Planning a trip to Portugal & Spain in early October. Any suggestions of towns, sights, restaurants etc would be appreciated. Also any car rental suggestions.

The walled cities in Portugal. Óbidos, Sintra, Évora, - also, take a boat ride from Portimão to see the cliffs and caves.

Thx! I'll look into them. Sounds amazing!

How long is your trip and what are you interested in. Are you a fan of game of thrones

3 weeks. Not a game of thrones fan. But looking to see some interesting towns, good food, beaches.

Peggy game of thrones towns are really nice.

Where are you flying in to?

Andrew we were hoping to start in Porto and head down the coast and across the south of spain.

Porto - Day trips to Aviero and costa nova

Coimbra one of the oldest universities in europe

Lisbon day trips to caiscais belem

evora for roman architectures and the cathedral of bones. Has some amazing eateries. Few are Michellin Stars

Andrew would you know if flying into Gatwick and then connecting to Porto, is a 1 hour connection enough time?

Did you booked the flight separately?

Andrew yes they are separate. Haven’t booked the flight to Porto yet. We arrive at 8:45am. Next flight to Porto is 10:05am. Just curious how much time we should allow?

Peggy budget airlines usually closed there counters early. When I did Gatwick to barcelona. I gave myself 2 and a half hours. Just in case for picking up luggage and checking in at the counter. In the end I waited for a little while.

Andrew good to know. Thanks for the info.

Peggy enjoy your trip

We road tripped in Portugal over 2 weeks in May: Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto/Gaia, Évora, Lagos, then back up to Lisbon. All were great for different reasons but I wish we had more time in Coimbra and Évora.

Was it easy driving? And finding parking? We will most likely use VRBO to stay at .

Peggy We drove the toll highways (rental car had an e-reader for automatic charging) so traffic was almost non-existent from city to city and most are very new and in great shape. The locals drive the older roads to avoid the tolls. Driving in the towns was a bit stressful, depending on how old (ie: how windy and narrow) the area. That said, driving a bit slower to try to find those pesky hard-to-locate road signs, and realizing that the google map print outs were far more complicated than they needed to be, we were fine. We only needed GPS a few times. As I said, the toll roads are quite new so a lot of google map directions were still losing roundabouts that don’t still exist.

We stayed in a mix of Airbnb’s and hotel-run flats and only booked places with parking. Once in a city, the car stayed parked and we walked or took transport. Also, we didn’t have the car in Lisbon except to pick up and drop off at the rental company at the airport. We stayed in Alfama in Lisbon and there’s no way I’d drive in that neighbourhood...I’d go mad.

Really depends on how many days you have...but Lisbon for a couple of days, and include Sintra in your visit. Porto is also lovely, less busy than Lisbon and filled with culture.
You can then drive south to the Azores, along the southern coast of Portugal and then into Spain.
From just inside southern Spain (Tarifa) you can take a 45 min ferry to Tangier, Morocco for the day. Check out SAID TOURS, they’re the best and most reputable.
From there, can you drive to Marbella-it’s lovely, but just a beach town. I’d keep going on to Seville, which is less expensive, has great food and architecture. One of the loveliest places I’ve been. You can then head up to Barcelona and end in San Sebastián, the birthplace of Tapas. Great beaches, wine, fooooood and the people are lovely.
If you have extra time, and like Architecture and history, check out Granada for the Alhambra. Get tickets a few months in advance, or you won’t be able to go.
Some giant misses are Ibiza (unless drugs and late night partying are your thing). Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) are “ok” but I thought to be over hyped. If you’re driving along the southern coasts, Gibraltar was a giant let down too.
If you are flying into Portugal and out of Spain, (or vice versa) you will have to change rental cars at the border. You can’t rent in one country and drop it in the other country (we tried).
Flying around Spain & Portugal proved to be very easy and cheap. Driving was also easy and navigable. Parking was NOT easy, but should be better in October.

If you have a longer while to spend, I can send you a longer list...along with some specific sights in cities. I LOVED Spain and Portugal. Have fun!

Thank you for all the info! Great tips!

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It sounds obvious, but Lisbon is ridiculously amazing! And the Rock of Gibraltar blew us away!

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone!

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