First draft of our May itinerary to Portugal, thoughts?
 

Please review my ideas here. I would love to have suggestions. We are a couple in our late 70’s and have traveled extensively; but not in Portugal
We would like to spend approximately two weeks getting to know Portugal. I’m concerned when I read that both Porto and Lisbon are “teaming with people“ we would rather spend the time in smaller cities and towns, and seeing the countryside. we would love to utilize the train system and drive as well. Here are my ideas that far:
1 fly from east coast to Lisbon
2 Lisbon
3.lisbon
4 train to Coimbra
5 Coimbra
6 train to Porto, should we spend one night? /rent car. Drive to Duoro area, where? Visit Port Houses,, see cave drawings, boat trip (ideas)
7 Duoro area
8.Duoro area
9.Gumares (should we spend the night?)
10. Drive to Caiscais,
11. cascais, explore coast
12, drive to Sintra, then on to Lisbon
13 fly home.
i’ve decided to do a round-trip out of Lisbon because it is $1000 less than open jaw. Additionally, we really want to use the train and enjoy exploring on our own timetable

We enjoyed our 10 day trip to Portugal several years ago. We flew into Lisbon and picked up rental car and drove to Evora, not that far and we absolutely loved Evora. It was mid-June and already beginning to get hot. We spent two nights in Evora. In retrospect should have stayed three nights and done some day trips. Instead we spent the next day with lots of driving as we stopped headed north to Castelo de Vide and then on to Marvao before we turned to head West to spend the night in Batalha to see the monastery. The next day drove north to Coimbra and spent most of the day which was quite hot touring the university and the historic churches. It was very hilly, left Coimbra to drive to Aviero for a relaxing canal boat ride and then made it to Porto. Porto was especially crazy busy as it was a festival/holiday. We spent three nights in Porto with a day trip to Guimares, lovely town. We had planned to stop in Braga but it was misty and foggy when we left Porto and so we missed the turnoff to Braga. We had thought we would take a boat trip on the Douro but the entire time in Porto was misty and foggy, so decided not to. We drove from Porto for a stop to tour the monastery in Alboaca, very interesting and we had the place to ourselves. Stopped in Obidos for lunch, then to the Lisbon airport where we returned rental car and took airport bus to Lisbon for the next three nights. Toured Lisbon and a day tour that went to Sintra, Cascais and the monument for the most westernmost spot in continental Europe. Lisbon was buy but it was during the World Cup, so quite festive. Enjoyed many lovely meals, especially in Evora which is a foodie kind of place along with the interesting sites.

I can't find any references to cave drawings, but there are open air petroglyphs in the upper Douro:

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/866/

but if you expect drawings with a wow factor, I think that you will be disappointed.

No, there are no cave drawings. These are the drawings at the open air archaeological park of Foz Côa and there is a museum as well. It´s located in the Upper Douro, which would be at least a very minimum of a 90-minute drive from any Pinhão lodging and even a longer drive from (Peso da) Régua.
https://arte-coa.pt/en/
https://nelsoncarvalheiro.com/coa-va...o-de-portugal/

Thanks for letting me know. I was hoping to see something like I saw in Pech Merle in France.

Your trip sounds like it was wonderful. I’ll have to consider Evora. Maybe I should take a day from Coimbra.

I found Evora much more interesting that Coimbra. Now that could be because it was midday and really hot when we were in Coimbra and I don't do all that well in heat and as we were only really there for a few hours, in my mind it doesn't compare to Evora where we enjoyed several lovely meals and enjoyed sitting out and enjoying a beer or a glass of wine or coffee in the cafes. We stayed in the Hotel Albergaria do Calvario, very comfortable room, lovely breakfast buffet, pleasant bar area and very hospitable innkeepers who made dinner reservations for us and were helpful in looking at our planned itinerary. They convinced us to drop one of the places we had planned to visit on the day we left and told us to substitute Castelo de Vide. That day there was a photography/art exhibit opening with a delegation of guests from the Israel consulate and so that was a very nice event to be part of. Because of the event, the historic synagogue was not open for visitors and so that was a disappointment but again we hadn't planned in advance or reserved a time slot to visit.

Yes, you should spend a minimum of one night in Guimares. We spent several nights, enjoyed it all.
I agree about staying in Rvora too.

If you do add Evora, and I agree that it's a great town to explore (Alentejo and the Minho are actually my 2 favorite regions of Portugal), it would be best, if possible, to add 2 nights to your proposed itinerary rather than take away nights from another destination to substitute Evora. Can you extend your proposed trip by 2 nights? In the trip reports that I linked to your other thread, you'll see some beautiful photos of Evora.

The Albergaria do Calvario (ADC), now a Unlock hotel (it changed hands) in Evora is a lovely place to stay but needs to be booked far in advance, as it's extremely popular, and it takes small group bike tours.

OK, so here is my revised itinerary.
1 arrive in Lisbon
2. Lisbon
3. AP train to Coimbra
4. Coimbra
5. train to Porto
6. rent car Drive To Guimaries
7. Drive to Duoro River Valley
8. Duoro
9. Duoro
10. Drive to coast, stopping in Nazaré and Obidos spend night in.
Cascais
11. Cascais
12. Tour guide to Sintra over night in Cascais
13. Drive to Lisbon airport

How could we reconfigure this to add Evora?
should we train to Guimaries and pick up the car rental afterwards in Porto, etc?

I just wanted to give a couple of suggestions of places we really enjoyed in Portugal 2019.

Since you will have a car in Cascais, this place is probably the best meal we had in Portugal. It’s a Michelin 1 star but at least in 2019 was reasonably priced considering. The oeanside setting is gorgeous.

The food was inventive and delicious, and the service second to none.

