Here is a plan for one week:

Lisbon---3 nites
Get car--to Obidos with stop in Sintra--2 nites
see Nazare, Batahla, Alcobaca

Drive to Evora--2 nites[or one if last nite near airport]

That is a compact itinerary that will optimize a week in Portugal.

Lisbon - 3 full days
including day trip to Sintra and its fairy-tale castles

drive up north via Obidos - one of europe's finest walled towns and also venue of a much lauded Pousada - gov't run, i think, hotel in historic edifices - this one is built right into the walls

Next head to Nazare - a really neat old fishing town where locals still grill the day's catch outside in the town's narrow lanes - this is a great base for some super fine sights - the Batalha Monastery - Alcobaca and its monastery

then to Porto - an old-world city famous for its Port Houses, where Port wine is made and aged - Porto to me is much more the dreamy old-world place etched in our minds' eye than is Lisbon, which has some vest-pocket dreamy old sections such as the fantastic Alfama (sp)

anyway that is one doable thing for a week based on what i did by train once.

Wow, you both just saved me a lot of homework! Now I have to get myself a good map and guidebook.

What's the weather like in the fall? From what I can tell, winter is rainy season. How's the month of October rain-wise?

Also, based on thes sugegsted itineraries, I think I should squeeze in another night.

MFNYC,

We were in Portugal last October for 10 nights and had no real weather problems. The temperatures were warm, and we had one rainy day in Porto.

We spent 5 nights in Porto and 5 in Lisbon, with day trips from both cities.

The two cities so different, and found both to be excellent locations for the day trips.

We loved Portugal!

Byrd

You should be fine. I had great weather over Thanksgiving. Highly recommend the Sofitel Liberdade in Lisbon.

I think you will love Portugal!

I did my trip in late October and the weather was in the 70s and in all wonderful.

If we were to do something like Byrd suggests, is a car necessary? Can day trips be by train? What's the best way to get from Lisbon to Porto?

The reward tickets are only available RT to/from Lisbon, so whatever we do, we'll have to circle ourselves back to Lisbon.

MFNYC,

I have no idea whether our trip was planned the best way, but it worked for us!

We were a group of four couples, all old friends, who have traveled together many times. We, too, used Sky Miles for our tickets, flying from Atlanta to Lisbon via CDG.

Since we were to fly home from Lisbon, we rented a van upon arrival at the Lisbon airport and drove to Porto. The highway was excellent, and it was an easy trip. We also rented an English-speaking GPS.

We turned in the van the next day at a location not far from our hotel (Our Alabama accents caused us a little trouble there when the woman in the rental office asked our friend who was handling the return transaction "Do you speak English?").

During the rest of the trip, we used the train for day trips from Porto to Coimbra, the Duoro Valley, and Barcelos, as well as back to Lisbon for our last five days.

From Lisbon, we took the trains to Sintra, Belem, Cascais, and Estoril. One of our couples took a bus to Fatima.

The trains were all comfortable and clean, and we enjoyed our rides.

We have rented cars on other trips, but this time the trains worked for us.

I know you will have a wonderful time in Portugal!

Byrd



We really enjoyed

all the places Byrd mentions i have done by public transports - easily done by trains and buses.

Let me just say that renting cars in Portugal is fairly inexpensive and the roads are good and well marked.

There is really nothing like driving from Lisbon up the coast.

Do you drive in NYC? If you do, Portugal would be a snap. I would not drive in Lisbon but in other areas it is good.

The trains are clean and comfortable and inexpensive. But you do not have the pick up and go ability like with a car.

You will love Portugal.

I also had great weather at Thanksgiving in 2007. Could be an anomaly, but, there were still flowers in a few places, too. Lots of sun.

Two thumbs up to Obidos.

Porto, Coimbra and Sintra are great destinations to add to your trip. We arranged a private tour of Grahams in Porto through our wine merchant, but they also do public tours and tastings. The university library in Coimbra is amazing, the university dates to the middle ages, and the town is very picturesque. Sintra is wonderful with 5 palaces to tour. We had no problems driving in Portugal.

