Hello all-
Great forum, been reading it for a while.
Need advice on an upcoming trip starting on March 12th until the 20th.
Plan is to stay 3 nights in Lisbon with a day trip to Sintra. Hotel in Lisbon we are looking at is the Internacional Design Hotel. Would this be a good hotel to explore Lisbon???
Plan is to then rent a car and drive to Lagos for 2 days and drive around the western Algarve. Any recommendations for a good hotel central to restaurants and bars in Lagos.
We then drive to Evora for 1 night before heading back to Lisbon.
This is a last minute trip and we really have no firm plans
Thanks for your help in advance!
Barry and Lorraine
Our first visit to Portugal will be in October of this year, so you have a seven month head start on us.
I do have one suggestion for your consideration although I cannot verify the excellence of it.
Having recently attended the annual Rick Steves' "Test Drive a Tour Guide" event in Edmonds, Washington , we had the pleasure of meeting Cristina Duarte, a tour guide from Lisbon, who leads some of the RS tours in Portugal. Cristina has her own tour company in Lisbon.
RS is a believer in hiring local guides to maximize the experience of a visit, and I agree with that idea. We have done so in several locations throughout Europe and have found it to be a very worthwhile expenditure of time and money.
We booked her associate (Pedro Lourenco) for a walking tour of Lisbon during our upcoming visit.
If this is of interest to you, here is a link to Cristina's site, called "Lisbon and Beyond"....
Much though I love the Algarve for a summer beach holiday, I wouldn’t waste so much time of my holiday getting there to and from Lisbon (half a day or more each way) in March, when the weather is likely to be cool, windy and possibly wet. What do you want to see in the Algarve? The boat trips to the caves may not be running.
Evora is certainly worth an overnight stay.