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.

Pin it!


@