Have a wonderful time in Portugal!

Agree on Coimbra - that happened to be the one day of rain I had on the late-November trip, which was a bummer.

There are Roman ruins nearby (Conimbriga) as well as the Convento do Cristo (sp?) which relates to the Knights Templar - it's a UNESCO site, too.

Well I just got my tickets!!! I went for an extra night so now I have 8 nights. Arriving on Friday morning 10/8 and leaving Saturday afternoon 10/16.

I'm thinking the first 3 nights and the last night will be in Lisbon. I guess we'd head up to Porto after the 3 nights and then back down toward Lisbon for a couple of nights in Sintra maybe.

Any suggestions on optimizing my 8 nights/days. Our flight arrives very early on the 8th. We'll most likely rent a car after Lisbon.

How should I split my nights in between?

Please please please - do not shortchange Porto!

The Porto Pestana is stellar, request a river view, location is great.
http://www.pestana.com/hotels/en/hotels/europe/OportoHotels/Porto/Home/PestanaPorto.htm

BTW, I found Obidos not worth much more than an overnight stop unless you are using it as a base, it is a TINY town. Others love Evora, note, it is a college town and the cobblestones are treacherous, unless you are food-focused (acorn-pork) or dying to see the skulls, skip for coastal drive. Others will disagree and it is all close anyhow. Just my opinion FWIW.

Ok, suggestions please...I have 8 nights and fly in and out of Lisbon...what's the best approach here without having to relocate every other night???

Maybe start with 2 nights Lisbon and move on from there. What towns make most sense as 'bases' for other areas assuming we have a car? I'm thinking Porto and ?? How many nights in Porto? I don't want to shortchange anything but I only have 8 nights so I guess I need to prioritize.

I stayed 4 nights in Lisbon and didn't run out of things to do. Not to suggest you should do the same. I did spend an afternoon with a driver who took me to Sintra and Cabo da Roca. I could have spent more time there.

Obidos - I spent just two hours there on the drive to Coimbra. I didn't feel I shortchanged myself with that short visit. It's a beautiful village and an overnight would be nice but I didn't feel it was necessary. There were towns not far from there which I did want to visit but I ran out of time. It may make a nice base for the other small towns nearby.

I wrote a trip report recently so if you click on my handle and go to the trip reports, you will see the report and my photos.

MFNYC, we are planning the same sort of trip as you do, at the end of September. We arrive Porto and drive straight to Coimbra for 2 nights. Then Sintra for 3 nights from where we will visit Lisbon, probably 2 full days. Will visit Obidos on our way from Coimbra to Sintra. Then again up north, via Evora, to Porto for the remaining 4 days. From Porto we will drive the Douro Valley (grape harvest time at the end of September!) and further north to Guimaraes and probably Braga, if time allows. We plan on doing a different port wine tasting every day while in Porto!

Loved Obidos: stayed last time in the Pousada, a walled fortress/castle that has been converted..It is always 'booked' well in advance, as it is very popular, and has only 6 units, I believe. The restaurant is spectacular, and if you get there early, request the window seat that looks out over the town, then get somebody to go out and take a photo of you sitting in it...what a souvenier..The town is interesting, lots of cobblestone streets..take good walking shoes, and maybe a stick, if you are in any way impaired..of course, lots of little junky shops, but also some fair walks starting in the town. We loved it.

I always recomment Karen Brown as a source, and suggested itineries.

Ok, I bought a map and Karen Brown's book to get started. We will be arriving in Lisbon very early in the morning. I'm thinking we'll spend the first night there, then leave the next day for Porto.

Does it make sense to take a train to Porto and then rent a car there for the rest of the trip, or should we just get the car in Lisbon, and drive to Porto.

I'm thinking 2 nights in Porto at Guest House Duoro. It looks like a great little place to stay. Thoughts??

