Our 1st trip to Portugal, we have 22 days in country and will be using public transport. Our tentative itinerary is:
Lisbon 6 days
Madeira 3 days
Evora 2 days
Merida, Spain 2 days
Caceras 2 days
Salamanca 2 days
Porto 3 days
Coimbra 2 days.
Would love to go to Madeira, but not sure it worth it for 3 days, thinking of skipping that that and spending an extra day in Porto with a day trip up Douro Valley and a couple of nights in Tomar.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Berkshire - Are you flying into Lisbon and flying out of Porto or flying in and out of Lisbon? You can skip Madeira and add a day to Porto and another day to explore Douro Valley.
Flying into and out of Lisbon
Do you have 22 NIGHTS or 22 days?
That's a lot of 2 night stays which means only 1.5 days at best in those locations. You also have some rather long travel distances between locations.
Will you fly from Salamanca to Porto?
If you are flying home from Lisbon you will need to be in Lisbon the night before your flight. To avoid that single night stay you might consider heading out to first destination when you arrive- and putting all your Lisbon nights together at end of trip. 1 less hotel change.
Is it possible to modify your flight plan so that you fly into Porto and out of Lisbon to avoid wasting time going back to Lisbon to fly out after starting your trip in Lisbon. Geographically, it makes sense to work your way up to Lisbon from Porto.
22 days, 23 nights, 24 including overnight flight to Portugal. Lisbon, Evora, Merida, Caceres and Salamanca are fairly close to each other, as are Porto and Coimbra, so we would have close to two full days in each. Leaving Lisbon until the end so we don't have a single night there before our flight is a good idea. Thanks.
Have you checked out the public transport between Spain and Portugal? I’m not aware of anything other than buses between the two countries and they take quite a long time. I would also encourage you to do significant research on public transport between the cities in Spain. As they are smaller places, the public transport may not be as quick and easy as you would like.
I agree with the other poster about the two night stays. You will be spending so much of your time moving around, I’m concerned you won’t have time to relax and enjoy the areas you are visiting.
I would not make the trip to Madeira. There are so many things to see in mainland Portugal without making an extra flight.
The Douro Valley is amazing. We did a great 7 night cruise the river in 2016.
Salamanca is great. You can see it in one day. Evora, you can do on a day trip from Lisbon. Also, do you plan to see Sintra, Obidos and Bathila Cathedral?
Thanks for advice. We did decide to skip Madeira and are seeing Sintra and Obidos. Have checked busses between Portugal and Spain and they are ok.
