amyjenkins91

My husband and I (age 30 & 27) are going to London and Portugal. We are going to London to visit/stay with family for the first 4 days of the trip. Here is our very rough itinerary for the rest of the trip that we need help on:

Day 5: Fly from London to Porto
Day 6: Full day in Porto
Day 7: Rent car or take train or take boat to Douro Valley & stay for the night (suggestions on best means of transportation welcome)
Day 8: Full day in Douro Valley
Day 9: Go to Lisbon (again, suggestions on how to get from Douro Valley to Lisbon welcome)
Day 10: Full day in Lisbon
Day 11: Full day in Lisbon
Day 12: Direct Flight home to SFO

We have only booked our 1 way, direct flight from SFO to London. Nothing else is booked, though it seems the best flight home from Portugal is from Lisbon on day 12. My point being that this itinerary is very flexible. We are experienced city drivers in the US, but would not be comfortable driving somewhere similar to Rome or Naples. We are not necessarily looking for the least expensive options- not too stressful or difficult but also not outrageously priced is our goal. Changing the number of days at each stop, switching places to visit in favor of somewhere else, adding interesting stops along the way, etc, are all welcome suggestions.
TIA

Sberg

I would rent a car when you are leaving Porto and drive to the Douro Valley. It is then pretty easy to drive from there to Lisbon and return the car when you get there. That gives you the flexibility to go where you want while in the Douro Valley and you could make some interesting stops on your way to Lisbon. We drove from Lisbon to Obidose to the Douro to Porto with no difficulties. We love Portugal and can't wait to go back!

Sberg

We stayed here in the Douro https://www.quintanova.com/en/gallery/ and absolutely loved it.

amyjenkins91

Thanks! Did you rent/drop off the car at the airport or somewhere else?

amyjenkins91

Looks great! Thank you for the recommendation.

Sberg

Melnq8

Sberg - do you think that place would also be a good option in winter? Curious, as we're in the early stages of planning a two week trip to Portugal for Feb/March.