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12 days in Portugal in January

Posted by (MD) on

I’ve booked a last minute trip to and from Lisbon. I land and leave in the morning and have 12 full days between. I’ve read it’s not a good time for the Algarve, so I was thinking of taking a train straight to Porto, then working my way back to Lisbon, maybe staying in Obidos and Evora as well. It sounds like I can do a number of day trips via train, bus or even Uber, right? I'm not interested in the Duoro Valley area and I don’t want to rent a car.

I’ll also be in Lisbon/Sintra for 6 days in March. Maybe I should try to go to the Algarve then? I’m excited about this last minute trip, and depending on where I go and what I see, I’ll most likely change my itinerary for March to see what I might miss in January.

I’d love to hear your ideas for my trip(s). Thanks!

Posted by
1078 posts

Could always hop a plane to Madeira. We had to rearrange a trip and ended up taking a train straight to Porto, spending time in the Minho region and Silver Coast, then catching a flight to Madeira in the place of Lisbon. This was during covid and the infection rates were high in Lisbon at that time. The flight was inexpensive and easy.

Posted by
5581 posts

Portugal has become so busy that there is really no longer a shoulder season. I think it be great to be able to enjoy Porto with fewer people. I feel like Obidos may be too quiet for you in terms of finding a restaurant, but it is just a guess. We stopped in April and it was pleasantly quiet, which was nice for us. We liked Evora. Take a look at Braga, Coimbra, Guimares.

Posted by
2950 posts

How many nights will you be in PT? I like the idea of taking a train from Lisbon to Porto on arrival day and working your way back to Lisbon. Good day trips from Lisbon are Sintra and Evora: https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en.
The best time to visit the Algarve is summer so skip it.

Posted by
483 posts

Thanks everyone for the helpful feedback. I've been googling up a storm so, in addition to the research I'd already done for my March trip, I think I know what I'm going to do. At this point, I think I'm going to split my time between Porto and Lisbon with day trips from each. I like the idea of having a familiar base to return to at the end of a day and since the days are shorter in January, I can wander the cities in the evenings and early mornings if I'd like.

I think I'm going to focus on Algarve in March since I will have seen most of the sites in Lisbon in January.

Thanks again!

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