Help with 10 day Portugal itinerary

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From a Search here- there's a wealth of info. Good luck!

I'd choose to focus on Lisbon and Algarve region with day trips or Lisbon and Porto with day trips. To cover from Algarve to Porto is too much area in 10 days. From there, it will be easier to figure out the rest. For example, Evora/Sintra/Cascais can be day trips from Lisbon (train). Coimbra can be visited on the way to Porto (train). Can take a tour from Porto into the Duoro valley.

As a side note, Viator is not a tour company. They are a 3rd party middleman.

I agree with the other poster to skip the Algarve this trip. You simply do not have time.
You can easily spend that amount of time in Lisbon, Porto and places between.

Evora and Sintra can be done as day trips from Lisbon. Cabo do Roca is a 30 minute stop between Sintra and Cascais. There is a lovely beach outside of Cascais for your beach fix. Guincho is a lovely large beach with lots of walks along the dunes or along the beach itself.

Coimbra is an easy stop between Lisbon and Porto on the train.

10 days.
I would do Lisboa and Coimbra and nothing else.

Thank you all for your suggestions! Here is the newest version of our itinerary.

Wednesday Oct 18, arrival to Lisbon (a.m.) Drop bags at hotel, explore at leisure.
Thursday and Friday explore Lisbon.
Saturday and Sunday day trips to Sintra, Cabo da Roca, Cascais (would like to visit Guincho Beach)
Monday and Tuesday (realizing museums are generally closed on Monday) perhaps tour trip to Evora and/or ?
Wednesday and Thursday, travel to Porto via high speed train. Spend Wednesday night in Porto, come back to Lisbon Thursday via high speed train.
Friday relax in Lisbon.
Saturday Oct 28 fly back home.

Other places that look interesting and maybe doable are Nazare or Obidos. Nazare seems like more of a beach town and it might be pretty chilly so perhaps Obidos would be better. Suggestions? Other areas?

We live within walking distance to a very large university, so we've left Coimbra off our list.

Another question: when purchasing the high speed train tickets online, can we specify which side of the train we would like to sit on? If so, would the coastal, or the inland side be a better view? Thank you!

I think your new itinerary looks good, although maybe cutting Porto a little short. I also liked Evora enough to stay 3 nights, but it does make sense without a car to do it as a daytrip.
Without a car, I would not bother with either Nazare or Obidos.

Coimbra is a pretty cool town, not just about the university. You could consider adding a night to Porto and stopping on the way up to have a 1/2 day in Coimbra.

I don’t think I would go all the way to Porto for one night. If you can’t spare at least two nights, I’d skip it this time. But, with 10 days, doing a couple of nights in Porto seems very doable to me. It’s much preferable to Nazaré.
Nazaré is overrated IMO and definitely not worth the hassle of getting there without a car. You can get your beach fix much closer to Lisbon. Guincho, as you mentioned, is really lovely with the ability to walk the dunes if you want.

Evora is a great day trip. I like it better than Obidos. Obidos is so crowded, it detracts from its charm.

Another possible day trip, closer to Lisbon is Ericeira. But, I’m not certain how easy it is by public transport. In that general vicinity is Mafra Palace, which is pretty amazing. You could possibly do Ericeira and Mafra in a day trip and might find an organized tour.

Queluz palace is also a possibility for a day trip. It’s also quite close to Lisbon.

And, don’t forget Belém. There are enough sites there to fill a day and it’s an easy and short tram ride from central Lisbon.

We’re heading to Portugal in three weeks - I don’t have direct experience to offer on the questions about your itinerary- but what I would suggest based on several trips to Europe with overnight flights is to consider going straight from the airport to Porto - then working your way south. This avoids having to have two separate check in processes in Lisbon on either end of your trip. Also since day one always is a bit of a wash because of jet lag, I’ve found it to be more pleasant to land, take the train to my starting destination which gives you time to adjust to the time change and likely a sleepless night on your flight over.

Thank you all! We will forget about Obidos and Nazare for sure (at least this time). Consider adding more time in Porto and adding in (possibly) one or more of these: Ericeira/Mafra/Queluz/Coimbra as day trips. We had planned on visiting Belem as part of our "explore Lisbon" but now maybe we'll investigate further about spending more time there, before we head over in about a month.

When we went to Portugal in 2019 we had approximately the same amount of time that you will have.
We stayed in Lisbon, took 2 days to explore the city and then took day trips. We went to Obidos, Evora and Sintra .
I thought Obidos was underwhelming and could be skipped. We went to Sintra and visited Sintra National Palace, Castle of the Moors, Quinta da Regaleira and Pena Palace with a guide through Lisbon on Wheels. There are guided tours that can take you to Sintra , Cabo do Roca and Cascais all in the same day. We used the Get Your Guide website. We then traveled to Porto and took a day trip to Coimbra. I don't see that you posted where you're from and what University is nearby , but I would not skip Coimbra. The main attraction there is the University which boasts the Joanina Library ( one of the top 10 most beautiful libraries in the world). There is also a science museum on the Univ. grounds which has medical oddities among its exhibits. Also , in Coimbra they sell Portuguese ceramics actually made in Portugal ( as opposed to China) which were the best ones that we saw throughout our travels in Portugal.

Thank you! We are definitely going to add Coimbra to our visit list.

My favorite wine cellar In Vila Nova de Gaia is Burmester out of 4-5 over 3 different visits. If you have time bus 500 runs from the square across from the McDonalds in Porto takes you sea side to Matosinhos, where the towns people go for their fresh fish restaurants. It’s a double decker public bus and you can see the beaches. We walked back to town on the concrete promenade; you may not have time to do this. I too would recommend a bus guided day trip from Lisbon to include Sintra(Pena Palace ticket included), Cabo da Roca & Cascais. Past trips I have done were an independent day trip & a 2 night Sintra stay. It’s worth the extra money for others to handle all the transportation logistics.

Thank you all! We are getting down to the details and I am wondering what to do on Monday, since I know there are many interesting sites closed in Lisbon on that day. We are considering making our Monday a visit to Cascais/Cabo da Roca/beach day. But I cannot find information about Monday closures in the Cascais area. Will the shops, lighthouse museum, cafes and restaurants be closed on Monday in Cascais? At first I thought we would make Monday our Sintra day but then realized everyone else may do that as well. Thoughts on either Sintra or Cascais on Monday?