We’ll be coming in from Spain in mid Jan 2018 and want to have a good experience of the beautiful Portugal, her people & the culture . As we are from USA we are also coming to escape the cold
We think we’ll start in Lisbon 3-4 days then go to the Algarve coast. Wheres best? We would like to stay somewhere for a week to get a sense of the area Looked at Gira - is it too isolated? Likes include - interesting smaller community with fresh local seafood .Beautiful scenery and beach, birds, tidepools are good too
Any all suggestions welcome Thanks! P
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1826 posts
My favorite town is Lagos. It’s big enough to have most everything stay open in the winter. And central enough to visit the west coast and as Far East as Tavira. The seafood is great and there may be days nice enough to eat outside on the beach - but definitely no guarantee of that. The rock formations outside of town are spectacular and there are cliff side walks with great scenery.
From what I’ve read, a lot of the smaller towns are pretty deserted in the winter with many things closed.
Posted by
8322 posts
Why are you not visiting northern Portugal, Porto and the Douro Valley are amazing?
Posted by
Porto, Portugal
80 posts
Hello @pdbld04,
You'll definitely get a beautiful scenery in Portugal... the problem is that January here is winter too so beaches are not the best thing to see in my opinion... Lisbon is certainly a great choice to begin your trip to Portugal and Algarve also has some points of interest but I agree with the previous comment... maybe Northern Portugal is better this time of the year as well as Central Portugal...
If you like to admire landscape and nature in general, maybe you should consider visiting Peneda-Gerês National Park; Douro Valley is also a great destination depending on the weather...
Apart from the landscape, there are also beautiful villages/towns/cities in these two regions worth visiting: Porto (best European tourist destination 2017), Guimarães, Braga, Coimbra, Lamego, Tomar, Viseu, Piódão...
Enjoy Portugal ;)
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5513 posts
Algarve in winter is horrible. It is a tacky beach resort area for Brits which is basically closed down in the winter. We were there in February and promptly left after a day because it was so bad. I would go to a place which is a more year-round destination.
Posted by
London
4 posts
There are plenty of lovely small villages to discover but you have to get yourself off the beaten track. away from the package holidaymakers. There are some amazing coastal towns that are full of history and great seafood restaurants (my favourite combination!). Try these for starters:
Tavira,
Santa Luzia,
Olhao,
Loulé,
Silves,
Monchique,
Burgau.
All lovely historic places with fantastic local restaurants and great architecture!
Posted by
Denver, CO USA
501 posts
To paraphrase Horace Greeley: Go North, young man, go North.
Coimbra
Porto
Aveiro
Posted by
Spokane Valley, WA
201 posts
I just put together a 2 week itinerary that we're going to do in April. Here is what I came up with:
Lisbon-4 days
Talasnal to stay in Schist cottage 2 nights (if this isn't your thing you could easily find plenty to do near Tomar)
Porto-3 nights
Castelo Rodrigo-3 nights
Marvao-1 night
Lisbon-1 more night before flying out Stop[ in Evora on the way from Marvao to Lisbon.
So much to do...so much to see...