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Finalizing itinerary: Would love your advice!

Posted by on

Hello,

My husband and I are travelling to Portugal this summer, flying in and out of Lisbon. We will be in Portugal from July 22 and flying out on August 4th. We are hoping to travel by train, and previously thought we would include the Algarve, but in the end, due to time limits, we have narrowed our itinerary down to Lisbon and Porto, with stops along and around the way. We look forward to it!

We would appreciate your input as to whether our itinerary is doable and well-planned, as we hope to book our accommodations (we have thus far only booked our stay for Lisbon for the first 3 nights).

July 22nd: Arrive in Lisbon, spend three nights in Lisbon, including a day trip to Sintra.
July 25th: Take the train or the bus to Evora in the morning, stay the night in Evora.
July 26th: Leave Evora, and take train or the bus to Lisbon and then train to Tomar, stay two nights in Tomar.
July 27th: Explore Tomar (stay the night).
July 28th: Take the train to Porto (stay 4 nights, base would be in Porto, going on a one day trip to Douro Valley and one to either Guimaraes or Braga).
August 1st: Take train to Coimbra (stay two nights).
August 3rd: Take train to Lisbon, stay the night in Lisbon.
August 4th: Fly back home.

Please let us know if this is doable, if the transport is feasible and if the numbers of days allocated are sufficient to get a feel for these places.

Thank you!!

Posted by
1826 posts

Something to remember is that two nights in a place is really only one full day - and one night is just a few hours to really explore...
One night in Evora is not really enough and two nights in Tomar is more than you need IMO. And, Lisbon really deserves more than three nights - two days - especially with a day trip to Sintra.
Even though I like Tomar, unless you are really into the Knights Templar stuff, I would drop it and add another night to Evora and Lisbon.

And, with four nights in Porto plus day trips to the Douro and Guimarães, that only leaves one day for Porto. I recently spent 5 nights in Porto with no day trips and it was just about right.

Your transport is doable and I would suggest the trains. If you book your tickets up to 30 days in advance, you get a 40% discount. The website is cp.pt
I understand the wish to see as much as possible, but you will enjoy it more if you slow down a bit.

There is a great Megalith tour in Evora and GoWalks Coimbra does a great walking tour of the town. Both are very reasonably priced and were highlights of my first trip to both places.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for your input! I just added a night to Lisbon as you suggested (even though we are also getting back to Lisbon on the 3rd but maybe it wouldn't be early enough for much exploring depending the time we get there). We will also skip Tomar for an extra night in Evora, which makes a lot of sense. I am wondering if getting from Evora to Porto is easy since Tomar will be removed from the itinerary. Would the travel from Evora to Porto be basically via train with a transfer in Lisbon?

I would love to also know more about the tours that you did! Thanks again!

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