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Advice For Set Itinerary

I posted a couple months ago about where to go in Portugal. Here is our May itinerary which is now set in stone:

3 nights NY
1 night Overnight to Lisbon
4 nights Lisbon (arriving 10am the first day) one day trip to Sintra pre booked
Pick up car 9am and 2 nights Nazar
5 nights Evora (day trip to cork farm pre booked)
4 nights Guarda
2 nights Coimbra (drop car off first day)
2 nights Porto
Fly Home

With the exception of Sintra we will spend our time in Lisbon in Lisbon.

In Evora we plan on a full day in town, a half day at a cork farm and the rest exploring around Evora by car. We may take a day trip to Merida Spain while in Evora.

In Guarda we plan on hiking and visiting small towns. We may take a day trip to Salamanca, Spain.

We will visit the Roman ruins on the way to Coimbre and spend a full day in Coimbre.

We will take an early train to Porto and expect a day and a half there.

What I'd like is suggestions for places you've loved around Evora and Guarda. And how you would best fill a day in Porto.

Sea food lunch and dinner suggestions for Lisbon, Porto, and Nazari would be much appreciated.

Posted by
759 posts

We will be spending four nights in Porto. One of our days there will be a day trip to the Duoro Valley, which is one of the most popular excursions out of Porto.

Posted by
7209 posts

Between Evora and Guardia is Monsanto and the Miradouro do Forno and Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo. Also between those locations are a number of Neolithic burial chambers. Such as, Anta dos Sarangonheiros 1 and Dolmen Cunha Baixa.

An hour from Guardia in Viseu and its Painel de Azulejos, cathedral, and Igreja da Misericórdia de Viseu.

If you head into Spain you could stop in Ciudad Rodrigo to see the plaza mayor, old city walls, and old bridge. None is a must see.

A couple small villages we will be stopping at are Morgaz (buildings have portraits of former owners and residents on them), Béjar (medieval walls), Barco de Ávila (castle and Romanesque bridge).

On the Spanish side of the border near Evora are Zafra, Jerez de los Caballeros, Castillo de Feria (15th century), and Castle Nogales.

Posted by
11614 posts

There are restaurants along the beach in Nazaré.
But we were glad we only stopped for lunch and didn’t stay there, an over touristed beach resort area. This was the only negative place we encountered in Portugal.

Posted by
83 posts

We were in Evora last November and did two day trips with our rental car. Drove to a cork farm/factory tour on our way to see the historic fort and aqueduct at Elvas on the Spanish border. Second trip to visit the monolith/megalith stones and to hike along the aqueduct outside of Evora. Highly recommend both!
BTW. We found a really useful source of info/maps/itineraries at myportugalholiday.com

Posted by
175 posts

You can easily fill a day in Porto either doing one of the excursions out to the Douro Valley or just stay in the city. If staying in the city there are a few sights to see (a church of course) but you can also do a cable car over the river to Villa Porta de Gaia where all the Port Wineries are and do some tours and tasting. You can also ride a trolley car in Porto (Rick's lists a few fave trolley rides in his guidebook) and walk along the riverfront and hang out in any number of cafes. We did a nice 1 hour cruise along the river also.