Traveling from Madrid to Portugal by car. Travel by rental car in Spain and Portugal

Number of days: 26
Country: Spain, Portugal
Period: from August 4, 2014 to August 29, 2014

This ready-made route through Spain and Portugal was dictated by the desire to see northern Spain, the architecture of castles and cathedrals, many of which are protected, visit the castle of Henry IV in Navarre, taste Spanish wine and traditional dishes, see a stunning change of landscapes and visit different climatic zones in one short journey from Zaragoza to Pamplona. Meet pilgrims on the famous Way of Santiago, visit Catalonia, Navarre, Galicia, Castile, and the Basque Country. Go to a concert of Spanish guitarists and see flamenco.

And we chose Portugal for beach holiday and admiring the designs on traditional Portuguese tiles - azulejos. This is the journey our dream turned into:

August 4 – flight from Moscow to Barcelona. We arrive in Barcelona late in the evening and check into a hotel.

August 8 – we pick up the car at Barcelona Sants station, which we had previously booked back in Russia. We get comfortable in it and go to the Montserrat monastery. We walk around the monastery and its hiking trails. After the monastery, on the same day we arrive in Zaragoza. We leave the car in the free parking lot. We check into the hotel.

August 10 – we leave the hotel. We are going to Pamplona, ​​on the way we explore two cities: Tudela and Olite. In the evening we check into a hotel in Pamplona.

August 11 – we leave the hotel, put our suitcases in the car and walk around Pamplona, ​​mainly in the old town. After exploring the city we go to Santander.

August 13 - we leave Santander for Burgos. We check into a hotel in Burgos and walk around Burgos.

August 14 – we leave Burgos for the Canyon de Seille. Halfway through the journey we stop in Leon for a few hours to explore the city. After Leon we reach the Parador in the Canyon de Seille, where we sleep soundly until the morning.

August 15 – we leave Parador, explore the beauty of the canyon by car, and stop in a small town for lunch. After walking and driving through the canyon, we go to Santiago de Compostela. We check into the hotel.

August 18 – we return the car to Vigo and go by train to the city of Sintra (Portugal) via Porto and Lisbon. We check into pre-booked rooms via airbnb service.

August 21 – from Sintra we go by bus to Praia das Maçãs beach. We check into a pre-booked house next to the ocean.

August 21-25 – relax on the Praia das Maçãs beach. We go to the ocean, buy fresh fish at the market, visit other beaches and Cape Roca (Cabo da Roca)

August 27 – we take a train from Madrid for a one-day walk around Toledo. We walk around the city and return to Madrid in the evening.

August 28 — we continue our walk around Madrid. In the evening we pack our bags and sit down on night bus to Barcelona.

August 29 – morning in Barcelona. We get to the airport and fly to Moscow via Frankfurt am Main. In Frankfurt we have a 6 hour layover. During this time we explore the old part of the city and walk along the Main. We return to the airport and arrive in Moscow.

At first our route seemed very easy to us. We thought that we had taken everything into account: the distance between cities, the complexity of the road, the size of the cities. Nevertheless, it was unexpected and nerve-wracking to enter noisy, busy, often very busy roads after the quiet roads. narrow streets big cities Pamplona, ​​Santander, Vigo... And, of course, we were exhausted by the serpentines. But in the end, the route turned out to be interesting; captured various provinces of Spain and part of Portugal. For the first acquaintance with these countries, a lot of information and impressions have accumulated.

Traveling around Portugal by car can be very exciting, the main thing is to prepare well and learn all the nuances. This section will answer the necessary questions and help you properly prepare for your trip.

Speed ​​Limit

Passenger cars without trailer:

• 50 km/h in built-up areas;
• 90 km/h outside the built-up area;
• 100 km/h at highways Oh;
• 120 km/h on the motorway;

Gasoline in Portugal

Gasolina sem chumbo 95– gasoline with octane number 95

Gasolina sem chumbo 98– gasoline with octane number 98

Diesel/Gasoleo- diesel fuel

GPL– gas

In addition, Portugal has many places to charge electric vehicles. And in Lisbon, they are in almost every parking lot.

Gasoline prices in Portugal

The cost of gasoline depends on the cost of oil. In January 2016, with low oil prices, the cost of 95 gasoline dropped to 1.2 euros per liter. in Madeira and Azores fuel costs are lower than on the continent.

You can find out the current average prices for gasoline, diesel fuel and gas at

The table contains prices in all European countries.

You can see that petrol prices are higher in Portugal than in neighboring Spain and France. That is why many local residents living near the Spanish border go to their neighbors in Spain to refuel.

Portugal road map and navigation

It makes sense to connect yourself to the Internet and use Google maps. He calculates the route and travel time well. I have no complaints, I use it all the time. The map is current and does not require updates. Now it is possible to download a Google map in advance and use it without an Internet connection, but the accuracy of determining your location will be lower.

• Reflective vest (if not present, fine from 60 to 300 euros);
• Warning triangle;
• Identification document with photo;
• Valid insurance;

The driver must have an international driving license. The ideal option is to obtain an international driver's license.

This is not necessary, since Portugal, like the Russian Federation, have signed the Vienna Convention, in particular Annex 6, which concerns driving licenses. But maybe it’s worth playing it safe and getting an additional international ID? Since in the new, “pink” licenses, the French translation of the words: “Driver’s license” has disappeared.

International driver's license

This is a book where national driving licenses are translated into different languages ​​of the world. In principle, if you don’t have one, then ordinary rights will be suitable, both for renting and for checking documents. But they must have transcription and translation. These rights are an attachment and are not valid without the usual “plastic rights”.

Getting them is no problem. All you have to do is pay the fee, fill out an application and bring a photo. You can sign up through the State Services website.

But all this is for reinsurers. Most likely, you will only need your license in Portugal once – when renting a car.

The use of studded tires is prohibited.

Using seat belts mandatory for the driver and all passengers V vehicles, in which belts are provided by the design. The driver is not obliged to monitor adult passengers, since everyone pays the fine for themselves. In the case of transporting children, the driver is responsible. The fine ranges from 120 to 600 euros.

The use of radar detectors is prohibited. The fine for this violation is from 500 to 2500 euros.

Rules for transporting children in a car in Portugal

Children under 12 years of age and shorter than 1.35 cm must ride in the rear seat in a child seat appropriate for their height and weight. Exceptions include vehicles not equipped with seat belts.

Actions in case of an accident or car breakdown

First of all, before getting out of the car, you should put on a vest and only after that set up the emergency triangle.

The use of a reflective vest and an emergency triangle is mandatory. This is very important, as there are high fines for these violations. Moreover, they are summed up if you have not fulfilled both requirements.

You will be fined for not wearing a vest and for not wearing a sign. For each of these violations, a fine ranges from 120 to 600 euros, respectively, you will pay from 240 to 1200 euros. Moreover, if the violation is committed on the highway, the amount of the fine will be maximum!

Emergency numbers

Emergency number – 112

I would like to point out that in Portugal it is prohibited to talk on the phone while driving while driving unless you have a speakerphone or an earpiece. Stopping at a traffic light or stop sign is no exception.

There have been cases where drivers have been fined while talking on the phone while stopped on the side of the road. Fine from 120 to 600 euros.

Here we have highlighted the main points you need to know for traveling around Portugal by car. We wish you a good trip!

A team of five people traveled the route Barcelona - Tarragona - Granada - Cordoba - El Rompido - Vilamoura - Lagos - Lisbon - Porto - Lerma - Lleida - Barcelona.
We drove in two cars.
Travel time: two weeks, from August 25 to September 8, 2007.
The distance traveled is about 5.5 thousand km. On one car and 4.4 thousand km on the other.

The goal is to relax according to the option that was successfully tested last year and get impressions now from the South of Spain and Portugal.

Preparation of the route and booking cities.
We figured out the route and cities for overnight stays. Based on the experience of past years, we decided to spend two nights in one for every two nights in a new hotel. As a result, we received the desired route in 11 2...4* hotels for 13 nights.
We assessed flight options and tried to look for visa options.
I didn’t want to go to the embassy to get a visa - the capital is not close to us.
We started with the carrier (L-Flight), if you take a ticket, they have a visa service indicated on their website. It was difficult to get through to them; if they did get through, they switched us to a boy on visas - after a sigh, he agreed to listen to us and seemed, in principle, ready to help... But there was little good about them on the Internet. Discarded. Scary.

We decided not to take risks and turn to the option already tested last year through Marco-Polo Moscow. We entrusted them with hotels, flights and visas. Olga Romanova worked with us - absolutely all our wishes regarding the flight, the cities where we wanted to spend the night were fulfilled, and the options “something between... and between..., within...euro/person” were selected, and also some scope was added, on which we initially didn’t have the courage to do.

The cost of travel. We succeeded taking into account all costs, incl. and on the spot - about 1350 euros per person.
What determined the cost: the determining factor was the desire to save on hotels and flights, leaving money for a more decent car, museums and provincial restaurants. Based on this, we discarded the airports of Lisbon, Porto, Madrid and Malaga and settled on Barcelona, ​​where charters from the capital carry cheaply. We asked a travel agency to buy us a charter - for a charter flight to Barcelona (round trip for one) - we paid 340 euros.
Everyone knows about charters – it’s a lottery over time. And, since we are from Novocherkassk and Krasnodar, because of this lottery, expenses exceeded the planned amount for different members of our team from 85 to 362 euros. This means paying for an additional overnight stay in the capital and purchasing new tickets due to a delay in arrival on the way back.

For 13 nights in 2…4* hotels we paid an average of 500 euros/person. 14 days of car rental cost 657 euros for three (Peugeot 407 2.0НDI) and 527 euros for two (the guys were driving an Opel Corsa with us). For 5500 km (Peugeot) they burned 330 euros worth of diesel fuel and for 4000 km (Opel) 225 euros. Diesel fuel from 0.85 (Andorra) to 1.10 (Portugal) euros per liter.
For paid parking – about 35 euros/car.
Entrances to museums and castles, excursions on a doublebacker - about 45 euros/person.
Lunches/dinners/breakfasts+wine/beer/cola/chips cost from 8 to 35 euros per day per nose.

