A Weekend Road Trip Through Extremadura and Portugal

One of my favourite things about living in Madrid is how easy it is to escape the city for a few days. Last weekend, after finishing work on Thursday evening, we packed up the car and headed west towards Extremadura and Portugal for a spontaneous long weekend road trip.

Our first stop was Talavera de la Reina. Since I didn’t finish work until 7:30pm, we wanted somewhere close enough to Madrid to avoid a late-night drive but far enough away to make an early start the next morning worthwhile. We picked up our brand new Europcar SEAT, loaded up the car and headed west with the sunset in full swing ahead of us.

An Evening in Talavera de la Reina

By Spanish standards, the drive felt incredibly short and before long we were wandering through the streets of Talavera de la Reina. It turned out to be far livelier than we expected. The streets were packed with people eating and drinking outside in the tapecerías, terraces full despite it being a weekday evening.

We stayed in a beautiful old boutique hotel with original wooden floorboards, huge rooms and plenty of character — exactly the kind of place I love finding while travelling through Spain.

After dropping our bags off, we headed out for tapas before an early night. The next morning involved a 5am alarm and a drive across the Portuguese border.

Sunrise Through Extremadura

There is something very special about driving through Extremadura early in the morning. The roads were completely empty, rolling hills stretched out in every direction and the sunrise behind us lit the entire landscape gold.

We wanted to be in Portugal by 9am Portuguese time so we could start work for the morning, so after crossing the border we found an old hotel, ordered coffees and settled in with laptops, wifi and air conditioning for a few hours.

Portugal was absolutely beautiful — although the 39 degree heat definitely reminded us how intense Iberian summers can be.

Lunch in Portugal

Once work was finished, we properly settled into Portuguese life for the afternoon. Lunch consisted of bacalao, incredible desserts and ice-cold drinks before finishing everything with a traditional bica, the Portuguese version of an espresso.

Portugal always feels slightly calmer and slower paced to me, especially in the Alentejo region around Estremoz. Whitewashed towns, quiet streets and incredible food — it is hard not to love it there.

Discovering Mérida During Roman Night

After lunch we crossed back into Spain and drove towards Mérida, somewhere that had been on my list for a long time.

Nothing could have prepared me for what we arrived into.

Completely by chance, we had arrived during Roman Night — a huge celebration of the city’s Roman history. The streets were overflowing with people dressed as Romans, market stalls lined the roads and performances were taking place across the city, including inside the spectacular Roman theatre itself.

The entire atmosphere felt magical.

We spent hours wandering through the city, admiring the Roman ruins, stopping for ice cream and simply soaking everything in. Eventually, around 10pm, we found a terrace for dinner and shared solomillo that was perfectly cooked and unbelievably tender.

Possibly the funniest part of the evening was seeing groups of Romans in full costume drinking wine in the streets before later queueing for Burger King. Ancient history meeting modern Spain perfectly.

Back to Madrid

The next morning it was time to head back to Madrid and return to normal life — laundry, dry cleaning, moving into our final Airbnb for the week and preparing for work again.

But weekends like this are exactly why I love living in Spain. Within a few hours of Madrid you can drive through completely different landscapes, experience another country, stumble across festivals you never planned for and discover places full of history, atmosphere and incredible food.

Another reminder that some of the best trips are often the unplanned ones.