Itinerary Ideas with a kindergartener?

Portugal: Lisbon, day trips to Caiscais,Sintra (depending on when you go and crowd levels.)
Evora,
Alcobaça, Bathalha, Tomar.
Coimbra
Porto , river boat ride on the Douro.
It sounds like your daughter is a well traveled child. Portugal is a wonderful country,with very friendly locals. You will have to pick and choose what to show her in these locations such as in Evora( skulls.)

We got back from our first visit to Portugal with our 5.5 year old son last week! In our two week itinerary, we did the following:

• Lisbon (four nights); day trip to Sintra with organized group visit/transportation
• Nazare (three nights); picked up rental car on way out of Lisbon. Day trip to Obidos
• Coimbra (three nights); used rental car to make a half-day trip to Roman ruins at Conimbriga
• Porto (three nights); returned rental car upon arrival in Porto

In Lisbon, we went to the Oceanarium and zoo. About 45 minutes north of Lisbon (in Lourinha) there is a park with scale dinosaur models, which we stopped at on our drive from Lisbon to Nazare. Aside from these, we did not find many kid-centric activities. We are from Montana and Nazare was the first time our kiddo has seen or played at the ocean; that is probably where he experienced his most unbridled joy (even in February!)

Re: walking with a 5-6 year old, all of our destinations involved even more walking uphill/downhill than I expected. We had brought our GB Pockit stroller out of an abundance of caution, but did not end up using it once. Our kiddo generally walked more than we expected and got quite a few shoulder rides from his dad.

In another post, someone recommended downloading the Bolt ride app prior to leaving the US, which we did. We used it many times in Lisbon and Porto, as it was so efficient, affordable and convenient for covering more ground than our kid would be able to walk.

Several evenings, we returned to our Airbnb before dinner because our kid just needed to be done for the day. On those days, we used the Glovo app to browse different takeout restaurants in our area to bring back to the apartment. It was an unexpectedly pleasant way to still get to enjoy food in a different city despite being in for the evening.

We had a great vacation overall, and found the Portuguese to be welcoming and accommodating to kids. I think our kid got three separate hair ruffles by strangers.

thanks hollie- appreciate the advice - I know you did four stops, but I am going to limit to three for a variety of reasons.
1. we are "slower" travelers than most
2. I absolutely hate packing and unpacking and prefer being a little simpler.
3. I grew up in Iowa so I get how amazing the ocean is for a little one who doesn't see it (I didn't see it until I was 21) - but we are lucky as we live in NC and go to the beach a lot - so unless the sea side towns are worth it on their own, I don't feel a need to make a beach trip specifically for the beach. That being said, if you were to eliminate one location from your trip, which would have it been?

Scotty, the suggestions from Hollie are very good. I echo the idea of the Lisbon aquarium- it is a wonderful place for a young kid. If I remember correctly, there is a waterfall sculpture very close to the aquarium that I’m sure your 6 yo would find fascinating and a great time to cool off and be out of the summer heat.

Lisbon also has some nice parks and green spaces to explore. Riding the elevators and funiculars, along with a tram are fun ways to get around. Also, has your child ever ridden on a ferry? I enjoyed my quick ferry ride (about 15 minutes) from Lisbon to Cacilhas (fishing village across the River Tejo). It leaves from the Cais do Sodre ferry terminal. Regular river cruises leave from this same terminal. I didn’t do a river cruise here in Lisbon as I saved that for the Douro up North. The Cacilhas fishing village itself is very small with some lovely shops and nice restaurants for lunch.

If you go to Coimbra, I would recommend a day trip to the Roman city of Conimbriga. It’s an interesting side trip for you and a great place for the little one to run around. There is a fair amount of walking out to the various ancient city venues to stretch those legs and burn energy. I didn’t have a car so I took the bus from near the Coimbra train station.

I know you said you didn’t especially need beach time, but a very easy half day trip to Cascais would be fun for the family. It’s a cute town with lovely parks and squares to explore, along with a small beach to dip your toes in the water. The train from Lisbon’s Cais do Sodre station is easy and quick (about 45 minutes).

Food markets, especially fish markets, can be an enjoyable and interesting activity. There are so many fishes and sea creatures that you may not experience in North Carolina but are local to the waters of Portugal.

I can’t give advice about logistics of traveling in Portugal with a youngster except I would again echo Hollie’s advice to have down time during the afternoon or evening. It gets hot in Portugal in the summer so be aware of that factor. Being from North Carolina, you may not be as sensitive to heat as I am living in Seattle.

Planning trips is fun and I’m sure you will come up with a great fun vacation in Portugal. I love the country. 🇵🇹

Scotttyd, re: your question on potentially eliminating one base location out of the four...I am not sure! We could have drawn out our time in Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto with museum time - but our kid is pretty averse to that kind of activity, so adding a night to those cities would probably have felt like we were running out of things to do with him.

If you're interested in staying in a base town and renting a car (and skipping Nazare), I think you'd have good options in central Portugal. We were in Obidos and Alcobaca for very pleasant half days, but didn't get to Tomar or Fatima.