Car rental.
We booked with Europcar via the Internet on their Spanish website - they were the only ones offering the Alfa159, and we really wanted it. Now I’m sure you can book through the Russian website Europcar.ru.
At Barcelona Airport (BCN) there are also offices of Hertz, Avis, Atesa and Sol-Mar - all prices are approximately the same.
We were lucky with our choice of Europcar - due to the delay of the plane (charter!) we arrived at the counter at 01-30 instead of the planned 22-00. After midnight, only the Europcar office was open - all the others were closed until 07-00. The Europcar counter at Barcelona airport was found next to other Rent-a-Cars at Terminal B, and the parking lot was there, across the road.
When checking out, we forgot (out of frustration that they didn’t give us Alfa, and also because we were tired at night...) on the counter we forgot the main paper on which we were given the car. We discovered it a couple of days later and contacted the Europcar office in Huelva, in the south of Spain, and they restored it to us without any problems. They also found out that you can change your car (if you don’t like it or something else) for another one without any problems in any office. The main thing is to call in advance and find out availability. If it comes to this, we were recommended offices at airports - there is always a lot of different things there.
Money was withdrawn from our card for renting a car twice. The first time 100% advance + 200 euros (deductible) - on the day of receiving the car, it was then fully returned. The second time they withdrew on the day of delivery of the car - 100% of the amount upon rental. Upon returning home for some time, about a week, we had before our eyes a statement where both amounts had been withdrawn, which caused a lot of excitement.

I already wrote about IDP last year - be sure to get yourself an IDP (international driver's license) at the local traffic police. They give you a car there. They can give it our way. And if the police don't stop you, there won't be any problems. But if he stops, since 2006 they have changed the rules there. I haven’t heard anything about Spain (we saw the police there a couple of times last year over a distance of 4,500 km...). But in Italy there were problems and very serious ones. In addition, if before the trip your license was replaced with a “temporary license” for some sin, they will not give you a car with it.

Credit card is a must. Better two from two different banks. One of our cards was “not authorized” at the europcar counter. Afterwards it worked as it should, but there was a glitch. Fortunately, our guys had a card and funds on it, which allowed them to take two cars on one card.
The balance on the card is the rental amount plus a deductible of 100...200 euros.

The first and last nights are in reasonable proximity to Barcelona. We chose first Tarragona at 90 km and last Lleida at 86 km. The distances between overnight stays are from 80 to 790 km.

On the way back we followed the signs for “Aeroporto”, and closer to the signs for “Rent-a-Car parking”. It's impossible to get lost.
The car was parked, unloaded and handed over to a specially trained person with a badge. He inspected, checked the full tank, glove compartment, trunk, signed on the paper and gave us one sheet.
Our guys, who were driving with us in an Opel, slightly dented and scratched both right doors in the terribly cramped underground parking lot - it cost them 39 euros. The boy at the reception brought them a cash register - they signed the check and “buy”. The registration procedures, both at the start and at the finish, took no more than half an hour, including finding a counter and finding a car in the parking lot.

Car class.
There were five of us. There were three people in one car and two people in the other.
Therefore, we ordered an “AlfaRomeo 159 1.9 TDI or similar” for three of us. In fact, we were given an “or similar” diesel Peugeot 407 2.0 HDI/132 hp. Our remark that this does not qualify as “or similar” was not accepted. For three, however, the car is wonderful and left only positive emotions.

For two - Opel Corsa / Renault Clio. Dali Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTI/75 hp. Nimble, comfortable. But, in comparison with the Peugeot 407, it is a little noisier and harsher. When driving on highways, Peugeot was in no way inferior in speed (in terms of dynamics it was inferior) and the guys never lagged behind us.

Driving on the roads of Spain and Portugal
Last year we drove exclusively according to maps/signposts, but this year we decided to experience the wonders of progress. We used the Golgfish E-Ten 500 communicator, it has a GPS receiver, with Tot-Tom (router program) and a map of Spain-Portugal installed. We bought a tom-tom with maps for 150 rubles. at a CD store.
The thing is extremely pleasant. Allows you to plot a route from your current location to the desired location using both your own map and homemade addresses. Both vehicular and pedestrian. Looking for addresses. Shows parking lots, gas stations and other amenities. If you have passed the required turn, it re-plots the route itself. Although more than once we came across new roads that Tom-Tom didn’t know about - apparently, our maps were old. There were also addresses of hotels that Tom-Tom did not know, or they were written slightly differently in Tom-Tom. The Internet helped. Before the trip, we went to router websites and used the list of hotel addresses where we had overnight accommodations booked, decided on their location and added the houses to Tom-Tom’s list (we used http://www.guiacampsa.com, http://www.viamichelin. com/, www.map24.com).

I will note that it is still more interesting to drive in the old proven way - as we drove last year - using a map purchased at a gas station and printouts of hotel locations from routers. It's boring with Tom-Tom - you immediately find your place confidently.

Along the way, one of us was the navigator (in turns) who monitors Tom-Tom and the signs. At long high-speed junctions, several times we got caught in such a way that, having turned onto the exit to the right, we rose above the road along the overpass and went to the left...

