Hi, I'm going to be visiting Portugal with a friend to celebrate a milestone birthday we share (we'll be 30), and we are kind of late on getting started with planning. We are going to visit Portugal in either July or September (probably July due to work-related schedules), and I would love some advice about places to go and see. This will be our first time in Portugal--I am trying to study the language a bit too.

These are my ideas so far:

we'd like to visit Lisbon for about 4 days (with maybe a day trip to Evora in there?). Ia 4 days too much? too little?

I would also like to visit Porto, and I was wondering how many days you would suggest staying there. Is two full days there enough?

Also, on the way up to Porto from Lisbon, are there some good stopover towns to visit for a day? perhaps Coimbra? Has anyone ever visited Luso? What about Aveiro or Leiria? or Batalha?

Also, if you have any OTHER suggestions of ways we could spend a couple of days, we would appreciate it. Off-the-beaten-path places really appeal to us, any hill towns or cultural centres would be nice.

I am also not sure whether or not to rent a car (maybe just rent one for a day or two from Lisbon or Porto and take public transport everywhere else?).

We are definitely on budgets, but we are willing to splurge a bit here and there, too.

Also, we both really like outdoorsy stuff as well as cultural stuff. I am really interested in art and architecture as well, and we BOTH are interested in eating good food in Portugal. Visiting the beach probably isn't as important, as I already live in Italy about 30 minutes from the Adriatic, and I can just picture how crowded beaches must get in July there!

Anyway, thank you for any responses and any help!

-Jackie

For a hill town, you could look at Castel de Vide. I liked it even more than Evora, and we did a few good walks in the area.

Car rentals in Portugal are very reasonable. You do not want one while you are in Lisbon or Porto but exploring the towns in between is great with your own transportation.

I don't think four days is too much in Lisbon as there are many things to see in and around the area. You can easily travel to Sintra and explore Belem by public transport and these two places alone are very close to Lisbon and worth your time.

What might be nice for you if you are able to plan this way is to arrive in Lisbon and depart from Porto or the reverse. No backtracking and you can drive yourself between the cities exploring as you go.

If you allow four days in Lisbon and four in Porto, two days to do some other exploring is really not enough in my opinion. These two towns could easily use up that much time to see them properly. So you might find that you will have to adjust a little.

Think of this as a little taste. Since you live in Italy, you can easily return.

Since you are in your 30's you might find Coimbra fun as it is a great university town.

Have a wonderful trip.

I think that 4 days in Lisbon is not enough. Give it 5 full days minimum, which will allow for a daytrip or two to Sintra, Setubal, Sesimbra, etc. and still have time to do some semblance of justice to "seeing" Lisbon. I was there over Christmas and had 4.5 days net of traveling across the Atlantic. I felt like I did not see enough. Part of it may have been that I landed in LIS on Christmas Day so very few things were open and it seemed to be a wasted day. So that left 1 day to follow Tram 28 around, one day for Belém, one day for Sintra, and one day just to walk through the Bairro Alto. Not enough time IMHO.

So to make up for it I'm going back this Thanksgiving!!! Just bought plane tickets yesterday and plan to spend 4 more days in Lisbon, about 4 days in Porto, and a couple of days on each end in Madrid because the airfare was cheaper and the connections were better than flying into LIS or OPO. I haven't researched the tourbooks yet about Porto so the 4/4 split between Porto and Lisbon is not set in stone.

Jackie...we are about to do just that..12 days in Portugal and 12 in UK...we are starting out with 4 nights in Lisbon (Hotel VIP Eden), renting a car, one night in a pousada in Arrailos (see Evora and other notable towns in the Alentejo region), one night in Marvao (pousada), two nights in a Belmonte pousada (near Guarda in a mountainous region). one night in Obidos (Estralagem Convento) and three nights in Sintra (Tivoli) before flying off to London. I designed this itnerary after the usual research and getting some very relevant info on this wonderful forum. I may or may not write a trip report, but you can write us after we return on May 29th).

Stu T.
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I travel 'on the cheap.' In Lisbon I usually stay at Residencíal Estrela do Saldanha (Avda Republica, 17) at the Duque de Avila exit, Metro Saldanha Station-stop. It's next door to Pasteleria Versailles, a 'golden oldie.'

I think 4-days is about right for Lisbon, including Belém and the EXPO'98 site, maybe Sintra or Cascais.

If you're not driving, it's a 3hr train ride Lisbon-Oporto on Alfa Pendular (which you can catch at Oriente Station).

Coimbra is a nice University City: the tune for April in Portugal used to be entitled 'Coimbra.' It's an hout from Lisbon on the Alfa, and I believe most Alfas stop at Coimbra.

But if you're driving I recommend the old inland route with stop in Mealhada (pronounced me al yada) for the best Leitao (roast suckling pig) you will find anywhere on God's Green earth.

I took a similar trip with my then boyfriend (now husband) almost 10 years ago. We went in August for 2 weeks which was very hot but that was when we could go (between grad school and starting jobs). We flew in and out of Lisbon and were also on a budget (although that was easier back then)! The trip was a while ago so please excuse all my butchering of names.

We started in Lisbon and both really enjoyed it. There is a lot to do and see there and I really enjoyed the city. The night life is fun too. I happened to catch a great deal at the Four Seasons (I guess Lisbon in August isn't too popular) and we had a gorgeous room the size of our apartment for something like $150/night. We enjoyed walking around Lisbon and also Belem as an earlier poster mentioned.

We didn't want to drive and asked the concierge about tours and he set us up with a private driver which was very luxurious. It was great because it wasn't too expensive - maybe $150 for the day (which would be probably what renting a car would be - we need automatic) and he took us to the area around Lisbon which would be hard to do by public transportation if you wanted to see all of it in one day. We spent most of the day in Sintra - which was lovely and I'd recommend spending an entire day or overnight there, particularly if you go in July because it is nice and cool there - but along the way stopped at Cascais (not too exciting in my opinion), something with an "E" and another big palace I think Queluez (sp??). He was a great tour guide. Anyway, if you are considering renting a car, you might want to ask about the driver and find that it isn't more expensive and then you don't have to stress about directions etc. Since the Portugal trip we've done it in a few other places we didn't want to rent a car.

From Lisbon we took the train to Obidos and stayed there 2 or 3 nights. Bad planning on our part because it is a beautiful little town that you could enjoy in a few hours and after a couple of hours we wondered what we'd do for 2 more days. Fortunately there was some kind of festival there the following day so we ate a boat load of sardines and got very drunk on the local wine and had a memorable (although fuzzy) experience. Mostly of my memory is from a newspaper article that we were interviewed and photographed for which the reporter later sent us!!

From Obidos we took the train to Coimbra which I liked very much. There are only 1-2 trains a day but no problem to catch the train. Coimbra was a lot of fun. We spent and enjoyed a couple of days there.

We took the train next to Porto and planned to use the train to tour the Douro Valley for a day or two but that train line was on strike so we missed it. We ended up enjoying a few days in Porto. There wasn't a ton to see but the city has a very nice feel to it. At the time they were revving up to be a world heritage site or the like so there was a lot of construction. Again, we got a great hotel deal and stayed at the Quintas del Lacrimas which is a famous and lovely hotel. We then took a fast train back to Lisbon and flew out from there.

I think skipping the beach is a good idea. There are much more interesting things to see. With 10 nights I think I'd do 3 in Lisbon, 1 in Sintra, 2 in Coimbra, 2 somewhere else and 2 in Porto.

Jackie:

...as promised here are our Portugal pix. Hope this will help in your planning for your summer visitany questions please write)

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/Portugal2008

stu tower

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