I'll be arriving in Spain in late April this year, and have already organised some time in Madrid and Seville. After these two places, I want to see a lot of Spain, and maybe Portugal (or just go the other way to Italy??). What's the cheapest way of getting around Spain, and maybe adding on Italy or Portugal? Is there any kind of pass I can buy, or is it easier/cheaper just to jump on local transport? I have all the time in the world...I just need my money to stretch that far!! Also, at the end of it all, I need to get myself back to London for the long haul home to Australia. Any info about transport(including any safety issues) around/to these places will be great!

THANKS!

Nao

nao writes: If you're going to be travelling by rail a lot in Spain & Portugal, you can buy an Iberia-Pass for long-haul travel that's valid in both countries. I say 'Long haul' for Madrid-Barcelona or Madrid-Lisbon and Madrid OR Barcelona to Galicia or even to Sevilla (July, 2001 I took an overnight Talgo Barcelona-Sevilla). For 'short haul' point to point, Motorcoach travel is often more direct and more frequent and is almost always cheaper. If you get to Portugal, you'll find that rail fares are quite cheap, even on their Alfa high speed Lisbon-Porto service. So you may want to save your railpass days for getting back to Spain. That's a problem shared by many: we run out of money before we run out of vacation days. EasyJet offers fairly good fares on their Madrid-London (Luton) service. You may be able to get 'sale' fare for April or May on the Internet. It would be cheapest if you book one of their Internet sale roundtrip fares London (Luton) - Madrid
Late April thru May is a great time for Spain: el Puerto de Santa Maria (Cadiz) has a Spring fair around the first of May; Jerez de la Frontera has its annual Horse show May 5-12; the feria del Campo (aka Romeria de la Virgen del Rocio) is about May 15-20 (Huelva, near Almonte). And in Madrid the annal San Isidro activities continue the entire month of May. Have a blast!