Honeymoon Discussions

Portugal, Spain, Morocco!

We finally decided on our honeymoon destination and I am so excited!  We will have about 12 days and plan to fly into Madrid and spend most of our time in Portugal, Andalusia, & a couple days in Morocco via ferry.  For those that have been here, recommendations on what to see please! 

We are very athletic and will run a lot (always great to explore a new city) and hope to mountain bike & perhaps a couple more activities.  There's nothing in particular (history or museum wise) that we want to see.  So, recommendations would be great!
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Re: Portugal, Spain, Morocco!

  • If you could get to Granada. It is so beautiful and just hiking in the city is amazing. When your in Morocco make sure you get the special mint tea.

    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I lived in Spain for 6 months as part of a study abroad program in Cadiz, Spain.  I may be biased but I think it's a wonderful place to see if you can make it down there!  It's the oldest city in Europe (I think).  It's located on the southern tip of Spain and it's very Andalucian but you'll also get the amazing beach vibe.  There are miles of beautiful beaches but you also get the historical buildings and European feel you would expect when visiting a European city.  I absolutely LOVE Cadiz.  :)

    Also, I highly recommend Sevilla!  It has an AMAZING cathedral and just a lot of cool, old architecture and historical buildings.  And not sure when your honeymoon is, but if you go to Sevilla in April, you should check out La Feria.  It's a huge fair in Sevilla and all the ladies get dolled up in their flamenco outfits.  It's fun.

    Also definitely check out Granada and the Alhambra!  It's sooo pretty!  And if you get the chance, check out a flamenco show there in one of the caves.  It's a great experience and is really cool.  :)

    As for Morocco, we went to Marrakech, which is kinda the quintessential Morocco: lots of markets (be prepared to haggle with the vendors), snake charmers, amazing and interesting Muslim architecture.  It's like another world but it's so cool and different than what we are used to here.  The main plaza (can't remember the name of it) comes alive at night so be sure to check it out at night!  I will say that if you do an excursion with a guide, be a little more careful than I was....A few friends and I went backpacking when we were there and went hiking in the mountains with a guide...We entrusted the guide to buy us our train tickets back home to Spain so we gave them money to do so while we were hiking.  Yeah...so they shorted us 2 train tickets and 2 of us almost didn't make it back home in time since the train was leaving.  Oh, and they take you to these carpet shops to get you to buy berber carpets...it's kinda weird.  And most importantly, be careful of what you eat/drink there too...Make sure you are only drinking bottled water and ask for no ice in your drinks.  All but one of us in our group came back to Spain incredibly sick and I had to go to the doctor who said I had bad intestinal inflammation.  :(  

    Well, hope that helped!  Have fun!  I'm jealous...I would love to go back there!  :)
    Married since October 14, 2012 - Best Day Ever! Wedding-2
  • Oh sorry!  I have another recommendation: check out Ronda.  It's not a big city.  It's a small village in Andalucia perched on this rocky cliff.  It is absolutely breathtaking.  Just look up pics online and you'll see what I mean. :)
    Married since October 14, 2012 - Best Day Ever! Wedding-2
  • Why would you pack all of that into 12 days?  Is it a full 12 days or is that including your travel time?  If it includes travel, you need to cut that down to 10 as you loose an entire day just getting there and a day getting back.  Not to mention a day at least to get over to Morocco and back.

    I've never been able to understand why people want to do SO MUCH on trips like this.  It's by far enough to do Spain and Portugal and even then i'd say you're pushing it.
  • I can see packing that much into 12 days; well does that include your travel time?

    Personally, I wouldn't want to put that much travel committ in for a HM, but for a vacation, I think it sounds fabulous!  What is your rough itinerary?  I do think it will be hard to see several countries in Spain; but if you're just staying in one or two places with day trips; that seems more managable.

    When are you going/time of year?
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_portugal-spain-morocco?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:6f6077b6-26f1-4914-a567-e391e1842f37Post:c7e809da-d653-4364-8730-51856bf86cb1">Re: Portugal, Spain, Morocco!</a>:
    [QUOTE]In Response to Re: Portugal, Spain, Morocco! : Isn't a honeymoon just a vacation with a fancier name?
    Posted by ILoveMilkDuds[/QUOTE]
    To us? - No.  For our HM we wanted something luxorious and relaxing, something we don't consider for visiting several cities in a short time span.  But to each their own!
  • Our trip is August into early September and it is 12 full days not including flights.  I asked for recommendations on what to see because right now we have nothing specific in mind other than to take a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar and visit Tanger in Morocco.  In my mind, that means I have 11 days of doing nothing and we get bored doing nothing.  We've vacationed before many times and have an understanding of how much we can do in how many days.  I understand our 12 days are not ideal for everyone, but to each their own, right?

    We have chosen to visit here because that is the type of trip we enjoy - seeing many new sights and not just sitting still on a beach or inclusive resort.  We understand many people do that on a honeymoon, but it doesn't interest us. 

    We are most focused on seeing Portugal, but will likely fly into Madrid and will have a long drive there and also will need to drive through Andalusia to get to the port to visit Morocco.  That is why I asked for things to see or activities to do.  I like hearing firsthand experiences on what others have enjoyed and taking that into account rather than choosing destinations based on guidebook descriptions.  Thank you pzavecz & npott044 for the advice - that was the type of tidbits of info I was most interested in learning about.
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  • RYLZRYLZ member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited January 2012
    ETA:we must have been posting at the same time so keep in mind I didn't have your exact timeline details, and also it now sounds like Portugal is not something you want to cut, but you might still find this useful :-)

    We've done Barcelona, Madrid (day-trip to Toledo), Rome, (Day-trip to Florence), Paris and Amsterdam in 14 days so this sounds doable to me depending on your travel style, energy level and methods of transportation, rungirl.  If you keep your itinerary focused I think it's doable and possible to mix in a few luxury honeymoon items/activities and some days slower than others.  We travel like that all the time.

