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30 Days in Portugal - Itinerary Help

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Hello fellow travelers,

My husband and I just booked our plane tickets to Portugal, 5/27-6/28. We travel to Europe every summer (we're both teachers), but we have never been to Portugal. We plan on renting a car, as well as travel to either Madeira or Azores during our trip. I have been researching a lot, but am kind of at a stand still on starting my itinerary. I need your help!! I don't know if the eastern part of Portugal is worth visiting (it's hard to find any itineraries that include any part of it). We love finding off the beaten path places.

A few things about us: We are in good shape, love to eat and drink, learn about the history, hike, etc. We typically are a go, go, go couple, but are planning to slow it down in Portugal. However, with that being said, if you think we have time, I was considering venturing out to Andalusia for a a few days, but I'm fine if it doesn't work out.

Does anyone have itineraries for such long period of time in Portugal, or has any recommendations for us? Like are there cities/towns that we should just make a day trip out of instead of staying the night? Are there towns that should be skipped? Any hidden gems and beaches?

This is what I have so far, though nothing is set in stone. I had to put Lisbon in the middle of the trip since we are meeting up with friends on a specific date. Makes it a bit more complicated. Our plan is to have a rental car for most of the trip.

Madeira (7 nights)
Porto (4 nights) -Day trip recs please!
Douro Valley (3 nights)
Coimbra (2 nights)
Lisbon (5 nights)-Day trips to Sintra or also stay in Sintra?
Evora (2 nights)
Algarve (5 nights)

Then we will have our last night in Lisbon, since we fly out on day 30.

Thanks for the help!!

Posted by
1 posts

Hi there,
Just joined this site and saw your questions. We are traveling to Portugal 4/15-5/1( then catch a week long cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona…fly home to NC)
We are happy wanderers too and don’t need all guided tours. So far we have booked 4 days( vrbo ) in Lisbon. I’d recommend you look on instagram and follow some portugal travel sites as I’ve already found 8 eateries that sound great. We then rent a car ( from airport ) and drive to Coimbra ( 3 night ) we then drive to Porto x5 nights…again have eateries from recommendations. We meet w friends there and are taking a Duoro valley cruise and wine tasting. We then head to Fatima ( near Nazare- tallest waves in the world ) and visiting Leiria . We will visit around each area ( castles etc). Then back to Lisbon to catch our cruise the following day ( it stops in 3 Spain ports/ Morocco and Provence France ). Hope this TID bit helps. My husband ( retired prof and I retired RN love to research so finding lots to do ). Safe travels…

Posted by
7378 posts

Any itinerary will depend on what you like to see. Some acquaintances of mine drove over to Sevilla for a few days from Portugal and enjoyed it. While it wouldn’t be difficult to spend the entire month in Portugal, I’d carve out about a week of your time and spend it in Extremadura.

In 2023 we spent 3 weeks between Spain and Portugal, starting and ending in Madrid. Our lodging locations were Ávila, Ciudad Rodrigo, Penalva do Castelo, Coimbra, Tomar, Óbidos, Nazaré, Porto, Tui, Baiona, Puebla de Sanabria, La Granja, then back to Madrid.

In 2024 we spent 3 weeks in Extremadura. On one day we drove over to Monsanto, Portugal because we didn’t fit it in on the Portugal trip.

We never went south of Óbidos nor east to the Spain border due to time constraints. We had been in that area years.

You won’t find large waves in Nazaré in the summer, so if you go it’s just to see the town.

Posted by
399 posts

I'm going to jump in here too because I have similar questions.

So far our trip:

June 23 - arrive in Lisbon, go to Sintra (found a sweet VRBO with a pool)
June 26 - meet friends in Lisbon
June 28 - friend group moves to a resort on the Silver Coast so those who golf can golf. I think Obidos is the closest interesting spot for a possible day trip
July 1 - some of the friend group (including us) go to Porto
July 4 - go to . . . ?

Then we are on our own until:

July 16 back to Lisbon before our trip back to Vancouver on July 18.

So I'm filling in July 4 from Porto to July 16. We're not against going to the Algarve, but have been there and are fine to do something else. I'm thinking of flying Porto to the Azores, and from the Azores to Madeira, and then back to Lisbon. My husband thinks we can do something else too. I thought maybe the Douro Valley after Porto for a couple of days.

Open to suggestions and looking at the original poster's ideas.

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