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10 day trip to Portugal in January

My wife and I (both early 70’s) are on a ten day stopover in Portugal on our way from the US to Morocco. Flights are into and out of Lisbon, with arrival January 10 before 0600. These are our only nonnegotiables. This will be our first trip to Portugal.

This is what I’m thinking;
*pick up a rental car at LIS (I’ve driven throughout Spain and Italy), drive to Evora for a few days,

*then north to Porto, stopping in Coimbra for a half day on the way, then dropping car off in Porto.

*A few days in Porto, including day trip to the Douro River Valley

*Then south to Lisbon by train

*Then 4-5 days in Lisbon, with day trips to Sintra, Cascais.

Skipping Algarve because we read it’s quiet in the winter. Don’t need beach (we live in FL). Understand what weather forecasts are for the rest of the itinerary. We expect to pay for tours of each place we visit.

Thoughts and Suggestions?

Posted by
1417 posts

Your Portugal trip plan sounds almost perfect. Will you be jet lagged/tired from the US flight and then right away get into a rental car and drive? It’s something I would probably not do but YMMV. Otherwise, I think your travel plan sounds great for January.

Posted by
1417 posts

Criden, also, there are many trip reports by Forum members that may be helpful in giving you tips about activities, tours, food/drink and accommodations. Also Rick Steve’s’ guide for Portugal is what I mainly used in devising my own two trips to Portugal. Libraries in Florida will probably have the guides to borrow or browse this website and view some of Ricks videos to get ideas about what to do in each location.

Happy travels to you and your wife

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you for your suggestions. Combing through the advice here is one of the major ways I’ve devised this itinerary.

I’m comfortable with driving after an overnight flight. We figure Evora is close enough, and we can chill there for a few days.

Also considering day trips or stops in Aviero and Obidos if timing and weather work, but not wedded to them.

Posted by
4 posts

Based on the advice I’ve received here and elsewhere, I’m revising the 10 day itinerary as follows:

*pick up a rental car at LIS very early on arrival day (I’ve driven throughout Spain and Italy), drive to Evora for two days,

*then north to Coimbra for two nights, with one full day

*Then north to Porto, for two full days. We axed Douro valley because we’ve seen plenty of barren vineyards in January

*Then south to Lisbon, possibly stopping in Obidos for a few hours.

*Then 4-5 days in Lisbon, with day trips to Sintra and Cascais.

Skipping Algarve because we read it’s quiet in the winter. Don’t need beach (we live in FL). Understand what weather forecasts are for the rest of the itinerary. We expect to pay for tours of each place we visit.

How does this look. Thoughts and Suggestions?

Posted by
7107 posts

The drive from Lisbon to Evora is easy and about 1.5 hours. Óbidos and Aveiro are worth a couple hours each.

Not knowing what you enjoy seeing, en route from Evora to Coimbra, Almourol Castle makes a nice stop. The castle was built by the Knights Templars and one takes a boat to get to it. The boat is a couple Euros per person round trip, cash only. The castle is a 30 minutes drive from Tomar where the Order of Christ (Knights Templar in Portugal) made its headquarters at Tomar’s castle and Convent of Christ. As convents go, the Convent of Christ is one of the more impressive ones I’ve been to.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for your kind reply. We’ve been thinking about Aveiro too. Maybe en route from Porto.

Posted by
1547 posts

I agree with Jameelsabio. Almoural Castle is interesting and not many people go there. Tomar and the Knights Templar monastery is beautiful!