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Advice for days apart from Lisbon and Porto

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My husband and I are going to Portugal for 10 full days of sightseeing in March 2026.. We are in our 60's, good health, with knees that get sore after 4 miles of walking. We will be in LIS for 3 full days and Porto for 2-3. We like eating good food, seeing beautiful sights, being outdoors, light hiking, interacting with locals, exploring culture.. I've traveled all over the UK, Japan, France and western Europe and am very comfortable with public transport. We've rented a car in Ireland X2 and France without issues. We are middle income people, like a good beer or glass of wine too.

Apart from the 2 big cities we are discussing renting a car for 4 days after our time in LIS and before staying in Porto. , vs just busses/trains and where to go for this first trip to Portugal
Cities of interest and up in the air:
1. Sintra
2. Evora
3. Nazare
4. Coimbra
5. Tomar
6.Obidas
7. Nazarre
8. Douro valley

Any recs on rental car vs public transport in March and how to see 4-5 cities in 4 days without a frenetic pace. Where to base ourselves after Lis and prior to Porto. Thanks so much!

Posted by
8259 posts

Óbidos can be seen in a couple hours and given your time constraints, Nazaré could easily be skipped. When we visited we spent four nights in Tomar and took a couple day trip, three nights in Coimbra, one night in Óbidos and two nights Nazaré. Tomar and Coimbra would be my choices. Evora is nice but visiting it takes you a couple hours further east and you’d need to backtrack to get to back to the other places.

Where you decide to visit should depend on what you want to see in each place. Fortunately, distances between sites aren’t terrible and one can enjoy stops en route to the next lodging location if you choose a rental car option. We had a rental car.

Posted by
515 posts

In May 2025 we spent 2 nights in Coimbra en route to Porto from Lisbon driving a rental car. We enjoyed our visit to the university and spent most of our first day visiting the various buildings including the library and Museu da Ciencia. Wonderful 9€ pp lunch (buffet including several choices of hot and cold dishes, veg & meat, dessert, wine & coffee) at the Cafeteria near the Museu da Ciência. We thought that 2 nights was enough to see the main sights and more. We also stopped at Tomar for a few hours to visit the Convent of Christ which was one of the highlights of our trip. Definitely enjoyed people watching at an outdoor table in the shade at Café Paraiso (RS guidebook recommendation).
While in Porto, consider taking a Viator day trip of the Douro valley. We were very happy with our chosen day trip as it included wine tasting at a vineyard, a 45 minute river cruise and a wonderful lunch accompanied by plentiful servings of wine at another vineyard. In our opinion, the extra cost of renting a car was worthwhile for the flexibility it provides in terms of timing and destinations.

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