Nazare, Obidos, Coimbra (day tripping out of Lisbon)

We stayed 10 nights in Portugal in Aug 2023, staying in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Porto, taking hi-speed train between these cities. Regarding Coimbra, we enjoyed our 2 night stay. Our trip report might be useful reference: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-portugal-aug-sep-porto-coimbra-lisbon-then-to-spain

Thanks Geoff! I'll check it out

From Lisbon you can easily take day trips to Sintra, Cascais (both by short train ride).
Obidos is also an easy day trip by bus (one hour each way). Just take a a Uber to the Campo Grande bus terminal (near the Sporting Lisbon stadium) then take the bus with the Rodoviaria do Oeste company (purchase tickets on board). The bus journey (all on a freeway) is about one hour each way.
Coi bra is a bit farther, so it would make sense to spend the night there. You can take a train (Intercity or Alfa Pendular high speed) from Lisbon to Coimbra at the Santa Apolonia station or also from Lisboa Oriente station (the train stops there after Santa Apolonia) although Orient is more to the north closer to the airport, so it depends where you are in Lisbon.
I have not been to Nazarè, but it’s a bit north of Obidos.

Coimbra has much more to see than Obidos, so in that way may be worth an overnight trip. However Obidos is closer to Lisbon if you are trying to get back to the airport for a flight. We stayed one night in Obidos at the end of a trip and enjoyed it. Obidos was very busy during the day, but quieted down at night.

To me, Óbidos can be seen in a couple hours. Naaré is a typical beach town and depending on what you want to do there it can be seen in a day. Because of the time of year you’re going there may be less to do as some shops and restaurants may be closed and you won’t be spending much time walking along the beach. The upper town can be seen in a couple hours. Coimbra is the largest of the places you mentioned. It was nice to walk around and we enjoyed the University tour.

I can’t speak to day trips from Lisbon as we had a rental car and spent nights in each place. The one place I don’t feel is worth spending a night is Óbidos.

We did an 8 day Lisbon —> Porto trip.

I really wanted to see Sintra, Obidos and Nazare, much like you… the best decision of my trip was to hire a private driver from Lisbon to Coimbra with stops at all 3 cities above… didn’t have to worry about parking, or driving. He dropped us off, and picked us up at a set time. (Edit: we had a reservation to rent a car, and the driver was only double that cost, with no tolls, gas or inconvenience)

we had plenty of time at each stop (had to hustle a bit) and spent the night in Coimbra, which i would highly recommend. the university tour the next day was a highlight.

Then took the high speed train the next day to Porto.

Happy to give any details you may want.

We rented a car for the Porto area trip, but while we were sleeping in Lisbon, we used a nearby tour bus (gasp! ... ) company to go to up to three sights a day. It was low effort, no navigation duties, long days, efficient, good guides. We have no problem with being told, "Now is your 45 minutes of free time." In some cases, like Fatima, the guided tour was enough; we were ready to leave before our free time was up.

We took the train to Sintra, then local busses or walking.