14 Full Days & 2 Half Days in Portugal

Absolutely do not delete Coimbra from your itinerary! Glad to see you are including Guimares. We spent 4 nights there and enjoyed it.

We are going to Portugal in October.

Two places I see you trying to do too much.

Day 10 going to Tomar. I would prioritize what is most important to you. You have two days worth of activities planned.

Day 14 going to Porto. It seems like you have two nights in Porto and three day trips? Or am I reading this wrong?

There will be no 100 foot waves in Nazaré in September, so if that’s your reason to visit, skip it.

Óbidos will take a couple hours to visit as will either Batalha or Alcobaca monasteries. If you only want to see the Sanctuary in Fátima you only need an hour for it. If however, you want to visit the houses were the children lived and where the Angel of Peace and Mary appeared, you’ll need more time. Those locations are a few miles from the Sanctuary and while close together, require some walking. Day 10 is very aggressive so prioritize what is most important to see so the decision is already made if/when you need to cut something out.

In Tomar we stayed at Thomar Botique Hotel. There is a free public parking lot beside it and one can walk to the castle and Convent of Christ in under 30 minutes. Parking at the Convent is pay parking.

In Coimbra the library is part of the university tour and entrance is timed. When we visited last September there was a very short line at the ticket office (by the museum of science and chemistry lab). Regarding Conimbriga, if you’ve ever seen the ruins of a Roman city, it is much the same; plenty of foundations and few murals, and not much else. We spent an hour there.

For Fado, Cafe Santa Cruz had free nightly Fado performances at I believe 6 and 10pm that last just u deer an hour. The cafe is cash only.

Since you will have a car, there are free parking lots in all the places you intend to visit. I encourage you to look some up before the trip and bookmark them to you navigation system so you can go right to them. That will save you some time.

Thanks for your replies.

We will go to Coimbra! Is there any place in our itinerary that you visited that you would eliminate?

On day 10 we will stay in Tomar. Then on days 11 & 12, we plan to stay in Coimbra. We then have 3 nights to stay in Porto. Our flight departs early evening on day 16 of our trip so we need to be at the airport by 3ish. That will give us 2 full days in Porto, a half day the day we depart, and 3/4 of a day when we arrive. Will there be enough time to enjoy Porto if we take 2 day trips (one to Braga/Guimares and one to the Douro Valley)?

Thanks again!

I would have skipped Conimbriga. We stopped there because we had to drive right past it and we had plenty of time. We spent 3 nights in Porto and feel it was sufficient for walking around town, seeing a few tiled churches, visiting the cathedral, walk along the waterfront, take the very touristy 1-hour boat ride, and enjoy a couple port tastings.

By the time we got to Porto we had seen enough churches and monasteries that we skipped Braga and Guimares. We didn’t feel bad about skipping Bom Jesus because we walked up the 600 steps leading to Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in Lamego. Similar enough for us to not feel guilty.

You have way too much planned for fourteen days! You write you want to enjoy your time here, but you will be rushing from place to place and likely not enjoying it very much. I realize the temptation to try and see everything, but Portugal is all about slowing down and savoring long lunches be the sea, wandering aimlessly about old towns, etc.

I would suggest cutting out at least two of your overnight stays and adding those days elsewhere. Evora will likely be very hot in late September and while it’s a very interesting place, it’s easy as a day trip from Lisbon.

The Benagil caves have new rules for visiting so be sure to know those rules instead of just planning to go.

As stated earlier, there will be no giant waves in Nazare the end of September. BTW - there are lovely beaches between Lisbon and Porto so you could easily skip the Algarve altogether and focus on Lisbon, Porto and points between. The Algarve is really all about beaches with little else of interest IMO.

I apologize for crucifying your itinerary but I hate to see you come and not enjoy your time to the fullest.

If you drop Evora, I would add one night each to Lisbon and Porto.

Your replies are a great help! Thank you.

We added a night to both Lisbon and Porto, and took one away from Lagos. We will still fly into Lisbon, stay for four nights, and then head to Lagos for 3 nights. At the end of our trip we will spend 4 nights in Porto. Our new dilemma is what to do between Lagos and Porto. We have 4 nights left.

There are two final options we are considering. The first is to take a day trip to Evora from Lisbon and then spend three nights in Nazare, Peniche, Martinho do Porto, Foz de Arelho, Tomar, or some other interesting, comfortable, and centrally located town from where we can visit Alcobaca, Batalha, Fatima, and Obidos, and Tomar (not necessarily in that order). The list isn't prioritized yet. We love ocean settings but like small towns very much too. I just cannot seem to find the perfect base.

Our second option is to visit a couple of the sites in the previous paragraph (instead of Evora as a day trip) as a day trip from Lisbon and three nights in Evora after Lagos. There's something about this region that sounds authentic and unique and perhaps the Alentejo might be a better choice.

In either scenario, we will spend a night in Coimbra before heading to Porto.

Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated. Please don't feel as if you are tearing this apart. That's why I wrote the original post (to learn from your experiences).

Thanks again!

After Lagos, spend 1 night in Evora. Then visit what you want to see on your way to Coimbra. Stay one night and then head to Douro Valley or Porto. If you know how to pack, adding 1 night stays here and there isn’t a bad way to travel to avoid backtracking.