Our Itinerary for 25 Days in Portugal
 

Here we go:

May 1-8 Lisbon Staying at Casa do Barao
Arrive in Lisbon for 7 nights. May 2-5 we will take Portugese language lessons in the morning and sightsee in the afternoon. We will probably pick up our car on May 6 and do a daytrip to Obidos and Nazare on either May 6 or 7. (see below at the end of the itinerary. If we decide not to do Salamanca, we will probably save these for later)
Then we head south
May 8-10 Comporta Staying at Comporta Sublime
Drive to Comporta for 2 nights
May 10 Salema Hotel Resedencial Salema
We'll drive down the coast and wander around, eventually ending up in Salema
May 11-15 Falesia Portomar Falesia
Beach time and exploring the Algarve from this base
Time to leave the Algarve
May 15-17 Evora Pousada Convento Evora
Evora and the surrounding area
On to Spain!
May 17-20 Salamanca ??? Not sure where to stay
Explore Portalegre, Marvao, Castelo de Vide and then head to Salamanca
Back to Portugal through the Douro Valley on our way to Porto
May 20-22 Tabuaco in Douro Valley Casa Dos Ruis
Explore the Douro Valley
May 22-25 Porto 1872 River House
Get rid of the car, explore Porto and fly from Porto to Gatwick at 5:45 p.m. on May 25

So this is Plan A. The big question is whether or not to go to Salamanca or to stay in Portugal and work our way north from Evora to the Douro Valley through Coimbra. Any opinions on that? I love Spain and have always wanted to see Salamanca, but I'm wondering if we ought to just stay immersed in Portugal. In 2006 we were on a 6 week trip through the Iberian Peininsula and intended to come south from Santiago de Compostela through Portugal and end up in Seville. We decided to stay in Spain since we were so acculturated and didn't want to shift cultural gears. I'm worried about the same in reverse this time.

Any other thoughts on our itinerary will be enjoyed and taken into account. Thanks!

wow! 25 days in portugal. so jealous. we are spending about 10 days in portugal during our 37 days wandering spain and portugal. we tend to avoid big cities run into them on a day trip from a rural village. consider: 1. visiting MONSARAZ as you head south - appears to be a wonderful small mountain village; 2. if you are driving from lisbon to duoro valley think about visiting the "schist villages" such as PIODAO & FOZ D' EQUA (supposedly great for hiking between them if you are able (se both have bad knees so by car); 3. duoro valley - there is supposedly a great train that runs through the valley where there aren't roads (we're taking it from Regua to Pinhao to Pocinho and return) then the next day driving into the region.

enjoy your time

Thanks toledodd,
We went to Spain for that amount of time in 2006 and totally enjoyed it.
We'll keep your suggestions in mind.
Enjoy your time in Spain and Portugal!

Coimbra is pretty easy to do as a day trip by train from Lisbon or Porto, so I think I might roll the dice on coming back to Portugal someday in the future (especially if you acquire some Portuguese) and instead go to Salamanca for a bit of contrast and to see another part of Spain that you've always wanted to see. On a future trip to Spain (or Portugal), it might not be so convenient.

ksddfam and toledodd,
Just and fyi regarding the train in Douro valley. We took it this past summer from Pinhao to Pocinho and were not impressed. The views are not any more spectacular than the views you get from the different vineyards in/around Pinhao and the stretch of road between Regua and Pinhao. It is 2 hours of more or less the same scenery each way. And the train windows (when we took it) were dusty so the views/pics were blurry. We went as a group of 10 (adults/kids) and the collective view was the train ride was wasted time (1/2 day). A boat ride on the river instead may have been a better experience.

If I had 25 days I personally would not miss the opportunity to explore Salamanca.

frencharmoire and mnag,
Thanks for taking the time to comment and offer suggestions.
Salamanca is still the plan for now. We're looking forward to Douro Valley but don't have any plans to use the train.

One other question: My wife is now worried about the time in Falesia in the Algarve. We had originally wanted to be sure and have some relatively luxurious beach time out of our 25 days, but didn't want to be in a "Miami Beach" type environment. We wanted to avoid places like that. I picked Falesia for the beach and the property. From what I can see on Google Earth, it doesn't look too high risey, but does anybody have any thoughts as to whether we are going to be in an overly developed area there?