This forum was so helpful for me last November planning a pretty last minute December 8-day trip to Portugal. Can't beat awesome airfare deals in the off season! It's taken me a while but here is our itinerary with our favorites
Day 0/1 – Flew direct from JFK to Lisboa. From the airport we headed to the Sete Rios Bus Station. We took about a 2 hour bus ride west to Évora. In my experience this is actually kinda a great plan for jetlag because you can get a solid afternoon nap that won't mess you up too much ;)
DAYS 1-3 ÉVORA //
For anyone who is worried about weather in December the Alentejo region was beautiful. We experienced sunny 70's during the day, with cooler nights. We spent 2 nights in Évora lazily getting over jetlag (and in my case a cold). It's a beautiful town and we really enjoyed our time there, wandering the cobblestone streets and exploring the greater area some. We did a Wine Tour and Tasting @ Adega de Cartuxa walking the 25 min from our VRBO and passing by the Aqueduct. It was great to know about their wine, because we ended up buying one of their reds regularly at grocery stores throughout the trip! A highlight from our time in Alentejo was going on a Megalith tour with Mario at Ebora Megathlica. We also loved the place we stayed, Casa Resende, with it's cute balcony overlooking red tile roofs.
DAYS 3-8 LISBON with a day trip to Sintra and a half-day trip to Cascais //
Instead of trying to list every single thing we did in Lisbon I'll say my highlights were eating tons of tinned fish and walking around a ton! And I mean a ton! We have to be very mobile exploring Lisbon in my experience. We logged 8+ miles most days and that is with the hills. Many egg custard pastries (pasteis de nata) were also consumed. Alfama is very typical from a tourist perspective, but I really did love walking around this area. For tinned fish you have to check out Miss Can. When I go back I will be bringing at least 10 tins of their Spicy Pickle Mackarel &/or Sardines tins back with me! Cafe Janis was a hip coffee shop near where we stayed with a cool vibe and great food. We went there twice – one day for lunch and another night for happy hour and some amazing fried calamari. Cerveteca Lisboa was a spot we frequented for a break from wine and Principe Real nearby had some good shopping. For Indian food we loved Sanskrar Nepal. Eating in other places is always a highlight!
For our day trip to Sintra I will say this is where traveling in December gets a bit tricky – you don't have as much daylight and it's a bit chillier with the elevation. Sintra requires more planning than anywhere else in our itinerary, I recommend figuring out how you'll get around the town before you get there. We did the Pena Palace and Moorish Castle and wanted to fit in one more spot, but just didn't have the light left in the day. If you go to Sintra they both were awesome, but if I had to pick one the Moorish Castle is really amazing. If Sintra is your thing though it'd be easy to spend 2 days there exploring.
Anyone else have favorite December off-season trips?? Currently (last minute again) brainstorming for this year :)