Need Advice for Exploring Northern Portugal

We are going to northern Portugal in March 2023. We will be travelling by train/bus which is influencing our itinerary.

From Porto we are heading to Braga. My sister recommended Braga over Guimaraes as she said it is more walkable than Guimaraes and is a larger town so has greater hotel choice. We will do a day trip to Guimaraes from Braga.

After Braga we are heading directly north to Vigo or Pontevedra in Spain for a couple of nights and then on to Santiago de Compostela for three nights. There is a lot to see in this part of Spain and we are also going to A Coruna and Lugo in this general region and then heading along the coast to Oviedo on the narrow gauge FEVE railway.

Salamanca and Zamora will require you to either head south from Porto via Guardia for Salamanca, or north from Porto via Braganca for Zamora. We will be visiting Salamanca much earlier in our trip (plan to spend three nights there) but not Zamora. While it looks to be a nice town, Salamanca has been much more highly recommended.

Hi

I prefer Braga because it's bigger has more choice of hotels/ restaurants, more public transit options and is more centrally located to explore the north.
Both have historical/religious monuments (ex: Braga - Bom Jesus, Guimarães - Castle) and relatively small pedestrian only area in their core.

A car gives a lot of flexibility and depending on your interests you can go along the coast ( from Porto) southbound to Aveiro or northbound to Viana do Castelo and Monção for beach/ocean views.
If you're into nature a short distance north of Braga is the National park of Peneda Geres.
North of Braga is also Vinho Verde region (green wine).
South of Braga is the Douro valley where the grapes for Port wine come from.
Usually in September is when the grape harvest occurs, the grapevines are at their best, great time to experience it - it's called Vindima.

Happy travels

Thank you AussieNomad and autopone for your very rapid responses. This helps a lot. I'm hoping others will also chime in with their input.

I would discourage anyone from spending the night in Vigo unless transportation absolutely required it. It's a comparatively dull city with little historic architecture. Pontevedra is much nicer.

dennis.m, I’m sending you a PM.

Thanks acraven, vigo is off our list.

We left Braga this morning and enjoyed our two-night stay. Had a really excellent meal at Cante and stayed at the Burgus Tribute & Design Hotel. Town is very walkable. The churches are interesting. Even the bus to Bom Jesus do Monte made for an interesting morning. Psst, funicular up, walk down!

We chose Guimares and recommend it for your stay. It was Podtugal’s first capital city, filled with history, a castle too. We stayed right downtown, loved it. We also visited Ponte de Lima and Viana do Castelo. We crossed the border into Galicia with a major focus on Santiago de Compostela. First we picked up a Spanish rental car in Vigo, do not spend time there, and headed to lovely Baiona. Baiona isvwhere one the Columbus’ ships, the Pinta, returned to from New World. We stayed on the water at the very nice Parador and then drove through the Rias Baixas to O Grove.
Finally spent several days in Santiago de Compostela on the main plaza at the Parador which was founded as a hospital by Isabel and Ferdinand. We could watch as the pilgrims completed their journeys. This was part of a six week trip from Lisbon to Barcelona and one of our favorite parts. We had a Portuguese rental car and a Spanish one. Took a taxi across the border to save 1000€!

Our home base was Ponte de Lima to explore the Minho since originally we had planned a day trip to Santiago de Compostela, that is until Covid and then we decided to stick to one country. Small town, but very pleasant in the evening after day tripping, to walk along the river and look at the stars. I have a fondness for the town. At least stop for lunch, if nothing else.

Edit to add: Take a look at Julie Dawn Fox blog. She covers the towns in Northern Portugal.

We've stayed in both Guimaraes and Ponte de Lima and enjoyed both. Quinta da Agra in Ponte de Lima is beautiful in spring, it's a complex dating back to 1500's, in same family since 17th Century, making vine.
Turkeys eggs for breakfast, from the turkeys wandering next door, fresh bread...amazing host. Wine is very good as well. We're already booked for a return in 2023.

The Fortaleza de Valença is about 45 minutes north of PDL on Spanish border and shouldn't be missed. Huge fort/castle/walled village. Nice for walking around, but try and go early.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/portugal/valenca-do-minho/attractions/fortaleza-de-valenca/a/poi-sig/1614887/1314927

Thanks again to all the responders for their great suggestions. Several have suggested heading further north from Braga towards Ponto de Lima, Valenca/Fortaleza de Valença, etc. and even crossing into Spain at Valenca. These options look interesting but I don't think I will have enough time to do that and also visit Salamanca, Spain. So I guess I will have to make a decision for one or the other option. We will only have five nights on the road after we leave Porto. Our current plan is to spend 2 nights in Braga (some have suggested staying in Guimaraes), and 3 nights in Salamanca. If we drop Salmanca off our itinerary, it would give us more time to explore northern Portugal. I will be researching cities mentioned and points of interest to try and make a decision soon. I'll reply to this post when I've made my choice. As already suggested, I've started looking at Julie Dawn Fox's blog. It looks like there's a lot of info there. Thanks to Gail for that tip. Happy travels.