Give me the real true: 3 week mostly driving trip in late October, thru mid November.

Hi Carole, here's a link that says spring is the best time to go to PT: https://www.audleytravel.com/us/portugal/best-time-to-visit#mar-may.

Check some of the historical weather calendars for the dates you have in mind. Look at past 5 years and aim for ones that include precipitation. I liked wunderground for a long time but it's changed and harder to use. Often doesn't have historical data for areas of interest....but that may be my obscure places of interest. I was in Sintra and the coast on Dec 27. Up on the cobbles, it was a little frosty but by afternoon I was in t-shirt on the coast and Lisbon. I don't know the altitude of the north. If similar to Madrid, then weather may be variable between 40-60F

Actual, day-by-day, historical weather data is available from timeanddate.com. That link will take you to Porto's statistics for November 2020. Check multiple years; I like to look at the most recent five years. For precipitation I confess to using the climate chart in most cities' Wikipedia entries.

I wouldn't travel to Europe in November because I hate the short days; plenty of folks aren't bothered by that. Northern Portugal can be rather wet at that time of year, though, so you may have a fair number of days that are cool, wet and gloomy. On the other hand, you might be lucky and have really good weather and few other tourists to share it with.

If you started the trip the beginning of October, you could have good weather for most of the trip. I’ve lived here since fall 2105 and October is one of my favorite months - but we do see a bit of rain in the later part of the month.
Starting in the north is good because it does get colder. A number of years I haven’t retired my sandals for the winter until November. Even the cold of November isn’t that cold, but November will have some dreary days with rain. It almost never rains an entire day. The typical rain is for a few minutes then clearing skies.

Spring also has rain! The only time you would be unlikely to see rain is June - September.
Good luck with your decision but bear in mind Portugal’s tourist industry has really suffered with COVID and would really welcome you - sooner rather than later!

Carolyn posted this trip report after her visit in November 2018. I found it very helpful in planning my time in eastern Portugal with a car, in which she does include the weather she had and how it affected (or not) her trip.

My trip was in June 2019. I had a car for 10 days Evora, Elvas, Castelo Rodrigo, Regua, Tomar) and another 13 days by train (Aveiro, Porto, Lisbon, Sintra).

thanks for all the input. I am now thinking of putting off Portugal until next springish, and instead we will do Spain, perhaps Barcelona down the coast and end in Seville, and then a quick flight to Lisbon before heading home. I am sure a taste of Portugal will only make the spring trip sweeter.

Carole, another option is to go to PT in the summer when you can visit the Algarve too. I would sleep in Salema, probably Europes most glorious beach and take a direct bus to Lagos for a day and rent a car another day and drive to Tavira (1h 30m).