The condition of the roads allows you to cover up to 800 km a day without much stress, “seeing the beauty.”
We parked at the hotels for the night. Parking at hotels, except Granada, Cordoba and Porto, is free and accessible. And in cities, in most cases, which is easier and cheaper - in underground parking lots. They are in abundance in everything historical places and old quarters.

The police were seen in Spain twice on the roads and at the entrance from Andorra (...how much alcohol are you carrying? Is that all? Only for yourself! Adios!), and in Portugal once at the exit from the city and when leaving the country. Just like last year, we didn’t see a single stationary post within 5,500 km.

Gas stations, they are also minimarkets with juices, cola, chips, road maps with normal prices. Throughout Spain and Portugal, refuel first, pay later. Moreover, before paying, you can leisurely comb through the minimarket - no one is in a hurry.
Often at a gas station there is a restaurant with trays/distribution or with waiters and a menu of the day “menu del dia” with prices of 8-14 euros for a good lunch. In addition, sometimes the restaurant at the gas station is the only place where you can eat after hours. And at such a time we just wanted to have breakfast/lunch/dinner.
At gas stations there is also a self-service car wash, one euro is enough to remove dust and bird tracks, as well as a free station for inflating wheels/topping up water.

Roads.
I already wrote about roads last year. In the South and in Portugal everything is the same as in the North. Highways with a limit of 120 penetrate the country without entering cities. Those. On highways you can move at a speed of 130-140 (the average is 105...115) without problems. And, based on this, calculate the route and time. Toll roads alternate with free ones. I didn't notice any particular pattern.

Attractions.

As soon as we determined the places to spend the night, we picked up the guidebooks and compiled a maximum program for each day. On the spot, based on the mood, we adjusted it downward. The set of maps/brochures for Spain - Portugal, which we received along with tickets/visas/passports, was very helpful in navigating among the beauties. The descriptions in the brochures complemented the beauty with appropriate text.
On different days we drove from 200 to 750 km. The guys who were traveling with us in the Opel rested for three days without a car, their total mileage turned out to be slightly less - 4.4 thousand km.
In Barcelona, ​​Lisbon and Porto, those from our team used sightseeing tours doublebackers. There is even a Russian-speaking one in Barcelona.
If there was no information, we went to the tourist information offices. So, at the entrance to Portugal, we typed in English-language information about the entire south and drove further using this information. Absolutely all information, including road maps, in these offices it is free.

What interested us:
As last year, the usual set of “natural beauty - castles - fortresses” was slightly diluted with beaches on the Mediterranean and on the ocean.
The beauty of nature is present in abundance. Gorgeous mountain landscapes sandy beaches with dunes, steep cliffs with surf, sun-scorched rocky desert...
There are many fortresses. We climbed into them to the point of slight nausea. Every day we stopped by at two or three.
We didn’t go to museums, unless they were in fortresses.

The language of communication.
Spain – Spanish only. In places trampled by ours - Granada, Cordoba, Seville, the outskirts of Barcelona and Malaga, you can find menus in Russian. Drive a little further into the depths - “solo hispaniol”. Hotel reception staff speak English. Restaurant menus very rarely have an English option. They made a dictionary card for the restaurant, where the sign will contain Russian and Spanish spellings of dishes/products. For example: grilled pork, fried potatoes, soup, fried fish, octopus, cake, etc. It helped a lot.
Portugal – I got the impression that absolutely everyone speaks English. Although they also made a dictionary for the restaurant. Helped. Once, in a Chinese restaurant in Vilamoura, we were given a Russian-language menu.

Food.
There were no problems with catering. Only sometimes, when after a hearty breakfast they remembered about lunch after 16-00, it was not easy to find a working restaurant. They have lunch until 16, then open from 19.
Four hotels had breakfast included, which made it possible not to remember about lunch. In others, we paid for breakfast and drank tea with a boiler a couple of times. We had lunch a couple of times at gas stations (quite decently and decently), several times in provincial restaurants in the middle of nowhere - they had really good portions, and once we had a festive dinner for ourselves on the occasion of the city fiesta in Lerma. A leg of lamb served with dry red wine in the place where this wine is made is simply delicious.
Portuguese hotels differ worse from Spanish ones, including in the quality of breakfast.

Overnight stays.
This time we didn’t get into the promotion with discounts on paradors and booked regular hotels and apartments. Perhaps in vain. Last year's impressions from the paradors were very wonderful.

We spent the night (in order):
One night in Express Tarragona 3* (DE LES CORTS CATALANES, 4
43005, Tarragona Capital, TARRAGONA, ES) - a clean, pleasant hotel with a good breakfast at the western end of the city's main street. Parked for free on the street.

One night at Juan Miguel 3* (ACERA DEL DARO 24 18005, Granada GRANADA, ES) - a good hotel in the center of Granada. Parking in the underground parking lot is 11 euros.

One night in Alfaros 4* (CALLE ALFAROS 18, 14001, Cordoba, CORDOBA, ES)
- good hotel in the center, close to local beauty, with underground parking for 11 euros.

Two nights at Marismas Club Resort 4* (CARTAYA - EL ROMPIDO, KM.7
21459, EL Rompido – Cartaya, CARTAYA, ES) is a golf complex consisting of a hotel and a building with apartments (room + bedroom + kitchen + bathroom), surrounded by green lawns of golf courses and ponds with herons. The complex has its own supermarket, free parking, a train to the ocean beach, and several swimming pools. A good buffet for breakfast (included in the price) and dinner - a buffet for 15 euros per person. I left the most pleasant impressions on the route. Perhaps as a contrast after the heat in Cordoba.

