Hi,

I'm looking to a book a trip to Portugal, flying from Chicago to Lisbon, next August for 9-10 days for my family of 5 (22, 25, & 27yr old), and am wondering whether there is enough to do in the Lisbon area with day trip to Sintra and others, or should the time be divided between Lisbon and Porto, or another city. I do like the convenience of staying in one location, and exploring by foot or local transportation. Thanks in advance. As a point of reference, my only European vacations have been 8 days in Rome, a second trip of several days in Barcelona and several in Palermo, and most recently 8 days in London & I loved them all.

Kind Regards,

Margaret Johnson

Definitely IME of several Portugeuse trips split time between Lisbon and Porto - Lisbon has lots more to see and do but Porto is unique and a great base from which to take trains to nearby gems - research Braga and Guimares and hit Coimbra on way up perhaps.

Trains are great between Lisbon and Porto -just a few hours - for train info check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

I'd spend may 6 days in Lisbon and 4 in Porto but latter only if doing day trips.

Evora is a great day trip by train from Lisbon.

Lisbon is really wonderful. It looks like you prefer longer stays in one place, and I think you would be happy in Lisbon for at least 5 nights. Or longer.

We loved the elegant Hotel Avenida Palace. Great customer service there. Not too expensive, but more than moderate. Great location for walking, and right next to Rosio train station. Contact them directly for best price. It has the kind of enormous breakfast buffet that will fill you up till dinner.

For day-trips, we visited Cascais and Sintra.

There’s a fabulous oceanside hotel in Cascais where we enjoyed lunch. I can find its name if you’re interested.

Sintra is beautiful, too. Can be crowded.

It was so easy to get there by train, we went again another day. We got off at the stop before Cascais. which is an interesting place, too. It has a cool historic casino (I think) and a park you can tour. You can easily walk to Cascais from there, on the beach. Catch the train back from either place. Really convenient transit. And cheap.

Thank you, PalenQ and MoBro, for the information. All of this will be very useful moving forward and planning details and logistics. Sounds like our perfect trip, lots of exploring!

I took train to Sintra - saw castles - then a bus to coast and Cabo di Roca - westernmost point of European continent and usually rough sea with waves pounding the shore - then bus to Cascais from there. Nice but long day sans car.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cabo...w=1536&bih=759

Don't miss the hill-climbing trams that trundle thru the hilly Alfama:

https://www.google.com/search?q=lisb...w=1536&bih=759

and get off and walk around a bit too in Lisbon's ancient quarter.