    It sounds like you may be as high energy as we are and your country combo sounds divine to me.  But I might cut out Portugal unless you're satisfied with just a night or 2 there and cutting out some of the Spain stops.  When I was researching our last trip, it seemed like it would take a half day or more to get from Lisbon (Portugal) to Seville by train or bus, and at the time I couldn't find any rental companies willing to let us take the car from Portugal and leave it in Spain.  Maybe you plan to fly?

    If I were doing this trip, I'd start in Barcelona, stay in the city for 2 or 3 days without a car rental, then take either a cheap flight or high speed train to Madrid (we scored $49 one-way flights booking early and during a sale).  In Madrid, I would spend at least 3 nights, and fit in a day-trip to Toledo (a pretty 1200 year-old mountain top village).  Then I'd get a rental car and head down south to Cordoba, Seville and Cadiz splitting 6-7 night before crossing over to Morocco for 2 nights.

    I second the suggestion of Granada but then I think you'd have to cut out Cordoba.

    I have some in-depth site and restaurant info for Barcelona, Madrid and Toledo.  If you want me to PM you with details just let me know.
  • Well, I prefer to be active on vacation as well, but I also like to *experience* one area, and not get a whirlwind drive by look at it all. I think you lose a lot by doing that.

    FWIW, I've been living in Europe for about 4 years now and it honestly annoys the piss out of me when people think that things are 'small' here.  Yeah, the continent is smaller than the US, but it still takes time to get around, and it's not easy.  Trying to get into Morocco right now? Not going to be easy.

    I'm just tring to point out that you might not have as much time as you imagine when looking at this from the outside. I would also recommend posting on the Travel board on the Nest as a lot of the ladies there have traveled more extensively than people here.
  • I've been on a couple tours of Spain, and on the first tour we did a day trip to Morocco. It was a great time and we actually saw a lot in that one day! I think you can absolutely do Portugal, Spain, and Morocco in 10 days. You won't be able to see everything in every city you visit, but that's how some people like to travel and I think we all need to respect that. You'll probably find a city or two that you absolutely fall in love with, and will return someday just to vacation in that city and see it all. For me it was San Sebastian in Spain! So beautiful! Have a wonderful, action packed, honeymoon!
  • OP-I'm sorry to offend you, that was not my original intention; although I can see how it happened.

    H and I have been trying to plan a 16-day trip in EU and have been struggling similary to it sounds as you have with trying to determine where you want to go and for how long.

    I'd recommend making a list of the cities you want to see (for example, you say Portugual is important, do you have specifics, like Lisbon, that you want to see?), and list the items you want to see/do in each city.  After you have a list of cities; look at your most practical method of transportation and how long it will take to get there.  Then honestly, I would double that transportation time, should anything go wrong.  If it doesn't take that long to get around, then that's awesome and you have "bonus" time...but if it does take that long, then you won't be upset at "lost" time.

    Also, two other helpful items we're learning is that renting apts (look at airbnb.com, vrbo.com, homeaway.com and several others out there) can be much cheaper than hotels and even hostels; plus you can save money if you decide to eat meals in. 

    Rick Steve's also has free guided walks that you can download to ipods, etc. via itunes.  This would allow you to explore an area at your leisure but still hit the items to see with explanation/history.

    Lastly, since you're runners, have you considered signing up for a race while you're there?  I'm not sure what kind of distances you run; but H and I are considering maybe doing one of two half marathons while we're in EU in April.  It could be a fun experience to take part in!
  • This has made me so excited, we are getting married in El Chorro (near Ronda) in Spain because we fell in love wth the area!!! We spent 3 weeks travelling from Malaga, up to Antequerra and back along the Cadiz coast and really we needed more time. It is a lot to pack in. Also I am going to Portugal on Sunday for the first time so will be able to give you more info next week. There is a bus from Albufeira (portugal) to Seville (Spain) and then a train to Malaga, Ronda etc or you could go to Marbella (they have some awesome hotels there and would be perfect to have a few super luxury nights). Look up the kings walkway. If your active you cant miss out on that however its not for the feit hearted (El Chorro is one of the biggest climbing regions in Europe). Maybe daytrip to Gibraltor for a day, we did and it was fun going u to see the monkeys and views of both Africa and Spain. Be veryyyy careful going to Morocco. We went and were on a ferry back to Spain within 5 hours with food poisining that lasted 5 days (i had to starve myself to get on a plane home). I'v heard Marakesh is supposed to be lovely but dont do what we did and fall into the tourist trap of Tanger or other near to port tourist destinations. We met one guy that had had his car and passport seized by police because the visa guy hadnt stamped his wifes passport right on the ferry ... they ended up going through an Arab court which got them there passports back but not there brand new car! I agree with other posts tho that this bit of Spain is amazing. Let me know if you would like me to recomend any car rentals, hotels etc as we sayed in quite a few. Oh and also if you woud be prepared to camp as there is some great campsites. oh oh oh and if you can go to the lakes at Ardales they are breath taking!

    Dont suppose anone knows any wedding cake shops in the area? We can pick up from as East as Malaga, South as la Linea, West as Jimena de la Frontera/Ronda and as North as Antequerra
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