Two nights at the Clube Hotel Apartamento do Algarve 3*, (QUINTA DO ROMAO, 8125-301, Vilamoura, VILAMOURA, PT) - a three-story square block, inside which there is a public garden with a swimming pool, a bar and a lawn, and outside, along the perimeter of the square, there are places for free parking. Nearby, a five-minute walk, is a large sandy ocean beach. Very nice place.

One night in Via Don`Ana 3* (URB. TORRALTINHA, ED. VIA DON´ANA R/C LOJA 4 APART 76, 8600-621, Lagos, LAGOS, PT) – significantly worse than the previous one both in location and ambiance . Just a candle with a swimming pool in a new area. The room has a stove, refrigerator, microwave, balcony and ocean view, but it’s very shabby inside, and the ocean is not close. We never saw the beach there, although we didn’t really want to.

Two nights at Dos Anjos 3* (ANDRADE 16-18, 1170-015, Lisbon, LISBOA, PT) - a modest hotel, with free underground parking, almost in the center and next to the metro. Nice staff. Allowed me to get an impression of the capital of Portugal.

One night in Pensao Aviz 2* (RODRIGUES DE FREITAS 451, 4000-434, Porto
OPORTO, PT) – very poor. There is no elevator. Some individuals walk on the creaking floors in the corridor all night. The English-style windows rattle all night, the taps drip loudly. Breakfast with acorn coffee and Zuko juice instead of orange juice.

One night in Alisa 3* (MADRID - IRUN KM.202, 09340, Lerma, LERMA, ES) – excellent hotel with ample free parking, ten minutes walk from the center. For some reason it was marked on our Tom-Tom map as a parador. And the atmosphere in it is paradoran. Apparently, he was recently removed from the paradors.

One night in AS LLeida 3* (AP2 KM 142 (AREA LLEIDA), 25080, Alfes
LLEIDA, ES) – a very decent hotel in direct visibility of Lleida, located in the service area on toll road. Nearby there is a restaurant with serving/trays, where we had dinner for 10 euros. Very hearty and tasty breakfast.

Driving two cars.

The option we used, when the second car hangs on the tail of the first all the way, is very bad. Much of the attention that could have been given to beauty was given to monitoring fellow travelers. Those who followed us were afraid of losing our stern, but we did not take our eyes off the mirror - were we falling behind? We fell behind... And more than once. And those who were in front paid part of their attention to the tail - whether it was in place or whether it had come off...
As a result, everyone had a tension of 4.4 thousand km.
If you’re driving two, then it’s better to get to the next hotel on your own without tying the cars to each other. In general, it is better to travel with a team of five people or in one car. Travel impressions are better absorbed in a close group.

Differences between Spain and Portugal.
1. If you don’t mix them on the same trip, you may not notice the differences.
2. In Portugal, absolutely everyone, it seemed to us, knows English well or very well. In Spain this is a very rare exception.
3. Portugal is dirtier. Not much, but noticeable. It seemed not because of poverty, but because of the way of life.
4. At intersections near traffic lights, the poor and beggars beg for alms; in places where parking is difficult, homeless-looking gray individuals appear, offering to park with gestures.
5. The roads are the same as in Spain, with absolutely clear and understandable markings. But the traffic on them is tougher, the rules are broken more often. They may honk at you from behind when you are delayed at a traffic light, or they may cut you off. We watched on TV how the police caught, and not always successfully, cars traveling at a speed of 245-285 km/h along the Vasco de Gama Bridge in Lisbon. On bus stop you can leave the car and no one will do anything, unlike Spain.
6. Diesel fuel in Portugal costs 1.10 euros. Gasoline and diesel fuel are 8..11% more expensive than in Spain.
7. Portuguese police or border guards are on guard at the border, who will sort them out there, but we didn’t see any Spanish ones. Or they just didn't get caught.
8. Hotels are poorer. A hotel with similar stars in O’Castro 2* in O’Grove, Spain, and the Pensao Aviz 2* hotel in Porto are simply not comparable. The Portuguese Pensao Aviz 2* in Porto is even more miserable than the Del Claudio 1* guesthouse in Bilbao.
9. Breakfasts in hotels in Portugal are clearly stingy.
10. In Porto, while choosing a position for a photo, we almost stepped on a black man sleeping under a bush. There is a lot of this goodness there. There was a desire to get out of Porto as quickly as possible.
11. Everything, even the most remote villages in Spain, gives the impression of being well-groomed and inhabited by happy residents. This is not the case in Portugal.
Otherwise, Portugal, like Spain, leaves a very pleasant impression.

