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Help with itinerary

I am traveling with my husband and two boys (11 year old and 17 year old) to Portugal on June 24th. It is our first time in this country. We are very excited and are trying to plan a good itinerary. So far this is our plan:

June 24th Arrive in Porto at night

June 25-27 Porto and visit Douro Valley or Aveiro

June 28: Rent a car and drive to Arouca hanging bridge then Coimbra visit Coimbra and sleep there

June 29: Drive to Fatima and on the way visit Tomar. Sleep in Fatima.

June 30: Visit Nazareth and continue to see Obidos sleep there.

July 1st: Drive to Sintra visit and continue to sleep in Lisbon

July 2nd and 3rd: Visit Lisbon

July 4th: Drive to Evora visit and at night drive to Algavre

July 4th - July 7th: Relax at the beach and sights Algavre

July 8th: Drive to Seville to fly out of Seville on the 9th

Any comments or opinions are highly appreciated!

Posted by
9 posts

One thing I worry about is the one night hotel stays in Coimbra, Fatima and Obidos. Is that well planned? Or is it better to sleep in only one place and from there see those places plus Tomar and Nazaret? If that is better what would be your base?

Posted by
1654 posts

Way too many one night stays IMO. Find a place in central Portugal and do day trips.

There are lovely beaches in the Silver Coast area. The Algarve will be packed and it’s a long way to go for a beach.

Also, check to see if you can drop the car in Spain without huge drop off charges.

Posted by
6113 posts

I agree as usual with Kathyrn. You have left it very late to find any decent accommodation in the Algarve for peak season. You could easily spend longer in Lisbon without getting bored. Lisbon to Evora to the Algarve is a long day. There are many good beaches closer to Lisbon.

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks for your suggestions!! I will take out of the itinerary some towns like Obidos and Algarve, and also I won’t go to the hanging bridge.
I will try to stay in Fatima 2 nights to see the other surrounding towns from there.

For the beach I found a suite with 2 bedrooms at Pine Cliffs. I think I will reserve that.

Posted by
11052 posts

Dropping off a car in a different country than where you picked up will result in a large drop off fee. We dropped a car off in Porto , took a taxi into Spain and picked up a Spanish rental in Vigo, saving €1000. Taxi was €150.

Posted by
28 posts

Just returned.

Might recommend this

June 24-27 Porto/Duoro.
Note on Sundays everyone goes down to the River to walk the bridges, etc. Music, crafts, touristy stuff to browse, people-watching. Very nice.

Duoro is very beautiful, but focussed on wine/port. Short river cruise for boys? But you can also do this in Porto. Note, you can also tour and taste along the River warehouses in Porto if that is your focus. We loved Duoro and stayed 3 days, but not sure there is much for kids.

June 28 - Arouca/Coimbra (get tix in advance if you want to see Jao library, but VERY crowded with tour groups already in May)

June 29- 30 - Stay in Nazare (on the beach) or surrounding area and day trip to Fatima, Tomar (mabye add Alcobaca and/or Batalha monasteries, add back Obidos?). They are all very close. Mixed opinions on this thread about Nazare, but I liked it.

July 1 - Evora (don't miss bone chapel)

July 2 - 5/6: Drive to Lisbon and drop off car. Take metro/train to Sintra which leaves every hour.

Go early. You use the same metro/train card and from Rossio it is 40 minutes and 3 Euros each. Then either private bus or tuk-tuk to get up to the castles. Very hard to park in Sintra. (Pena, Moor Castle, Quinta Regaleira) Recommend figure out the train ticket (viagem) - before you go. Very easy, we went 2 days in a row.

Note if your boys have any interest in Harry Potter, they may want to visit the "Hogwarts" library in Lisbon. We didn't go in, but there were a lot of folks hoping to see it!
https://www.livrarialello.pt/en/how-to-visit-us

July 5/6 - - July 8th. Take train to Algarve? Pick up car there for a couple of days and leave from Faro? Stretch out the above plan for more relaxing trip/more cities? Train from Lisbon to Seville and stay a couple of days there?

Have a great time! It's a lovely country - and so is Seville!

Posted by
9 posts

Thank you!! Great recommendations!
If I return the car I Algarve where should I do it? In what town? And then taxi or Uber to Seville?