I have read that, Settings are centrally important to the novel. They have to be generally motivated, as they are integral to the plot and storyline. Unless you are writing a picaresque it is unwise to have more than three settings.
I have four Settings in my historical fantasy novel.
Many novels have one Setting, where for example the events take place in a city, town or on a boat.
In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the Settings are Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, which are four miles apart and separated by the heath which is integral to the plot and storyline.
A time period is vital to a historic Setting.
There may be many events in a novel, but the important Settings are where most of the events takes place.
In many traditional English novels there are few Settings. In some traditional novels, comparisons are made between life in large country houses, and life in the city, with the protaganist trying to find fulfillment in society.
There does appear to be a lot of confusion here. I would say you have many locations, Jonathan, but your book is set in Britain and Portugal. The setting gives context in that someone imediately understand something about Britain and Portugal as settings whereas locations can be anything within the setting. For your books you would also need to add a time period to complete the setting. Your fictional locations can then be anything that fall within that setting. At least, that's the way I understand it.
Still doesn't help me much, though. My settings are London, Paris, Geneva, Barcelona, Prague, Vienna, Moscow, Istanbul and Cairo in the year 2007! Lol
Three settings? You are joking?
My first story took place in Britain and Portugal and broke down to at least ten 'settings' in the former and a half-dozen in the latter. The current WIP is almost a travelogue through Portugal and Spain with action in a lot of different places. I haven't counted.
I can't see that being a problem when it follows a factual historical timeline, so why should fantasy, for example, be any different?