What we would not do now or do wrong:
- it's better to fly regular flights- S7, Aeroflot, Transaero or, which is the same for money, the Spanish Iberia to the place where you start the journey. In our case, start in Granada. And fly away from where we ended the journey - Burgas. We failed to save money on charters.
- exclude crossings of more than 450 km. On vacation, after all, and not on a business trip. Although 700 km across Spain is a thrill.
- contrast between coast and non-coast. Granada, Cordoba and Seville are hot compared to Malaga and Cartaya. In the end, we didn’t stop by Seville due to traffic jams at the entrance; we left it for later. Perhaps even better than beauty in big cities watch as a group on the bus.
- take a shorter car. A long car (Peugeot 407) parks poorly, the guys in the Corse had much less problems.

Bottom line
The trip turned out to be wonderful and it was very difficult to return to everyday life at home.

The long-awaited summer has arrived and the time of travel has opened the doors for us again. Portugal and Spain by car is something that was brewing during the long frosty evenings, but now this idea has begun to take on clear outlines and come to life. It was decided to take the car in Madrid and see the sights on the way to Portugal, fortunately there are a great many of them in Spain.

The beginning of 2014 for our family was marked by the receipt of treasured international passports. I decided to go through the entire procedure from start to finish myself, without resorting to the help of travel agencies. The time for submitting the documents was chosen just before the New Year, which was the right decision. The wait at the Federal Migration Service lasted only about an hour and the applications I filled out at home were accepted, but not all of them (everything does not go smoothly in such matters). I had to submit documents for my son again, after New Year holidays, which in general was also quite fast - about two hours of waiting. So, the “duplicate of the priceless cargo” has been received, the purpose of the trip is clear, let’s start by looking for plane tickets.
For this, as always, the Skyscanner website comes to the rescue. Here comes the moment when you need to decide how many days the trip will be, the start date and the financial part of the upcoming event.

Moscow-Madrid.

Direct flights are more expensive, with transfers cheaper, but they take almost the whole day and are quite difficult.
There is one advantage of connecting flights if the connection lasts a sufficient amount of time (at least six hours). In this case, you can get acquainted in detail with the life of the intermediate airport, and even better get acquainted with the city to which this airport is attached. Even better, if the connecting flight occurs the next day in the evening, then you have a whole day left for a bonus acquaintance with the city. So we saw Frankfurt (the transfer was about nine hours) and Prague (the transfer was the next day in the evening). The chance presented itself this time too - a whole day in Zurich, Switzerland. So we kill two birds with one stone: we buy enough cheap tickets Swiss airline SWISS and walk all day while connecting for the return flight to Moscow.
10.06.- departure Domodedovo Moscow-Geneva -15-15 -17-00 Geneva-Madrid - 18-25 -20-25.
Very good schedule - you can sleep in the morning and take your time through Moscow Metro and the bus arrive at the airport.
8.07 – departure Madrid – Zurich 19-40 – 21-55; overnight in Zurich; 9.07 - Zurich - Moscow 21-00 – 10.07 2-20
Also a very good option, I have a whole day in Madrid and Zurich, of course.

Hotel reservations.

The next stage of travel preparation is hotel booking. Our other wonderful friend will help us here, where I have already received (I boast) a 10% discount, like a genius traveler - booking.
Here I am guided by a map of attractions drawn up in advance according to our car route. I make the map myself with the help of guidebooks, reviews on the internet, my family’s preferences, I don’t forget myself either)) and a list world heritage humanity UNESCO.

The new stage of travel preparation is also quite important - determining the optimal number of days in a given place along the route. Here I proceed from the attractions and the time we need to explore. Here's what I got-

In Spain and Portugal it is very convenient that almost all hotels can be booked without prepayment. The service is called free booking. A big plus is that if you suddenly change your mind or find another better option (this can happen at any time), they don’t charge you any money for the booking.
Booking hotels in advance is a very important component of preparing a trip, since most likely the prices for hotels in advance are still less and affordable good options still more than before the journey itself. This is also important when obtaining a Schengen visa - when submitting documents, you must have a plane ticket (round trip) and a hotel reservation in hand.
The next stage is obtaining a visa. In the depths of our souls there was a glimmer of hope that this time the Spaniards would give us visas for three years (after all, we were going on holiday to Spain for the third year in a row), but alas. Annual visas are also okay, looking ahead to them we will go to Christmas Bavaria and spring Italy.

Portugal and Spain by car.

Since we still have car trip, I am approaching the final stage of the preparatory process - ordering a car rental. Here, the main role was played by the successful experience of car rental in Mallorca in 2013, where the operator was Goldcar.

Let me move on to a brief overview of the trip itself with links:

Madrid Airport.

From the airport terminal to the car rental office we go by bus (7 km from the airport). A free bus is provided by the office. We fill out the documents, take a car and drive to the apartment, which is 500 meters away.
The hotel is located near the airport, very convenient and a budget option for one night for our family.
10.06.-11.06. –Holiday Inn Express Madrid Airport

Alcala de Henares, Spain.

11.06. – After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll see the homeland of Cervantes – .

Avila, Spain.

11.06-13.06 – Moving to Avila.

Segovia, Spain.

From Avila one-day trip to Segovia, report in the article:
12.06 – .

Salamanca, Spain.

Departure to Salamanca.
Review of the sights of Salamanca in the article:
13.06-14.06 – .

Braganca, Portugal.

14.06 – In the morning departure to northern part Portugal. The road is 350 km. stop and lunch in the 12th century citadel of the city of Braganza, stop report - .

Vila Real, Portugal.

14.06-20.06 – stop Vila Real.
Casa Agricola da Levada

Porto, Portugal.

Guimarães, Portugal.

The oldest city in Portugal - ;

Braga, Portugal.

Lamego, Portugal.

Let's admire the wine-growing areas of Porto;

Coimbra, Portugal.

20.06 – Transfer from Porto to Coimbra.
20.06-22.06 – Stop in the Coimbra area.

Let's watch the sunset by the Atlantic Ocean

Let's visit the old Portuguese city, included in the UNESCO list:
.

San Pedro de Muel, Portugal.

22.06- 24.06 – Stop in a beautiful resort town.

Let's take a walk around the resort town of San Pedro de Moel

Alcobaça, Portugal.

Let's see the mysterious monasteries of Portugal - Golden ring countries:
;

Batalha, Portugal.

Tomar, Portugal.

Fatima, Portugal.

Obidos, Portugal.

24.06 – Transfer to Sintra, stop in a small, pleasant town.

Sintra, Portugal.

24.06-26.06 – We will see numerous sights.

We'll walk along local mountain paths to .

Cape Roca, Portugal.

And on the way to Lisbon 26.06 check in at the very western point European continent-.

Lisbon, Portugal.

26.06-30.06 – In superb apartments with a crazy view
Lisbon Inside Connect - Lapa Apartments

Let's enjoy the life of Lisbon:

Elvas, Portugal.

Transfer to Elvas. 1.07-3.07 - UNESCO site.

Merida, Spain.

We turn towards Madrid. The next stop is Merida, Spain.
3.07-4.07 – .

I decided to write this post in the format of the famous LJ community “One Day of Mine” to tell how our trip to Europe is going and to show that a long trip with children is not so difficult. I will try to do this, observing the rules and traditions of this community, although it will look a little unusual for our site. So, let's go...

Hi all! My name is Dmitry, I am 35 years old, I come from Petrozavodsk (Republic of Karelia), but for the last two years I have lived in Munich (Germany). IN currently I am on maternity leave and together with my wife and two sons we are traveling by car around southern Europe. His wife's name is Julia, and his children's name is Leo (4.5 years old) and Martin (9 months old). We left Munich on March 11, and this post will describe the 54th day of our trip on May 3, 2015. So far we have visited Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, France, Monaco, Andorra and Spain. Yesterday we stopped for the night 50 km from Seville and today we are going to go to Portugal, although we still don’t know where exactly we will be in the evening and where we will spend the night.

7:27 After turning off the alarm three times, I finally force myself to wake up. We spend the night in our tent, bought specifically for this trip. In addition to the tent, we use various places to stay overnight: hotels, apartments rented through AirBnB, bungalows in the campsite, as well as local residents via Couchsurfing. The last option is the most preferable, because it's free, which is important if you're on a limited budget, but most importantly, it gives unlimited possibilities to get to know the country, its national characteristics and traditions. As a rule, communicating with couchsurfers allows you to look at life and familiar things from a different angle, and some of them become friends for life. In general, couchsurfing is a sure way to leave a foreign country with the best impressions. And yes, personal experience shows that couchsurfing also works when traveling with children.

That night it was already quite warm and comfortable, which cannot be said about our previous nights in a tent. Mine are still sleeping and don’t think about waking up.

7:38 I get out of the tent, take out the breakfast ingredients from the car, turn on the burner and observe beautiful sunrise in the pine forest surrounding us.

7:40 The first step is to make coffee - during the entire trip we only had a couple of days without it, when we forgot to buy it in advance.

7:56 Martin, as always, wakes up first and starts crawling and waking everyone up. Usually I wake up after it, but today I want to do more, so waking up early, I hope to quickly get ready and hit the road.

Leo doesn’t care about Martin’s efforts; he rolls over and continues to sleep.

8:06 Breakfast is ready, but there are still few people willing to eat. Today our menu includes our favorite “4 nuts” muesli with natural yoghurt or milk, sandwiches with cheese, chocolate, cookies, coffee and a couple of desserts for those who wish.

Julia wants to chill before breakfast, but Leo still hasn’t woken up.

8:18 We start breakfast together with the youngest.

8:35 We had breakfast and are going to drag Lenik out of the tent.

8:42 We arrange water treatments for Martin.

The neighboring "ficus" is now working as a dryer for clothes that were washed but not completely dried the day before.

8:52 Leo starts breakfast.

9:32 We all had breakfast and brushed our teeth.

9:43 We are assembling the tent, Leo is happy to help. Every time he looks forward to the moment when we begin to install or dismantle it and asks all the time: “Where are we going to spend the night today?”

Our favorite fun is “catch your son with a tent” =)

10:21 A car had just stopped on the country road next to which we were standing, and an elderly Spaniard, opening the trunk, took out a bunch of oranges and gave them to us. Just.

10:48 Finally, all things are packed into the trunk, a whole bag of garbage is collected, most of which was left to us. Yes, yes, the Spaniards also don’t really bother themselves with taking care of environment. And how much dog excrement we came across on city streets... But this is a separate topic.

10:54 We leave on the regional road. The navigator says that the Portuguese city of Faro, where we want to get to, is 160 km away.

