Family Vacation to Portugal (April)

Hi Amy Beth,
this sounds like a great trip. My husband and I did 2 weeks in Portugal this April and loved it. We only did the south though, so I'm afraid I can't comment on Porto. I think the amount of time you have allotted to each should work, although I might consider 1 extra for Lisbon over Porto ( I think it is the bigger city).

Lisbon itself is a great city with lots to see. We overnighted in Sintra, and I would suggest that if you feel you want to see all the castles and gardens there. We stayed very close to a little town, walking distance to Sintra called Sao Pedro, and had a couple of fabulous dinners there. There are a LOT of very steep hills to climb in town, but it really is part of the charm. Frankly I wouldn't bother with an organized tour, as we found some places we enjoyed staying longer and others not so much so. The town is very busy over the weekend, so if you can manage this midweek it will be much more enjoyable. We did see Nazare, but I don't think I would bother taking a day trip unless the weather was fantastic and you wanted a day at the beach. We did not get to Cascais, but it would be faster to get there than Nazare if you felt you wanted to see the ocean
Our apartment was up in the Castelo area, just above the Alfama, and near the Sao Jorge castle. I really liked the area. Good luck with Portuguese, I've always tried to learn a bit, but didn't feel that I made much headway! The young folks all speak fabulous english, and the older folks took french in school though, so it was easy to communicate

Have a great trip.

Hi Amybeth,

We spent two weeks in Portugal in September, six nights in Porto, two nights in Coimbra, and six nights in Lisbon. I think your division of the time you have is good.

In Porto, we spent two days in the town, then did day trips to Braga, Aviero, and Guimaraes. Braga was our favorite of those three, followed closely by Guimaraes. Aviero was nice, but probably not the best choice given your amount of time. Calling it the Venice of Portugal is a stretch of the imagination.

We enjoyed Coimbra, but mainly spent two nights there to also visit the nearby Roman ruins. If only going as a day trip, I'm not sure if I would pick it over Braga. If you do go to Coimbra, I don't think RS mentioned the old Santa Clara monastery ruins in his book. It's just on the other side of the bridge from the old town and was our favorite site there.

For the day trip to Sintra, very easy to do on your own. But I'd highly recommend being on an early train from Lisbon so you're in Sintra for the first bus leaving the train station. We were early enough that the crowds weren't too bad at Pena Palace and the castle, but by the time we were leaving, there were hoards of people around. We didn't really enjoy the National Palace as much because it was so crowded by early afternoon.

We went to Cascais after seeing the sights in Belem, which was pleasant enough for an hour or two. We really enjoyed the Queluz Palace which made for a good half day trip from Lisbon. It's on the same train line as Sintra and a short walk from the station. It's a beautiful Palace that's been recently renovated. We also enjoyed taking the ferry to the other side of the river and then the bus up to the Christo Rei statue. The views of Lisbon are excellent. Before taking the ferry back, we had a fresh fish lunch which was one of our favorite meals.

Hope this helps.

Neil

I think the time you spend in Porto depends on your interest in port wine. The one day guided tour to the Douro will be beautiful and will take a whole day. If you like port wine, you must visit at least 2 of the port houses across the river from Porto in Vila Nova di Gaia (you can walk there across the bridge from the ribeira area of Porto). These are a must do in my opinion, but then I love port. There are some nice places to eat on either side of the river, so you split your port houses tours by having lunch in between. It's very picturesque by the river on either side. I have not been to Braga but will be in Porto in June and intend to see Braga and Guimares. I have spent limited time in Coimbra and am not sure that's worth your limited time. You likely will have more activities to do in Lisbon, so despite my love of Porto, you might want to add that full day to Lisbon.

I did Sintra on my own by taking the train and then the bus that runs you up to the castle. I also think that a trip across the river in Lisbon to Cacilhas is great. You catch the ferry at the ferry station close to Cais do Sodre station. You can have a nice seafood lunch in Calcilhas and then see the statue of Christ. We were 3 adults and split a lunch for 2 people and it was more than enough food for us.

On another trip, we had a car and driver for the day and started our day by going to Sintra, followed by lunch on the coast, then a stop in Cascais, and Estoril, quick stops at Torre de Belem and the Padrao dos descobrimentos followed by a stop for pastry at the Antiga Confeitaria de Belem (who apparently invented a wonderful pastry - be prepared to line up, or eat inside at a table).

There are more museums and sights in Lisbon than in Porto, I would skip the day trip to Cascais in favour of more sightseeing in Lisbon but I have not done a private full day tour of Lisbon. It may be that you can cover enough ground in that one day to be able to spend some time in Cascais.

In Lisbon, I've also done an afternoon walking tour of the downtown area and also taken the hop on hop off bus tours. I did enjoy the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Belem. We got there on the local train from outside Cais de Sodre train station. I also think you would enjoy eating lunch at the Mercado da Ribeira where many leading chefs have food booths. There are communal long tables in the centre where you can take your food to eat. This is fairly new (opened in 2014) and very popular.

Thank you so very much for the wonderful advice and helpful suggestions.

My wife and I are also planning a trip for April. I am busy trying to patch together workable Portuguese via Duolingo App and a Portuguese based Skype Tutor.
My question regarding housing is AirBnB verses cross-pollination.com. Rick recommends the latter, but the former has a lot more possibilities.
What are your (plural) thoughts

Dennis

We used Homeaway for apartments in Lisbon and Porto and were very happy with both.

In Lisbon, it was Rental 841261, and in Porto it was Rental 854456

I advise at least three full days in Lisbon, not counting day trips. My wife and I did a Porto-Coimbra-Nazare-Tomar-Evora-Cascais-Sintra-Lisbon (whew!) over 16 nights in 2008, and it was one of our best trips ever (we have done around 15 Europe trips over the years). Sintra is definitely worth a two night stay; you are really not doing it justice if you only do a day trip. For Cascais I advise day trip only, as my experience was that the hotels were horrible value and very scrungy for the money. Portugal is a country where it's worth it spend a little more for a hotel as the budget options can be pretty poor in quality, at least based upon our experience.