Hello,

My husband and I are leaving for for Porto in a week (arriving October 2nd) and staying for 10 days. We are fortunate enough to have enough points to stay at the Palacio das Cardosas so will be using Porto as a base. We found this intinerary online and plan to more or less follow it: https://porto-north-portugal.com/por...itinerary.html. We are also planning to take the train to Lisbon and stay overnight there so will have about 2 days to explore that city. (We will not check out of our hotel in Porto and just bring an overnight bag). We would welcome any advice or recommendations. From what I can see from the long-range forecast, the daytime temperature hovers around the 20 C mark so will be fairly comfortable and not too hot? It seems that humidity is not a factor there. Thanks for your help!

Weather is totally unpredictable. Weather forecasts can be inaccurate. Plus you are heading to different areas so that forecast may not be applicable.
I would suggest you bring a thin sweater and maybe something against the rain, just in case.

Book Porto-Lisbon train at www.cp.pt - Portuguese Railways site for discounts of about 50% if book early enough. Check first class as well as 2nd class as sometimes 1st may not be much more depending on what type of tickets remain. www.seat61.com has load of great info on booking own tickets. General info trains and what to expect www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts. I'd do more than 2 nights in Lisbon even though you have a nice Porto base - be sure to hit Sintra and Belem, a district of Lisbon along the water with several famous landmarks. Maybe 3 days and 2 nights. Could hit Obidos en route to Lisbon or back. Don't miss Batalha Monastery as a day trip from Porto - by bus or train and bus.

Thank you both - really appreciate the help. PalenQ, you gave us great advice for our trip to Vienna and we had an amazing time. I had a feeling 2 days/1 night would not be enough time in Lisbon. We may extend our reservation there to 2 nights. Going to research all the places you recommended - excited! Yes, I imagine you have to pack for all weather, layers always the best way to go. Thanks again!

I wrote a very detailed trip report, so you can click on my name to read all of my recommendations, but I'll point out a few highlights here:

Porto - 50-min Douro river 6-bridge cruise, all of my best photos were taken from the boat! This is so relaxing and inexpensive I was tempted to do it twice.\
Lisbon - Miradouros; The best things about Lisbon are the views; plan plenty of time to climb hills and rest at the viewpoints on top
Belem - National Coach Museum; I'm not a person that likes to go to every possible museum while on vacation, but this one is both unusual and impressive

Food
Porto - Zenith Cafe for brunch and Tapabento for dinner (make reservations at Tapabento)
Lisbon - Bomjardim for amazing piripiri chicken; any of the Jose Avillez restaurants for lunch or dinner (make reservations)
Belem -Pasteis de Belem, in my opinion these really are the best pasteis de nata; Pao Pao Quiejo Quiejo - no frills sandwich shop near the Jeronimos Monastery, very good bread and a million sandwich options
Sintra - Cafe Saudade - cute little tea shop atmosphere, good for breakfast, lunch, or snack

I'm not vegetarian but I ate at two vegetarian restaurants that were excellent - Cor de Tangerina in Guimaraes and House of Wonders in Cascais

I was once in Porto and Lisbon in mid-October and weather was never cold or even cool but yes layering is best. Thanks for the thanks and have a great trip!

Do not miss going to the Douro Valley. It is a very special place!

Duoro Valley is great but as a day trip on your own rather futile - either take a tour from Porto or stay a few days - rather far from Porto and public transit spotty - I did a day trip by train once and found it difficult to see much.

Wow, this is great, so much personalized information and detail and the photos are wonderful. We love to eat so will definitely be referring to your recommendations. Have a lot of reading to do �� Thank you so much!

Well it seems a one day trip to the Duoro Valley may not be sufficient. We will consider adding a night on to that trip. Again, many thanks for all your help everyone!

You won't have a car in Porto? If not again I'd look at excursions from Porto if want to see best of in day - relocating for one night is to me a hassle.

I know you don't want to check out of your hotel in Porto, but I recommend 3 or 4 nights in Lisbon, if possible. We spent 5 nights in Lisbon in April, and this included a day trip to Sintra. If you wish, you can click on my name to read my trip report. We visited Lisbon and Sintra on this trip; we didn't go anywhere else in Portugal. Our highlights in Lisbon are the Sao Jorge Castle and the Alfama district, the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem, and the Gulbenkian Museum.

In Porto, make time for the Serralves museum
In Belem, take in the Maritime museum <<Museu de Marinha>>
In Lisbon, the Azulejo museum was a very pleasant surprise
Douro valley is about the scenery and wineries. We did a one day small group tour visiting three wineries and really enjoyed it. Would not drive it, as the roads are pretty challenging and you'd waste much time navigating and looking for parking.

