Masterphil

Hi Everybody!

Every trip I take I get wonderful information from all of you!

With that in mind, I think I have "finalized" my plans for the upcoming trip.

If you have any thoughts on the itinerary, please share!

My wife and I like to experience tourist sights, love food, and aren't really into museums. We are contemplating an early retirement in Portugal in a few years and want to check it out from that standpoint. Being so close to Spain (having never been there), I extended the trip slightly to get a few days in Spain.

Current itinerary: We fly from the west coast to Paris CDG and transfer to Orly for a flight to Malaga. We pick up the car in the evening and drive 15 mins to our hotel in Malaga. I really want to see the Mezquita in Cordoba, so we drive from Malaga to Cordoba (at this point solely to see the Mezquita. After watching videos of Seville, I am wondering if we should not stay in Cordoba for the night and instead, drive right to Seville after going in the Mezquita). Assuming we stay in Cordoba for the night, we then drive to Seville the next morning and stay for 2 nights (this was increased from 1 night in a previous version of itinerary). Seville looks spectacular from what I have seen! We then drive to Lagos and stay for 2 nights. We then drive to Belem for 2 nights (should I stop at Evora on the way from Lagos to Belem or do it as a day trip from my second visit to Lisbon later in the trip?). I originally was going to stay in Cascais for 2 nights but changed to Belem (figuring I can just check out Cascais neighborhoods with a drive from Belem). We drive to Sintra and stay the night there to get an early morning start at Pena Palace. After Sintra, we drive to Porto (stopping in Obidos along the way). We stay 3 nights in Porto. We then drive back to Central Lisbon (hopefully making a few stops along the way (Fatima? Tomar? Coimbra?) for 3 nights before flying to Copenhagen for 2 nights before our flight home). We have done this kind of vacation before and I have driven a lot farther than this before. We like the ability to change on the fly and make our own schedules.

Also, here are the hotels we have chosen. If you have any good or bad regarding them, let me know. We live modestly in the states, but splurge on vacation.

Malaga - Gran Hotel Miramar (1 night)
Cordoba - NH Cordoba Guad... (1 night.....maybe?)
Seville - Gran Melia Colon (2 nights (maybe 3?)
Lagos - Onyria Palmares (2 nights)
Belem - Altis Belem (2 nights)
Hotel Boutique Sintra (1 night)
Porto - Porto River Aparthotel
Lisbon - Hotel Avenida Palace (3 nights)

71 Nyhavn Hotel in Copenhagen - 2 nights (we fly home from there, have never been there before, so a quick 2 nights to look see).

Thanks for all of your recommendations, suggestions in advance.

When retired, we can return to any of these places and spend the right amount of time in each. While we are still working, I have to take what I can get!

PalenQ

You seem to be driving just city to city -if so consider trains as cars and cities are more and more hard. Trains go to all those places.

Belem is a part of Lisbon - I'd base in Lisbon maybe and do Belem and Sintra from it - moving hotels takes a lot of time. I walked from Belem from central Lisbon.

Evora is a sweet old town.

Renting in Spain and dropping car in Portugal - huge drop-off fee or not?

For train info check Renfe for Spain and www.cp.pt for Portugal. Book tickets in advance to get discounted fares - general train info www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com.

kja

As you already know, that's a really BAD idea -- dangerous for yourselves, dangerous for everyone else on or near the roads. Driving with jet lag is just as risky as driving drunk, no matter how lucky you've been in the past, and nothing you can do will eliminate that risk -- not sleeping on your flight, not caffeine, not effort, nothing. Your body needs at least a little time for a reset of your biological clock.

You can easily get from Malaga to Cordoba using public transportation, and then wait until you are ready to leave Cordoba to rent a car.

IMO, Cordoba is delightful. Spending a night there is a very reasonable thing to do.

Masterphil

Thanks PalenQ!

Definitely driving. I like to make my own schedules. Took trains many times, now I always drive. One way drop-off fee for rental car is 340euro for full size BMW 500.

I originally was going to stay in Cascais to check out the neighborhood as a potential place to live, but seeing videos of Lisbon convinced me I needed to stay more days there. The hotel in Belem has a big parking lot making it easy to get to and from Cascais/Estoril without staying there (and getting to enjoy Belem (Lisbon) in the evening. (AT least that's what my thought is).

I guess I have to get to Evora. What I need to determine is if I go there on the way from Lagos or later in the week when we just get back to central Lisbon and still have the car.

Thanks for your help (as usual!!)

Masterphil

Thanks kja!

Completely understand your concerns re: jet lag driving. We already spoke about this.

I guess I will stay in Cordoba for the night (90 mins of driving vs 3 hours to get to Seville).

Thanks again!!