Hello My name is Jeniffer I am here hoping to get tips for our trip
me and husband want to visit porto and lisbon our trip goes from march 21 thu through march 29
i dont know where to start i have done some research but i definetely need some help
i would like to know if is best to flight first to porto or lisbon
how many days on each
how to move from one city to the other
weather there this time (i checked and it says on the 50 celcius )
where to stay, visit and eat or anything else i need to know
please treat me as i dont know anythign is our first trip to europe

Thank you in advance :)

How many nights on the ground do you have in Portugal? Do you arrive in Portugal on March 21? Or do you depart from home on March 21? What are your interests?

First, you should check flights from your home airport to Portugal to determine if you should start out in Lisbon or Porto. It would be best if you could purchase multi-city (open-jaw) tickets. For example, fly into Lisbon and fly home from Porto. If flights aren't convenient to/from Porto, you could fly into Lisbon, then immediately take a train to Porto. Then train back to Lisbon and finish up your trip in Lisbon.

I haven't been to Porto so I can't help you with the number of nights. But I have been to Lisbon and Sintra. If it were my trip, I would spend 3 to 4 nights in Lisbon and 1 night in Sintra. If you don't want to move around too much, you could spend 5 nights in Lisbon and do a daytrip to Sintra. I think you would need 3 to 4 nights in Porto.

You could rent a car to drive from Lisbon to Porto, or take the train.

I recommend buying a couple good guidebooks to help you plan, such as Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, and Fodors.

The train is so comfortable I'd use it for connecting the cities
March, in a country on the Atlantic coast, with Climate Change. It could be anything from storms all the time to bright sunshine, historical weather conditions are no longer relevant. Advice is take layers. But note that Lisbon is heavily cobbled and Porto is built into a steep ravine so wear sensible shoes (no kitten heels) to get about and you'll be fine.

Booking trains, do not buy tickets from outlandish ticket site, use https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en read seat61.com to understand how trains work. If you want lots of space travel first class. Generally for such a tiny holiday take only a limited amount of luggage, we have washing machines in Europe. If it helps, lay everything out on the bed you want to bring and put half away and you'll be about right.

Where to eat, too big a subject, but the local diet includes salt code, sardines and more bits of fish than you can imagine. If you find something on your table to chew on when you arrive at a table and you touch it, you will be charged for it. This can be something nice, or not, so don't expect free bits on your bill. Local wines come in 4 types, red, rose, white and green (green is really just a young version of white with a fair bit of acid) Vinho Verde is what you may find at home to equate to it.

Both Porto and Lisbon have a mix of good public transport, easy to use and relatively cheap. Both cities are pretty safe, obviously in crowds there maybe pickpockets but I've never bumped into them here.

Since this is your first trip to Europe, let us cover a few general things. Firstly, they do things differently here. So when you go into a shop say hello. In a bar say hello to the staff and also to other customers in a general way. All part of the starting the contact. When you leave, say goodbye. Secondly; things will open differently to what you are used to and many offices/shops close for lunch. Yes, close. But in Porto and Lisbon they are open during lunch but not all. Mondays are generally closed days for many things. Thirdly restaurants generally serve supper at 9pm but may open at 7pm. If you are used to a 5pm supper.... well, there is Macdonalds.

Things to see in Lisbon:


the Belem monastery, but be careful with purses and wallets. My wife and I were pickpocketed on the same day , in the same area, although not necessarily in the same location.


The neighborhoods


But reading a variety of guidebooks is really essential in planning such a trip.

In Porto you might be interested in a day cruise up the river:


We found the Fondacion Serralves interesting for its Art deco mansion and its contemporary architecture for the museum.


Walking around the town



And again, use guidebooks to organize your trip.

Fly open jaw to Porto and back from
Lisbon or vice versa. Train between cities. Depending on your interests probably need more time in Lisbon/Sintra than Porto. Where to stay depends on your budget and tastes

Have a look at the wonderful resources on Portugal compiled by fellow Fodoriite maribel.
Both Porto and Lisbon can fill your whole time. Plan to become enticed and start planning your return visits!
Agree to look for open jaw flights, into one and out of the other. If you split your time evenly you'll have four days in each city. Do take the train between the two.

You can do a day trip to Sintra from Lisbon. We did this as a tour that also stopped at Cascais and the westernmost point of continental Europe. We ended our ten day trip in Lisbon but returned our rental car at the airport before traveling into the city, staying at the boutique hotel, behotel Lisboa on the walking street between Rossio Square and the Praca, so an ideal location. We did a day trip from Porto to Guimaries, the historic city that has a more interesting castle than the one in Lisbon although that castle offers a spectacular view.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE
WE ARE DEPARTING HOME ON MARCH 21 coming back home on the 29
this is a 25th anniversary trip we like to eat , to visit places, wineries, we like night life too
we would like not to move so much that is why i am choosing only 2 cities
prefer train first class and I feel a little frighten about the fact i will be going from city to city jajaja

Thank you for taking the time and offering these tips jajaja it is a little diff than home I will keep in mind

thank you

can you tell me which aerolines should i use
1 stop recommended ?

Where are you flying from?

Miami florida us

Miami florida united states

TAP is probably your best option. Fly through Lisbon to Porto and fly back direct from Lisbon. Check Google flights.
iTA matrix for more detail

Thank you!!
question why can i flight back from porto and save the going back and forth ?

You can go to a site such as kayak.com and search for best flight options and which airlines. I know from NY of course that Delta flies non-stop to Lisbon as well as United.

This is what's known as an "open-jaw" ticket - - fly from Miami into one city, and back to Miami from a different city. What happens then to the fare calculation is it takes half of the round-trip Miami-Lisbon fare, and half of the Miami-Porto fare, and adds them together.

To find the open-jaw fare calculation and travel times, with most search engines, do not select the one-way or round-trip options, instead click on the tab to get the "multi-city" option. Then you can enter the outbound airports and return airports on separate lines, and it will calculate the fare as described above.

If, on the other hand, you find into or back from Porto to be way more expensive (or time-awkward) than simply flying round-trip to Lisbon, you may want to train to Lisbon from Porto to pick up the return flight.

exactly what I did I got miami Lisbon
Lisbon miami

I have been searching for flights for more than a week 😂not an easy task now I need help deciding where to go first
please help
arrive at Lisbon am go Straight to Porto do my 3 days there and then Lisbon sintra and i return from Lisbon this makes more sense to me but if you think is best the other way let me know
I feel safer to be last in the city of my departure that’s why I want to leave for last