Portugal - how to allocate 7 nights?
 

Hello fellow travellers. I have just finalised a two week itinerary in Barcelona and Andalucia (largely thanks to CathyM) and now we have happily found ourselves with an extra week of holidays.
DH and adult son would like to visit Portugal and as our last stop in Spain is Sevilla, this seems reasonable.
The Algarve area looks beautiful and the guys would like to visit Porto and of course we would include Lisbon (and Sintra.) Would this be too much for 7 nights and how best to split?
On the last day we need to be somewhere we can fly to Paris (preferably in the evening)as we have a 1200 flight home the next day and I am too nervous to fly into CDG on the same morning!
many thanks as always

Wow - this is great you were able to get in another 7 days! I saw your comment on another post but haven't had time to respond.

If your DH and son are really dying to see Portugal I'd stick with just a couple of places for overnights. If I recall you're starting in France for a conference and then have Barcelona, Malaga, Ronda, & Sevilla in 12 nights. I'd definately spend 3-4 days in Lisbon. I'm not a Portugal expert but I spent 2 nights in both Evora and Coimbra and they were quite interesting.

Personally I'd be tempted to take the 7 nights and stick to Spain (but I am very biased admittedly). You could add more time in Barcelona. I think you had budgeted 4 nights which is just enough for Barcelona but not really enough for daytrips and there are some great places (Girona, Tarragona, Montserrat, etc...) for daytrips from BCN.

Another different idea would be to get a cheap flight from Sevilla to Bilbao and spend the additional time in the Basque country. It will be mid-June and the weather should be quite nice. 6-7 nights would be great to visit Bilbao, San Sebastian and a fishing village or 2 along the coast. It's a totally different feel from Catalunya or Andalucia. If you're at all into good food you will feel like you're in heaven. The scenary is spectacular from the mountains to the sea and the people are very friendly and proud. To return from Paris you could get a cheap flight from Bilbao or take a train to Paris. If you can't tell Andalucia and the Basque Country are my 2 favorite regions of Spain so again I'm biased :)

Another Spain idea would be to spend the time in Extremadura, an area almost unspoilt by tourism. It's in the western part of Spain just next to Portugal. You could rent a car leaving from Sevilla and head to Zafra, Merida, Cacares & Trujillo then drop the car off in Madrid and fly to Paris.

Just to throw out another idea and make it more confusing for you, you could take this time for Madrid. Perhaps 4-6 days, which would give you enough time visit Madrid along with a couple of daytrips (ie Toledo, Segovia) and take the additional 1-3 days and add more to Barcelona.

Cathy - I knew you would say stay in Spain!!! lol
In fact the Basque country option was the one I had already considered. (Getting to Paris would be easier probably.) However, Portugal looks tempting....

Back to the guidebooks and hope someone else chimes in with more food for thought.

I do love renting a house/villa for 5-7 nights - is there anywhere in the basque country that this would work for us or would we need to to have a couple of bases (if I convert the boys over to this option) do you think?

The Basque country is perfect for renting a house for 5-7 nights. The area is somewhat compact so you can base near San Sebastian (for example) but still be only an hour or so away from Bilbao (and vice versa). It would be a great place to rent a car and explore for a week if you weren't staying in the cities. mikelg is a regular poster here on Fodor's and lives in this area so he'll likely chime in if he reads this.

Yes, read the guidebooks and keep researching what is best for your interests. We all have our favorites so don't just let my opinion sway you :)

Portugal is great. We have been in June 2010 and June 2011 and are going back next June. We visit different places every year. We really can't get enough of it.

Four different places is a bit much for only 7 days.
If your family loves nice beaches, the Algarve is the place to go. For long stretches of white sandy beaches, go to the eastern Algarve (Tavira and environs, not yet overrun by tourists). You can easily drive from Sevilla, it's less than 2 hours and only 20 km from the Spanish/Portuguese border. We love Tavira!
We didn't particularly like Coimbra. On the other hand we loved Sintra, spent 5 days there admiring all the palaces, castles and gardens and we took a daytrip to Lisbon. We did like Lisbon but it was a bit too crowded for us.
We also spent 5 days in Porto, taking a lovely daytrip by car along the Douro Valley.
We had a rental car for our three weeks in Portugal.
Air Portugal (www.flytap.com) has several daily direct flights from either Lisbon or Porto to Paris.
Portugal is a totally different experience than Spain. Do it, while you are so close!

Thanks MyriamC for your input!
Beaches sound nice, we are interested in photography, history, food and getting a taste of Portugese culture.
I think we would definitely spend 3-4 nights in Lisbon but can probably only do one other area - north or south??

Both have their pro's.

The south for its beaches. Either the white sandy ones as described above, or the golden beaches with the beautiful rock formations in the western Algarve. Most of the Algarve, though, is very touristy so you have to be careful not to end up in a concrete jungle. I don't think that is what you are looking for. A place definitely to avoid is Albufeira.
The Algarve is perfect for a beach holiday but there isn't much else in terms of history or cultural heritance.

