Spain/Portugal itinerary - What do you think?
 

I know this is a whirlwind tour. I would prefer to stay longer in few places ... but... life is short, we're coming a long way and we might not be back to the area ... so this is what we're planning for a 3-week trip to Spain/Portugal in October.

Day 1: Arrive Barcelona (Holiday Inn Express Barcelona City 22, free with points)
Day 2: Barcelona
Day 3: Barcelona - day trip to Salvador Dali Museum with a small-group tour
Day 4: Barcelona then night train to Granada
Day 5: Arrive Granada, tour the Alhambra and then bus to Mecina-Fondales (L'Atelier B&B or Sierra y Mar)
Day 6: Mecina-Fondales
Day 7: Bus to Granada (Casa Bombo)
Day 8: Train to Cordoba, walk around the town, then get back on the train to Seville
Day 9: Seville (stay?)
Day 10: Train to Madrid (Hostal Barrera)
Day 11: Madrid
Day 12: Madrid - day trip to Segovia
Day 12: Night train to Lisbon
Day 13: Arrive Lisbon (stay?)
Day 14: Lisbon - day trip to Sintra or Óbidos, Alcobaça, Batalha & Nazare Private Tour
Day 15: Lisbon or train to Porto (Better to stay another day in Lisbon or Porto???)
Day 16: Porto (stay?)
Day 17: Train to Douro Valley, Pinhao (Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros)
Day 18: Pinhao
Day 19: Train back to Porto - (Stay close to the airport? It's our last night)
Day 20: Fly home

My main question now is ... should Day 15 be our day to go to Porto or stay in Lisbon for another day? They both sound amazing. Or, should I take one night out of Madrid for more time in Lisbon? Everything sounds so good, it's hard to decide.

Any thoughts? And, I KNOW we're doing too much. If we feel overwhelmed, we can not go on some of the day trips. We don't really like "down time" but when we're in the cities, we won't feel compelled to see all the sights - will spend a lot of time just walking around, sitting in cafes and taking it all in. I was in Madrid for work several years ago for just a couple of days and loved it. Haven't been to any of the other places and it's all new for my husband.

Thanks for your thoughts!

As you thought this is way too much. 19 nights is barely enough to visit Barelona, Madrid and Andalucia much less add Lisbon and Porto. You'll spend much of your time in transit and packing/unpacking - 10 different overnight stops if I counted correctly. Your only down time will be sitting on the buses and trains in transit. I'd highly recommend cutting back on destinations or this will get to be a blur about half way through the trip.

It really doesn't matter where you spend the last day, if you can stand erect at all.

I am knackered!

I suggest you arrange your trip so that you can visit the Alhambra at night as well as in the morning. I also suggest you take Sevilla out of the itinerary but leave Cordoba in (and from there go to Madrid by fast train).

Why don't you fly to Lisbon instead of the overnight train?

Personally, I would drop the day trips out of Lisbon.

If you are flying out of Porto, there is no real advantage to staying close to the airport, and it gets quite difficult to find dinner out there.

To me the biggest flaw in your trip is that Spain (and to some extent Portugal) is really not a daytime place. Much of the enjoyment of the cities and towns is that the come to life at night. You will be experiencing them largely as a nine-to-fiver workday, so your experience of Spain will be lacking color. Sure, you'll see the guidebook sights, but it will that kind of picturebook experience, little of the romance and charm of a different culture, that moves to a different rhythm that the task-driven, put-on-the-blinders-and-move-straight-ahead culture of other more northerly descent.

Personally I wouldn't eliminate Sevilla - it's my favorite of all the,places listed (although I can't compare to Porto as I've never been). It also fits in we'll logistically. I'd cut based on logistics and Portugal would be an easy cut - and good for a future trip focus.

Thanks everyone, especially stevewith, who gave me some good options. I'm going to talk to my SO to see if we can pare it down a bit. I like the idea of not going to Seville. I'm sure it's wonderful, but the trip would flow better without it. And I'll add another day in Granada so that's not a one-night stay. If my SO really wants Seville, we'd just do that instead of Cordoba. That would be our only one-night stay (not counting overnight trains).

So... (if I can convince my SO)

Day 5: Arrive Granada, then bus to Mecina-Fondales (L'Atelier B&B - very excited about this because I'm a vegetarian and this place looks amazing: http://www.ivu.org/atelier/index-eng.html )
Day 6: Mecina-Fondales
Day 7: Bus to Granada - Flamenco or hamam or night visit to Alhambra (Casa Bombo - view of the Alhambra)
Day 8: Another day in Granada, Alhambra (Casa Bombo)
Day 9: Train to Cordoba (stay?)
Day 10: Train to Madrid (Hostal Barrera)

We do not want to forgo the night trains - that's something we both enjoy and if you factor in having to pay for a night's lodging, the difference in price is not that much (my favorite trip of all time was the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Beijing so we like to take trains when we can).

And we are keeping the day trips "to do" if we feel like it. If we'd rather stay in the city that day, we will.

I'll come back when we get back with a trip report.

The part about Portugal makes no sense.

Egbert. -
>>The part about Portugal makes no sense

How so? Please explain.

Having traveled through Spain and Portugal myself, I feel you are trying to do too much in your three weeks. It took us two months to cover half of what you plan to do. Give yourselves some rest time to relax and enjoy these countries. My wife and I walked a lot and then relaxed to discuss and plan the next few days. We realized that it would be impossible to cover all the ground so made what we wanted to see worthwhile. Best wishes for a lovely tour.