BonnieN

Hi,

My daughter (mid 20's) and I are taking last minute trip to Portuagal for 2 weeks.

We are thinking about flying from east coast US to Lisbon and then directly to Madeira --days 1-3

on day 3 fly to Porto and pick up rental car, drive to Braga

days 4-6 day trips from Braga -- what would you suggest?

days 7-9 -- drive towards Lisbon

days 10, 11, 12 Lisbon

day 13 Sintra

day 14 fly home

Please advise. Does this plan make sense? We are energetic, enjoy beautiful scenery, a mix of big and small places, do not particularly want to go to Algarve area (we don't like beach vacation, but intrigued by Madeira). Also like cities (love Paris, Barcelona) and thought we would love Lisbon.

Thanks for your help, Fodorites!

Bonnie

lobo_mau

It makes perfect sense.
Don't forget that around 20th June there is a LDC (Lisbon Dinig Club) Fodorite's meeting in Lisbon. I don't know if your plans match LDC. I hope they do.
I think you should see threads "things to do in and around Lisbon" (part I and part II). They comprehend about 1000 posts with lots of ideas and suggestions and travel logs in several parts of the country.
Another source of information is http://www.discoverportugal2day.com

BonnieN

Thanks Lobo Mau! We will try to join the fodorite group. We did something similar in Bangkok years ago and it was a highlight of my travels.

Do we need to make reservations when we are driving? Are there enough interesting towns to drive to from Braga over three days? Any favorites?

Where else would you use as a base driving toward Lisbon? Or should we do a series of one night stops?

Thanks