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Portugal: is 12-14 nights enough ?

Hi !

We (2 adults and 2 kids of 5 ans 9) will be in Portuagal in July. We arrive In Barcelona july 13 ans leav from Lisbon august 6. We want to stay 5 nights in Barceloa, 5-6 nights in Spain and arrive in Porto (by bus from Vigo) july 23 or 24.

That leaves us with 12-14 nights for Portugal. We plan to stay in Porto 2-3 nights and then rent a car and ''slowly'' travel to Lisbon. We dont want to do the Algarve. Is 12-14 nighs enough to have a cool trip between Porto and Lisbon (still have to figure what we want to see exactly but we are very open minded)? We know that we could be ther one month without getting bored, but we odnt have that time !

Is a car better than train/bus ?

Posted by
501 posts

Train. Parking in the 3 cities mention below is a nightmare.
4 in Porto. Day trip up Douro River.
4 in Coimbra. Day trips to Figueira da Foz (train) and Conimbraga (bus).
6 in Lisboa. Belem, Sintra and Alfama will use up 3 days.
Sign up with CP.pt and buy your rail tickets at least 8 days in advance and train travel is dirt cheap.

Posted by
28247 posts

Other places you might consider: Evora, Guarda, Viseu, Guimaraes, Obidos, Batalha.

You've got lots of time to do some reading and figure out whether you might benefit from a 2- or 3-day car rental that would make it easier to visit a bunch of smaller towns.

Edited to add: Yes, you can get a good look at Portugal in 12-14 days, especially since you don't want to go all the way down to the Algarve.