Portugal in July 2021

I too am planning our first trek to Portugal - hopefully for this Sept/Oct. To me - looks like you have a good plan for 2 weeks.
I can't speak to the weather/temps... tho I'd think either month will be HOT. You might want to swap Obidos for a town directly on the coast for some cooler breezes (maybe) and seafood. I think someone on this site suggested Foz do Arelho or Peniche as interesting stops water side. My notes indicate they are not too far from Obidos.
If you can - try to fly to one city and home from the other (multi-city on most booking sites).. IE; In - to Porto and home from Lisbon... collect the car as you leave Porto and drop it as you arrive for Lisbon/Sintra. Saves on the time required to travel back to Starting city which could take an entire day from your travel.

Thanks for your advice. I'll look at something closer to the water and maybe change my Obidos nights. Regarding flying into Lisbon and out of Porto, I would take that option, except with what is happening with Covid and canceled flights, flying into and out of Porto went from one layover in Canada to a layover in Canada and Germany. I feel more comfortable keeping the layovers to a minimum if I end up traveling this year. I'm okay with the 2.5 hour train between the two cities.

A few thoughts. For sixteen nights on the ground, you have a lot of overnight stops, IMO. Braga is a very easy day trip from Porto so unless you are planning to drive around the northern part of the country, you might consider that. You could add a couple of nights to Porto which would enable you to visit the Douro Valley also.

Obidos would not be my pick for two nights. Of course, this summer could still be very quiet but there isn’t a lot to see, I’ve just done one day trip and saw enough to realize I don’t really need to return. The other poster mentioned a couple of places along the coast. I would add São Martinho do Porto as another option. From there you can visit both Batalha and Alcobaca which are both quite nice - especially if you enjoy history.

If you plan to refund the car to Lisbon, try to find a place a bit out of the city to avoid the traffic in Lisbon. And, yes, taking the train to Sintra is quite easy.

If things are back to any semblance of normal, August will be busier, but I’m not thinking this summer will be back to normal. Be aware that the vaccine programs in most of Europe , including Portugal are going very slowly. So August is a better bet, IMO.

Your first part and full day maybe impacted by jet lag, so you are doing the right thing by not driving initially. Everybody has their own travelling styles, but as two nights somewhere means only one full day, your pace would be too quick for me.

I covered Tomar, Fatima and Batalha by staying in Foz do Arelho on the coast, but I was there for a week. Obidos is worth a couple of hours, but certainly not 2 nights - it can be seen on the way south.

Ensure anything that you book is refundable, as Portugal isn’t expecting tourism to be possible until late summer, but who knows? It’s a way off yet.

I have to concur with Jennifer that driving on that first day can be rough, unless you're one of those people that can get adequate sleep on the flight.

Our initial plan for arriving in Dublin was to rent a car at the airport and then drive into Dublin, which would have been a mistake. Instead, we picked up the rental the next morning in town and drove the heck out. So much better that way.

Gail,
First the good news. My wife and I have traveled to Portugal twice (2016 to Lisbon and 2019 to Lisbon and Porto) and absolutely loved it both time. We went the first time in October (perfect weather) and the second time in April (not so prefect). A good friend of ours is getting married in Lisbon in 2022 and we can't wait to attend.

Now the not so good news. Portugal has the highest COVID infection rate in Europe and is in full lockdown. They are behind even the US in vaccinations and they say they will not reach 70% until the end of the Summer.

I fear you may be overly optimistic about July of this year. Sorry to rain on your parade but while you may be ready, I doubt that Portugal will be.
Dennis

Portugal is not the only country in Europe behind the US in vaccinations. In fact, only the United Kingdom is ahead of the US. You can see the statistics here:

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=latest&country=ALB~AND~AUT~BLR~BEL~BIH~BGR~HRV~CYP~CZE~DNK~EST~FIN~FRA~DEU~GRC~HUN~ISL~IRL~ITA~OWIDKOS~LVA~LIE~LTU~LUX~MLT~MDA~MCO~MNE~NLD~MKD~NOR~POL~PRT~ROU~RUS~SMR~SRB~SVK~SVN~ESP~SWE~CHE~UKR~GBR~VAT~USA&region=World&vaccinationsMetric=true&interval=total&perCapita=true&smoothing=0&pickerMetric=totalvaccinationsperhundred&pickerSort=desc

I'd echo that Sintra is better handled via a day trip from Lisbon. I wouldn't stay there overnight let alone for two nights.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I’ll most likely change my airfare to August since I do have this window of time to change the tickets with no cost since Air Canada significantly changed my flights. This might slightly increase the chance of this vacation happening. I had bought the tickets over 4 months ago at a much reduced price with added cancelation perks which are normally not associated with economy tickets. I’ve also been booking refundable accommodations, so even if I need to cancel this trip, I won’t be at a loss, except for a bit of disappointment, which I’m okay with.

