Madeira and Mainland Portugal Itinerary Help

Posted by heatherwolf02 (Bellingham, WA) on 02/07/19 11:32 PM

My husband and I will be traveling to Portugal for the first time for 2 weeks in early October. I am trying to put together an itinerary and would appreciate any feedback or advice on the following tentative itinerary:

Fly into Porto and spend 2 nights
1 night Belmonte? or other location between Porto and Evora
2 nights Evora
2 nights Lisbon
5 nights Madeira
2 nights Lisbon and then fly home from Lisbon

I am not sure if we should spend 3 nights in Porto and skip Belmonte or choose another town and am wondering if this is a good itinerary in general. We enjoy visiting historic sites, museums, eating and wine tasting.
Thank you

Posted by princess pupule

martinez, ca, usa

02/08/19 05:22 AM

2299 posts

hey heatherwolf02
an option is to fly to madeira first, do your 5 days then come back to porto and follow your itinerary, not breaking up lisbon portion and keeping lisbon to 4 straight days. we had a cruise stop in madeira, absolutely gorgeous island. we booked a tour with nelson gomes taxi tour (was a mother/son business, madeiratraveltaxi.com) went to camara de lobos, a fishing village, to the highest seacliff for view, down to nun's valley, to monte if you want to ride cable car and around the corner to wicker toboggan ride down hill. yes it's touristy but we're tourists and had a fun time. drop you off at bottom, taxi met us, but if on your own taxi fare to town. oh well i'm on vacation. dropped us off in town to shop or have lunch glass of vino before getting back on ship. fun fun fun day. another person is luisabreu97@hotmail.com that is private tour taxi.
check getyouguide.com has tours for east and west side of island.
walkingtoursfunchal.com learn the history about funchal
blandy's wine lodge
madeirasidecarstours.com
madeirafoodonfoot.com

afriendinportugal.com
portoalities.com
getyourguide.com
withlocals.com
pasteisdebelem.com
lisbon-chillout-freetour.com
discoverwalks.com
you'll have a great and fun time, my friend is from portugal and i'm half portugese. walk around the towns, enjoy what they have to offer. hope this can get your started.
aloha

Posted by geovagriffith

02/09/19 12:03 PM

7641 posts

We saw Evora on a day trip from Lisbon. It is a small city and you can do it in a day.

We stopped in Madeira for a day while on a cruise and loved it. Not sure that I would want to spend five days there.

The island is very scenic and I recommend going up a mountain to view the island.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

02/09/19 08:09 PM

27062 posts

I have twice spent 4 or 5 days in Madeira and think it is definitely worth that much time if you enjoy rural walks and scenery. There is great variation of terrain and vegetation, and the paths along the irrigation canals (levadas) take you to many great views. I believe there's at least one company that leads guided walks along the levadas. It's not necessary to have a guide, but it would be helpful at the selecting-a-route stage (a few being not good for those with a fear of heights), and the company provide transportation to and from the walk so you don't have to figure out the bus routes or hire a taxi.