Hi,
I need a little help with our plan for Lisbon. We are 4 ladies in our 30's and love to travel together.
We will be there December 2nd-6th and then on to Madrid.

I have a list of attractions we want to see, but having trouble with order to avoid backtracking.

Day 1 - Lisbon
Day 2 - Belem
Day 3 - Sintra
Day 4 - Fatima, Obidos (rent car)
Day 5 - ?

Trying to figure out how to add in these other places of interest.
Queluz Palace
Cascais
Cabo da Roca

Are Cascais and Cabo da Roca nice places for sunset and dinner or should we spend more time there?

One friend wants to visit a fishing village. Any suggestions? We love fresh seafood.

Another wants to see and climb (if possible) a lighthouse.

Thanks for your suggestions.

A lot of people combine Sintra, Cascais and Cabo da Roca into a single day trip.

If you are going to be jet-lagged on that first day in Lisbon, you may want to spend a little bit more time in the city. It's an interesting city.

Another good day trip is to Evora. Another one I'd like to do is to go south through Arrabida, Sesimbra, Palmela and Setubal.

(One thing I've used to help figure out what might make a good day trip is to see what commercial tour guides offer. If they figure it's a day trip, you probably can also...)

Have you all been to Lisbon before? You say you have five days but most days you plan to leave Lisbon and go somewhere else. Don't you want to see Lisbon itself? One day really isn't enough. Belem is actually part of Lisbon so that day you'd be in Lisbon much of the day, but the rest of your proposed day trips would take the whole day. With five complete days (when do you arrive, when do you leave?) I'd spend at least two full days in Lisbon, do Belem on another, Sintra and that leaves one other day to go elsewhere. I think you might be able to combine Belem with Cascais though. For the other day trip I think Obidos would be good. I think Evora is too far for a good day trip.

No, we have never been to Lisbon.

We arrive at 8am on Tuesday and leave at 10pm on Saturday.

I bought a guide book, but not thrilled with it. It's Time Out guide. If you have another suggestion, would be great.

I'm thinking
1-Lisbon
2-Belem/Lisbon
3-Sintra/Cabo or Cascais
4-Fatima/Obidos/????? w/fish
5-Queluz/Lisbon

There are a lot of threads here about what to do in Lisbon. This is the third in a series of threads about things to do in and around Lisbon. It will link you to the first two. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34816717

The two main experts on this forum are Matt and Lobo, they live in Lisbon. But there are also plenty of trip reports to read which will give you an idea of how long it takes to do things, etc. My own report from my trip in summer of 06 is here: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34854723

I think the best guide books are frommers and rough guides (and also fodors). All three of them have most of their information on line so you don't even have to get the actual guide books, you can just download most of it.

We were there many years ago. We hired a driver for the day (Tony Martin - according to him, cousin to the Tony Martin who was married to Cyd Charisse!), and did Sintra, Queluz and Cascais all in a [very lovely] day. Using googleearth, it appears they only 20-30 min. apart (Lisbon to Queluz, Quelux to Sintra, Sintra to Cascais and Cascais to Lisbon).

Definetly Sintra!!!
I would also do Caiscais where you'll see alot more sidewalk tiles and where you can go sit by the ocean at Boca do Inferno nearby and watch the blow wholes in the lava. Right next door to that is a little crafts market. Very easy to get to.
If you can, continue from there along the coast and get to Sintra from the back way.

er, blow holes!

Cascais is a beach town. You are going to Lisboa is December, so there is no need to see Cascais (pronounced Cash K-eye-sh).

I wouldn't miss Sintra for the world.

And I definitely would see Fatima, which is the weirdest place I have ever travelled to. It really does make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Watch out for Mary's swinging rosary.

My ex-husband is Portugal's most famous drag queen.

Thingorjus

Isabel
thanks for the links. Plenty of reading for me. I loved the photos. I'll also try to look at your Madrid photos too, since we will be there after Lisbon.

Well, I see Sintra is a must and we will be brave for Fatima even if Thingorjus has put the fear in me. It may be a very short visit. I can barely handle the "Jesus people" on Bourbon St during Mardi Gras.

I thought Caiscais was pleasant year round when I was there (Lived in Lisbon for awhile)

Perhaps I need another thread--but how is Sintra
for elderly cane users?
Okay--66 isn't that old--but knee is in a fix for our Nov 08 visit pre cruise.
Help Please!