OnlyTravel

Hi Folks,
My wife and I, from California, USA, are planning a trip to Portugal last week of Sep and first week of October. We will be spending 5 days in Lisbon where my wife has a conference, hence I will have time to discover the wonderful city of Lisbon. Then we plan to rent a car and discover the rest of the Portugal in 9 days. If possible we would like to get to Tangier, Morocco and spend a day.
I would sure appreciate comments and recommendations for the following:
1. Ideal location in Lisbon for accommodation for about a week. Rather then hotels we enjoy renting apartments. As I understand Baixa is downtown and the happening place. Besides trying to find an accommodation thru Air b&b or Home Away sites, are they some local sites for rentals? Which arears are ideal for tourist for accommodation?
2. Any suggestions for an itinerary for 5 days in Lisbon for the must see and must do things.
3. Please suggest the best itinerary to see the rest of Portugal in 6 to 7 nights and have a couple of nights for Tangier via Gibraltar. Or Tangier will be difficult to accommodate if we want to see Portugal properly. If we go to Tangier then we can plan to fly out of Gibraltar or Malaga, Spain rather then a round trip to Lisbon.
4. In Portugal what are the must see places besides Lisbon and how many nights we should spend at those destinations?
5. Any tips and cautions while travelling in Portugal.
Thanks
Only Travel

lauramsgarden

9 days is a great amount of time for Portugal - although you could definitely add another week and not run out of things to do.

In Lisboa I loved the day we spent in Belem - an easy bus ride and wonderful monastery and museums by the sea. Also really loved the tile museum though it is a bit out of the way, definitely worth the trip.

Evora was fun - but the best part of it was seeing the ancient megaliths outside of town, and visiting the nearby small town of Arreilos.

We weren't wild about Porto, but loved the three nights we spent in Obidos, and driving by the sea, and visiting the Crusader castle in Tomar were definite highlights.

Here are several of our trip reports from two years ago, written as we went - most advise is contained there-
in

oh yes, and we loved Bussaco once we found it!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-portugal.cfm?

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-lisbon.cfm?10

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...alentejo.cfm?4

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-bussaco.cfm?7

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-4-porto.cfm?3

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...d-obidos.cfm?7

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...portugal.cfm?9

bilboburgler

If you want to do the ferry trip here is a blog from some friends of ours, http://candttrip2.blogspot.pt/2014/0...n-our-big.html you'll need to click through to find the details you want.

MFNYC

To give you some ideas, here's my trip report of our 8 day trip from Porto to Lisbon. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...l-portugal.cfm

There are so many areas to explore in this beautiful country, I look forward to going back some time to see more.

Robert2533

You can check Lisbon Apartemetns (www.lisbonapartments.com), run by an Brit expat and his partner, and booking.com for what's available.

I's skip Tangier and Gibraltar. A waste if a couple of days when you could be enjoying Portugal.

After spending time in Lisbon, I'd head north to Porto and take a day or two in the Alto Douro for the fall harvest.

PalenQ

Obidos and Coimbra are two neat places en route to Porto from Lisbon - going south yes Evora (passing thru cork plantations!) and Lagos are neat

If wanting to go to Morocco you'd have to fly from Portugal or take a long road route via Seville to Algeciras and a short ferry ride.

Sintra is a must - day trip from Lisbon to this old royal city with stunning castles. Can do by suburban train if not wanting to drive.

yestravel

Coimbra and the university there are very interesting. I loved the Duroro valley and imagine during harvest it would be magnificent. also enjoyed our time in Porto. While Sintra makes a nice day trip for Lisbon you may want to save it for when you and your wife can spend a night there. It's esp nice in the evening and night when all the day trippers leave. There's a lot to see in Portugal so I would spend all 9 days there.

daffy_traveller

Alentejo and Algarve are beautiful regions. Also Porto. There are a series of ancient villages: Adelais Historicas de Portugal. You can travel from one to the next - there are 12 in total but you can just do a few to get a taste. It's near the border with Spain in the northern part of the country. Really unique experience.

The pasteles are the best in Belem.

In Lisbon there's a fab restaurant called Laurentina O Rei Do Bacalhau.

PRLCH

Bookmarking - we too are going to Portugal in May (2 weeks). Also looking for ideas and self catering accommodation).

BeniciaChris

Spend all your time in Portugal-so much to see. We've been there twice. We bought a pousada passport that included a car rental & lots of places tjo choose from. Enjoy