We've returned from our trip and wanted to share our itinerary for the month that we spent on our 'Pat Leave' trip throughout Spain & Portugal. We departed on May 7 and returned on June 7. For more details about each place, check out the full post on the blog, which are linked in the itinerary below.
Day 1: Travel from Calgary to London | Spend Night at Gatwick Airport Hotel
Day 2: Explore London in Morning | Evening Flight to Madrid
Day 3-4: Madrid, Spain
Day 5: Day Trip to Toledo from Madrid (50 minute drive)
Day 6: Drive Madrid to Salamanca, Spain (2.5 hr. drive)
Day 7: Full Day in Salamanca, Spain
Day 8: Drive Salamanca, Spain to Porto, Portugal (3.5 hr. drive)
Day 9-10: Porto, Portugal
Day 11: Day Trip to Duoro Valley (1.5 hr. drive) | Back to Porto for Overnight
Day 12: Drive Porto to Coimbra, Portugal | Stop in Aveiro
Day 13-14: Coimbra, Portugal | On 2nd afternoon drove to Nazare, Portugal
Day 15: Full Day in Nazare, Portugal
Day 16: Drive from Nazare to Lisbon, Portugal (1.5 hr. drive)
Day 20: Drive from Lisbon to Algarve in Luz, Portugal (about 3 hr. Drive)
Day 21-23: Algarve, Portugal | Our Accommodation was in Luz
Day 24: Drove Algarve to Seville, Spain (2.5 hr. Drive)
Day 25-26: Seville, Spain
Day 27: Drove from Seville to Malaga Area (Torrox) (2 hr. 45 min. Drive)
Day 28-29: Malaga Area (Frigiliana, Maro, Nerja)
Day 30-31: Drove Back to Madrid in morning and Flight Home via London
Portions of this 30-day itinerary could easily be broken into smaller sections for shorter periods of travel times.
Itinerary Tip
One travel aspect we try to implement as much as possible when traveling on road trips like this, is to fly into one location and fly out of another. This does require a one-way rental car, but we haven't found one-way rentals to be cost inhibiting like sometimes they can be in North America. This allows us to cover more area and distance without having to back-track, but most importantly is a HUGE time saver. It's definitely one of our favorite itinerary tricks.
This was the trusty BMW that took us on our journey from Spain to Portugal and back. It was literally brand new when we picked it up with only 12 km. By the end we had put on 3,200 km. Was worth every kilometer!
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