Just came back after 8 great days in Portugal. Our itinerary included: Lisbon,Sintra, Cascais, Obidos, Nazare, Aveiro, Braga, Bom Jesus, Viana do Castelo, Porto, Guimares, Coimbra, Leiria.

Some practical info that others might find helpful:

1) Lisbon; spent 4 nights at Hotel Botanico with reservations made through HostelWorld.com (cost of room through them was 40 EUR/night less than through Venere).
We had an excellent experience with both HostelWorld and the hotel.

The hotel is centrally located. The staff is VERY helpful; special mention goes to Fernando Ferreira who called restaurants, taxis for us, treated us with a great welcome drink and insisted on carring our luggages to the room, etc. An excellent breakfast was included in the rate.

We spent 3 nights upon arrival and 1 night before our returm at Botanico. The first 3 nights were in a small room, the last night was on the 4th fl. in a large room with panoramic views of the city. The hotel was recently refurbished, everything is new and good condition, very clean. We got excellent value for the money at Botanico nad I highly recommend it.

The took the advice of this forum to get a taxi voucher at the airport when we arrived. It was helpful, although it was 7 EUR more than the taxi to the airport that we paid based on the meter. Taxis are not expensive and are worth taking when public transportation is not nearby. A reliable company is Radio-Taxi at 218100410. They never took us on "additional" rides, something we were concerned about.

We found the 7 Collinas card for a day very useful (it is around 3.30 EUR and it works for a calendar day, not 24 hours). Although we found it impossible to get a bus map (like the ones posted at bus stations), we managed to take full advantage of the public transportation.

2) Day trip from Lisbon to Sintra and Cascais

We took the train to Sintra (from Entrecampos train station at the Jardim Zoologico metro stop - blue line). In Sintra we noticed a sign for a tour to Cascais for 10 EUR/person. It was well worth the money and the time. Bruno, a young, very knowledgeable and pleasant guide took us with a microbus to Cascais with multiple stops along the way at very nice places on the shore and great commentary along the way. The agency is KTours (Rua das Padarias, no 2- in the center of Sintra , website: www.ktours.com.pt). From Cascais we took the train back to Lisbon. The trains are frequent, inexpensive, clean and frequent.
Later we learned that the train station sells a combination ticket which includes the train from Lisbon to Sintra, Cascais to Lisbon and a bus from Sintra to Cascais. However, based on our experience, the tour is much better.

3) Car rental and driving
We used (for the second time) Carjet and rented an automatic car. The agency Carjet used was Budget. Everything worked as promised, we were very pleased with the service and the car. Driving on the highways with tolls is expensive but we found it safer. The traffic most of the time was minimal and that can make a major difference. When we had to drive on other highways, we had to be very careful as the locals are quite impatient and pushy. We took with us a GPS. We found it incredibly helpful as in most cities there are few or no signs showing how to get to the center or out of the city. Without the GPS we would have spent most of the time fighting the traffic and trying to get in or out.

4) We spent 3 nights in Bom Jesus at Hotel do Elevador. We asked for a room on the quiet side, which was quite important and also turned out to offer a beautiful view of Braga. The hotel was clean and comfortable, the breakfast was good. They have a business center which has a PC for Internet usage (8 EUR/h), which we appreciated as we found it quite difficult to locate Internet Caffees.

5) Our next night was in Coimbra. We slept at Casa Pombal, which is more a hostel than a hotel. For one night it was OK but I would have not stayed there for longer. The room and the bathroom was very small. We had to leave our luggage downstairs (it would have not fit in teh room and it would have been quite a task to take to the 3rd fl. without an elevator). The staff is friendly, the breakfast was OK, the place is clean and we had a very nice view of the city from the room.

6) Some other suggestions:
- in Porto, take the hop-on/off tour bus (10 EUR)
- get a map for Coimbra at the information and expect to get lost; the streets are incredibly narrow and steep, many of them not on the map

7) What we enjoyed the most (matter of personal taste):
- Obidos, Viana do Castelo, Coimbra. It's hard to rank the places as we could not see everything they have to offer and also because most of them have a lot to offer
- Belem and the site of the Expo 98 (Parque das Nacoes) in Lisbon
- the people who were friendly and welcoming; most of them did not speak English, but tried to be very helpful regardless.
- the food and the wine, the "ginginha" (cherry liquor), the caipirinha, caipiroska, caipirao and morangoska (brazilian drinks), the wonderful pastries and seafood. We stopped at local, small eateries and had many times a menu, which 99% of the time was great and very inexpensive. We had one memorable dinner at Cervejaria in Viana do Castelo, Rua Prior do Crato, 41 (www.restaurantecovas.com). Great food, excellent service and reasonable prices.

We would gladly go back, it was a great trip. With only 5 hours of time difference, the return was more manageable than other European trips.

Thanks (obrigada) everyone on this forum for sharing and helping while planning for this trip.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, Suzanna! I'm glad you had a nice time in one of Europe's less traveled countries. Your report fondly reminded me of my own travels there some 30-odd years ago!

Suzana, Could you explain the taxi voucher and how that works, would we be able to get 3 taxis, from the airport to Rossio area, to accomodate 12 people all at once?. To arrange transfers with a minibus it is 74 euros for all of us. How would the 3 taxis be? Thanks for your information, I am constantly reading about trips because we are going in August with a big group, although some of us have already been to Portugal several times. Thanks again for the info.
Susana

Susana, I can only tell you that at the airport in the arrival hall there is a window where they sell taxi vouchers. The vouchers cover the charge for the luggage, the tip and they are a function of the distance, number of people, time of the day, etc. I would assume that 12 people could fit in 3 cabs (and it is not a problem to get 3 cabs). We paid 18 EUR for the voucher for 2 people, 2 suitcases on a holiday to go quite close to Rossio, which probably is less than the minivan.

There is very good bus transportation from the airport into the city, most likely going to Rossio.

I am sorry I cannot be of more help, good luck w. the arrangements.

We recently returned from Portugal and cab fare from Lisbon airport is under 10 euros to downtown Lisbon.

Suzanna,
What was the weather like when you were there?
My husband and I would like to go within the next year or two and would be going in April (school vacation!)
Thanks

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