Our First Trip in Retirement

England, Spain & Portugal - And What It Cost

We planned to visit Spain in September 2020, but due to Covid it was put on the back burner. When my husband retired in January, it became a perfect opportunity for us to finally see Spain, and now that we didn’t have to work around any schedule, I decided to tack on England and Portugal too. No sense going all that way for just one country, right?!

We spent 5 glorious weeks abroad and enjoyed every moment. It was a perfect celebration to welcome this next chapter of life.

Overview

When I planned this trip, I wondered if 5 weeks were too long. I now know it is not. I honestly think an extra week would have been too much and 4 weeks not enough. Funny how that worked out; it was perfect.

We spent 1 week in England, 16 days in Spain, and 10 days in Portugal for a grand total of 33 days. The best part of all was when my husband exclaimed, “we’re getting paid to do this!”

Yes, we are.

The Itinerary

First we started in England. This was my husband’s first time to the UK and I was bound and determined to show him as much as possible in those 7 days. The last time I was there was in 1993, so for me it had been 30 years. I was fortunate to go every summer as a child to visit relatives - thanks to my Dad’s job at an airline - and it was nice to go back this time and experience it like a tourist.

We then flew from London to Malaga in the Costa Del Sol, rented a car, and later drove to Portugal for the last leg of our trip. Both Spain and Portugal were new destinations for us.

My parents in the late 70’s traveled through the Costa Del Sol region and I grew up hearing fantastic stories of the places they went, which explained why they loved Spain so much. I think that helped me choose where I wanted to go.

I followed their path quite a bit in my own planning, even digging out my dad’s old roadmap with his handwritten notes.

While in Spain we visited Mijas, Ronda, Sentinel de las Bogedas, Estepona, Algeciras, Malaga, Antequera, Fuengirola, Nerja, Almunecar, Granada, Jaen, Cordoba, Carmona and Seville.

Portugal was completely new and I had no stories to go by, so I chose the Carvoeiro, Evora, Obidos, Nazare and then Lisbon.

Accommodation & Day Trips

I booked hotels for the majority of this trip. First, because Airbnbs are not cheap like they used to be, especially with the ridiculously expensive cleaning fees for some rentals; and second, I wanted to be able to cancel any leg of the trip (if necessary) at the last moment and not lose any money. For that reason alone, Airbnbs were out.

We booked accommodation in Spain and Portugal, but only one night was booked in England. We were very thankful to stay with family while there. The one hotel we did book was in Worcester and it cost $100 Euros/night. That was the extent of our hoteling in the UK. We did pay for all food (except 2 dinners), drinks, a rental car, petrol, and admissions to all the sites (for ourselves and my relatives).

From London, we flew to Malaga one-way on British Airways.

Here’s a list of our accommodations in Spain & Portugal: