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Itinerary Help - 14 nights

Posted by (Kansas City) on

Hubby and I booked airfare to Portugal on a whim (we couldn't pass up the price) for Feb 2022. We'll be there Feb 1 - 15 (so 14 nights on the ground). We've never been to Portugal, so this is the rough itinerary we currently have
1 - Flying
2 - 4 - Lisbon (day trip to Sintra one day?)
5 - 7 - Evora
7 - 9 - Coimbra
9 - 11 - Porto
12 ?
13 - 14 - Lisbon
15 - Flying

Should we add or take away time anywhere and where should our free day be given to? We're not opposed to renting a car and we would like to see Sintra and Mafra (daytrips from Lisbon?). We'd love to see the Douro Valley, but aren't sure we have the time for that (thought about doing a day trip from Porto, but not sure if we'd get to see enough to make it worthwhile). Would love some suggestions!

Posted by
511 posts

A Duoro valley day trip from Porto is a good option. The Julie Dawn Fox (expat blogger) website https://juliedawnfox.com/explore-douro-valley/ provides a good overview of what to expect in different seasons -- February will be quite different from summer. I think an organized day tour would be easier than finding out which Quintas are open to the public in February and scheduling them yourself.

A Sintra day trip from Lisbon is very easy on your own. The RS book has good tips for beating the crowds but that is probably not a problem in February. There are also many tours if you prefer.

Posted by
3277 posts

You can take day trips from Lisbon to Evora and Coimbra (1h 30) by direct train. You can also take a direct train from Lisbon to Porto (3h).
To get to the Douro Valley from Porto, take the boat and a train back to Porto. Rick Steves guidebook will tell you how to do this.

Posted by
8329 posts

You don't need three nights in Evora. We did the town on a day trip from Lisbon.
Sintra is a must see, we did on a day trip from Lisbon.

Porto we loved, also, we did a great week long river cruise on the Douro. It was expensive, if you don't wish to do that, take the train up the river to Regua or Pinhao or both for a couple of days. The river valley is amazing.
Also, we did a day trip to Santiago de Compostela across the border in NW Spain.

Posted by
180 posts

It's two nights in Evora - sorry if it's hard to read. We try to not do 1 night stops as it's tiring and we don't get to see as much. I'll do more research to see if it makes sense to daytrip from Lisbon.

We'd love to do an actual cruise on the Douro, but they don't really seem to be running in February so that'll be another time.

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