Dear Barb.
There is a rule in the GSM world, saying that all incoming calls in the SIM's country of origin are free.
I think Sher is referring to a successful low cost operator called UZO with outgoing calls costing .16E/min to Portugal (.42 to US, Canada, Europe during working days and .21 otherwise).
If you do a reload your account with a value >= 15 euros, the cost of calls during one month drops to .12E/min.
In UZO, after 4 months of total inactivity, the operator assumes that the account is dead and kills it anyway (the number is assigned to another person). On other words, it's sensible to avoid keeping a lot of money in the account by the end of the trip. By inserting a very simple code in the keyboard, the phone displays the remaining balance, and therefore is very simple for the user to controle phone usage.
As far as Porto town is concerned, I don't know 1st hand but I'll try to find something.

travelling_joy, your original plan makes a lot of sense (6 days divided by Lisbon and Sintra).
I wouldn't try to accomodate Douro region in 6 days, unless you give up one of the other locations.
Apart from Douro there is Alentejo region waiting to be found by you. In my opinion I'd stay with the original plan, and use it as an apetizer for further explorations. Portugal should still be here during your next travels since we don't have plans to go anywhere ;-)

o.k. how does this look for the Alentejo portion of the trip...We're staying outside of Arraiolos
Day 1 Arrive in Arrailolos (after flying into Lisbon from NYC)...chill out
Day 2 Estremoz, Borba, Vila Vicosa, Redondo
Day 3 Marvao, Calstelo de Vide
Day 4 Evora
Day 5 Montsaraz
Day 6 drive to Lisbon for a 10 day stay with day trips to Sintra, Cascais and maybe another day with a car to drive along the coast...would love to see Ericeira, Obidos, Albocoba...

o.k. I know my eyes are too big for my stomach and this is jam packed. What can be cut? What should be added? Is my first stab at an itinerary even close to being realistic?

o,k, I will take a stab at the last ten days.
I think you could cut down on Lisbon, keep the car three days more and do the Obidos part of the trip. I personally would not want to do this city as a day trip from Lisbon. Besides, you could do a lot in three days around Obidos.....Nazare, Alcobaca, Batalha. You could stay on the coast.
You would still have seven days in Lisbon with your original side trips to Sintra, etc.
We loved that part of the coast. Of course, I prefer doing all of our driving, ditching the car and staying in Lisbon.
Am I understanding you to say you want to rent a car in the middle of your Lisbon stay to do Obidos?

well we would dump the car in Lisbon and do day trips by train. Then if we wanted to explore more we would maybe get a car for the day and drive along the coast but your plan sounds better. The only problem is we're meeting a friend for the Lisbon part which is set in stone now. But he leaves on the 2nd of July and we leave on the 5th, so maybe after he leaves, we'll rent the car again and head up the coast for our final 3 days. I think your advice is really good. Thanks!!

Hi H&C, your plans to the Alentejo portion are very realistic, imho. You don't have to cut anything.
Pousada of Arraiolos has a chapel with magnificent azulejos. Arraiolos itself is the centre of Arraiolos tapistry. Even if you don't intend to buy anything it's a good opportunity to see it and appreciate.
Take a look at Sher's comments, I fully agree with them.

Matt!!! where are you? We are missing you! Hope everything is ok. What about going somewhere next Friday?

I received a very nice and encouraging email last Thursday, but I could only see it today. I'll reply to it tomorrow morning. I hope my reply arrives in due time.

Hi H&C. I think you could certainly fill ten days in Lisbon, especially with daytrips.
And renting a car in Portugal seems to me one of the most reasonable places recently that we have in Europe. Maybe I am not being realistic about taking day trips from Lisbon.

We are spending only four nights/ five days in the part of the Alentejo (Evora and environs). I am really thinking that we have not allotted enough time for it. It is the only part of our trip that I have made hotel reservations for so far. We would like to fit in a couple of wineries, too.

So much to see, so little time. You have a lot more time then we do. We only have 13 nights.

Thanks for all of your helpful tips Sher and Lobo. Sher, we decided to give ourselves a little more time in the Alentejo because we wanted the luxury of driving and discovering. I can get a little list happy when I travel so we're trying to avoid that feeling of "crossing things off the list" by giving ourselves time to roam. However it looks as if we're only spending about a day longer than you are. I'm sure you'll feel, at once, satisfaction with all the new experiences and longing for all that you missed!

