Alentejo & Extremadura: A Classic Car Journey in Its Own Classic

Five nights from Lisbon through the Alentejo into Spanish Extremadura, self-guided, in the guest’s own classic car.

This is the same route as the operator’s MGA tour at roughly eight hundred euros less a head, the difference being that the car and its journey to the start are the guest’s own responsibility.

A transfer from Lisbon opens it, to the Pousada do Convento de Arraiolos, a sixteenth-century convent. Estremoz follows, with its medieval fortifications visible across the plain and a night in a former fifteenth-century castle-palace. Crato comes next, then Caceres in Spain, where palaces and villas from several periods stand together in a remarkably intact old town, and Merida, which holds the most important Roman remains in the country, including a theatre that still hosts performances. Evora closes the route with one of the best preserved Roman temples on the Iberian Peninsula. The overnight stays throughout are in historic Pousadas and Paradores, the Portuguese and Spanish state hotel networks, which occupy convents, castles and monasteries.

The accommodation, the arrival transfer, luggage transport between stages and the group dinners are all included; the car and getting it to the start are not. The price shown is per person. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the Alentejo in high summer is punishing. For anyone who already owns something suitable and is willing to drive or trailer it down, this is the better value of the two versions by a clear margin. Six days with the luggage moved separately between stages also means the boot space of an older car stops being the limiting factor, which on a route with six hotels in it matters more than it sounds.