Portugal in 13 days

Hi Michele,
My wife and I are currently in day 15 of a 17 day trip though Portugal, and I would offer a couple of suggestions (we're in our 60's but still like to be fairly active).

We enjoyed Porto, but liked the upper Douro valley more. I'd recommend reducing your time in Porto, and staying a couple of nights in a place like Pinhao. A day trip up the valley doesn't do it justice, especially if you're going to be there in grape harvesting season. If you don't mind a little extra moving around, I'd recommend stealing a day each from Porto and Coimbra, and adding two nights in Pinhao.
We found Obidos charming, but the three hours of parking I paid for were an hour more than we needed. If you're traveling by public transportation, I'd say it's expendable. Sintra, on the other hand, is worth a full day, and easy to get to. I didn't visit Tomar, so I can't comment on it.

I hope you enjoy Portugal as much as we have!

I think Obidos is a place I visited, along with Batalha and perhaps another town, via a one-day tour. It is the kind of place you want to see, but I agree that it doesn't need a full day. It can be difficult to get to multiple such spots on the same day when you're tied to public transportation schedules. It's worth asking the tourist office in each base city whether there are any scheduled day-trips to nearby towns.

Thank you! We are now looking in to doing at least 2 nights in Pinhao. Does anyone know if we can rent a car there? We are thinking of taking the train from Porto (we don't want to drive on the wind-y road). It would be great to have that flexibility for a couple of days.

My wife and I traveled to Portugal in 2008 at the same time of year. The sun will make you think you are in SoCal at that time of year. Maybe our greatest Europe trip ever out of fifteen or so. Try to stay in Sintra for a couple of nights, it's great as a day trip, but even more magical to stay there. Get to Nazare if you can, too. Porto was nice enough but really gritty, beautiful by the waterfront after dark and at dusk though. The Duoro Valley did not call out to me as much s other parts of the country. We stayed in Coimbra for just one night, and it was fine, but using it as base for four nights is a lot. Maybe split it up with two nights in Coimbra and two in Nazare. Obidos is a must see, but fine as a day tip as it was sleepy even during the day.

Michele, you said you're thinking about taking the train from Porto to Pinhão, because of the road. But you have a highway directy from Porto to Vila Real (A4), and then another from Vila Real To Peso da Régua (A24). From there to Pinhão you have N222 on it's beautiest part, and considered by Avis rent-a-car "World best driving road":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3052472/The-world-s-best-road-voted-Portugal-s-wine-region.html

I'm sure the train is a very good option (never went by train), as a long part is aside the river, so I just wanted to tell that if your reason is only because you don't want to drive there, the driving is not difficult.

Helena

We loved Portugal, especially the Douro River. In fact, if you can, take a river cruise.

I would go 4 days in Lisbon, then move on to visit Sintra, Obidos, Batalvia Cathedral and Casais on the way to Porto, perhaps spending a couple of days.