Portugal/ Spain

Good Morning

I have recently retuned from Lisbon and really loved it. I was there four nights and it was not enough. it is beautiful and interesting with a lot to see and do.

As for Porto, I took a cruise and one of our ports was Porto. I took an excursion to Braga so I never saw much of Porto itself but Braga was incredible.

I think that I can say you would love both Lisbon and Porto.

It sounds like no matter what you decide to do, you are going to be happy with your choice.It does not sound like you can go wrong.

Don't waste valuable time traveling long distances between places. Apparently you have about 10 days. Suggest that you stay in Portugal.

There is much to see. In the Lisbon area, take a day trip to Evora with is many ancient Roman sites; Caiscas is worth a half day. Also, Sintra, not far away. Obidos is a very small city with its ancient Roman wall.

Porto deserves a couple of days, in addition take the train up the Douro River Valley. The tracks run on the north bank of the amazing river valley. Stay in Regua and Pinhao. The Douro valley is perhaps the most scenic in Europe.

If you insist on going to Spain as well, you will find travel to Seville more difficult. There once was an overnight train between Lisbon and Madrid. Not sure that is still the case. There is a high speed rail train from Madrid to Barcelona. Still you don't allot much time in the Madrid or Barcelona area, so plan on coming back and doing Spain on another trip.

My wife and I just returned from a 9 day trip in Lisbon/Porto. We've been there multiple times and never get tired of it. Not sure how many days you have but that's a lot of cities. Porto and Lisbon are very different cities so there is much to see and do.

Lisbon favorites
-Monument of discoveries
-Nautical museum
-Time out Market
-Day trip to Cascais
-Great restaurants in Lisbon. A Gina, Ponto Final (make reservations now), Tapisco

Porto
-Prova wine bar in Porto
-Adega São Nicolau restaurant
-Taste Porto food tour

I wouldn't try to divide that amount of time between Portugal and Spain. In addition to the places already mentioned, there's Coimbra, right on the train line between Lisbon and Porto.

Porto's about half the size of Lisbon, so I'd plan less time in Porto. In both cases you'll need to adjust to account for any day trips you want to take.

When we went to Portugal last year, we planned for 3 nights Lisbon then 3 nights Porto. And, I wish we would've planned more nights for both, particularly Porto. Porto is magical and, in my mind, should not be missed. You could spend your whole vacation in Portugal and be completely happy you did. However, if you really want to visit Seville, too, perhaps take out Barcelona as it is the outlier here.

thank you everyone for great reply's! It ends up we are staying 5 days in Lisbon and 5 days Porto.
from Porto will fly to Madrid 3 days (1-day to Toledo) and then train to Barcelona 3 days as well.

once again thanks to everyone who replied.

I live 30 minutes south of Lisbon, so I'm biased about how much I love that city vs Porto. But Porto being 4 hours north of Lisbon and your planning to visit Porto in December, you could easily find it pretty dreary. Porto already has a reputation of being "dark" and, by comparison, Lisbon having the sunnier disposition. Depending on what you plan on doing in Lisbon, whether it's visiting Cascais, Nazare (for the monster waves), Sintra for the castles, Evora, Coimbra, and of course the treasures of the city itself, you won't run out of things to do as Portugal is a small country. (Btw, I was in Porto at the end of October, and couldn't wait to head south...where it was warmer, even though it was raining down here too.) You can always come back to visit Porto at a nicer time of year when the Douro Valley will also be very beautiful.