Well, I have your list beat. My husband has drawn a large blow up map of the area (you know on flip chart papes) with prominent towns. And not so prominent ones, I think.
Then we are going to pencil in the "must sees" around the towns and go from there.
My trip isn't for a long time and we have already been doing this for a while.
Also, I get the benefit of all of the trip reports when you guys return!

We are looking forward to being in Portugal for the first time in August.

We'd love your ideas on the best route and stops with 4 days to drive from Lisbon to Braga in the middle of August. And then 4 days (different route) to drive back the first of September.

We're trying not to pack in too much, but want to come away with a good introduction to the people, food, culture, beauty and history.

This forum has been helpful in planning out time in Lisbon and Sintra. Thank you, Lobo, Matt and all!

Sher--Your opinion, please. I am now wondering if I should keep the car only until I get to Cascais and travel by train in and out to Lisbon as well as to Estoril. If we use the car in Sintra to go to Alcobaca, Fatima, Obidos and Batalha and we do plan to drive around while we are in Evora, I'm thinking we can probably do without it. We would have to take a taxi to the airport from Cacais, but it doesn't sound like that would be a problem-- time or money wise. Any thoughts?

Lyn

Hi Lyn. Sue_xx_yy actually hired a cab to do part of the coast. She posted here. Now I do not know if she just went out to get a cab or arranged for one. She did Sintra-Cascais. Maybe she will tell you how she decided to cab it.
I believe you said you will stay in Cascais and not Lisbon. Right?

First of all, I would find out from the car rental company if the car can be dropped off in or near Cascais. If so, I would ditch the car upon arrival in Cascais.
If not, then you would have to return it to the airport which should not be difficult. Maybe you can find out how much it would cost somehow. I am sure people do it all of the time, arrive in Lisbon and go to Cascais. The hotel may even know or help you arrange transport.

Then, I would just go into Lisbon when I wanted to. I would just make sure that the things that are much easily seen near Cascais with a car are done before you drop it off.

I haven't done it nor have I studied it yet, but we will have to as we want to go to Cascais. We missed it on the last trip.

We wanted to go into Porto from Braga when we were in the North and we went by train.

It seems silly to keep the car in Cascais any longer than you have to if the only traveling you have to do is into Lisbon.

Also, I would see how much it costs for the car for the days in Cascais. Even if you arent't using it, it may be cost effective to keep it just for the trip into and out of the airport.

A cost of 60 0r 70 Euro for the car could surely be the same as the transport from the Lisbon airport to the Lisbon airport for the flight home. But once I give them back their car, I always feel better.

What time is the flight out of Lisbon.

Okay so I'm still around sweltering in the heat and having forgotton to reply to any emails received recently, my apologies...

In the brief moments permitted on the PC with Lizzy's workload heavy following our recent trip to the UK I've been planning a little trip within Portugal via trains exploring the north where I've yet to visit.

A picture is worth a thousand words so they say so I'll direct you here first:

http://www.fotocomboio.com/pt/

At the bottom click on the Linhas link which takes you to a very nice interactive map of Portugals rail network. I'm planning to go from Lisbon to Porto and from there take the Linha do Douro from Ermesinde to Tua where I'll change for the narrow gauge line "Linha da Tua" which is meant to be the most spectacular in the country. Unfortunately it was truncated in the 90s and now one can only go as far as Mirandela. For many years it still had steam services and many rusting locomotives can still be seen.

http://victortrains.fotopic.net/c589455.html

Is a series of photos taken by Vitor Nunes, this is a link to his gallery - it looks like a fun ride though from what I can understand of the schedule:

http://www.cp.pt/cp/searchTimetable.do

there is only one outbound train at 10.06 am so what I'll probably do is arrive in Tua, overnight there having a look round, take the Tua train in the morning, spend a few hours in Mirandela, head back to Tua where I'll overnight again before heading back south to Old Lisboa in the morning. So should anyone wish to join me in this little jaunt let me know...

And talking of trains I'm also looking to head to the Algarve for an overnight stay on the new route just to see what it's like.

Well, I mean, it sure beats staying at home doesn't it?

Matt

Hi Matt, here Vitor (victortrains.fotopic.net)I know this nick isn´t properly familiar, but, when trying to registrate to the site I typed the nick I used to have ten years ago when I was a regular at chatrooms, I know it's a nick somewhat stoopid, but my creativity isn't at its best at 2.25 am

Regarding this last post, just to give a piece of advice: before trying to spend the nigh at Tua and unless you like to camp on the wilderness, assure yourself the small cafe's that are there have rooms to rent for the night. You see, Tua is a small vilage, a passage one, and I have no memory of seeing a place there to spend the night.

