Franco was still alive, a totally different place.

My daughter and her boyfriend were in Spain this summer, flying into Barcelona and train to Madrid, five nights each place including a day trip by train to Toledo.

We visited Portugal for 10 days several years ago and although I planned a good itinerary and we saw quite a lot, by no means did we see the whole country. My point is that you do need to really plan as you cannot do it all, both Spain and Portugal in 3 weeks. Spain is actually a very large country gegraphically.

You would do very well to consult some good guidebooks, read trip reports and planning threads here on Fodor's, and otherwise learn enough about these locations to plan a trip that works for you and YOUR interests, but here's a rough 3-week option for Andalusia and Barcelona:

• Fly into Seville, maybe 5 nights. (I think many people would find 4 nights sufficient, but coming from NZ, I think you would be wise to block out a day for recovery.) Book the Alcazar in advance.
  • (I know you said fly into Barcelona or Madrid, but I suspect you can book flights that mean transferring in one of those cities -- or somewhere else -- to Seville so you don't have to actually start in one of those cities. I could be wrong!)
• Spend a few nights in Cadiz or Malaga.
• Spend a night or two in Ronda or one (or more) of the white villages. OR head into the Alpujarras.
• on to Granada, 3 nights. Book the Alhambra WELL in advance.
• next: Cordoba, 2 or 3 nights. Book the Mezquita in advance, but no need to do so until a few days beforehand.

On to Bardelona for a week or so in Catalonia. (I'd take the train because I dislike unnecessary flights. The train will almost certainly involve a change in Madrid, which I'm not mentioning because you didn't indicate any interest in that fascinating part of Spain. As Madam397 mentions, there are a LOT of wonderful destinations in that part of the country! FWIW, I would have found the trip she describes way too rushed for my tastes. YMMV!)

Choose your priorities in Barcelona and decide which other places in Catalonia to visit, whether as day trips or an overnight or two. You won't be short of options!

Fly out of Barcelona.

NOTE that I'm suggesting that you move from south to north because Andalusia gets blazingly hot in summer. For climate data, see https://weatherspark.com/
For how to get from place to place: Rome2Rio

Hope that helps!

I should have prefaced my post to indicate that this trip to Spain took place many years ago when my husband and I were much younger, 1978 in fact. In those days, we only had the Michelin guides for our trip planning and also, the afternoon siesta was pretty universal and so we did most of our driving place to place during siesta time. On days we spent mutiple days in a specific place, we spent most of siesta time exploring the amazing parks. You usually could get a drink in a cafe post-siesta but not a meal. We did our touring in places in late afternoon post-siesta time and in the mornings. Needless to say I recall that we were pretty hungry waiting for restaurants to open for dinner, frequently not before 9 PM. Most of our interests at the time and still today are art and architecture. My husband is a retired architect. I studied art history as a minor in college and was fairly fluent in Spanish. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona was brand new as Picasso would not allow his art to be displayed while Franco was still alive. When we returned in 2010, the Miro Museum had opened. There was no timed entry or advance tickets needed anywhere. You simply showed up and bought tickets on arrival.

As someone who almost never eats lunch and only rarely eats dinner before 10 p.m., I love Spain! I often used siesta as you did, Madam397, except that I moved around by train or bus, choosing the siesta as the "perfect" time to move from one city to the next. Or, like you (I think), using that time to explore parks or just roam around town, admiring the architecture.

Sounds like you had a wonderful experience -- thanks for your brief summary!

Thank you for all the comments. As there are no direct flights to Seville, does it make sense to fly into Madrid, stay for a few nights then move onto Seville. After exploring Andalusia, fly to Barcelona say from Cordoba.

I love Madrid -- but if you want to keep your time in Spain to 3 weeks, I think you would be wise to choose two regions: (1) Andalusia, (2) Barcelona / Catalonia, and//or (3) Madrid and surrounds. IMO, Madrid alone easily merits 5 nights, and places like Toledo, Segovia, and Salamanca are also in that part of the country and are easily seen from Madrid. That said, only you can decide which parts most appeal, what you are willing to skip, and what pace you prefer.

Once in Spain, I personally would not fly from Andalusia to Barcelona (or vice versa). Airports are outside of the cities, so you need much more time to get to / from the airports than train stations and you need to be at the airport well in advance of your flight. In contrast, the train stations are central and you don't need to be particularly early. And train travel in Spain is, IME, quite comfortable.

