Suggestions for Spain & Portugal
 

My husband and I will be traveling in Spain & Portugal for 7 weeks in March & April 2014. Most of our trip will be done independently but we will be joining a group tour that will cover Lisbon north to Santigao de Compostola thru Leon, Bilbao and ending in Barcelona. Our independent journey will take us into Algarve, Andalucia, Madrid and Costa Brava. The questions I have concern overnight trips vs day trips. We will fly into Lisbon from US and spend four nights. Should we spend an additional night in Sintra or is this a day trip? We want to spend three nights in Salema/Tavira -- should we split the nights into two in Salema and one in Tavira? Next we will head Cardiz/Arcos. Is Arcos preferable for overnight? We then will go to Ronda overnight, Malaga overnight Granda two nights, Seville 3 nights Merida 1 night and Evora two nights. We then have three nights extra before joining the group tour. Any suggestions for additional cities? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Fodors, you will get more replies if you post this on the Europe board.

Sintra is a day trip. Aren't you seeing anything of Portugal north of Lisbon??? Much more interesting than the south.

Sorry -- I'm new to Fodor's and I posted in the wrong forum. I've reposted in Europe so you can ignore this.

Thanks

All I can suggest is, don't go hoping to get married in 1998, or some such.

zelphiecat - maybe you should head back to the Lounge. Your posts here aren't making any sense . . .

You are so lucky to be able to spend 7 weeks in Spain & Portugal. Last year we spent 3 weeks in Spain and wish we could have stayed longer. We only saw 1/3 of the country but here's our thoughts on a few of the places you have mentioned.We fell in love with Seville. We spent 3 nights in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Charming "kissing lane" area with lots of restaurants and just a few minutes walk to Alcazar and all of Seville sights. Such a wonderful walkable city. Many museums also and an outdoor art market on Sundays.Arcos was a very charming city. We stayed at the Parador at the top of the city. Well worth it. Very walkable and charming city. Several places to get tapas & a glass of wine or beer for 1.5 Euro.Also many restaurants in the neighborhood as well as outdoor cafes to people watch.Spectacular vistas. Of course you will visit the Alhambra and Generalife Gardens in Granada. The Albayzin was very interesting also. I am so jealous you will be in Spain and I will not. Have a marvelous adventure!

Sintra as a day trip is fine.

March has the fire festival in Valencia (I think mid-march). April has both Semana Santa, Easter week, all over Spain (with the notable exception of Barcelona) and the April Fair in Seville.

If you can plan any of these into your trip, do it.

We mistakenly planned most of Semana Santa in Barcelona, they had nothing other than added masses at the Cathedral. Holy Thursday we spent in Zaragosa and were treated to a lifetime memory as the very energetic processions went all night. Good Friday we were in Pamplona and the procession was much more subdued. Seville is also famous for their processions.

We attended the April Fair in Seville and were treated to another great cultural experience. The fair is a set number of days after Semana Santa, so I think will be in May this year. Too bad, a few days there and wearing polka-dot flamenco dresses starts making sense.

Lisbon is wonderful. Sintra is an easy day-trip by train. So is Cascais, on the ocean.

I strongly suggest a condo in the Algarve, west of Faro, owned by a Memphian and her Belgian husband who live in London:

http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p899793?ref=stream