Portugal - Spain - French Riviera - Northern Italy

KimberlyS530 · January 2012

Hi there-

I posted a week or so ago soliciting advice on our planned 6-week itinerary, which I scaled back to 5 weeks and which I removed Slovenia / Croatia from, as it was just becoming too much. I'm pretty much booked and just wanted to get advice from any Nesties who may have visited the following cities or stayed in the following hotels - if you liked it, if you didn't like it, what the best places are to eat, any off-the-beaten-path things we must do, etc. Thanks for any insight you can provide!

Lisbon, Portugal (staying at the Altis Avenida Hotel)

Lagos, Portugal (staying at the Cascade Resort)

Seville, Spain (staying at Hotel Casa 1800, Sevilla)

Granda, Spain (staying at Hotel Casa 1800, Granada)

Barcelona, Spain (staying at Hotel 1898)

Nice, France (hotel TBD)

Venice, Italy (staying at the Hotel Canal Grande)

Lake Como, Italy (staying at the Hotel Grand Tremezzo)

Cinque Terre, Italy (hotel TBD)

Milan, Italy (hotel TBD - only need one night here before our flight so something convenient to downtown would be great, as we're actually flying out of LIN, not the major airport in Milan)

Any advice - restaurants, tours, activities, things I can't miss - would be greatly appreciated!

SamJuly05 · January 2012

KimberlyS530:

Lisbon, Portugal (staying at the Altis Avenida Hotel)

We were just in Spain and Portugal over Thanksgiving and really enjoyed Lisbon. I would highly recommend taking a tour with We Hate Tourism Tours. We did the Sintra, Cascais and Belem day tour is was well worth every euro. The guides were so much fun, and the price included a nice lunch of meat, cheese, bread and wine. Also, visist the Wine Bar Du Costello if you're into wine. Just tell the owner what you like and take his recommendations - everything we tried was fantastic.

Seville, Spain (staying at Hotel Casa 1800, Sevilla)

Take the tour of the bullring. It's not as big as the one in Madrid, but the tour was great and includes a guided walk through a small museum of bullfighting history and costumes.

Granda, Spain (staying at Hotel Casa 1800, Granada)

Obviously the Alhambra is great, give yourself at least a full late morning/early afternoon to walk around the entire thing.

Nice, France (hotel TBD)

Just enjoy the beach and the seafood!

Venice, Italy (staying at the Hotel Canal Grande)

The naval museum was very cool, and walking around the Rialto markets is a must. There are some great bacaros in the Dursudoro sistiere, definitely stop into a few of them and sample some chichetti and have an ombre of vino!

Cinque Terre, Italy (hotel TBD)

We stayed in Monterosso (of course before the flooding) at L'Antica Terraza and it was AMAZING. The breakfast was simple, but had the best homemade focaccia from a bakery up the street. The room was great and had a small private balcony overlooking a really nice little bar/restaurant.

Milan, Italy (hotel TBD - only need one night here before our flight so something convenient to downtown would be great, as we're actually flying out of LIN, not the major airport in Milan)

We probably didn't do Milan justice, we basically were in the same situation as you, one night before our flight the next day. The cathedral is spectacular, but that's all I can offer there!

Any advice - restaurants, tours, activities, things I can't miss - would be greatly appreciated!

HAVE FUN, I'm so jealous I wish we were going back to Europe soon!

VABeach08 · January 2012

Last summer we did a 17 day drive from Naples to the Riviera via CT, up to Bordeaux, down to Basque country, Madrid, Toledo, Valencia, Barcelona and back (to Naples).

While we did move around a fair amount it really didn't really too rushed (we'd been to some of the cities before). If you have any play in your itinerary I'd highly recommend Basque country (either Spain, FR, or both). Really beautiful scenery and some truly unique foodie options (specifically, San Sebastian, SP, if I had to pick just one city).

Carcasonne, FR is a nice break b/w Barcelona and Nice. We also stayed in Marseilles, which was pretty skippable, IMO.

CT's lovely, but I stayed in La Spezia on that trip-- a better value, not as charming, but still a nice town.

I'd recommend a day trip (or an overnight) in Verona. It's lovely, much prettier than Milan and less crowded than Venice.

Any particular activities you're more interested (ie wine, foodie, etc)?

Oh my other tip, if you're driving, have change in France (their toll system is ridiculous... seriously. It's a sorry day when I say Italy is less of a hassle ).

hz80408 · January 2012

OP- When's your trip? We've debating on going to CT in April but haven't found many positive articles on the recovery at this point. Do you have any info?