Even though you have to stop somewhere en route to or from Seville (or anywhere in Andalusia), by choosing to fly multi-city, you probably have a wider array of options if you don't limit yourself to routing through Madrid for that leg. I could be wrong!

With 3 weeks, I think you can comfortably visit Madrid, Toledo, Andalucia and Barcelona in 3 weeks. You won’t see everything or visit every important town, but that’s ok. This was our itinerary in September 2017: (we visited Barcelona on a separate trip.)

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

Then you would have 6 nights for Barcelona which I think is a good amount of time for Barcelona which has many, many interesting sites. And now it’s necessary to purchase tickets in advance so you might not be able to visit as many sites as you wish on any given day. Or you could take a daytrip to Girona from Barcelona. Although I prefer staying overnight in Girona but that means more packing and unpacking.

According to the weatherspark link that kja provided, May is warm in Andalusia. Although weather can change and it could be hotter. I think May would be fine. I would not visit Andalusia in June, July or August. Be sure to have hats, sunscreen, and drink plenty of water.

The train is the way to travel in Spain for as much as possible, cheap, goes city centre to city centre which is where you want to be.

I agree completely with kja's suggestion of dividing your time between only 2 regions: for example, 2 weeks in Andalusia (but please go there first before you encounter the extreme, intense heat of the summer) plus the last week in either Madrid + surroundings OR Barcelona + surroundings. I also agree with kja that 2 weeks is a perfect amount of time really to savor all the beauties of Andalusia unhurriedly, since you will have a full 3 weeks for your trip. But you may prefer a speedier pace.

As to Andalusian cities' weather, I use www.timeanddate.com, then click on "worldwide weather" then search for the specify city, for example, Seville, then from the drop down menu, "yesterday/past weather", then select month, May, 2024, and look at the daily highs throughout the month. You see the highs ranged from 21 on May 2 to a sweltering 38 on May 30. Just keep that in mind. I consult timeanddate all the time to see just what type of heat I may be expecting in the south. If you can, I would go to the south in early May, then work my way up north, either to Madrid or Barcelona, whichever you prefer. As you can see from last year, late May is not pleasant weather in the south, and it's expected to get even hotter. We've had the hottest summer here in Spain on record this year.

I also agree with kja that train is better than plane in most cases, as it's city center to city center.

There is no flight from Córdoba to Barcelona.
If Córdoba is your final Andalusian city, please note that there is direct train service each day at 9:37 am that doesn't require a train change in Madrid, but instead skirts the south of the city to go on northeast (this is the same train that originates in Sevilla). The ride takes 4 hours, 44 minutes. But please book the train well in advance, as the fares only go up closer to your departure day. For example, for next week, the fare on this train in Confort class (XL seat, more leg room) costs 196 euros and Premium class, 215 (same seat but access to the VIP lounge plus a meal/drinks served at one's seat). For the last of November, those fares come down to 57 and 76 euros.

That said about train versus plane, there is one exception: If Granada is your final Andalusian city, many Fodorites have flown on the non-stop Iberia (Vueling metal) flight to Barcelona simply because train service to Barcelona from Granada is quite limited. There is only 1 direct train per day not requiring a change, and it departs at 3:35 pm, arriving Sants station at 9:54 pm, a ride of 6 hours, 19 minutes. The other morning 2 trains, requiring a change in Córdoba take 7 hours, 25 min, a very long ride. Of course, it´s up to you.

Also kja makes an excellent point about looking for other European gateways to Sevilla other than Madrid. Another European gateway could be more convenient for you from New Zealand. You could connect through Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, London, Paris...
Look at all the European city destinations that serve Sevilla directly here.
The SVQ airport has attracted more and more intra European flights in the past few years.

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tugal-1713270/
This may be helpful for Portugal.

I did Spain and Portugal in 2018 for about 25 days, and while it was ok, not sure if I would do it again. I think with 3 weeks I would do just Spain
You could even get to Morocco from Southern spain

This was our itinerary when we did both countries.
Lisbon 4 nights , then train to Porto
Porto 3 nights, then pick up hire care
Duroro Valley 2 nights
Evora 1 night
Lagos 2 nights and car hire drop off at Faro bus to Seville
Seville 5 nights
Granada 3 nights then flight to Bacelona
Barcelona 5 nights then home.

Loved Seville, and Granada.

