Seeking Spain/Portugal advice

Ned my son got his ticket for the same trip last week, they were a little over $ 400 round trip out of Miami. He can tell you more when he gets to Denver, he accepted the job offer today.

He had so much fun backing packing europe by himself for three weeks after graduating in may, he couldn't wait to go back and see more.

El Camino santiago

Id like to go in fall>winter

Seville is fantastic, but maybe not in summer. The small streets and the Cathedral make directionless wandering uber fun.

Granada has the Alhambra and is also an incredible vibrant city. The local college has an awesome music program so flamenco guitar is played by young folks in plaza's and such. And the food and drink are wonderful. Wander ancient streets hopping cafe's getting tapas and iberico ham, 2 beers plus plate of food $4. Coldest beer in Europe.

I went two years ago and fell in love with Spain.

Really wanna do Portugal, too.

A day trip to Toledo outside of Madrid was cool. Famous huge Cathedral and the Alcazar. Also where famous painter El Greco lived and died. You can visit his house.

I have done Madrid>Toledo>Lisbon>Seville>Costa del Sol>Granada>Madrid in one big loop.  It was a while ago, but recall it was 10 days or less.  Saw lots of old castles, cathedrals, and shit.

>>>>Is it easy to do an overnight in Morocco?

I also was able to throw in a day ferry trip to Spanish Morocco (Ceuta).  Wasn't that impressed.  Highly militarized with lots of bunkers and barbed wire, which I understand is now even worse with the refugee crises.  Not sure about Morocco proper.

Stick to Barcelona and Mediterranean coast area in Spain. Enter southern Portugal and head up to Lisbon and Porto also if you can

14 days is never enough no matter where you go.

When we started planning, it was much bigger than we thought.  We had hoped to go to both Spain and Portugal, but realized it was too much in that time period, especially since Granada and The Alhambra was a primary thing I wanted to see (that's in Southern Spain).  Learned that it is prohibitively expensive to drop car in the other country and there wasn't a train that was working for us.  We looooved Seville, Granada was the bomb, I climbed up the big hill with the gypsy caves and came upon some cave dwelling hippie compound.  The Alhambra was amazing, I have had this fascination with the Moors since I was a kid, so I was way stoked. We also rented a car and had a great drive through the mountains, going to Ronda, and back to Seville.  Was sorry to miss the central Portugal coast and Lisbon, another place I have always been oddly fascinated with, but I was glad not to be rushing around. BTW, it was really cheap to rent  a car for a day. The train from Seville to Granada was being repaired so we took a bus down, but decided on a whim to drive back.  Good call, it was nice to see the countryside, the gorgeous mountains, stopped in some fishing village, Ronda, exploring random castles we passed.

If I did a second trip, and especially if it were summer, I would probably go to Porto in northern Portugal and northern Spanish coast and mountains. I think it would be a long ass trip from Barcelona to Portugal unless you flew, so I would choose one or the other.  I have heard that the Camino Santiago has become waaaaay to busy, like not enough bathrooms and places to stay.  Choose your location carefully if you do that.  Skip Costa Del Sol.  Agriculture and retired English people.  However, since the Brexit vote I bet you can get a swell deal on a villa.

Just remember that the Iberian peninsula is GIANT.

BTW Ned, this may or may not be your thing, but I really enjoyed finding old Roman and Moorish ruins in strange places. Not to mention churches churches churches. They even have celtic stone circles up in Northern Spain.  If you are driving, check the website Atlas Obscura for random shit to check out.

well I've never been to Spain...

... but for years I've watched full coverage of the Tour of Spain, which goes for 3 weeks and a couple thousand miles.  The race coverage is usually around 3 hours per day and they make it a point to really show off each region from both the road and air, so you can't help getting saturated with the scenic points of interest.

During this year's edition, I was totally blown away when they went through the Andalusia region... if I ever make it over there, it's an area I would love to explore.

pics along with some poorly translated commentary:

http://www.getsready.com/andalusia-best-city-visit-spain/

The relic room in the basement of the Seville Cathedral is something else.   A regular Fort Knox of finger bones and other bits and parts of saints incased in gold. 

I used to live in Spain and visited Portugal once, too. Flying back from Strings & Sol right now, but will write you this weekend w/ some ideas. Traveling by train only?