SamJuly05 · January 2012

hz80408:
OP- When's your trip? We've debating on going to CT in April but haven't found many positive articles on the recovery at this point. Do you have any info?
<Butting in> This is a tour organizer in the CT. I honestly don't find their website extremely informative, but I follow them on Twitter and they are constantly tweeting updates and articles about the reconstruction and current situation. Right now they have said that Vernazza is the worst off, still uninhabitable, and Monterosso is the 2nd worse. Apparently the other three towns are completely fine as the flooding missed them. The Twitter updates are very helpful. Also, the NY Times recently published a 45 Places to Visit in 2012 article, and listed Portovenere as the place to go in Liguria while the CT recovers. I would imagine you can make day trips to Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia although I'm not sure if the trails are open between all three. The "trail" from Manarola to Riomaggiore is really a paved walkway on the ocean, not very rustic, but I'm sure that at least will be open.

hz80408 · January 2012

SamJuly05:

hz80408:
OP- When's your trip? We've debating on going to CT in April but haven't found many positive articles on the recovery at this point. Do you have any info?
<Butting in> This is a tour organizer in the CT. I honestly don't find their website extremely informative, but I follow them on Twitter and they are constantly tweeting updates and articles about the reconstruction and current situation. Right now they have said that Vernazza is the worst off, still uninhabitable, and Monterosso is the 2nd worse. Apparently the other three towns are completely fine as the flooding missed them. The Twitter updates are very helpful. Also, the NY Times recently published a 45 Places to Visit in 2012 article, and listed Portovenere as the place to go in Liguria while the CT recovers. I would imagine you can make day trips to Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia although I'm not sure if the trails are open between all three. The "trail" from Manarola to Riomaggiore is really a paved walkway on the ocean, not very rustic, but I'm sure that at least will be open.

Thanks; I saw the NY Travel Portoverne listing and was intrigued by that and now am considering/wondering if we should consider CT for 4/5 days in April.

KimberlyS530 · January 2012

hz80408:
SamJuly05:

hz80408:
OP- When's your trip? We've debating on going to CT in April but haven't found many positive articles on the recovery at this point. Do you have any info?
<Butting in> This is a tour organizer in the CT. I honestly don't find their website extremely informative, but I follow them on Twitter and they are constantly tweeting updates and articles about the reconstruction and current situation. Right now they have said that Vernazza is the worst off, still uninhabitable, and Monterosso is the 2nd worse. Apparently the other three towns are completely fine as the flooding missed them. The Twitter updates are very helpful. Also, the NY Times recently published a 45 Places to Visit in 2012 article, and listed Portovenere as the place to go in Liguria while the CT recovers. I would imagine you can make day trips to Riomaggiore, Manarola and Corniglia although I'm not sure if the trails are open between all three. The "trail" from Manarola to Riomaggiore is really a paved walkway on the ocean, not very rustic, but I'm sure that at least will be open.

Thanks; I saw the NY Travel Portoverne listing and was intrigued by that and now am considering/wondering if we should consider CT for 4/5 days in April.

Have done a ton of research regarding the CT - it sounds like Monterosso may be back up and (mostly) functioning by around Easter; seems like they anticipate most of the trails will be open by then as well (and the main one didn't close, I guess?). I added one more day to our CT itinerary entirely because I read the NY Times article a few days ago about Portoverne - Googled it and it looks fabulous! We will probably stay in one of the CT towns and just take the ferry back and forth, but I definitely plan to check it out.

As for the question about when we're going - I'm going in mid-July so there is still plenty of time for them to make improvements. I also read a very compelling article arguing that it's more important than ever for the CT to have tourists this year - these are very small, self-sustaining villages and their residents can't "afford to wait a few years" to recover. If they don't have tourism coming in now, they risk losing those few people who work in tourism to other jobs (because they need the money) and the tourism industry there may not recover. Obviously, I'd love for the CT to be as perfect as it was before the flooding, but given that there are so many gorgeous nearby towns, I'm not too worried about going there and finding Monterosso or Vernazza haven't fully recovered; and I'd be happy to be a part of helping them to recover so that people in future years can enjoy the CT (makes me think of how NOLA really needed the tourism $$$ after Katrina, or how badly Egypt needs tourism $$$ now - but this is a safe place to go so I'm happy to do so).

MrsA1210 · January 2012

We just got back from Lisbon and it is an incredible city. Within the city, the Castelo Sao Jorge is a must and you really just need to leave time to walk through the neighborhoods. We stayed in the Chiado district and it was so charming. Nearby Bairro Alto is this wonderful area of winding narrow alleys lined with cafes, wine bars, and shops. At night you can just walk from one cafe or bar to the next, trying wines and appetizers. Belem (I guess a suburb of Lisbon - easy train ride from Cais do Sodre station) is a must - the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (beautiful monastery), Torre de Belem (fortress tower) and a few unique museums (I really recommend the Museu Nacional dos Coches - a cool collection of royal coaches). Lisbon has a number of churches and cool museums so you can have your pick there based on interests. Sintra is a wonderful daytrip - plan for a long day and lots of walking! I can't say enough about Lisbon - we enjoyed everything we did, everyone we met was friendly, and there was no shortage of inexpensive wine. I recommend getting a Lisboa card if you plan on using public transportation (which was very easy and reliable) and seeing the major sites.

kirkette · January 2012

Ditto Castelo Sao Jorge. We also enjoyed the Port Institute and the botanical gardens in Lisbon.

Lagos is a blast as well enjoy.

Portugal - Spain - French Riviera - Northern Italy

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