Portugal - 2 weeks itinerary critique
 

We, my husband and I (in our 50s) plan on spending 13 days in Portugal mid May next year, as part of a longer trip which includes Morocco and France. We love exploring, seeing beautiful scenery, enjoy little villages and well as seeing some noteworthy buildings (eg. Abbeys, castles etc). We are generally not keen on museums or art galleries (although there have been some notable exceptions during our travels). We prefer not to move from location to location every day, but rather to find a base for a few days and travel out from there. We prefer self catering accommodation. After much research, we are thinking of splitting our time as follows:
Lisbon - 4 nights (arriving evening of 1st day).
Then pick up rental car.
Tomar - 3 nights.
Tavara in the Duoro Valley - 3 nights
Guimaraes - 3 nights (visiting Porto as a side trip from here)
Fly out of Porto midday on 14th day.

So far, we have identified some nice looking accommodation in Tomar and Tavara, but are open to any suggestions people may have on where to stay in any of the locations.

With regards to Lisbon, which area would people recommend as the most ideal for basing ourselves without a car for 3 days.

Any opinions on how we have split our time are most welcome.

This sounds almost exactly like the trip we did last year (and we are also like you in that we prefer not to move around much).

Tomar was one of my favorite places though we didn't actually stay there. We spent a day there and then stayed in Obidos which was charming and easy to use as a base for the surrounding area.

We stayed in Bussaco one night and it was like staying in an enchanted castle in the woods - wonderful. We didn't make it to Guimares, but really wish we had.

In retrospect I would have stayed a night in Sintra as we really missed out on seeing much of it due to problems parking - maybe on your way from Lisboa to Tomar.

We also enjoyed Evora, especially driving around the countryside, and seeing the megaliths.

Enjoy - it is a beautiful country with very friendly people

Tomar is fairly close to Lisbon, I would do a day trip and then head up to the Duoro. Tavira, by the way, is in the Algarve, not the Douro River Valley.

Unless I'm mistaken, there is no village of Tavara in Portugal that I am aware of.

Thanks lauramsgarden. It sounds like you had a car whilst in Lisbon? If so where did you stay? I am hesitant to have a car if staying down town, but would be amenable to it if we stayed on the edge of the city.

Sorry about the typo Robert. That should have read Tavora.

Are you thinking of Tavira. ?

Definitely Tavora. http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/ren...valley/4907405

We stayed at As Janeles Verdes which was a delightful little hotel - awesome breakfasts and very helpful staff, right on the river so with great views, but not in the center of things. We didn't have a car while in Lisboa, just used mass transit and taxis with no problems. we rented the car from the airport when we were ready to hit the road - the driving once out of the city was a dream - much easier than highways in the states and well marked for the most part, and the country roads were beautiful The only tough part was driving in and out of Porto and returning the car at the end to the airport in Lisbon.

Love the a Douro Valley. We stayed near Pinhao at a place called Quinta Nova. It was fantastic! Very windy road to get there ( not sure I would attempt to drive it at night). Unbelievable view. There were many Quinta's in the area you could stay at.

Porto was a fun city to visit. Especially if you like Port. If you visit them you might want to stay in Porto to avoid driving. There are many places to go for tastings.

Have fun. Portugal is wonderful!

Another vote for As Janelas Verdes in Lisbon- a great hotel, and we used buses and trams while there (this past May). We had had a car which we dropped at the Lisbon airport before heading into Lisbon (our last stop).
We loved Guimaraes where we stayed at the magnificent Pousada, but can't imagine staying 3 nights there, as it is a very small albeit charming town. In Porto I recommend the Guest House Douro, right along the river. We did Tomar as a day trip - it was spectacular, but again, not much else to the town.
I would recommend Evora also as a great base from which to take day trips. Loved our stay at the ADC hotel there too. Portugal is a lovely country with lots to see. We didn't make it to the Douro but explored the Algarve instead, where we especially liked Tavira.

Thank you all for your comments and advice - enjoyed reading your trip reports lauramsgarden.

We have fine-tuned and adjusted our itinerary based on comments and flights. We will now be flying in and out of Lisbon as Porto flights just did not work for us - so it will be a round trip by road. We have taken on board your comments about how long to stay in Tomar and Guimaraes el13207. Whilst we will be staying longer than you see as ideal, we will be using these as bases from which to travel out and thus avoid moving every night. I have also secured a copy of the book “Slow Roads! Beautiful drives through Portugal for cars and motorcycles” which gives us some great idea of routes and things to do and see.

Our itinerary now is:
Fly into Lisbon 9am. Collect hire care head to Evora for 1 night. (Stay in a hotel).

Our next day is going to be a big day of driving as we want to visit some of the mountain villages like Monsanto and Belmote (Castelo Branco?) en-route to the Douro Valley. We will stay in the Douro Valley for 4 nights near Ancede at this self-catering cottage http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p474489 .

We will then head to Guimaraes where we will stay for 3 nights at http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationR..._Portugal.html . Guimaraes will be our base to visit the far north coast (national parks?) as well as a day trip to Porto from there. We wanted to avoid staying in Porto with a rental car.

We will then head south and stay outside Tomar for 2 nights in https://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/tomar/6248941 . This will be our base for visiting Nazare, Fatima, Obidos etc.

We then drive back to Lisbon to return the rental car at the airport. (You said this was a little difficult lauramsgarden??) We will then stay 3 nights in Lisbon at http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-ren...m_medium=email

Please write a trip report. Can't wait to hear about your trip. Have a great time.

sounds like a great plan - I also can't wait to read your trip report. The difficulty at with the airport wasn't so much finding it - it was just the intensity of Lisboa traffic after the ease of the rest of the driving. We did find the airport a bit confusing when finding our flight home - it was organized differently than US airports though I can't really describe the difference - we just kept getting in the wrong line! have a great time.

p.s. someone posted online a wonderful step by step directions on how to get to the car return at the Lisbon airport complete with pictures of all the signs. see if you can find it - I remember it being most helpful

PRLCH here is the link to the return a car instructions I mentioned above:

https://www.carjet.com/blog/returnin...lisbon-airport

Thank you so much for the airport link Laura - it is sure to be useful. I definitely plan to post a trip report upon my return as I find those posted by others to be a wealth of information in planning.