Hi All! Just booked travel to visit Portugal (arriving March 6th and leaving March 16th). I was hoping to get some feedback/advice on my itinerary as well as some questions I have below. Also a little background into our travel style: My partner and I are in our early 30's. We love doing museums (more so cultural/how people lived/architecture-we like art but aren't the type to spend hours at an art museum). We enjoy going to restaurants/bars/cafe (we like nice restaurants but also love a good cheap sandwich sitting on a park bench while people watching ). We really enjoy staying in areas of a city where it has more of a local feel and we don't mind commuting in via metro/bus to where all the heavy tourism is. For this trip, our goal is to see some historic sites/areas, but also to relax and get lost walking in the city, sit in parks/people watch, and if we can, find some local cultural events.
Here is what I was thinking for our itinerary are would LOVE input. I've been combing the forums here which are super helpful (thank you all!) As an FYI we are flying open jaw into Lisbon and out of Porto. We will be doing the train for our travel in between cities.
Lisbon: Arrive March 6th, leave morning of March 10th
Sintra: Spend March 10th here, leave March 11th
Coimbra: Spend March 11th here, leave March 12th and head to Porto
Porto: Arrive March 12th / leave March 16th
A few questions below:
1) Thoughts on the initial itinerary in terms of the cities and/or time spent in each?
2) We like getting Airbnbs in neighborhoods a little farther out from tourist attractions more where locals live/little less expensive. I saw in Lisbon Principe Real / Bairro Alto might be a good area, what are your thoughts?
3) Is Sintra worth an overnight or should we just head there for the day trip? (I've seen a couple differing opinions). Seeing that we are heading up to Porto, Not sure if it makes sense to to Lisbon - Sintra then back to Lisbon for the train
4) As we are traveling up to Porto thought it would be nice to stop a night in Coimbra. Is this a good city to break up the train or other ones you would recommend?
5) For Porto lodging I was interested in potentially staying in Ribeiro, Clerigos, Aliados - any thoughts on those areas?
6) We wanted to take one day during our time in Porto to do a tour of the Duoro Valley. We found some companies that have packages that will take you there as well as do a boat tour. Worth it or is it something we should explore on our own?
Thank you all!