15 Day Itinerary Advice Please

My visits to Portugal were decades ago, and I've never been to Leiria, so I can't comment on it as a base.

When I saw the one-night stop in Coimbra, my thought was that you might consider getting an early start from Lisbon, storing your luggage at the Coimbra B station (assuming it offers that service--I haven't checked), spending the day in Coimbra, then going on to Porto. That would give you less than a full day in Coimbra, but it would eliminate one hotel change. Perhaps folks who've been to Coimbra more recently than I have can comment on the practicality of that idea, which would at least avoid half the travel time you'd need for a day-trip to Coimbra from Porto.

You are giving yourself considerably more time in Porto than in Lisbon; your arrival day in Lisbon may be very unproductive due to sleep-deprivation and jetlag, and Sintra will take a day. There's more to see in Lisbon than in Porto, I think.

A possibility for seeing some of the small towns a bit more easily would be to look into a one-day bus tour. I am not generally a fan of such tours since Europe is blessed with a lot of trains and public buses that will usually get you to places a lot more cheaply. But seeing multiple small towns in one day by bus or train (unless they are along the same, heavily traveled train line) is quite a challenge. You sometimes end up with 5 hours in a town that really only needs 2 hours, or having to choose between eating lunch or catching the bus you'd like to be on.

I'm looking at that list of 3 towns you hope to see (along with Leiria itself, I assume) in perhaps 2-1/2 days, and I don't know how well that is going to work out. Perhaps you've already looked at train and bus schedules and know it will be OK. However, one of the few bus tours I've taken was in Portugal. The bus went to Obidos, Batalha and (I think) Nazare all in one day--something we could not have accomplished on our own without a car.

Thank you that is very helpful, I will look into rearranging some of my days. I'm thinking: give ourselves an extra day in Lisbon and one less in Porto. I'll try too looking to some tours that might cover those small towns. I had read on another forum that using Leiria was a good base, but they didn't give a lot of info about the bus schedules. We were just planning to be in Leiria during the week because I have been told that is easier for the buses, but seems like I will need to be doing a bit more research still.

It's true that bus service is often thinner on weekends (especially on Sundays). Be sure you're not hitting a holiday, either, because those are often treated like Sundays.

I found a tour out of Lisbon that would see all three in one day, mind you it would be a 10 hour day. Does that sound reasonable to you?

I would be sorely tempted to do that. Let's see whether someone with recent experience (or a better memory than I have) chimes in. I confess that I haven't been to Tomar, so I don't have a good feel for what is a reasonable amount of time to spend there.

This May I spent nine nights in Portugal: four nights in Lisbon, two in Coimbra, and three in Porto. I traveled by train and bus.

I stopped in Tomar off the train on the way to Coimbra. From Coimbra I did a day trip down to Nazare for half a day (loved it!). If I were doing it again, I'd probably take the bus from Lisbon to Nazare and spend a night there instead of two nights in Coimbra. Tomar and Coimbra were both refreshingly free of tourists compared to all the tourists in Porto and especially in Lisbon.

I think four nights wasn't too many for Lisbon, but three nights in Porto was. It started raining the day after I arrived, and I found there wasn't a whole lot to do there on a rainy day - you don't have a bunch of museums like you have in Lisbon. I had also planned one of those days to day trip out to the Douro Valley by train but when the rain came I didn't really see the point.

I don't think there's any official luggage storage at Coimbra-B or Coimbra train stations - didn't see any, and I try to pay attention to that stuff. You may be able to find a place in Coimbra proper to stow it for a few hours. In Tomar, I left my bags at a hotel across from the train station for a few hours (they refused to take any money for it) - you might do the same in Coimbra if you want to stop off the train there.

Thank you for your input, it seems I am rearranging my itinerary quiet a bit now. When you were in Coimbra did you go to Conimbriga? I am considering doing the same as you, staying in Coimbra for two nights and doing a day trip to Nazare, but I have also heard it is possible to do Coimbra and Conimbriga as a day out of Nazare. A few people have said there isn't a lot to do in Coimbra and a day trip is plenty. Any thoughts?