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12 days in Portugal in January

Posted by (USA) 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
6896 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
3392 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
704 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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