Thank you, clara! Your insights will be very helpful.
Do you have links to your trip reports, by any chance? Otherwise, I can search.
Looks like we will defimitely do 6 nights in Lisbon, not 7. The rest of our trip is set by business needs, so we would be in London 4 nights and Paris 3. (I would definitely change that, if I could.)
That means we would stay in Lisbon the entire time, because I do not want to do four hotels in different cities in two weeks. Not our pace.

So I would love to hear more day-trip ideas from Lisbon. Probably not southern, though, if it is hot and crowded. Not our style.

I still wonder why the detailed walking tours of Lisbon were deleted by the editors! I did not get a chance to read carefully and take notes. I would very much appreciate walking tour ideas.

Merci beaucoup, y'all.

PO: Here's a little photo essay I did when we were in Portugala year or so ago. This is the north town of Pinhao, in the wine country and on the Douro river. We took most of these photos from the train window.

This trip was fro Pinho in the north part near porto....we took a train exxcrusion down the Douro river where I took these pictures. The ship at the end of the reel is the Windsurf, which we returned on, docking in Miami. Wonderful month long trip. Also a bit of prose and goofy stuff I wrote about my personal feeling while travelling called "Portugal for Dummies" and you can search in the search box to get it on Fodors Lounge. If you can't open, copy into your browser:

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http://picasaweb.google.com/clarason...y=Lz64FQelrxw#

One more thought. Get a hotel near the train station if you must center in Lisbom....go one day to Cascais (most beautiful and great beach), maybe to Sintra one day , altho I have been underwhelmed the few times I've been there, or to Estorial maybe another day, and that will leave you a few in the city. If you can't explore the north this time, or the middle, be sure to promise yourself to come back. It's my favorite place.

To eat: try the Portugese Cataplana, a fish rice dish that is steam in a copper kettle....yum.

We'll be sleeping elsewhere .. can't beat our rate, I don't think. And this is a very budget trip this time.. I'm just happy we can go!

Your hotel looks gorgeous. I hope to try it one day!

We really enjoyed Cascais. It has a wonderful promenade along the seaside and above some small cliffs. I could have walked that everyday for weeks.

Thank you both! I am interested in all ideas for day-trips. Cascais would be one, eh?

Good point about hotel distance to train stations, but I am staying with the deal I got at the Avenida Palace. Prices are a lot higher there already. It looks worth the extra shoe leather if we hoof it further to transit. We love historic hotels.

So I need specific suggestions about transit to take for day-trip destinations. How to get there, what to see there, and places to eat? A tall request, I know!

Your pictures are stunning, clara! Thank you.

I am so excited to visit Portugal.

Are there any transit passes we should consider?

Considering the Avenida Palace is NEXT DOOR to Rossio Station and steps to two metro stops I can't imagine how you could stay anywhere more convenient....

I enjoyed Sintra, and wasn't that excited by Cascais and Estoril, but I'm not a beach/resort type persom. For day trips beyond Belem and Sintra I'd look at Evora and Obidos.

There is a transport pass for Lisbon, see http://www.lisbon.net/transportation and also one for the Sintra/Cascais/Estoril area that you can buy at Rossio station.

Can't answer that one, PO, as we always rented a car. Roads are good and we pretty well know the country. Hope you come to love it as we do. It's Europe at it's best, and they like Americans, most speak English, are very civilized, etc. We plan to be there again in Nov. before we sail home on the same ship you saw in the photos...just can't think of a part of this country we haven't seen..Perhaps back to the Algarve...all the European kids will be back in school by then, we hope.

Duh, thursday! Haha. I should have known that. Blind luck on my part, eh? Now I am really in love with that hotel. Thank you.

You, too, clara.

If you want to stay in Lisbon take transport to Nazare, a small fishing village on the coast just to the North. It's beautiful there, maybe stay overnight. Check out the Palacio in Sintra and in Lisbon at night make sure you go to Alfama and take in some Fado. Also, in Lisbon you have to eat the genuine Pasteis de belem..go there for breakfast, it's near the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos. I don't think you should go to Porto, that will require another visit, then you can also visit Braga and other places in the North.

Whatever you do, don't order "pulva"...DH did, thinking it was related to chicken and he gagged in public. It's some thing akin to squid, I think, but almost inedible, to our way of thinking.

Could that dish have been poorly executed octopus? (POLVO?)

I love octopus.. maybe it was done in an unusual fashion.

Don't think I'd be tempted to order something called "pulva"! haha

Any more ideas for walks in Lisbon and day-trips from there?

Thanks so much!

I was googling Portugal off the beaten track, since we have been there so much and are planning to go again in November and they had something like 'find a friend' program--a local who likes to act as your personal guide in Lisbon (I suppose you pay her/him too) for a day and shows you personally what you'd like to see, or makes suggestions. I think we might try that while in Lisbon. Big cities (London being the exception) tire me in a hurry.

If I get my way we will go to Cascais for at least a few days..so lovely and quaint. There used to be a book called "Inns and Posaudas" of Portugal that we used as our bible when in that country. Wonder if it's still in print and updated. Anyway, you can't lose with the Pousadas, state run guest houses, always nice and predictable and they will book you ahead so you are never wondering where to stay at night..always good local food in elegant restaurants. Starting to get excited already.

Thanks, Clara. We are going to stay put in Lisbon at the hotel and not look for overnights elsewhere. So day-trips are what we need. Thanks for the tip on finding a guide for the city. We usually do not get guides, but it's a good idea.

Reporting in from Lisbon! Arrived at our hotel, the Avenida Palace, at 10:00am yesterday, expecting we'd have a few hours to wait for our room. But, no, our room was ready for us! What a relief. We checked in and napped. We were delighted to find there was an international bike race on the avenues just below our hotel room. Perfect for DH, who loves his bike riding.

We have 5 more nights, so I will check in again soon. Loving Lisbon!

If you're looking for day trips since you have so little time, you could look at the possibility of a private tour taking in one or more cities. Last January we and some friends (six people in all) did a day trip to Batalha and Alcobaca with a visit to a vineyard thrown in - with a company Have a Wine Day (website is just www.haveawineday.com )and it was a fantastic day out.
We emailed and they answered straight away - they picked us up at our hotel and we didn't have to worry about a thing and got a lot more done than we ever would with public transport. We went on our own steam to Obidos on another day and it was quite a performance. I think they also do an Obidos tour and one to Sintra (maybe they can squeeze Cascais in as well on that one).
Anyway, you will surely love Portugal!

Be sure to try some "pulvo" if you get a chance...a national dish that may surprise you. You will either love it or hate it, that I can promise...also Cataplana..a nice sea food composite that is delishous.

Peaceout, really looking forward to hearing more! We are considering Portugal, possibly combined with Southern Spain or Morocco, for April, and I would love to hear more about your trip.Soaking in lots of good info from this thread.