We will have a car when we leave Porto which we will drop off once we are in the Lisbon area. Right now I’m struggling in finding the right balance between a home base versus a road trip. This vacation seems to be a combination of both.

Regarding Tomar, I’m trying to get an idea of the amount of time it would be to travel from a coastal town and if it would be best to reduce nights in different locations by just doing a day trip. Originally I had booked 2 nights with the idea that it would be nice to take advantage of the morning/evenings to wander around and spend the hotter afternoon in the hotel, perhaps taking a nice nap (I love afternoon naps). And perhaps take a day trip from that location. Thoughts?

Also, I plan on changing my accommodations from Obidos to something closer to the water. Any suggestions on accommodations in one of the mentioned towns? I’ve been looking at Booking.com, but I haven’t seen anything that’s caught my attention.

And lastly, I had booked time in Braga since the North of Porto has caught my attention with the smaller towns. We plan to drive around the area. I’m wondering, since we will have a car, does it make any sense to drive to the Doura Valley from Braga as a day trip? I understand the scenery is nice on the drive, but I am not sure if that is something I want to do this trip. Probably will depend on the distance and my mood that day.

If you are looking for a place to stay in the Silver Coast area, you might want to look at Silverside Holidays. It was new right before covid. I ran across it last summer and it was lovely. My friend and I were their first non-Portuguese guests! It’s between São Martinho do Porto and Foz dó Arelho. The address is listed as Caldas da Rainha. I drove from there to Alcobaca and Nazare during our stay and the drives were quite short. It’s in the country but easy access to either town I mentioned. São Martinho has a number of good restaurants and there are a couple on the beach at Foz that we enjoyed.

Looks nice. Thank you!

I thought Coimbra was much more interesting than Tomar. I used Tomar as a base to visit Obidos (2-3 hours is all you need), Batalha, Alcobaca and a bit of the coast but only spent a few hours seeing sights in the city itself. The monastery there was the least interesting of all those I saw in Portugal.

Driving into Lisbon in the morning rush hour is terrible! It took me over an hour for the last few kilometers. Also, getting around Oriente station with luggage is a pain. There is only one small elevator and it's somewhat hard to find. Tickets are sold on an upper level where there are multiple ticket booths spread out over a large area, each booth selling tickets to different destinations. There are escaltors and elevators up to the next level where the trains are. When you get to Sintra, it's at least a 10 minute walk along mostly cobbled sidewalks (again, a pain with luggage) to the historic center so it's better to take a taxi. With all the hassle, I'd recommend taking Uber from the train station or consider dropping the car at the airport and taking Uber from there - price is not expensive and is about the same from central Lisbon and the airport.

Even if Portugal is accepting international visitors in July or August. unless they have had a high vaccination rate, popular tourist sites may still be closed or quite restricted. If that were the case, there would still be plenty to see and do in Lisbon, Porto, and the beach locations others have recommended. If Sintra palaces are not open or very restricted, you might still be able to enjoy palace gardens and the Moorish Castle (outdoor ruins) if open, but maybe less time there? I found Tomar very interesting and worth at least one day, but if the Convento were closed, I don't think just walking around Tomar would be that interesting.

Why not take advantage of the Air Canada free change and change to December and Christmas Break time? This will give you cooler temps and a higher chance of the trip happening. I’m also a teacher so I understand the constraints on timing. I’m retiring this year and the number 1 item on my list is a trip in September. I’ve longed to travel in September for years!

December would be nice, but unfortunately I could only change the tickets within a 30 day window, otherwise I would have to pay the difference in fare, which is significantly higher then what I had paid. Thus it's August for now, unless something else changes.

By the way, I was in Lisbon in December for a few days as a stop-over when traveling to Italy with my daughter. Beautiful weather, festive, and no crowds. I loved it.

I have heard that December in Portugal is very rainy. We currently have a booking for then but was hesitant to travel during that time period. Thinking more Barcelona for weather and vaccination reasons. Thoughts

We were in Portugal for just 4 days. Now that I remember, there were showers a couple of days, but then only for a few hours and nothing that stopped us from just putting up the hoods of our jackets and keep on going. But then, I live in the Pacific Northwest where rain is the norm and generally doesn't stop us from enjoying the outdoors. To me, just a few showers with the sun coming out in the afternoon, and warmer weather then home, is in my books, beautiful weather.

Obidos is one of those places that exists on tourism. I would visit tit as a day trip. We made the mistake of staying there.

Our family of 3 also is planning a July trip (7/18 to 8/2). I have booked all the hotels so far. Both my husband and I are fully vaccinated. Our 15 years old is not eligible as of this time. We will book our airfare as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted. I understand that restaurants may not be in full operations but as long as outdoor dining is allowed, we are good. Also, we are not staying at a hotel for more than 3 nights so if they cannot come service our room, we will be okay. We are having faith that Portugal will be opened this summer.