joan95448

Traveling with my husband, ages 69 & 71, from Northern California. Our first trip to Portugal. This site was incredibly helpful in our planning for a 3 week trip in May. Just returned. It was a fantastic trip.In preparation, we rented a car from Hertz, ordered a Vodophone Simcard, delivered to our first hotel, and ordered Euros from our bank which they FedExed to us. I also bought a small anti-theft purse with RFD protection. We took copies of passports, credit cards, etc.

We started in Lisbon at Hotel Do Chiado, which we highly recommend. It’s in lower Lisbon and walkable to many places, via many stairs. We had a room with an outdoor patio that faced St Jorges castle and the harbor. It was an exceptional view. Places visited include the Tile Museum, Maritime Museum, and Time Out Market. The 2 museums were very good, especially the Tile Museum. One outstanding restaurant was Lisboa a Noite in Barrio Alto, per a recommendation from our hotel staff. We walked or took taxis. Lisbon is a beautiful city, and it was teeming with people!

We went back to the airport to pick up our rental car. This went seamlessly, got a small upgrade. My husband had a little of a hard time adjusting to the stick shift, but it all kicked in just fine. We used Apple Maps, which was invaluable throughout the trip, and planned to drive the toll roads. Portuguese roads were in excellent shape.

After picking up the car, we drove the 3 hours down to The Algarve. Now, this was a crapshoot, because so many Fodor posts said not to bother with The Algarve, too touristy, etc. but my husband was determined to go!. I was a little apprehensive. Soooooo glad we did. We had decided to confine our visit to the far western part of the area to avoid the more touristy, highly developed areas; only went as far east as Praia de Luz. There was plenty to do and see in our 4 days there. The drive down was through an increasingly a dryish area, somewhat reminiscent of the Baja Peninsula.

Per Rick Steeves guidebook recommendation, we stayed in Salema, a tiny little village. It was a wonderful place, with beautiful hidden-away beaches, wildflowers and charming beach cafes. We even went on a couple of searches for the ancient menhirs (megalithic limestone monuments dating from the 4th to 3rd millennium B.C.) Found one! It was cool! Visited the extreme western tip of the Algarve, Sagres. We loved that town, went back for several visits (aka gelato store visits)

We loved the surfing vibe of the Sagres area and realize that we probably hit this area at a perfect time (late May) before the surf crowds come. We know from talking to people in Salema that their population explodes in the summer too.

From the Algarve, it was about a 2 hour drive up to meet friends for dinner in Evora. Stayed at Albergaria Do Calvario, great hotel, bad room. We had a fascinating dinner at Restaurante O Templo in town. Fabulous dinner, made so interesting by the owner/, proprietor, who is hilarious in his descriptions of food. Dinner for the 4 of us was superb, all dinners prepared with his grandmother’s recipes. We visited the Chapel of Bones and associated church. Well worthwhile to visit and Evora was a lovely town, definitely difficult to drive in.

From Evora, we headed over to Nazare. This was another area that lots of posts said to skip. Glad we didn’t skip this one either. It was definitely very touristy, but the big draw for us was to see the area where the big (80 to 100 foot) waves come in in the winter. It was a fascinating area. We went up to the Fort at Praia do Norte where people in the winter gather to watch the waves. There is a nice little surf museum there. Nazare was a beautiful area, our apartment was right on the beach above a gelato shop—so convenient… We were also lucky enough to see several of the older Portuguese ladies dressed in their traditional garb. They hang out in the cod-drying area, which was very interesting to observe. There also was the European Beach Handball Championship going on so lots of young athletes from all over. Notable restaurant in Nazare was Pangea.

We had 2 open, unbooked nights next, which was a little scary due to the crowds all over. So we stayed another night in Nazare and then headed to Guimaraes for the second night.

I think Guimaraes was my favorite little town. Definitely difficult driving though. We stayed at the Hotel Tournal which is right on the town square across from the church. Its an older charming hotel, with a huge room, great breakfast and little sweetheart balconies. The entire square was lit up at night, beautiful. We toured the Castle of Guimaraes and the Palace of the Dukes of Braganza.

After all the driving and exploring, i knew we’d be ready for a little rest, so I had booked a house way up in the Minho, an area that I found very little information on but took a chance. It is the extreme northwest of Portugal. 5 nights in our “chill” house in Seixas, near Caminha, was perfect. It was in the hills above the tiny village of Seixas, and had a view of the Minho River and Spain across the river, with the river being the border with Spain. It was a spectacular location. The lights of Spain were gorgeous at night. We rested but also started touring the local area. It is very quiet. lots of backpackers and bicycle types hopping the ferry to Spain. But our big surprise (for me as a semi-geologist) were the GeoParks (GEOPARQUE Litoral de Viana do Castelo) on the nearby coastlines. Fascinating magmatic features on a couple of the beaches. We loved that area. Notable dining, though not many options, was Aqui Ha Gato.