Instead Mirandela has plenty of such places, so, I suggest you leave Lisbon early in the morning, and get to Mirandela in the afternoon. The next day you can explore Tua, and take the train to Pocinho (the part of the Douro line beetween Tua and Pocinho is the best of it).

Sorry for my bad english, have a good trip

Matt: We will now await your travel report! I will really be interested in how you like the area around Tua as we will be staying in Pinhao for 2 days and I am undecided on whether to travel north to Vila Real or east to more wine country. That train trip looks beautiful.

Sher and Lobo: Ok I have spent days looking into phones and finally decided to get an unlocked phone on eBay - that is a first!! I hope to be able to try it out here if I can buy a Sim card for the US. Any suggestions on that Sher? That way I can at least know how the phone operates before we try it in another country. My husband will be in Thailand before we come to Portugal so maybe he can even try it there. I think maybe Sim cards are easier to find outside the US - correct?

We will fly into Porto but then go directly to Aveiro the first night so maybe there is such a store there.

With all this discussion of the Alentejo region I am really thinking about the next trip before we even begin our first!

So it is hot there already? What will the weather be the first week in June? Maybe I have to rethink my packing.

Hi Vitor, and welcome to the Lisbon thread. Wonderful photos on your site as I've said and I'll look foward to exploring that area: please stay a regular here and post some thoughts about Portugal. Thanks for the travel tips - bearing in mind I was going to take Lizzy as well we'll have to catch the first train north from Lisbon and do as you say. How bad is the line north of Mirandela? Any hopes one day of it reopening? Perhaps with a lottery win we could buy it ;-)

Look foward to speaking some more.

Matt

Barb. If it is a 900/1800 unlocked phone, it will not work here. So you will not be able to try it out before you go.

Although I have been reading and reading about phones, my knowledge is so limited compared to some. It is just in the States, we are so behind with phones and how they work. We just sign up for a service and let them do it.

xyz123 posts here and he knows SO much. He has helped me tremendously. You may be able to post and he usually is very helpful and answers. Also, there is a website (www.prepaidgsm.com) and a forum there and they will answer questions.

For this trip, I am taking my unlocked phone with me but I have purchased an international SIM (that can be used in 22 countries). I also have signed up for a callback service which makes the cost very reasonable. But, I have not used this service yet. For this trip if I were you, I would find a store and buy a local SIM. And I think there are special bands for phones in Asia, so I do not know if the phone will work there.

I really think having a phone in Europe is the only way to go.

Some companies sell SIM cards online, international ones, but they are very expensive. Much better to wait until you arrive.

The phones are easy to operate, just like ours here. The exception is that we normally do not take the SIM cards out of the back of ours and replace them.

Barb, GSM rules are easy to understand.
1. I hope your phone is unlocked. This means that it's willing to work with different SIMs.
2. Europe and most of the world works with 900 or 1800 MHz frequency bands. A phone works in Europe if it receives at least one of the above frequencies (both is better).
US works with 850 or 1900 MHz frequency bands. To see the full list of US operators and frequencies check site www.gsmworld.com --> GSM roam --> coverage maps --> US. After the name of the operator it says GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800 or GSM1900 according the frequency it's licensed.
3. Multiband phones
My telephone is quadband, as most of Motorola terminals. There are single, dual, tri or quadband terminals. There is a tradeoff between cost the the usage you plan to do with your phone.
4. Short messages (SMS)
I guess the are not popular is US, but the world communicates with plain text short messages (less than 160 cgaracters). In the more aggressive markets they are eventually free. Should you manage to subscribe a GSM account there is the US, and we can try to exchange SMS.
5. Incoming calls
Incoming calls are free in the SIMs coutry of origin. Incoming and outgoing calls are not usually free when the SIM is roaming (outside the country of origin).
6. Aveiro
Aveiro is the Silicom Valley of Portugal, with a very active University and the long stablished PT labs. Whatever you might think you need, it's available in Aveiro. If you still think you need a SIM or other equipment, tell me and I'll address you to the right shops.

I hate mobile phones....

Matt. When you have older parents (mine are 83) and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren like we do they are great.

We don't have to have them stuck to our ears all of the time. Just to check in with family when we are so far away.