Feedback on trip to Porto, Duoro & Lisbon

My only suggestion is to rebook your. Food tour for day #2. You will be exhausted and a food tour is fun when you are well rested and hungry. Take day 1 to get your bearings, wander a bit, have a casual dinner, go to bed.

I find walking tours on the first evening to be a great way to stay awake. Alan may be right about the food tour, though. Maybe see if there's a straight walking tour available.

Day 2, some other suggestions are São Francisco church, walk across the Luis I bridge (unless you are planning to do that to get to Gaia on Day 4), and visit Jardins do Palácio de Cristal..

Lisbon: I loved the National Tile Museum. The Gulbenkian Museum is world-class, but it's closed for renovation until July 2026. There might be a small area with some highlights from the collection on display. If that's interesting to you, do some research before you make plans.

I also enjoyed the tile museum much more than I thought I would based on what is written about it in guide books.
Wondering why your plan is to only see the outside of the Jeronimos monastery? Yes the outside is interesting, the inside is spectacular. It's much less crowded in the afternoon compared to the morning.

Also agree with moving the food tour to the next day. While I don't know what time difference you will experience, my first day in any European destination is exhausting as I always have evening flights and land in early or late morning and get very little sleep or no sleep on the flight. I suggest rambling around the neigbourhood for a few hours where you will be staying and get you bearings and orientation of how to navigate the city.

Thank you Alan, Lane and Susan for your replies.

We have taken late afternoon/early evening walking food tours on day of arrival many times in our Europe travels - and found them to be a perfect way for us to stay awake and enjoy an easy dinner in a new city, as well as get ideas for other things to see and do early. The wine is an added bonus to help us get a good night’s sleep that first night!

I'll look into the National Tile Museum and the other suggestions - thank you.

Susan – I had read the afternoon lines at the Jeronimos Monastery were very long; we’d definitely love to see the inside if the lines are manageable. As far as I understand, we cannot purchase reserved tickets for a specific timeslot – is that your understanding?

In Lisbon we enjoyed Castelo de São Jorge. Very interesting history and great views of the city. Over in Belem we enjoyed the Coach Museum. We were there June 2024 and found the lines at the Monastery were very low about 1 hour before close. The Maritime Museum was also worth the time (in Jerónimos Monastery building).