Last but not least was Porto. We dropped our car rental at the airport, took a taxi to a most incredible hotel: Vincci Ponte de Ferro, which is actually in Gaia (Vila Nova de Gaia) across the Ponte de Dom Luis Bridge from Porto. Spectacular hotel right at the bridge. We learned how to do the Metro to cross the bridge into Porto and walked both levels of the bridge several times. We did a Duck Boat tour on the Duoro, a tuktuk city tour of Porto and toured the famous tiled Train Station. Talk about teeming with people, Porto was much more crowded than Lisbon, it was actually difficult to move or walk at times. We mostly hung out in the bridge area and the respite of our hotel bar. We were very glad we stayed ACROSS from Porto. Just had to walk across the bridge to get to the fun, but crowded, Ribeira area. Very notable restaurant in Porto was Bartolomeu Bistro. Highly recommended, reservation is a must. Porto Airport was fairly easy (at 6am) and flew to San Francisco via Munich.

Some observations for those who haven’t been to Portugal (we hadn’t) There is not as much English spoken as i thought there’d be, especially up north. My husband speaks Mexican Spanish and French and tried some Portuguese. It was so well appreciated by people, just that he tried. And the Portuguese try to help anyway they can. I went into a hair salon for directions and none of the 4 Portuguese ladies in there spoke English. The owner got on the phone to a friend to help me with directions!! They are a lovely people.

There are beautiful churches everywhere, several in every town. Church bells ring all the time. We even heard the church bells across from Spain.

In speaking with a lot of young people (English is prevalent among the youth), they LOVE their country and are so proud of their towns; they label themselves as very patriotic. And they seem to really appreciate their tourists.

View to Spain across the Minho from Seixas house

Ponte Luiz I Bridge from Gaia to Porto

Many workers that we spoke with are concerned about the apartments, houses, etc being bought up for tourism. They have no place close to live near their jobs and some had 1 to 2 hour bus commutes. We are familiar with this in our tourist area of California, workers cannot live in our town. This seems to be going on worldwide. Tourism can be a double-edged sword I guess.

Groceries sure are cheaper though! I know there was another Fodor post where someone discussed this: eating in the restaurants can be tough for someone who doesn’t like fish or isn’t crazy about eggs. That was me too. My husband easily ate my share of all the fish and seafood Portugal had to offer, and i mean ALL! He was ecstatic. I had many nights filling up on bread and olives and having some weird pasta dishes. Vegetables and salads aren’t too plentiful in the restaurants. Also, nothing resembling Mexican food in the grocery stores. But I managed.

It was an excellent, enriching trip for us and we hope to return.

memejs

Thanks for writing up your report;, it sounds like a heavenly trip! I also loved my trip to Portugal. I'ts interesting to hear that Porto was more crowded than Lisbon.

I'm not a fish/seafood eater and I'm also rather picky when it comes to meat, but I don't recall any difficulties finding good menu options. I was actually surprised by the number of good vegetarian restaurants I encountered! I don't mean to argue with your experience; I just wanted to offer a different perspective for anyone who might be worried about eating in Portugal. Maybe it's that salad and vegetables are limited when it comes to traditional Portguese cuisine; I found lots of modern restaurants that offer fresh, healthy food.

KarenWoo

I enjoyed your report, and I think it's great that you visited places, such as the Algarve and Nazare, that other people don't like. Happy to hear that you enjoyed your stays in the Algarve and Nazare. You knew where you wanted to go, and you didn't let other people dissuade you from visiting.

My husband and I visited Lisbon and Sintra in 2018. I would like to return to Portugal to see more of this wonderful country. We both love fish and all kinds of shellfish, and eggs, and meat, so we didn't have any problems with the food.

Melnq8

Talk about teeming with people, Porto was much more crowded than Lisbon, it was actually difficult to move or walk at times.

Wow. As people who hate crowds, we found Lisbon a zoo, whereas Porto was comfortable.

I know there was another Fodor post where someone discussed this: eating in the restaurants can be tough for someone who doesn’t like fish or isn’t crazy about eggs.

That would be me. Hate eggs and seafood, yet I didn't starve. Plenty of Italian and Indian restaurants! And the wine...fabulous!

oranon

Love your trip report. We have a similar trip coming up in October and plan to do the same regarding car rentals. From your report, it seemed easy enough to head back to the airport to pick up the car in Lisbon before heading out of town. When dropping the car in Porto, did you find it also fairly easy to navigate back to the airport to drop the car? Our last experience returning a rental car in a European city had us driving into Rome, so we're trying to avoid a high stress traffic situation.