Why Europe, It's a Long Bloody Flight!

Spain and Portugal

Back in 2019, we planned our first European trip. My grandfather being Spanish, I had a thought pop into my head: let’s go to Spain. Well, Spain certainly wasn’t on Leanne’s list of first European countries to visit, and to be honest, all I knew about Spain was that it was dry and desolate, and people didn’t speak much English. So then the research started — do we do another Intrepid tour like we did in Vietnam, book through a travel agent, or plan it ourselves?

We quickly added up the costs and thought, let’s do it ourselves — and while we’re at it, let’s do Portugal. What the hell is in Portugal? Is it the poor cousin of Spain? and is it even worth seeing?

The initial planning stage was hard. I had spreadsheets open, currency converters to the side, Google Maps and YouTube running in the background — it was doing my head in.

But then common sense kicked in, and after weeks of research and planning, with some fine-tuning, it all fell into place.

Spain and Portugal… we didn’t know much about either, but they sounded interesting enough to explore. What we didn’t realise was just how much we would fall in love with these two wonderful countries — and the European travel bug bit us hard.

Read our blog about our journey through these two countries, along with tips and what we would change if we did it again.

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