To ask for opinions on this backpacking route?

[checonfusione]

I’m looking at a two and a half week backpacking trip next summer, and I think I’ve found a route I’m happy with. I’m just looking for opinions on whether I need to do longer in some places or less time in others:

1. Porto - 3 nights
2. lisbon - 3 nights
3. Malaga - 3 nights
4. madrid - 3 nights
5. barcelona - 4 nights

I think it’s pretty doable and cost effective with hostels in some places, Airbnbs in others and then a splurge on a hotel in Barcelona. AIBU to do it this way? Is there anywhere I should drop/add?

Looks fab - only thing I would change is 3 nights in Malaga - Malaga a bit boring whereas there are loads of great places only a train ride from Porto and only 7 euros for a day tourist pass

My daughter did Slovenia (lubjiana and lake bled) and then Italy Venice, Florence, pisa, Rome, Naples she loved it

That looks nice.
But if you are unsure
and you going solo or with someone who can put up with some inconvenience,
sometimes you can get half price interrail passes. They just had 1 month unlimited journeys in Europe for £230 for under 28 years old. You must start using pass within 12 months and then it's valid for 30 days.
They have offers from time to time.
Idea is you get on a random-ish train and go somewhere, look around, repeat. You can book some overnight long journey trains and save on hotels. In some countries you can 'wild' camp, proper camp, get last minute hotels at 10pm.
Spend saved money on fun. Something where you risk your life. So it's memorable.
Southern Europe is very hot during summer.

I think your original itinerary is better OP.

OR Italy/Sicily.

I've only been to Croatia (Dubrovnik) once but it was eye wateringly expensive, unpleasantly busy and generally underwhelming.

Mslaga is fab and there's loads to do in the surrounding areas, ie, The Caminito del Rey.

Agree that the snark on here is unpleasant/bit pathetic!

Loads to do in both Malaga and Madrid and within short cheap train rides. I could easily fill a week in Madrid and a fortnight or more in the Malaga area. Not boring at all.

Be careful of the weather as it can be a bit mixed past late Sept. But maybe you don’t mind that. The original timeline will be hot expensive and busy. September is the sweet spot in my view.

I’d be a bit wary of Serbia with the impending elections — there’s been a lot of unrest there in the last year or two and it could kick off again.

Are you judging a whole country on one small city?

Well now I’m deep into researching and I’m completely unsure!!

I like being outdoors, walking and beautiful cities. I also want to try and incorporate at least one place with a beach because I love a beach day too.

Ideally I’d go somewhere I could do a day of beautiful walking (not full on hiking) before heading onto some cities and exploring there.

This is on my list

https://www.caminitodelrey.info/en/your-visit/access-route

Also, if you did four days in Barcelona you could do Montserrat

OK, have a think about sticking to Spain only. It has some absolutely lovely slightly undiscovered parts that I think you would like. Start either North and work down, or South and work up! Plenty of walking opportunities in the Basque country. But it's a personal thing, you might prefer bigger cities etc.

San Sebastian
Valladolid
Salamanca

Madrid - overrated but handy for Segovia and Toledo
Cordoba
Granada

Seville
Cadiz

Plenty of variety there, and I personally think Barcelona is overrated, overcrowded, over priced, and over there! But if it's a must, then go from Madrid and forget about Seville and Cadiz.

I did the above in two parts but I only had a week at a time. I enjoyed the Northern part so much, and Cadiz was a revelation too.

I'm just throwing out suggestions, you can narrow it down, add to it, leave out what doesn't appeal, and go to Barcelona and Portugal if you want!

Enjoy the trip, sounds amazing.

Yes Spain is gorgeous, I’d also love to explore northern France, plus places like Canada!!! So many places but so little time 🤣

Do it, it's amazing!

I'm just back from Belgium and Northern France funny that you mention it. I was on a history trek, not so much a holiday but both places were absolutely fantastic, I had never been to either. Well I've been to France but not that part (around the Somme), lovely. You might guess that I was doing a WW1 pilgrimage around the battlefields and cemeteries. What an absolutely amazing trip and very sobering and humbling too. It's an interest of mine that I finally managed to fulfil. I'm old you see, but I keep on trucking!

3 grand!
This is plenty for a summer AND a winter holiday, with sensible, not crazy budgeting.
After summer you'll end up with some spare cash to be able to go somewhere a bit north in Norway, cosy cabin, with sauna, and FREE northern lights. You can get really fancy woollen socks!
Be my friend and take me with you!

If you like Italy and outdoors, have you seen Cinque Terre?

www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/

It's stunningly beautiful. We did the Vernazza to Monterosso hike and Corniglia to Vernazza hike. They're two moderate ones with stunning views along the way. Plenty of other trails as well depending on how easy or hard you want it. There's a frequent train service between the villages that you can hop on and off if you don't fancy the walking.

