Help with planning a 3-week trip to Portugal

We did not care for Nazare. Visit it but then stay in Obidos or Alcobaça before traveling to Coimbra. Coimbra may need more time.

Thank you.

We are considering Nazare less because of what it has to offer, but more as a base for travel around central Portugal. Looking at the map, it looks like stay at Obidos would increase travel times to the other places we would like to visit.

Rick's book does not mention options for stay in Alcobaca. Do you have any suggestions?

I enjoyed Nazaré more than Óbidos and felt it had more restaurant options. It also doesn’t shut down when the day trippers leave. If you leave Lisbon early enough you could visit Óbidos and Alcobaca en route to Nazaré.

What I don’t understand is heading north to Porto only to backtrack and head south to Lagos and the Algarve.

Thank you.

We will be traveling with our luggage (a carry-on sized bag & daypack) between our base cities. So, sightseeing en-route would not work.

We read that The Algarve can still be crowded (and hotels more expensive) in early September. We realize that it traveling there from Porto is backtracking, but thought that visiting later in September might give us a more "peaceful" experience. We are open to rearranging our itinerary.

I think you have some pretty long treks to get from Porto to Lagos, and then again from the Algarve to Evora with public transport. I love Evora, but unless you can give it more than one full day ( I see two nights?) I would consider dropping it.

I'm also not sure about your number of daytrips from Nazare. I think you are backtracking from Nazare by quite a bit to get to Obidos. Day 8 is only doable if you have a private driver in my opinion. I'm wondering if Nazare is the best home base, or if something like Fatima might be more central.

I think the time you have allocated to Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra is perfect.

Based on advice shared we have reworked our itinerary. Please can you tell us if this would work.

• Day 1 to 5 - Lisbon, including a day trip to Sintra
• Day 6 - Travel to Lagos
• Day 7 & 8 - The Algarve
• Day 9 - Travel to Evora
• Day 10 - Evora
• Day 11 - Travel to Fatima (base city to tour central Portugal)
• Day 12 - Day trip to Obidos , Alcobaca & Batalha
• Day 13 - Day trip to Tomar
• Day 14 - Travel to Coimbra
• Day 15 - Coimbra
• Day 16 - Travel to Porto
• Day 17 to 19 - Porto, including visiting the Douro Valley (1 day) & a day trip to Guimaraes & Braga
• Day 20 - Return to Lisbon

We are not averse to using a private car for traveling around the central Portugal (Obidos, Alcobaca, Batalha & Tomar). Would using Uber or Bolt be a feasible and less expensive option?

Thank you.

Reported Best Cycling for promoting its business

In 2023 I traveled solo by public transportation and some guided tours out of Lisbon. You might think about doing something similar for the Nazare, Obidos, Fatima portion of your trip. Lisbon Riders did an excellent job IMHO. Here is a portion of the description in my trip report for this tour. Tours may eliminate or at least pare down your transportation issues.

“This day (10/5) was devoted to a tour by Lisbon Riders to Fatima, Obidos and Nazare. Our guide, Tanya, is a tiny little thing packing a big punch. I think she really loves her job because she was so animated talking about the huge waves and surfing scene of Nazare. Our small group of about 12 appreciated her concern at every stop of where the restrooms were and she gave tips on the good restaurants. Unfortunately, due to it being a holiday, some of us were quite challenged to find good restaurants open in Nazare. We were up on the hill in Sitio, so maybe it was different down by the beach.

Fatima was interesting what with the walking on the knees up to the church and all but, since I’m not particularly religious, I couldn’t understand the need to do that. Inside the church was beautiful and the tombs of the three children who experienced the Virgin Mary were lovely.

In Obidos, Tanya pointed out the ancient wall and where we could walk around the town if we chose to and after we tasted some ginjinha in a chocolate cup, she just let us loose to explore for about an hour or so. Obidos is a cute town with beautiful flower shaded back roads and streets but it is pretty touristic. I’m simply amazed at how some vehicles navigate the narrow streets in Portugal though. Obidos has its share of narrow roads and pathways.“

Also wanted to say that September is considered by most people as late summer and I’m not entirely sure the crowds in the Algarve will have died down by then, even late September you will have plenty of visitors in the area.