tomandjudy

We are taking a nine-day bus tour of Portugal that includes 3 days in Lisbon at the beginning of the trip. We are thinking about staying on in Lisbon after the tour for another 4 days (5 nights.). Is that too much, or will we find lots to see/do?

PalenQ

I've been to Lisbon several times and 3 days would be enough for the city itself - but there are delightful day trips like to Sintra, Cascais, Obidos, Evora, etc.

Is your bus tour going to Porto - I found that the most fascinating city in Portugal - more romantic to me than Lisbon - if not going there on the bus tour consider spending some days there - a short train ride from Lisbon. and there are sweet day trips from there to like to Braga (in many ways a national patrimony) and Guimares - well perhaps your bus tour will have hit those?

Not that you can't spend a lovely 7 days in Lisbon alone but the average tourist would find it too much I believe.

HappyTrvlr

We spent 9 days in Lisbon and did some day trips. We never ran out of interesting things to do and see.

tomandjudy

Thank you for your suggestions of Braga and Guimares. Our tour does hit Porto, Sintra, Cascais, Evora, and Obidos.

luz_de_lisboa

My first time in Portugal, I spent 10 days in Lisbon.

It wasn't enough.

So I moved here permanently.

sandralist

I don't think 3 days in Lisbon is "enough" for the city. I am sure it is enough for the person who wrote that, and no one knows what would be the right amount of time for you. Had I followed that advice for my trip to Lisbon I would have really regretted it. I spent 5 days in Lisbon and have plans to return to see more, and I didn't go to Sintra and probably never will. (I never take "day trips" anyway.)

Only you can figure out whether you would be interested to experience the historic and modern city of Lisbon for 7 days. If you don't like cities -- which many travelers do not -- then that is something to consider. Ditto museums and nightlife. If you like daytrips, check out the transportation times.

5 nights in Lisbon without going anywhere would be a blast for me. You? I have no way of knowing.

CGS

If you are wondering whether you can see the highlights of the city and get a bit of a feel for it in 3 days, I think you can. Of course, you might fall in love with it and want more time, and you won't see everything there is to see in 3 days, but I agree that 4 more days would be more than the average tourist would think necessary. There are other parts of Portugal you might enjoy instead: the Algarve or Coimbra, for instance. You could take a tour of the megaliths outside Évora if that interests you (you said your tour goes to Évora but it probably does not cover the megaliths). You could go to Fátima if you are interested either in religion or in dinosaur tracks (they have the longest track of dino tracks in the world there! I wanted to go but we didn't have time). If you haven't already done so, I would get a guide book of Portugal and see what might interest you that is not covered in your tour. You can read more about Lisbon then, also, and get a sense of whether you think you will want more time there.

sandralist

What time of year are you going? For most of the year, there is a lot of accommodation in Portugal, including rentals, that can be booked online last minute. If for the first 3 days of your trip your tour company gives you the standard "highlights for the average tourist" view of Lisbon, and you are left wishing you had time to explore the city in more depth, you can easily go back.

One of the things I discovered my first visit to Lisbon is that there is a whole list of touristy things listed in guidebooks that are supposedly "highlights" that had no appeal to me at all -- they are just so tinker-toy for tourists -- whereas there were dozens of beautiful buildings and streets and world class museums that are barely mentioned, yet which I found thrilling.

Your tour company probably has a list of the places they are going to take you in Lisbon. Get a guidebook and see what they are leaving out. This is a good website for Lisbon:

http://www.lisbonlux.com/

But there are other places you might enjoy more depending on who you are and what you want to get out of your trip and what else the tour company is taking you to in Portugal. Might be fun to leave it open and just go back to the place you most liked on the tour and wished you'd spent more time in before being whisked away to the next stop.

PalenQ

but I agree that 4 more days would be more than the average tourist would think necessary.>

Yes the average tourist not all. I could spend a week in every city in Europe and never be bored but... there are lots of neat places in Portugal outside this big big city to enjoy - some enjoy a slower pace of life such as found in Nazarre, the Algarve, Evora, etc.