I got some killer Morrocan hash in Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Well actually a guy from my hotel from Venezuela who spoke spanish got it. I was flying.

Ned, I have some really good friends in Seville, Barcelona, and Granada. Let me know if you'd like any info from them about anything. 

I'm planning a three week trip to Europe at the end of May into June with both kids in tow. We were going to do just Italy but have decided to get a Eurail pass. Not sure what the plan of action is yet but we are hoping to see as much as we can in that three weeks. 

I would say two weeks for Portugal and Spain with a night in Morocco would be plenty.

Never been.

But I kind of like the music.

Spain-Malaga is awesome!! Lived there for a year and a half. If you are looking for coastal bliss that is a place to go. Right on The Mediterranean Sea .  

sample many Chile Verdes and report back

Costa Del Sol- Marbella is really nice. I like Mijas which is in the Hills but close to the Ocean if you are going to rent a car. Gibraltar is worth a day trip as well. Very cool place that I spent a fair bit of time in b/c my wife's Schengan 3 month visa expired we got a place in Gibraltar as The UK visa was 12 months. Not worth more than a day trip though with limited time. I found Siesta to be very weird 

>>>>Gibraltar is worth a day trip as well.

When I was there in pre-EU days, the border was closed and the issue was still a sore spot between Britain and Spain.   However, my brother was in Spain earlier this year and had no trouble visiting Gibraltar from the Spanish side.  Once Brexit is complete, it will likely become an issue again, making land travel to the British outpost more difficult. 

We went to Andalusia a couple years ago.  I'll be honest and say we did not love the Costa del Sol.  Lots of industrial agriculture, development, and sad english retirees.  We did stumble upon a perfect little beach of locals where I ate the shit out of whole grilled sardines.  We did not go to Cadiz, however, which I understand is quite charming aside from being a cruise port.  It's also the site of a Phoenician settlement that is one of the longest steadily inhabited places in Europe.  We enjoyed Ronda very much, and wish we had spent more time in the hills there, especially touring the white villages. I think there are also white cities in Cadiz province. However, since you will have been coastal for a few days you might consider a mtn town for your layover instead of coast.  Find an ancient city with a cool church or castle or some shit. If you do go to Costa del Sol you can definitely hit Ronda and the other mountain villages on the way to Seville. Another option  for one of your drives is Evora, between Lisbon and Seville.  It has a chapel made out of human bones, a stone circle, some roman shit and some very ancient pagan tombs and chapels, but is a hella old city that's all picturesque and shit. University town. We'll do that next trip.  I have heard very mixed reviews on Gibralter.  Unless you were going to actually take the ferry to Morocco for the day, it may not be worth your time on a very short trip, except as an oddity.  YMMV. 

Loved Seville.  Loved it.  Just wandering the old streets, eating and drinking, and wandering.  I don't know jack about Spanish wine and a lot of it is swill, but the beer is COLD.  Suited me fine (Portugal has great wine. Vino verde for white and whatever they are serving for red) .  I also really enjoyed Granada.  The big ticket item there is the Alhambra, but the town itself was great.  The hills up above have caves which have been inhabited by gypsys.  That's kind of a tourist thing now but I climbed up up up the hill and came out at some area with squatters and hippies, etc all living in caves.  Cool shit.  There is also a town not far from there that is pretty much all caves.  I did not care for the main drag in the old moorish neighborhood, but the area near the river and up the hill toward the alhambra was pretty cool.  The views of snowcapped peaks and the Alhambra in the foreground were fantastic.  That city is OLD.  If you do go to the Alhambra, get tickets ahead of time and go early as it only gets more crowded as people linger.  We stumbled across an old Arab bath, really cool old underground structure. If you are in a town that has one, check it out.  Ancient moorish shit is cool. 

Siesta is not weird.  Especially in Seville it was a major thing, but worked for us.  We'd go out wandering all morning and eating lunch then enjoy the silence of the streets during siesta as we ambled home.  It was nice.  Don't plan on eating or shopping then though. Seville is very Spanish Spain, they keep to the old ways.

Beautiful!

Awesome!

love the look on cobra dude's face

very nice. 

Beautiful - those pics look like pics of a trip I'd like to take. Thanks for posting them.