From Porto, I'm thinking we'll work our way back down to Lisbon, and end up spending the last 2 night in Lisbon. That give us 3 nights on the road. Where should we spend those 3 nights?

Does this beginning of an itinerary make sense?

On second thought, I'm thinking of, upon arrival in Lisbon, taking the train straight to Porto. Then something like this:
2-3 nights Porto, rent car, possibly Guest House Duoro
1 night - Coimbra area
1 night - Obidos area
1-2 nights - Sintra area
2 nights - Lisbon

Does this make sense? Any hotel recs (thinking in the $150-250 range).

Hi MFNYC; You mentioned 'optimizing you time'. Going ftom Lisbon to Porto and back does not accomplish that. If it were 'open jaw' that would work. You will lose half a day for just eight days. I agree with 'bobthe navigator', only in reverse. We have been in Portugal just twice, boh driving tours. For us, what I would do, is land in Lisbon and drive to Evora. If you like small medevial towns there are many in this area. Beja, Monsaraz, Estremoz, Villa Vicosa and others. Two or three days. Then drive north , visiting Marvao, Tomar on the way to Obidos. [two or three days]. Many sites already mentioned to visit in this area. Then drive south to drop off the car and visit Lisbon for three days. Richard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/beja http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/monsaraz http:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/marvao http://.wikipedia.org/wiki/tomar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evora http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/obidos

Unfortunately the open jaw option wasn't available with our frequent flyer miles so we had to book RT Lisbon. Our flight is scheduled to arrive in Lisbon at 6:15am which is too early to do anything, so my thought was, we'd take the train to Porto, and at least we can sleep for a few hours (it's about a 2.5 - 3 hr ride depending on the train). I think we'll be too exhausted to drive anywhere when we first arrive in Lisbon (I don't sleep well on planes).

I see on the map that fitting in both Evora and Porto doesn't make any sense at all so that's not an option. They are too far apart with no good direct route in between, so we either have to focus on the coastal thing, or the inland medieval town thing, maybe going a little north.

I guess the bottom line is I have to narrow down to a specific area to focus on. When I look on the map, the recommended places to visit are literally "all over the map", so it's confusing.

I went for Porto, just because it sounded like both an interesting and beautiful area. I like medieval towns as well (been to a few in Italy).

It's much easier to plan a 1 city trip! Luckily I have several months to get my act toegther, although I'd like to start researching accommodations, but unitl I know where I'm going, it makes no sense.

"1-2 nights - Sintra area
2 nights - Lisbon"

Sintra is a very easy day trip from Lisbon, I'd reduce the number of times I had to move between hotels and change that to 3-4 nights in Lisbon.

Thursday, That thought occurred to me when I relooked at the map and realized how close they all are. I'm thinking similar for 2 nights on the road between Porto and Lisbon, that possibly I could stay in 1 place for 2 nights instead of 1 night in 2 different places.

So maybe
3 nights Porto
2 nights somewhere accessible to Coimbra and Obidos areas
3 nights Lisbon (visit Sintra)

Are you driving from Porto to Lisbon? Because if so (or maybe even if going by train), I'd stay in Coimbra (don't miss Conimbriga while there) and visit Obidos on the way to Lisbon. I visited Obidos by bus from a place near Caldas da Rainha, and I think two-three hours would be enough.

BTW, my Lisbon TR is here: http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/loving-lisbon.cfm and my north Portugal TR is here: http://wilhelmswords.com/rtw2004/index.html

Yes, I'm thinking we'll rent a car to travel from Porto back to Lisbon.

thursday, your TRs are wonderful!

Why thanks, MFNYC! So is Portugal - easy to write about good places.

I'd consider staying in Coimbra two nights, and on the drive to Lisbon spend part of the day in Obidos.

There were other little towns near Obidos that looked appealing that I wasn't able to reach - I think Nazare was one of them?

Have a seafood lunch overlooking the sea in Nazare.