At the end of May My husband and I planning about 2 week trip to Portugal.
I read many recommendations here and this is my prelim route. We will be renting a car. My goal is to limit car rental to 1 week and maximize the number of nights in one place.
Day 1 - Arrive Lisbon, car drive to Salema. Sleep Salema
Day 2 - Salema, trip to Cape Sagres. Sleep Salema
Day 3 - Drive to Travia & Evora. sleep Evora
Day 4 - Evora, drive to Nazare, see Obidos on the way. Sleep Nazare
Day 5 - Nazare, visit alcoboca, Batalna, Tomar. Sleep Nazare
Day 6 - Nazare, drive to Coimba? to Viseu to Douro Valley. Sleep Pinho
Day 7 - Pinhao, drive to Porto. Sleep Porto
Day 8 - Porto, side trip to Ponte de Lima, Sleep Porto
Day 9 - Give up the car, Porto, Sleep Porto.
Day 10 - Porto, Sleep Porto
Day 11 - Train to Lisbon. Sleep Lisbon
Day 12 - Lisbon. Sleep Lisbon
Day 13 - Lisbon, train trip to Sintra and Cascais. Sleep Lisbon
Day 14 Fly Home
My question is this:
1. Can I visit Evora, Tavira and Salema from Lisbon as a day trip?
2. Is Douro Valley/Pinhao douable from Porto as a day trip or a 1 day boat cruse?
3. Is Coimbra worth a stop at all?
Any critique of the trip is welcome as well as hotel recommendations and other destination suggestions.
Thanks all.

<< Can I visit Evora, Tavira and Salema from Lisbon as a day trip >>

In one day? Have you check a map? Evora and Tavira are not near each other. Evora is about 2 hours east of Lisbon. Without checking, it appears that Tavira is at least 3 hours from Lisbon.

Evora is out of your way from the other places you want to see and is not worth a trip IMHO.

Day 13 - Sintra is worth at least a day or even more. It was my favorite town in Portugal.

Your itinerary looks very ambitious.

Adrienne,
I meant day trips to those towns. Is Tavira worth a visit?
Thanks for the reply.

Just my opinion: we were in Portugal in October. Stayed in Obidos 3 days (Estalagem Convento). Great town for walking around. Nice market once a week (I think Wednesdays). Was disappointed in daytrip to Nazare. It's described as a "fishing village" but is a very developed seaside town, beachfront lined with condos/hotels/shops. Very cute area where the local fishwives dry fish on vertical nets: very picturesque, but unless we overlooked something major, a couple of hours in Nazare is enough and only if you're passing by or through anyway.
There's enough to see in Sintra that it warrants a couple of days so you can leisurely explore the sights. It's very crowded, overrun with tourists, and it's a good idea to train there and not drive and try to find a place to park.

Let me ask a question differently. Having 14 days and a car I would like to explore most of Portugal including south , west and Porto regions. What are the must see towns? I am not a religious person, so places like Fatima I can skip.
Please help.
Thanks

As I said above, I loved Sintra so that is a definite place to see.

For Alcobaca, Batalha, and Tomar - I skipped Alcobaca since 3 monasteries in a short time was overkill for me. I enjoyed Tomar with it's pedestrian area and lovely tile buildings. The monastery was lovely and the Matchbox Museum with more than 40,000 matchboxes was interesting as was the Synagogue with its letters, gifts, and pictures from around the world.

The best part of the Batalha monastery was the unfinished chapels. It took about an hour to see the monastery which is located in the center of town.

Fatima is not worth any time but I did go there as it was so close to Tomar and Batalha.

Obidos is worth about an hour or so.

In two weeks, I only covered the central part of Portugal so I can't comment on the Algarve or the north.

For details on the towns I did visit you can read my trip report and look at photos.

http://modigliani.shutterfly.com/portugal2009
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ortugal.cfm?59