Alentejo & Extremadura: A Classic Car Journey in the MGA of Vintage Tours

Five nights from Lisbon through the Alentejo into Spanish Extremadura, self-guided, in an MGA Roadster provided by the operator.

The car is the reason for the price difference against the bring-your-own version of the same route. An MGA is a mid-1950s British roadster, light, low and entirely mechanical, and driving one through cork oak country is a different experience from driving anything modern.

A transfer from Lisbon opens it, to the Pousada do Convento de Arraiolos, a sixteenth-century convent with a tiled chapel, where the cars are handed over on the forecourt and the first dinner is taken. Estremoz follows, its medieval walls visible for miles across the plain, with the night in a former fifteenth-century castle-palace. Crato comes next, then Caceres across the Spanish border, where palaces and townhouses from several centuries stand in one old town, and Merida, which holds the most substantial Roman remains in Spain, with a theatre still in use. Evora closes the route, with one of the best preserved Roman temples on the peninsula.

The MGA for the duration, the accommodation in the historic Pousadas, the arrival transfer, luggage transport between stages and the group dinners are all included. The price shown is per person. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the Alentejo in July and August is extremely hot and an open car with no roof to speak of makes the point quickly. Six days at a gentle pace, with the luggage moved separately, is the right shape for a trip in a sixty-year-old car.