Wrapping up an awesome road trip with 2 legs Lisbon -> Porto Seville -> Barcelona

3 nights in Lisbon (with a day trip to Sintra) No car needed. Ubers are dirt cheap, trams are charming and walking is the best way to explore the city. Gorgeous. Charming details are everywhere, food is delicious throughout. Try the canned fish at Sol e Pesca.

Day 4: Lisbon -> Óbidos - > Nazaré -> Coimbra Got the car in Lisbon. Got an upgrade to a Renault SUV at Sixt. Was concerned about it with all the narrow windy roads ahead but it all worked out. Great car. All stunning places. Would have loved to stay overnight in Óbidos. Caught the sunset in Nazaré. There were no monster waves when we went but it was still worth it and beautiful. Arrived in Coimbra at night. Caught up with a friend at Zé Manel dos ossos - a divey hidden gem for dinner.

Day 5: Coimbra -> piódão-> Peso da Régua Head to piodao first thing in the AM. Lunch and stroll around this gorgeous schist village up in the mountains. A bit nerve-wrecking going up the mountain in a bit of rain, but so worth it. Very unique village. Then off to Peso in Douro Valley.

Day 6 & 7: Douro valley. We stayed at Quinta da Pacheca. We arrived in time for a tour and tasting. Was a bit corporate but pleasant enough. Rooms were great. Felt like a million bucks. The dinner at Castas and Pratos (Yum - fancy) Then the next day driving up dicey mountain roads for (cheap, yet priceless experiences) tastings at Quinta do Crasto in the morning, Lunch at Quinta de la Rosa, then afternoon tasting at Quinta Sears D’Ordens.

Day 8: Peso de Régua -> Porto Arrived at lunch. Walked around a bunch, gorgeous city. Definitely wished we stayed longer. Truly deserves at least 2 nights. Probably more. Then return the car and off to the airport to catch our flight to Sevilla. Got there with enough time to catch delicious tapas then a super fun Flamenco night at Casa Anselma.

Day 9: Sevilla -> Jerez de la Frontera Explored the city and Plaza de España in the AM. Did the Stained glass tour at the Cathedral in the PM. Then picked up a car at the airport Enterprise (upgraded to a Mercedes Cabrio - Road trip jackpot!) and headed to Jerez at the end of the day. Easy, pretty drive. Slept at a cheap but good hotel near the center. Fun and tasty evening at Tabanco El Pasaje.

Day 10. Jerez -> Puerto de Santa Maria -> Setenil de Las Bodegas -> Ronda Booked a last minute AM visit to a Sherry producer, which is also the biggest one. Osborne - famous for the bull billboards across Spain. Great tour. Tasting was ok. Their restaurant was excellent though a bit pricey. Explored the lovely streets nearby. Then off to the beautiful drive (hilly olive tree farms) to Setenil. A pretty white village (parking nightmare!) whose part of it sits under a rock. Then caught the sunset at Ronda. A bigger town over a rock with dramatic views and bridge. Scored a rural hotel nearby that was so cheap yet so upscale. Felt like a million bucks again!

Day 11: Ronda -> Granada Another gorgeous drive. Rolling lush green hills and wind turbines. Arriving in Granada our hotel had private parking (that’s key in Granada as traffic is restricted in the main area) explored gorgeous Albaicin on foot.

Day 12, 13 Granada -> Valencia Started the day with a session in the Arab baths (key to decompress and take a breather from the hectic schedule), then a couple hours at Alhambra (not enough. Truly needs at least half a day - but still an incredible experience). Off to a long 5+ hours to Valencia. A little too ambitious. Even at fast speeds and with a comfortable car I had serious lower back pain towards the last hour or two. On the upside great views of the majestic Sierra Nevada. Stayed an extra evening to take a break from driving. Aquarium was cool (but pricey) tried a couple highly recommended legit Paella places. They were good but my mother in law (who isn’t Spanish) makes them better! The Central Market was great though. Stumbled upon the museum of ceramic. Gorgeous exhibits. Street art and cool indie shops at El Carmen.

Day 14: Valencia- Morella (unplanned until the day before) Dreading another long drive we added a stop before Barcelona. Looking up places to go between the two cities I came across this fortified medieval town up a mountain. Very pretty small town that happened to be in the middle of black truffle season (road trip jackpot score again) reasonably priced yet delicious dinner.

Day 15: Morella - Barcelona Down the snowy mountain and feel the excitement of hitting Catalunya and the Mediterranean. Finally we hit some toll roads in Spain. We drive to the airport to return the car (sniff sniff) and take the airport bus into town and off to a dinner party with a relative. We being fresh bread and truffles cheese from Morella.

Day 16-17 Barcelona Big walking day: breakfast at Escribà (have the xiocolata- trust me!), barri gotic, casa vicenz (lesser known Gaudí house, recently opened to the public), sagrada família and dinner at Tickets (great theater, the food was more interesting than tasty, pricey-ish for the experience about €85/pp). Glad we went but not going back). Day 17 is Sunday. Most stores will be closed. Will hit up Macba, maybe hike up to Montjuic.

Day 18 BCN -> NYC Exhausted but so happy!

-The way we planned it was we only had a skeleton of hotels and flights: Lisbon / Douro / Sevilla / Barcelona. We filled in as we drove. Friends helped find off the beaten path places and we got last minute rooms through booking.com - It was a bit packed. Ideally we’d have liked to stay 2 nights in most cities but we had a long way to go and only so much time. Still it was totally worth it. I’m exhausted though. Might need a vacation to recover from my vacation. - Played a bunch of Neil Young, Rush, Fleetwood Mac. Audiobooks were hard to keep paying attention to with while driving. Podcasts were better. Song exploder was great. - I bought a travel sim from Orange. Not super fast but worked out well. It gives me 20 gigs of data plus calls and text. I’m just about to run out and it’s the last day. - Tried to stay off politics as much as possible. I deleted the NYT app and Apple News. - sometimes the most rewarding moments were the ones we didn’t plan for. - road conditions are great in Spain but e e. better in Portugal. A lot better than in the US. Roads are clearly marked and reflect well at night. Great smooth pavement throughout. The only exception was the small roads in the Douro valley leading to the wineries. They’re single lane 2-way roads leaving no room for error. You do the turn wrong and you might fall off a cliff. You hit a truck coming down and you might need to drive in reverse until there’s a spot to pull over. Thankfully none of that happened to us.
- when we were in Portugal we got news of storm Gloria that hit Barcelona and Valencia real hard (as well as devastating Majorca and other areas). We considered skipping Spain and staying put. I’m glad we took our chances. I’d spoken with my cousin who lives in Barcelona and she’d painted a very different picture from what we were seeing on the news. At the end the weather was great and you could never tell just a week earlier there was flooding and snow everywhere.