9-10 days in portugal - may 2016
 

my wife and i are spending a month on a road trip in spain (not barcelona or the central coast) and portugal. we will be driving in from the white hill towns of southwest spain. we tend to avoid big cities like lisbon. we often stay in the countryside and take a day trip into a large city to just get a taste of it. we like to stay in small villages with a population of 10,000 or less. looking for 3 days in near lisbon, 3 days along the central coast and 3 days in the douro valley.

thank you in advance for your help

Obidos or Sintra would make such bases for Portugal - Sintra is closer whilst Obidos is one of Europe's finest walled medieval-looking towns - a Pousada is built right into the ancient walls

I loved Nazare- on a beautiful beach between Coimbra and Porto - easy day trips to Batalha and Alcobaca for the UNESCo Heritage Site monasteries or even Porto

Guimares and Braga are ner the Duoro Valley and both medium-sized famous towns. Not so familiar with towns smack in Duoro Valley - Porto is an easy day trip to all.

My first thought for spending a few days in a small town near Lisbon would be Cascais. You can take the commuter train into Lisbon in no time. We also like Arraiolos, which is just north of Evora, but you would then have to drive into Lisbon if you wanted to see the big city.

On the central coast you have Figueira da Foz with its golden sand beaches. Then further inland there is Coimbra and the historical village of Santa Comba Dão.

In the Douro River Valley you can check out the area around Régua and Pinhão in the Alto Douro wine region. There are a number of excellent Quintas where you can spend a few days relaxing and enjoying the food and wine.

We are considering doing the same , toledodd. Would you tell me who you are using as a rental agency? We wanted to rent upon leaving Seville to drive to Los Arcos and surrounding area and then to Portugal for a week to 10 days , but fly out of Madrid, so would need to drive there to return car. I was wondering if it is possible to take a car rented in Spain into Portugal and would it be more costly. Thanks for any info.

We spent a month in Portugal last May - lovely time of the year to visit.

I would not stay in Sintra as its packed with tourists during the day. Nice in the evening after all the day trippers leave. Don't have a clue as to the size of Evora, but ts a nice town and you could access Lisbon from there. I agree Caiscais would make an easy trip into Lisbon -- pretty beach town.

Coimbra is a lovely town and the university fascinating to explore.

Loved the Duoro Valley -- we stayed outside Pinhao and it was wonderful.
Guimares while bigger is also very nice with some interesting sites.

We loved Portugal, especially the Douro Valley! We stayed at a Quinta near Pinhao called Quinta Nova and it was lovely ( but it is not too near a town and the drive there is on a narrow road) the views were phenomenal! You can visit many of the Quinta's for wine tasting. We want to go back there for a week some day! Porto was fun too if you enjoy Port as you can visit all the port houses. It is also an interesting city.

We also stayed at a manor house just outside Obidose. It is a very interesting walled city. You can see it in a day. We did stay in Sintra. There are a lot of tourists during the day but it was still worth it. It is a beautiful area with some great restaurants. There are two castles up on the hill that overlook Sintra. We hiked up to them one day ( you don't have to drive). It is very easy to take the train to Lisbon from there ( we are not big city people either but went in for one day).

Hope you have a wonderful trip. It is a beautiful country.

We spent 12 days in Portugal in August. Portugal exceeded our expectations on every front! For the Douro River Valley, we stayed at a lovely place that I highly recommend, Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros, located on the hillsides outside Pinhao. It was the highlight of our trip. While in the Douro, we did, of course, do wine tastings, but also highly enjoyed an off-road jeep tour through the vineyards.

Another not so big town on the northern coast is Viana do Castelo, a lovely port town less than hour north of Porto. Very pretty.

Enjoy the planning and the trip!
Mimi

I suggest Evora first then Nazare and finally Pinhao in the Douro valley. We stayed at Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros which we loved. Easy beautiful driving between towns. Have fun- we adored Portugal!

I also loved Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros.