pbiflyer

Next June, the family (me, wife, kids 11 & 13) are headed to Portugal/Spain for 18 days. We fly into Lisbon and out of Barcelona.

Background - the mrs. & I have been to Madrid, Sevilla, Costa de Sol area. The family likes hiking, adventure activities, water activities. The kids really are not into museums, churches, but we drag them to them anyway. One day, they will appreciate it. The kids are pretty well traveled, having been to several European locations.

My initial thought was to spend a week in Lisbon area then fly to Barcelona and a week there. We found lots of activities to keep us entertained while at each place. That includes the great thread on Lisbon.

But.....mrs pbiflyer found that we could do a fairly inexpensive train to Madrid (one of her favorite cities) then on to Barcelona, with essentially on/off privileges. A bit more digging and we realized it may not be all that cheap, when you count sleeper car, seat reservations.
So that led to car rental investigation. While not cheap, in the ball park of airline tickets and train tickets. And gives us more freedom to explore.

I am usually a big fan of the less places, the better when traveling. Hence the Lisbon/Barcelona itinerary. But having so many possibilities, I want to make sure I think about all the options/opportunities.

So, the options:

Stick with plan A - Explore the two cities and surrounding areas, flying between the 2. I think I would still end up renting cars to see the various sites outside of the cities (national parks, beaches, towns). Maybe check out Porto area as well.

Plan B - Explore Lisbon for 3-4 days, overnight train to Madrid, (maybe a stop in Salamanca), spending a few days there and then the rest in Barcelona.

Plan C - Explore Lisbon 3-4 days, drive to Barcelona stopping at ???????? along the way, spend remaining time in Barcelona.

Any suggestions? Experience with the train between Lisbon-Madrid? Opinions on Porto? Places to see if we train/car between the 2 places?

Thanks!

Palal

There are plenty of cheap 1-hour flights between LIS and MAD, that the overnight train is not really worth it, IMHO.

Rental cars in June in Portugal shouldn't be too expensive. Use a consolidator like economycarrentals or rental-cars.com for cheaper prices.
Renting a car in one country, and dropping it off in another is extremely expensive though.

There are many places to hike in Portugal, both along the coast and up in the mountains, including on the border with Spain.

I would suggest incorporating the following into your itinerary:
Spend some time in Lisbon carless (3 days). Rent a car and drive north to Porto (maybe via Serra de Estrela, where you can do some good hiking), stopping at different places along the way.

Drop the car in Porto and fly from there to either Madrid or Barcelona.

pbiflyer

I didn't think about that option. Will check that out.
From what I read, a trip to Porto is well worth it.

Palal

If you have a car, you have a lot more freedom of what to explore between Lisbon and Porto - and there is quite a bit to explore.

pbiflyer

So, on initial search, the drop charge is a bit hefty renting in LIS and dropping in Porto. Haven't tried too hard though.
Would I be missing out if we trained to Porto, rented a car and searched from there?
Mrs. pbiflyer really wants to explore the Sintra region, so we may end up renting a car in LIS anyway. But it still may make more sense to rent in LIS, drop it off, train to Porto, then rent another car in Porto.

Originally, I was planning on splitting it half and half between Portugal and Spain, but we may add a day or two ont o the Portugal part and just plan on staying in the immediate BCN area.

Palal

Look at renting through a consolidator (e.g. rental-cars or economycarrentals). There are many small local companies that allow pick-ups/drop-offs without a huge charge.