I have found great information on this blog for doing our itinerary for upcoming Portugal trip in June (8 June arrival, 15 June departure). Our first time in Portugal!
What I undecided is how much time to allot to Lisbon and how much to allot to Porto.
We want to "sandwich" Fatima in the middle of the week (would like to avoid the big crowds on 13 June). We want to stay overnight at the shrine.
Some say we should spend much more nights in Lisbon as opposed to Porto.
However, that would only leave one full day in Porto.
My wife's solution is spend equal amount of days in both cities, especially because our last night will have to be spent in Lisbon to catch early flight on 15 June.
We love history and sight seeing, but we also like to take easy strolls to explore the simplicities of the places we visit...we want to avoid a rushed, heavy itinerary.
What would be a recommended solution?
Posted by
San Franciso Bay Area, USA
1158 posts
Hi Felix,
Portugal is amazing and I am sure that you will have a lovely time. My husband and I have been twice. This first time two years ago, we flew in and out of Lisbon with an itinerary similar to yours, except we visited Coimbra instead of Fatima. The biggest challenge in flying into Lisbon and the going to the these other cities was that we wasted a lot of travel time. If you can fly into to Porto and out of Lisbon, you won’t have to do so much backtracking. However, if you are like us, flying roundtrip from Lisbon was so much more price effective. So in September 2025, we flew into Lisbon, and then from the airport, either cab or metro to the train station and went directly into Porto. It is a long day, but it saved time by not backtracking.
On an 8 day trip, you may want to look at going to Fatima as a day trip for Lisbon and that would allow you to have a full day in Fatima while maximizing your time in Porto and Lisbon. We did that on our trip in September and had plenty of time in Fatima, including time to attend mass.
On our first trip, we allocated more time to Lisbon than Porto. We absolutely fell in love with Porto, so on our second trip, we spent more time in Porto. To help you make your decisions, look at some videos of each city, review the RS guide book and then based on your interests, you can decide where to allocate your time.
Posted by
Kamloops, BC, Canada
523 posts
On May 9, we were in Obidos, stayed overnight, left Obidos at 9 am May 10, drove to Fatima, arriving at 10 am. We parked in Lot 13 (which was almost empty), did the Way of the Cross which was a few minutes walk away. After the Way of the Cross, we walked a few minutes to the Casa da Lucia, then took an Uber to the outskirts of the main Basilica and spent approximately an hour visiting the square and interior of the Basilica. We were back on the road by 12:30 heading towards Porto. Arrived in Porto at 3 pm. We had packed a lunch to save time.
If you drive to Fatima from Lisbon (not Obidos as we did), you could probably fit in a similar visit to Fatima since Fatima is no more than 2 hours drive north of Lisbon. However, you mentioned that you don't want to rush, so your idea of staying overnight in Fatima would obviously give you more time.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
8440 posts
To expand on what Susan said, there is a lot of free parking in Fátima. The distance between lot 13 and the Casa de Lucia is 1.2 miles. Francisco and Jacinta's House is near it as is the 2nd location where the Angel of Peace appeared. Near those is a free parking lot, if you didn’t want to walk to the houses from lot 13, and from it it’s a 1/4 mile or so walk to the where the Angel of Peace first appeared. The monument to our lady is near the parking area.
When we visited there was no line to enter the Sanctuary, but we visited in September. I will advise that you wear hats and have water with you as there is little to no shade by the sanctuary and I don’t recall any place nearby to get something to drink.