Fortaleza do Guincho, Cascais

https://www.fortalezadoguincho.com/en/

The other reco I have is for a hotel in Coimbra. The setting is lovely and restful and the staff just couldn’t be kinder and more helpful.

Hotel Quinta das Lagrimas

They have a very good restaurant on site as well.

It is a walk to town across a bridge but I would use Uber to get up to the University. As noted by Madam it is hilly, but so are Lisbon and Porto.

Enjoy your trip. I loved the calm of the central area of Portugal, less touristy.

I also dined at Fortaleza do Guincho, and the setting at the ocean's edge is indeed gorgeous. We walked from our Cascais hotel (the Pousada Pestana Cidadela) out to Guincho then took an Uber back. Another lovely & more classic, elegant Cascais hotel is the Albatroz, also right at the water's edge.

And we stayed in Coimbra with friends at the Quinta das Lagrimas, across the river, as did progol (the trip report that I linked to you on the other thread). We splurged on a special occasion dinner in its Arcadas restaurant, housed in the former stables. And we also had a very reasonably priced lunch at their Pedro e Ines restaurant upon arrival.

We chose the Quinta das Lagrimas as it was very easy to find, in a flat area, we didn't have to negotiate the narrow streets and hills of Coimbra's upper town with our car, and it had plenty of secured parking. We taxied to the University, then spent the rest of our day sightseing, with lunch at Tapas nas Costas (recommended by the hotel) and walked back to the quinta over the bridge. We also drove out to the Roman ruins of Conímbriga from the hotel.

Just a question: You only plan to spend one night in Porto? For me that just wouldn't do the city justice, but it will be crowded in May and you stated initially that you wanted to avoid the city crowds.

3 days in the Douro for some would be 1 too many (see the trip reports) if you don't plan on doing extensive wine touring. While there are several easy to access quintas (port and DOC wine houses) in and around Pinhão (Quinta Bomfim, Quinta das Carvalhas, Quinta de la Rosa, Quinta da Roêda, Quinta do Infantado, Quinta do Tedo, Quinta do Seixo), how important are the winery visits to you? Or is the Douro for you mostly about the scenery?

I would plan to stay in or around Pinhão rather than (Peso da) Régua, as the scenery is more beautiful, the drives more impressive (although those up in the hills can be quite challenging), although it's a much smaller town.

On your long drive from the Douro all the way to Cascais, I wouldn't bother with Nazaré. Viamichelin.com, which I use for more accurate driving times, estimates a drive from Pinhão to Cascais of about 4 hours, 45 min. w/o stops. It won't be "big wave" season in Nazaré, and like Obidos, Nazaré will be packed with tourists, if that matters to you.

If you do want briefly to visit a charming, premiere surfers´village, Ericeira, closer to Lisbon (35 km) is prettier, imo. but again, it will make for a long day's drive, from Pinhão to Ericeira, about 4 hours, 40 min w/o stops in Nazaré or Obidos.

Another question: I thought from an earlier post you were considering turning in your rental car at the Lisbon airport and taking an Uber to Cascais to be "car free" on the Estoril coast?

How to reconfigure to add Evora?
I would only add 2 nights in Evora if you're able to extend your trip by 2 nights. If you can't, you would need to take away 2 nights from your other locations, which I wouldn't do, as it would require more hopping around, more skimming the surface.

If you can extend your trip, I would put Evora after Lisbon (with a rental car, skipping the AP train to Coimbra), then drive from Evora to Coimbra (3.5 hr. drive).
If you were to put Evora at the end, before Cascais, you wouldn't take the coastal route. Douro to Evora would be an inland drive, through Guarda & Castelo Branco, & would take a minimum of 5 hrs. 15 min. w/o stops.

Again, it would be a very good idea to check driving times and routing at www.viamichelin.com, whose estimates are more realistic than Google's, as I've found in many years of driving on the Iberian Peninsula.

Thanks once again for your thoughtful replies, and thanks for the restaurant and hotel suggestions. If I can talk my travel partner into two additional days, we will do Evora right after Lisbon. ( it looks like there’s no good train service to Evora)
we really do hope to use the train extensively. But only when it makes sense. I think I will remove a day from the Doro Rivervalley.We are mainly interested in the scenery there and the port houses. We really are not interested in the wineries. and now that I know there are no cave drawings. So maybe we should add that additional day to Porto then drive from Porto to Gumaries , spend the night and then on to the Duoro for two nights. We could drop the car in Porto or ???take the train to Lisbon and use Ubers for the coast.

Just two comments. First if you are interested in sampling port at the Port houses you can do that in Porto where 11 of the major Port
houses have tasting rooms. You do not have to go to the Douro for that unless there is something specific. Secondly I would not want to drive to Sintra. It is a maze of one way streets and traffic with parking a major pain. Much easier to do it with a Uber day trip from Porto.

Yes there are plenty of port lodges in Gaia where you can sample and there is also the new WOW, World of Wine.

And please don't drive into Sintra. The historic quarter is closed to non-resident vehicular traffic, parking near the rail station is at a premium and there is no parking at all for visitors at the Park. Do it by Uber from Cascais.

Thank you your advice has been so helpful. So as if now here is our itinerary.

arrive in Lisbon, hire a driver to Evora
Evora
tTrain to Lisbon
Lisbon
train to Coimbra at Quinta das Lagrimas
Coimbra
train to Porto
Porto
Then, if we are able to rent a car drive to Gumaries If not we would stay in or near Porto and day trip Gumaries and Duoro
Drive to Duoro River Valley staying near Pinhao
Pinhao
train to Lisbon,Uber to Caiscais
Cascais/ Sintra
Cascais
uber to airport

How does this sound?

Sounds pretty good to me. Enjoy!!