Once again, thanks so much to everyone for your advice. We will attempt to visit as many of the recommended sites as we can. We haven’t completely ruled out renting a car but thought it might be fun to do everything by train, boat and bus. It seemsthe consensus is we spent more time in Lisbon as well as the Douro Valley. Packing this weekend and then we are off - have lots of reading to do on the plane! Will report back and let you all know what we ended up doing. Much appreciated!

Love to read your trip report!

You don't need a car - with two days in Duroro you can easily go by train or even tour boats from Porto. Buses go everywhere and trains are good where they go.

Oh good to know PalenQ. We are thinking we may overnight in the Valley instead of Lisbon - decisions, decisions! Think we need to return and focus and Lisbon and the Algarve next time. We love the countryside so that is why we are leaning that way. However, apparently we have a great concierge at the hotel who will surely be a big help too. KarenWoo have beem enjoying your trip report and will following some of your recommendations if we do indeed go to Lisbon. Will let you all know in about 14 days and thanks again!

DW and I just returned from a trip 11 days in Spain (mostly Andalusia) and six days in PT, and I am overdue posting my TR. A friend asked me to answer specific questions about Porto and the Douro Valley and I'll paste my replies below: Caveat: I have NOT been to Lisbon. GENERAL COMMENTS: First, DW and I were very impressed with all of PT. The people were friendly, lots of locals spoke good English, food was good, and the scenery was fantastic. I have no doubt you could construct a visit using the exact opposite of all of my recommendations below and still have a wonderful time, so take my ideas with a grain of salt. Secondly, the country ( gov't and/or business orgs) has put a lot of effort into touting PT as a tourist destination and the effort is paying off as they now have increasing numbers of US and No. European tourists, so the country is very tourist friendly, but hotels are charging a premium for rooms. Other than that, costs seemed reasonable.

City of PORTO: Based upon our own observations and comments from other travelers, I'm not sure I perceived a significant difference between people's experiences Porto vs. Lisbon, so there is a chance a visit to both cities could have some redundancy. The only exception to this comment is the port wine caves and lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia. (Porto and Vila Nova used to be two entirely separate cities, like Minneapolis and St Paul, now just merged into a giant metro area) . This is because of an old law which restricted any bottling and cellering of Port Wine to this City ONLY. So Vila Nova has something like 11 different caves you could visit. I don't know that one is any less of a good idea than the other, but most guidebooks say the most informative is TAYLOR's, which we visited and enjoyed, albeit clearly engineered to encourage one to part with Euros in your wallet, but still a very nice visit. They have a restaurant there with a killer view of the city of Porto, great food and impeccable service. Homepage | Restaurante Barăo Fladgate. This was possibly the very best meal we had on our 18 day trip. If you go there, reservations via the web link is a must, and easy to use. Tons of folks got turned away who did not have reservations.

While in PT, catching a show of Fado is recommended ( pronounced FAH-do) a form of melancholy, soulful folk music. WE caught the one hour show at Casa Da Guitarra Fado ŕs 6h - Casa da Guitarra which we enjoyed immensely. If interested, you request a reservation via email listed on the website. ( careful, the venue for the show is right next to the Cathedral (Se), but there is also a shop by the same name much more uptown, so get the right address) We also caught the Free walking tour with Eugenia http://portofreewalkingtour.wixsite....ngtour/fashion which was just a lot of fun and very informative.

Things to see are the old Riberia area, which is the medieval part of town near the riverside, just fun to walk around this area. There is a pedestrian street in this area called Rua de Fonte Turina which is populated by lots of restaurants focusing on "authentic" Portuguese cuisine and it looked like a good mix of locals and tourii frequented these restaurants. We ate at a place called Postigo do Carvao, Minha página inicial - www.postigodocarvao.com, and had a very good meal, recommended by some Brits we met who seemed to know a bunch about the town. Near this area is the old stock exchange, the Palacio da Bolsa, and the Cathedral (Se) - we did not go inside either of these due to time and fatigue, but lots of guidebooks put these two places as very high on the list of things to do. A walk and/or Trolley Car ride downriver from there goes along an avenue called Rua Nova de Alfandega, along which are a string of restaurants all claiming to have the town's most authentic "Francesinha" sandwich (heart attack on a plate) Our tour guide recommended the Alfandega D'ouro (closed when we got there, but supposedly open 7d/week the rest of the year) and we ate at the nearby Blackson's Burgers and Mussels, which we enjoyed, whose wait staff was typically enthusiastic about their food. My heart is still ticking, but . . hey . . . .

Uphill (north) from the Cathedral is the Sao Bento railroad station, whose interior has very ornate tile work worth checking out ( for free) Every single tourist who comes to Porto checks out this train station, PLUS, it is still a very active commuter rail terminal, so expect a considerable crowd there. Two blocks east of this rail station is the north south running Rua Santa Catarina, which has been converted into a long pedestrian mall lined with upscale shops, a nice stroll. Midway up this street is the famous Majestic Café, a classy Belle Epoque-era café with over the top ornate interior. Open Mon-Sat - of course we went on a Sunday <grimace>. Just to the west of the train station is the semi-official "center" of town, the Praca de Liberdade, lined by pretty 100 year old bank buildings, the Intercontinental Hotel, and a McDonalds, self-proclaimed to be the world's prettiest McDonald's (inserted into another Belle époque-era café, which the city insisted the chain could not alter as a condition of allowing McDonalds to have the location) and then just west of there, is the Baroque Clerigos Church and Tower, which we did climb the 500+ steps to the top for a lovely view of the city. (not worth the climb if the Wx is nasty - visiting the church interior is nice/free)

The author JK Rowling (of H. Potter fame) lived in Porto for two years, and it was obvious that the town ( as well as a reportably abusive PT husband) provided a lot of inspiration for many of her ideas. We are NOT into this, but if someone in your party is, then googling "Porto and JK Rowling" is worth your time to see if there is anything in the town you'd want to visit to fulfill that need. Undergraduates at the local University still attend class in black suits, white shirts, tie, and capes. (M&F - we spoke to a lady student who CLEARLY evoked memories of Hermione )

BTW, use of UBER in Porto was amazing how well it worked. Taxis are relatively inexpensive, but Uber was just really a good experience. It may be the same in Lisbon. Also, the subway seemed to be very tourist friendly, although there are only about 4 -5 lines, built to maximize use for commuters, not tourists. Renting a car was easy, and the airport was well laid out with good signage.

DOURO Valley: To me, for anyone with an interest in wine, the Douro Valley is the true MUST-SEE for the entire country. The scenery is just that spectacular. ( although IDK what effect winter weather may have on the scenery) I suggest a trip to PT should start with a thoroughly planned visit to the valley; the visit to the rest of PT being secondary to that. While the river runs from the west coast eastward into Spain, the main part of the valley of interest to travelers extends from the small city of Peso da Regua to the town of Pinhao (peen-YEOW) We met several repeat visitors to this area (Brits and Germans) who feel the train is the only option ( just under 2.5 hours from the main Porto Campanhă train station) Driving with a rental car is feasible (less than 2 hours) ONLY with the following caveat: The main autobahn out of Porto is A4, take that all the way past the city of Vila Real, then go south on A24 to Peso da Regua, then take the smaller N222 which runs along the south bank of the river from Peso to Pinhao. This route is not very windy and the roads are well maintained. DO NOT follow any other route suggested by GPS navigators, as they will involve ridiculously narrow and windy roads. There are lots and lots of very nice hotels within the wine country. The one we stayed at was the Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros. <http://www.chanceleiros.com> . Car or train, the thing to do is get there in the late afternoon/evening, check in, have a leisurely dinner. Then, the next day have the hotel arrange for 3 to 4 wineries to tour with a pre-arranged driver. This may or may not include a nice lunch at one of the wineries. ( all easy to pre-arrange with emails) then Dinner (calories? Naaaaahhh) more wine. Then the next AM a nice breakfast, then stuff yourself back into your car or the train, rtn to Porto. Your hotel can also make recommendations about the full valley train trip to Pocinho, or a three hour mini - cruise on a boat in the river, but these options can be monotonous. The wineries we most enjoyed were Wine and Soul ( no-kidding - wineandsoul.com) and Quinta dos Murcas (esporao.com) Even with a rental car in hand, getting to these more remote wineries with a local driver is recommended. The above recommendations are by no means exclusive - there seemed to be lots of very nice hotels and eating spots in this region.
WINE NOTES: In Portuguese, red wine and white wine is Vinho Tinto and Vinho Branco, respectively. When eating in a restaurant, the folks of this region are very proud of the Northern PT white wines, mostly called Vinho Verde, based on the Albarinho grape. Actually, we found these not to be so hot. Same is true of the white wines produced in the Douro Valley. Conversely, We found the whites from the Alentejo area ( SE corner of the country) to be much more more to our liking, more like very good French Chards and Bordeauxs. On the other hand, the reds from the Douro Valley were consistently very good. In restaurants, they should always have the region from where the wine comes from in the wine list. Again, most restaurants now have at least some of their server staff who can speak reasonable English, and they seemed to enjoy talking about Portuguese wines, so do not hesitate to ask if you need a recommendation. Indeed, you may have trouble shutting them up on the subject once they get going.

Did you have a good experience with Efun tours? Considering the 2 wineries and cruise one.