10:55 Martin falls asleep almost immediately. This means that you can safely drive forward for at least an hour. When he wakes up, he begins to be capricious, and Yulia has to move back to constantly entertain him with something. But this doesn’t last long, and then periodic whims turn into constant crying, and there’s no escape - you have to stop.

Leo is usually busy reading the magazine about animals "Animal Planet", or solving logic problems from specialized magazines like "PonyMashki" or leafing through one of the books he took with him in Russian, English or German. And sometimes he gets bored and starts whining and being mischievous.

11:05 We make a stop in the nearby town of Almonte to throw out the trash. Yulia sorts glass, plastic and other garbage into different containers.

The town turned out to be quite nice, but you can’t linger - you have to go while Martin is sleeping.

11:48 Along the way we pass another “round” mark on the meter. It has already reset to zero twice every 2000 km, which means that in total for our entire trip we have exceeded 5000 km.

12:03 By cable-stayed bridge We enter Portugal across the Guadiana River.

12:21 We drive into the nearest Portuguese town and make a stop because Leo said he was hungry. Martin also wakes up and we all refresh ourselves with yogurt.

13:36 We reached our first goal today - natural park Rio Formosa.

13:42 At the reception we take a free booklet and map and go for a walk around the territory.

13:52 As the sign promises, there are chameleons here, and if luck smiles, you can see them live. We try to spot them in the bushes, but everything is in vain. Another divorce! =)

The Rio Formosa Natural Park occupies a fairly large area on the Atlantic coast. It is formed by lagoons, islands, straits and sand spits, on which it is found a large number of various types of wild animals and plants.

14:30 From a dilapidated pier at low tide we watch sea crabs.

14:41 Along the sand dunes we pass an old sailing boat.

15:00 But the most interesting thing here was the tidal mill.

Both Leo and I were interested in visiting inside, reading about its structure and operating principle, and also observing the tidal current.

15:23 From a special observation booth we look at the birds, remembering how four years ago we watched flamingos from the same booth in the Ebro Delta National Park in Spain. There are also flamingos here, but in May they are still in their winter quarters.

15:37 After walking around and getting pretty tired, we return to the parking lot.

16:00 We decide to have lunch at a nearby cafe. The waitress turns out to be from Ukraine and, having heard our conversation, also switches to Russian.

We ordered only one dish - a fish platter, but along with it were served two large portions of salad, and mussels with olives, as well as bread, butter and a bottle of water. Later, Yulia also ordered a cappuccino.

In general, we really ate too much, everything was very tasty, and the bill came out to only 10 euros - even taking into account the well-deserved tip of 2 euros, we have never had lunch so cheaply!

17:10 Wi-Fi turned out to be very useful in the cafe - we decide to find some accommodation through AirBnB. Half an hour later the apartment was booked, contacts from the owner of the apartment were received, and we were ready to go.

17:52 We get into the car and drive to the resort town of Albufeira, where we will spend the next two nights. It is 51 km away and we need to arrive by 7 pm to meet Nuno’s parents (the owner of the apartment) - they must show us our accommodation and hand over the keys.

17:58 On the way in the city of Olhao I notice an abandoned building with stunningly beautiful graffiti. I stop to look at it from all sides.

19:00 We are at the appointed place, near the supermarket, waiting for Nuno’s parents. I send him an SMS saying that we are already here. The answer comes: “Hey, we agreed at 19:00, but now it’s only 18:00.” Here I understand that we forgot that Portugal is in a different time zone, which means that upon entry we had to set the clocks back an hour. Well, great, that means our day today is increasing by one hour - we’ll have time to see more! I’m writing an SMS to apologize for screwing up the timing. It turns out that Nuno’s parents are now cleaning the apartment, so we decide to walk for an hour, see the city a little and return to the agreed time.

Albufeira has a simply wild number of all kinds of cafes and restaurants. During our a short walk I counted a couple of dozen, but we were not yet in the very center. This looks nice - I'll have to check it out later.

It is not surprising that with such competition they simply have to fight for customers, which is why almost every cafe has a barker standing there, smiling welcomingly, trying to talk to you and invite you to dinner.

18:50 We reach the beach. It's cloudy all day today, but Atlantic Ocean calm.

Ah, these famous Portuguese sandy beaches with coastal cliffs!

19:06 Since Yulia and Leo refused to go down to the water, we take a selfie with Martin and go back.

19:30 We meet Nuno's parents and move into the apartment. We were received very friendly, everything was shown and explained, despite our poor command of English.

20:15 While dinner is being prepared, Martin plays with the oranges he gave us this morning.

20:39 We sit down to dinner. On the evening menu we have a vegetable salad, canned beans, toast with cheese and a bottle of Spanish red wine.

21:16 Evening water treatments.

21:45 Julia puts the children to bed, feeds Martin and reads Leo a book about Carlson, and I sit down to process the photos, which have already accumulated to a couple of tens of gigabytes, and write another post for my website.

1:38 The clock on the smartphone still hasn’t been reset, there are still a lot of unedited photos, the post hasn’t been completed, my eyes are drooping, my brain refuses to work. I'll have to get up early tomorrow to finish everything. And now it’s time to sleep, as one famous song says.