Iberia - where to go for on holiday?

[Empecinado]

Ribeira Sacra province and surroundings, in Galicia, has a lot of oak forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and small villages with Romanesque churches.

[Vasconcelos]

I forgot about Madeira, that would be an option too. Basically I want to go to somewhere green and mountainous. Madeira looks a bit touristy though, I don't want to meet loads of other tourists when I go hiking, I want to be somewhere where I can't see someone else for a whole day at least.

Madeira is very focused on tourism, a very significant part of it's economy is based on it (much like the Algarve), and it's very obvious for people who go there. It's a nice place to visit, but you'll run into tourists too often for your taste. Some of the mountain roads can get rather intimidating too.


The Peneda-Gerês, and I dare say the North in general, isn't nearly as tourist oriented as Madeira, which in a way preserves its true nature and doesn't spoil it with tourist bs. You also have the National Park of Alvão, in the Northeast, but I don't think it's as stunning as Peneda-Gerês.
I have mixed feelings about tourism, on one side it's good that tourism doesn't ruin these locations, but on the otherhand tourism could break the beach-stereotype the country has for foreigners, the country is so much more than Lisbon and the Alentejo/Algarve.





I might be biased on this, but the North/Northwest regions of Iberia are absolutely great to visit for someone that wishes to see the real Iberia, and not just the beach resorts.

[Damião de Góis]

The Azores islands might be more in line with what you want.

[Albion]

The Azores islands might be more in line with what you want.

I don't want to spend a fortune getting there though.

[Slycooper]

Sao Miguel island in the Azores. That is greenery.

[Comte Arnau]

Go to the so-called Green Spain. Looks like Britain, but they speak different.

[ChildOfTheJin]

My first choice would be Spain or Catalonia.

[Slycooper]

If your going to Portugal go to the North or the Azores.

[Catrau]

The best price/quality you'll find is in Iberia and Portugal is a bit less expensive than Spain but both countries have their pros and cons.
I like all the Atlantic coast of Iberia there is plenty of history, fabulous landscapes and very nice people. Being a welcomer is an Iberian personality trait. But to fully understand what you are going to see and to extract the most of your vacations you need to think about a road book and study a bit of the places and history you are going to visit. The med coast and central Iberia are very nice too but they have different characteristics manly in terms of climate and also, at least historically, of culture. The Med coast and the Algarve are more Touristic driven, more massified and that is a feature I dislike but if you haven't been there in the past, it is also a place to visit. Barcelona must be the most expensive city in Iberia but has a fantastic cultural background which you need to understand and study before buying a "Bus Turistic" ticket and visit all it's iconographic places. I like Barcelona and I've been there half a dozen times but the last time I've been there was some 6 years ago, lately I become interested by my ancestry and that lies in Portugal and northern Iberia (Galicia, Asturias, León) and those places, even if they aren't world renown, they are the best we can find in Iberia (IMO).

Here you have a link to a touristic/cultural portal in Portugal, it's in English too.


http://www.absolutportugal.pt/

It came after this successful Facebook page, it has the most extensive and amazing collection of photos from Portugal (look at photos inside the page):
https://www.facebook.com/absolutportugal/photos

[SkyBurn]

They're both beautiful countries with plenty to do. When I went, we got around to:

• Barcelona
• Madrid
• Cordova
• Segovia
• Granada
• Seville
• Gibraltar
• Ronda
• Lisbon
• Portos

And plenty of day trips to other places. We thought we covered a fair bit, and really enjoyed it. My advice would be to start in Barcelona, and work your way west and south