Our Italy backpacking trip was Milan, Turin, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Verona and Lake Garda. We found Italian trains are cheap and efficient.

Also look at https://www.seat61.com/ and overnight trips between European cities. We've done other trips with several cities using sleeper trains which saves a night of hotel accommodation. It's brilliant having your dinner in Prague, getting on a train and then waking up for breakfast in Budapest.

I’ve done a huge amount of searching and I’ve found what feels like a perfect itinerary for me. 4 nights in a small town that borders the dolomites, with buses and cable cars up into the mountains and lots of easy hikes. 2 nights in Venice, so I can see it. Then for £50 you can fly down to Athens, 4 nights there to do all of the sightseeing, and then I’ll either go home or go down to Crete, I’ve not decided yet.

Id go to Valencia rather than Barcelona. Granada or Nerja is a great day trip when in Malaga

Granada is a bit of a trek from Malaga by public transport but Cordoba is served by frequent direct high speed trains, which are a bit of a novelty if you've never been on one before.

However, I feel I have to agree with 'it just seems like a fairly shallow succession of obvious city breaks strung together. Surely one appeal of backpacking is spending a bit longer in a region to appreciate it in more depth' in the sense that you'll spend a lot of time zipping from place to place not shallow as in 'not worthy'.

To me, trying to get from Porto to Barcelona in just over 2 weeks sounds a bit random. I would possibly look at flying in to Seville or Jerez, which gives you access to those cities plus Cadiz, also the countryside and little towns and villages, cork forests, sand dunes at Tarifa, Trafalgar lighthouse, Roman Ruins at Bolognia, that section of coast is beautiful, wild, remote and a world away from the Costa del Sol just up the road.

Then you can get the train up through the mountains from Algeciras to Ronda which is a spectacular journey. Maybe take a break in the journey somewhere like Gaucin, a traditional white village. Ronda is a spectacular historical town built over a gorge.

After Ronda, you have Antquera, Malaga, Cordoba, Granada, Las Alpuljarras, loads to see and do there, quirky villages (Soportujar, which is witch themed is fun and the three villages of Pampinera, Bubion and Capilera which are high up in the mountains and walkable between - get the bus up to the latter and walk down the hill). Lanjaron is a good base, has a small spa and a water museum as well as being a lovely village/small town as the gateway to Las Alpuljarras and the home of the spring water that is seen all over Spain.

By now you've probably gone way over 2.5 weeks, not even left Andalusia, met plenty of people who speak only Spanish, seen the real Spain and had a true backpacking experience.

We've been to the region over 50 times and not even scratched the surface so if I had an extended time there, that's the sort of thing I'd do.

When you’re done, you can fly back from Malaga.

Getting around in Italy by train is cheap and northern Italy is so beautiful.

I once went (roughly) Milan, Lake Garda, Verona, Trentino, Bolzano, Venice. It was wonderful.

I'd say your Italy/Croatia itenerary might be a bit ambitious, when you look at the times to travel between places. There's no real train service down the Croatian coast, so you're relying on the buses/driving. I think it took us about 6 hours from Pula to Split (longer, if you actually want to stop and see anywhere....) Maybe re-think what you want to cover/spent time in, without staying on the bus/car all the time.

I agree with some pp and Madrid is quite boring. I'd look to take a night off Malaga, a night off Madrid and a night off Barcelona and add in Granada so you can see the Alhambra and also add in Seville to go see some proper flamenco.

We went Malaga to Granada on a direct train. Less than 2 hours, and not expensive, from memory. We did 12 days in Andaluscia last Spring - 4 days Malaga (one day trip to Cordoba), 3 days Granada, and 4 days Seville (travel days not included!)
It was a pretty perfect balance, we found, and was easy to get around. I'd recommend that as a basis for a itenerary too.

I meant for a day trip. I'd at least stay overnight so you're not doing all the travelling in one day plus you also need to walk up to the viewpoint to see the Alhambra lit up at night (which is perfectly safe even as a lone woman, it's a very late night culture, families with babies out at midnight).

I loved a few days in Malaga with my daughter in May, and we stayed at a lush place called Villa Alicia, totally recommend. Very affordable and we had an en suite and a lovely terrace. Walkable into town also buses.

Bilbao is a nice city too and the Basque region is very interesting. You could potentially travel along the Costa Verde from Portugal to Biarritz. The Picos de Europa are stunning, the beaches are gorgeous, the tapas and pinxos are amazing, and it might be more bearable in summer, if that’s when you end up going.