I have now fine tuned my trip to Spain for next year.
We will only go to Spain and looking at starting this trip around 23rd April to miss the very hot weather.
We will fly into Madrid. We will travel around by train.
Madrid - 3 nights
Cordoba -2 nights
Seville - 3 nights
Granada - 3 nights
After Granada we will get the train to Malaga to pick up a rental car and travel to Marbella for 4 nights. We will use Marbella as a base to explore the surrounding areas. Then, we will return the rental car to Malaga and fly to Barcelona for 4-5 nights.

Any comments and improvements to this plan would be much appreciated. We do have some flexibilty with the number of nights.

Focusing on Spain makes a lot of sense to me!

It depends on your interests, but I wanted more than 3 nights in both Madrid and Sevilla -- at least 4 nights, 5 would have been welcome for each. And for Barcelona, I wanted a week -- not counting day trips.

I've never warmed to Marbella, Malaga is really nice while Marbella seems to be meh

Hi Kiwi,
Just one more tip here. Both countries lend themselves to the notion of 'deliberately including an obscure destination, somewhat off the well-trodden path/usual-suspect places.'
Just one example for Portugal: the small hilltop village 'Marvao.'
And in Spain: 'Arcos de la Frontera.'
These are merely my suggestions, no doubt you could come up with your own.

I am done. The Tawari honey addict

Of course, you can go to both Portugal and Spain in three weeks. It depends on your priorities. Once you are in Seville, it's just as easy to go to Lisbon as Barcelona. So the idea that entering another country is some sort of travel no-no is a bit absurd.

And I am really surprised you are proposing Marbella. A town that appears on 'must-see' lists... absolutely never.

One thing you might consider is that there is no such thing as a 'must-see.' It is simply a question of what inspires you. But that should come from your own armchair travel first. Clearly you are drawn to Andalusia (you are not alone). so start there. You can fly right to Seville.

If I were in your shoes.... I'd be tempted to fly to Portugal first (yes, this will take longer), spend two weeks going from Porto to Lisbon (Or the other way around), fly to Seville, spend a week in Andalusia, and go onto Scandinavia from there.

That way, every day of your three weeks you will experience a 'must-see.' Though I personally don't subscribe to the idea.

If you need inspiration about Portugal, here is an excellent trip report (with photos). It's not mine. https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...gress-1697432/

Unfortunately, our trip to Spain did not eventuate in 2025. However, we are now planning to do this in 2026. We are looking at the first 3 weeks in Spain followed by 2 weeks in France, returning home from Paris. We have been to Provence, Paris and Dordogne previously.
At this stage, we would appreciate any comments about the Spain itinerary. We do have some flexibility with this schedule
Fly into Madrid, 2 nights,
train to Toledo, 1 night
train to Cordoba, 2 nights
train to Ronda, 2/3 nights, hire a car to visit nearby villages
train to Seville via Cordoba, 3 nights
train to Granada, 3 nights
fly to Barcelona, 4 nights
train to San Sebastián, 3 nights

I must admit that I would find this itinerary too rushed for my tastes. Only 2 nights in Madrid? (Jet lagged nights?) Only 4 nights in Barcelona? No time for Girona or Montserrat or any of the other gems near Barcelona? If it were me (it's not!) I'd skip San Sebastian until you have time to include Bilbao and other parts of northern Spain and I'd add that time to Barcelona and / or Madrid. Or, for that matter, add a night to Toledo -- more than enough there to keep one busy. Your trip, your call! Whatever you choose, you'll see some amazing places.

Perhaps you should take a closer look at the train schedules.
For example : to travel from Toledo to Cordoba , one has to go through Madrid,
Barcelona to SS takes many hours by train , etc..

Thanks Kja, I do not want a rushed itinerary. I will relook at this.
Danon, thanks for the reminder about checking train schedules. I thought there is a direct train from Toledo to Cordoba.

Yes two nights in Madrid is not enough time. There is too much to see and do there, same with Barcelona. Both places are great bases for day trips such as El Escorial or Segovia from Madrid or Montserrat from Barcelona. As May is increasingly becoming prime travel season so people can avoid the summer heat bear in mind that there will be many other travelers and places are crowded and take time and reservations most likely in advance. Perhaps you don't need three nights in Granada. It is lovely and interesting although we had to spend three nights but it was in late fall and there were road closures because of heavy rainstorms, so we needed the extra day to wait it out.

Your itinerary is not bad except for the beginning. Tack on another day to Madrid, or I give you permission to skip Madrid entirely Then you can distribute those days elsewhere as you see fit.

As others have pointed out, one could spend their entire vacation exploring each of your destinations. Their suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. However, there is nothing wrong with what you are proposing.