The north (Porto and up) for its lovely nature, its portwine!, and the city of Porto itself (we still have to explore Braga and other northern cities ourselves). Of course there are beaches as well if you want to chill for a few hours (Viano do Castelo for instance), but the weather is more unpredictable than in the Algarve.
I would say the north is more authentic.

From Lisbon you can take an easy daytrip (by train - 40 min.) to Sintra. A must, IMO.

All over Portugal are great photo opportunities. I have two albums on Facebook in case you'd like to see them.

Hi MyriamC - would love to see your photos! Do you think maybe 5 nights in Lisbon (or near) doing daytrips and then 2 in Porto would be reasonable?
Do we need a car? I am tempted to drive from Sevilla but it seems public transport is very accessible. Do you have any specific recommendations re accommodation, particularly self catering?

I have similar questions to ozgirl. We are planning about 7-8 days in Portugal after a tour in Morocco next year. Would it be a good idea to stay near Lisbon and do day trips and then in Porto and day trip from there. Would it be worthwhile having cars for our day trips or going with the train option? We have an itinerary for 9 nights that did a circuit from Lisbon- head north west (ish) and then back down the coast to Lisbon. It looked very busy although we are used to long drives from one place to another (we're aussies).

@ ozgirl: I think that's a good plan! From Lisbon you can also easily do a daytrip to the seaside (Cascais or Estoril). And, as mentioned before, Sintra.

You definitely don't need a car in Lisbon, nor in Porto. Public transport within the cities is very good, and Porto is very walkable, be it a lot of up- and downhill.

No recommendations re apartemnt rentals. We do self-catering only in the Algarve because we stay there for 10 days.

Don't know if the links to my photo's will work (we may need to become 'friends' first). Anyway, here they are:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=5b84160e86

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=f3c10aa87a

Thank you MyriamC! Photos have just whet my appetite.
What do you think of staying in Sintra for example and visiting Lisbon and other day trips from there? Would that be too 'time wasting' compared with staying in Lisbon?

That is exactly what we did. We stayed in Sintra and daytripped to Lisbon, to Cascais & Estoril. Not time-wasting at all because there's an excellent train connection from Sintra to Lisbon and bus connections to other places.
The reason that we stayed in Sintra is that we prefer a quiet place to sleep. Lisbon was really very hectic.
Here's some info I found on public transport:
<i>A one-day ticket (7 Euro) can be bought at Sintra station and will allow you to get on and off at all the main attractions. Bus #434 takes a circular route from Sintra station to the various attraction including Moorish Castle and Pena Palace. The bus runs daily every 40min between 10.20 am and 5.15 pm. Tickets cost 3 Euro and can be bought on board. Other useful buses are bus #418 that connects Sintra with Estoril and bus #417 to Cascais. Both of these buses have hourly departures at Sintra’s main bus station at Portela da Sintra, the train stop before Sintra itself.</i>
http://www.lisbon-guide.info/surroundings/sintra

We spent 7 days in Sintra and Lisbon over new years 2010/2011. I highly recommend spending the night in Sintra, its just lovely and there are lots of things to see. We spent 2 nights in Sintra, and then 5 nights in Lisbon, with a day trip to Estoril beach. Fabulous, as is Cascais also a short trip out of Lisbon.

Here is our trip report and pics.

Enjoy your trip!

Helps to include the link: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...l-20102011.cfm

I would suggest to stay in Cascais and make daytrips to Lisbon and Sintra from there. Its a lot less hectic than Lisbon and it has the ocean as a huge plus. The weather is better than in Sintra whére it sometimes can be rainy and foggy.

Thanks jamikins, had already read your excellent report and looked at photos. Do you think we would be 'missing' anything by not staying in Lisbon itself and would you recommend Sintra for 5 nights?
KarenE, I had looked at Cascais as well although some Fodorites seem less than impressed ...?

I would definitely stay IN Lisbon. Its a fantastic city with lots of interesting things to do. 5 nights in Sintra would be too long for me. Its a small town/village and while there are lots of things to see there are many many more things to see and restaurants/wine bars etc in Lisbon. Especially for your son, definitely would stay in Lisbon!

Cascais is ok for a day trip, but I wouldnt want to base there myself. It just doesnt have the attraction for me that Lisbon or Sintra does. You can easily reach it by train from Lisbon for a day trip.

I wouldn't want to stay in Cascais, either. Good for an afternoon at the beach or an evening stroll but that's it.

If you want a lively place, then stay in Lisbon. Might indeed be better for your adult son. Sintra is very quiet ... that is ... after the daytrippers have gone!

OK, Lisbon might be a compromise for the younger member of the family!
Which suburbs to investigate/avoid or just pay particular attention to reviews re noise?