3 Days in Nazare

In Batalha, Tomar, and Alcobaca the main draws are the monasteries and Convent of Christ. Last week we spent about and hour at each the Batalha and Alcobaca monasteries. The Convent of Christ in Tomar was our favorite because you got to see places within it you don’t get to visit at many monasteries/convents. Unless you’re going to spend the night, Óbidos can be seen in a couple hours. Its main draw are the walls you can walk along. The town’s primary street is clogged with tour groups well into the early evening.

Nazaré is a typical tourist beach town like so many you see in the U.S. The funicular to the upper town where the church is cost 4€ round trip, CASH only. If you want to visit the very small what they call a fort by the lighthouse, where you’d get good views of the huge waves (during the right time of year), it costs a couple euros. For the few minutes we’d be there, we skipped it. There are good views just outside the fort.

We did have a rental car and spent nights in Tomar, Nazaré, and Óbidos.

I use the Rome2rio transportation app for details, then go to the bus service directly for up to date schedules. It works well. Bus to Tomar is 2hours 28 minutes, taxi takes 1 hour. Nazare to Batalha 45 minutes minimum, Nazare to Obidos 1 hr minimum 30 minute drive.
With that said depending on your priorities & vacation goals it is a lot of time in a bus. Nazare looks not too bus transportation friendly. Hope this helps.

I stayed in Nazare in June this year so I could day trip by bus to Alcobaca and Batalha. We were also considering a trip to Obidos, but decided to just hang out in Nazare that day. The bus passes through Alcobaca to get to Batalha so you could see both in one day. You would have to start early (<9am) and I would recommend going to Batalha first. When we were there we didn't leave Nazare until 11, after a relaxing brunch, so visited the sights on consecutive days. Tomar is too far to go for a day trip. The convent is well worth a visits, as is the town. We stayed there for a couple of nights after Nazare. I would suggest you do the same thing if you can fit it in.

A day trip to Alcobaça should be your number one priority. Then Batalha. Obidos is good for about two hours at most. We made the mistake of staying there. As the other posted said, Tomar is too far for a day trip.

Thanks all for your comments! Since we will be in Portugal for 19 nights, starting in Porto and ending in Salema, we decided to cut a day off from our time in Porto and cut a day off from our 3 nights in Nazare. We decided that Tomar was more important for us to see than Batalha, so we removed it from our list. We will take a bus from Porto to Tomar, which arrives in the early evening. We will spend 2 nights in Tomar and then bus/cab to Nazare. From Nazare, we will visit Alcobaca via bus. Last kink to figure out now is if we take a day to bus back & forth to Obidos or try to incorporate Obidos into the day that we leave Nazare and bus down to Lisbon. Any suggestions on that?