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Help with planning a 3-week trip to Portugal

Posted by on

My wife and I are planning to visit Portugal (flying into and out of Lisbon) in September for a 3-week trip. We will not be renting a car and plan to use the bus and train network for travel to base cities, and then take day trips using public transportation or private car/Uber/Bolt, which ever is most time efficient.

This is our tentative itinerary, deferring travel to The Algarve towards the end of September to avoid the summer crowds.

  • Day 1 to 5 - Lisbon, including a day trip to Sintra
  • Day 6 - Travel to Nazare
  • Day 7 - Day trip to Obidos and Alcobaca
  • Day 8 - Day trip to Batalha, Fatima & Tomar
  • Day 9 - Travel to Coimbra
  • Day 10 - Coimbra
  • Day 11 - Travel to Porto
  • Day 12 to 15 - Porto, including visiting the Douro Valley (1 day) & a day trip to Guimaraes &Braga
  • Day 16 - Travel to Lagos
  • Day 17 & 18 - The Algarve
  • Day 19 - Travel to Evora
  • Day 20 - Evora
  • Day 21 - Return to Lisbon

We would appreciate your insight and suggestions.

Thank you.

Posted by
12104 posts

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

Posted by
3 posts

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?

Posted by
8352 posts

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.

Posted by
3 posts

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.

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