We are flying into Lisbon and out of Madrid and will have 3 weeks to travel in May timeframe. If there are any places you would suggest less time or more time, that would be great - or any place not on our itinerary that we have missed. We are not big museum people and generally like smaller towns but definitely like interesting big cities too. Mostly we will be renting a car and driving.

2 days Lisbon, Portugal
2 days Salema, Portugal (near Lagos)
2 days Sevilla
2 days Arcos - exploring Andalucia area
1 day Ronda
2 days Tarifa, seeing Gibralter
3 days in Marrakech, Morocco
1 day Nerja (Costa del Sol)
1 day Granada
2 days Barcelona (fly from Granada)
1 day Madrid (fly to Madrid)
1 day Toledo

Any help would be great!

If you're in Lisbon, some nearby smaller cities of interest might be Cascais and Sintra.

I used to live in Portugal when I was a little boy in the 80s (i'm only 21 now) and we just went back for a visit last summer. We only stayed in the Cascais/Lisbon area mainly because we wanted to visit our old haunts, see our old house, etc. But Cascais has become more touristy as of late... Guincho beach is a great place to go to lay out in the sand and watch wind surfers, and there's also the cabo da roca, a casino (although its actually in Estoril, which is basically a stones throw from cascais) and many other sites in that area. Sintra is a hilly 20 minute drive from Cascais and there's a nice palace to see, along with some great little shops along steep cobble stone streets. Get the Quejadas there (really tasty pastries), or you can probably find some in lisbon and the surrounding cities because they're pretty popular.

Also, if you like pastries (which I do) make SURE to go to Pastais de Belem shop near Lisbon...those little cream filled tarts are to die for. Ok I'm getting hungry.

Sorry if this is a little scatter-brained, I'm just giving you what little biased insight I can on Portugal. But its a great country and there's a ton to see, as I'm sure you already know. But if you have the time, those are a few ideas.

Sounds like fun! But you are not going to see much of Madrid if you fly there in the morning, spend that day only, and daytrip to Toledo the next day.

Also, for the Granada part - you buy timed tickets for Alhambra. I'm not sure how your "1 day Granada" is being planned - arriving that morning, going the night before, or staying over 1 night - but it's something to keep in mind. Especially since you'll have to coordinate it all with a flight to Barcelona.

Buy your plane tickets from Granada to Barcelona on www.iberia.com. Search for different times and you'll find a cheap fare - I'm going next month for $35. The night flight (I think it's at 6:55pm) seems to be the consistently cheap one.

Look for my Spain trip report in late February. I am going from Feb 6th to the 21st and hitting Madrid-Toledo-Segovia-Cordoba-Sevilla-Ronda-Granada-Barcelona.

Karen

It doesn't seem a very knowledgeable or practical itinerary to me: You have no travel time factored it except for your flights Granada-Barcelona and Barcelona-Madrid.

You say you'll have 3-weeks and you have 20-days allocated. That doesn't leave you much slack.

Lisbon-Salema will take a half day: do you subtract that from your 2-days in Lisbon or your 2-days in Salema? The same might be asked for Salema-Sevilla.

From Tangier to Marrakech is a 'hike!' You should allow 7-8 hours each way if you are driving (or whatever time the Train takes, assuming you make perfect connections). Marrakech is nice; but the way things are now and the number of Terrorists who have been identified as Moroccan-born, I don't think I would travel in Morocco for Tourism.

Speaking of driving: you're going to have to pay a huge surcharge if you plan to rent a car in Portugal and drop it off in Spain. Is that your plan??

I don't know if this is kosher, but I'm paging Jenni P. From later posts I saw you spent 5 days in Morocco. I am planning a similar trip this May/June, through Spain, Portugal & Morocco. Could you answer the following:
Did you end up renting the car?
did you take it to Morocco?
Could you post your actual itinerary?
Thanks!!!

You've listed a total of 12 travel days out of a possible 20 days of holiday time. Not bad if you want to spend 60% of your valuable time on the road, in the train, air or ferry terminals. You could even have the basis for a good book on how to travel, and pack and unpack your bags. Not my idea of a good time.

We often cover a lot of ground when in Spain and France, but we never spend less then 3 nights in one location if we can help it and never drive more then a few hours in one day unless there is no other way.

You might want to concentrate a little more on one particular area of the country(s) your most interested in so that you can actually experience something. Then you would be able to have something to say after absorbing some of the local culture instead of simply stating that I’m been here, been there, been everywhere.

You could concentrate on Lisbon and southern Portugal, Andalucía including Sevilla, Arcos, Ronda and Granada, finishing up with Toledo and Madrid, saving the Costa del Sol and Morocco for another adventure. Barcelona and the rest of northern Spain should also be set aside for another trip on another day.

Good advice Robert but you are 7 months late--that was last May.

Paperclip,
Good luck with the page. I will say I do know that no car rental companies in Spain that I know of allow cars to be taken to Morocco.

Gracias bobthenavigator. I should have checked the date.

Thanks Robert2533, bobthenavigator, and Traveler863. It is helpful to know the car idea probably wouldn't work due to rental terms.
I'll do a separate post to page Jenni P.
Gracias!