Spain and Portugal are great all year round destinations. But we prefer them in spring or autumn, when the temperatures are ideal (not too hot and still enough warm to swim in the sea). In our 3 weeks road trip to these two amazing countries, rich in history and natural wanders we saw really a lot, but we still got to skip some things. The area is just too big and has too many great places to see for 3 weeks. Our Spain and Portugal itinerary begins in Valencia (Spain), makes a round trip trough southern Spain, goes trough coastal Portugal end ends in Bilbao (northern Spain).
Above is the map of our journey and below is our Spain and Portugal itinerary with the places we have visited:
SPAIN
Day 1: Valencia
Day 2: Valencia
Day 3: Valencia – Cabo de Gata
Day 4: Cabo de Gata – Granada
Day 5: Granada – Cordoba
Day 6: Cordoba – Olvera
Day 7: Olvera – Ronda
Day 8: Ronda – Casares – Tarifa
Day 9: Tarifa – Cacela Velha (Portugal)
PORTUGAL
Day 10: Cacela Velha (Portugal) – Praia Benagil – Praia da Marinha
Day 11: Praia da Marinha – Sao Vincente – Praia do Amado
Day 12: Praia do Amado – Praia de Gale
Day 13: Praia de Gale
Day 14: Praia de Gale
Day 15: Praia de Gale – Lisbon
Day 16: Lisbon – Cabo da Roca – Peniche
Day 17: Peniche – Porto
Day 18: Porto
Day 19: Porto – Santiago de Compostela – Cedeira
SPAIN
Day 20: Cedeira – Cabo Ortegal – Playa De Frexulfe
Day 21: Playa De Frexulfe – Santander
Day 22: Santander (Cabarceno wildlife park)
Day 23: Santander – Bilbao
We had 3 weeks for discovering Spain and Portugal, if you are on a shorter holiday you can easily adjust the itinerary to the number of days you have.
We travelled by car, which was great, especially when reaching some of the most beautiful beaches that are not accessible by public transport. We were camping all the time, did a bit of self catering and this way saved quite a lot.
Since we were traveling off season (in european spring – April and May) there weren’t crowds like this part of Europe gets in summer months, but if you want to visit the mighty Alhambra in Granada, you will still have to make some effort. 🙂
Our favorite places on this trip were the Algarve region in Portugal, the city of Porto, the whole coast of northern Spain (the Cabarceno Wildlife Park was one of the highlights for our kid), Valencia and white towns of Andalusia in Spain.
As you can see we like to explore some off the beaten places beside the most known attractions too. We hope that this itinerary was helpful, that you got some new ideas and that will help you to organize your next trip to Spain and/or Portugal.
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