Flying in and out of Porto- 9 day itinerary for Lisbon and Porto

Nine full days not counting arrival and departure days? Start in Lisbon, three days Lisbon, 1 Evora, 1 Coimbra, 1 Guimares, 3 Porto.

How many nights will you actually be in Portugal? It's easier to plan itineraries based on nights, not days. It makes sense to take the train to Lisbon when you arrive in Porto and end in Porto since that is where you are flying home from. For Lisbon, I recommend visiting Sintra as a day trip. At a minimum, I would spend 4 nights in Lisbon but I actually think 5 nights is better if you visit Sintra as a daytrip from Lisbon. There is a lot to see and do in Lisbon.

Haven't been to Porto yet so I can't really comment.

In the future, I also recommend flying open-jaw, such as fly into Lisbon and home from Porto. This saves you from backtracking and is more efficient.

Hello and thank you both for your replies! We have nine nights in Portugal we arrive on a Wednesday at 9:45 in the morning. That is the day I thought we would take the train to Lisbon and start there. We leave on a Friday at 1245 PM. Yes I was thinking that I would do a couple of day trips from Lisbon including Sintra. So yes if I could manage five nights in Lisbon I would do that. How would you suggest that I divide my itinerary during that time? Should I use the train to get back to the Porto area? I would have booked an open jaw flight as this would have definitely worked better but we miss an opportunity for a great open jaw with a great price and decided just to save a little money and fly into and out of Porto. We are staying longer than we intended to because of this to allow for extra travel time. Once again thank you so much for any input you can give me! It is much appreciated and very valuable

With such a short time in country and a good bit of time being sucked up by traveling, I’d recommend you first take a good look at Lisbon and Porto in terms of having enough time in each to cover your must-see sites in each city, then if you want and have time, include a day trip from each city. If you have a must-see nearby Lisbon or Porto, factor that in, but not just for the sake of having a day trip. Resist spreading yourselves too thin. That said, as for a day trip from Porto, everyone does the Douro, and it was nice, but once you see the hillsides, perhaps visit a vineyard, and have a river cruise, there’s not much else to it. If you’re not a huge wine/port fan, a full day on the Douro may be overkill. A couple of hours at a port wine lodge in Gaia may do it for you. There’s plenty to fill your entire time in Porto and Lisbon. Trying to cover more territory with day-trips shortchanges both cities,