Portugal Itinerary Review - June, 8 Nights, 2 Small Children

I apologize for being so blunt but this itinerary looks very unrealistic to me..

Driving all the way to Porto on your day of arrival from the States is pretty unwise IMO. Taking the train is so much easier and possibly less expensive. Tolls in Portugal added to the price of gas, makes driving that distance quite pricey. You could easily take the metro a few stops to Oriente station and train to Porto in comfort. Then pick up the car in Porto.

Driving from Porto to Sintra will likely only allow one stop on the way. Óbidos would be my choice. Or if you really want a beach, São Martinho do Porto would be better with small children. Their beach is very calm and great for children.

There is no reason to go to Belem if your only reason is the Pasties da Nata. Google them for the best in Lisbon. (There is a contest each year).

I don’t know why Setubal is on your list. If it’s just beaches, there are beaches right outside of Sintra that are lovely. Setubal does have great dolphin watching, though.

After returning your car to Cascais, you might want to consider an Uber for the trip back to Sintra. There are two buses but they stop frequently and take quite a long time.

Kathryn has beaten me to it - driving to Porto from Lisbon after a long flight is dangerous, so please take the train.

Day 4 - I would drop Nazare which is over rated and visit Foz do Arelho, which has a shallow lagoon, good for young children.

Why Setubal?

Thank you for the replies and feedback. I greatly appreciate your feedback and advice.

As for driving to Porto, it would be extremely difficult getting on a train with the abundance of luggage our family is taking for this trip. We are bringing two car seats, a pack'n play, a stroller, three suitcases, etc. When we flew to Ireland last year, I drove two-plus hours to our final destination, but I did make stops to break up the trip and to take coffee breaks. I probably will stop in Coimbra to break up the trip. If you have more suggestions on stops between Lisbon and Porto, I would definitely be open to hearing them too.

As for Setubal, we were thinking to explore Arrabida, which looks amazing, and it looks intriguing to drive on the Ponte Vasco da Gama Bridge. But if this area is not worth traveling to, we can skip it, and spend more time in Sintra and surrounding areas.

Thank you so much again.

I would allot more time to Sintra. There are a lot of things to see and I would take advantage of being there. The Moorish castle and Pena palace could take quite a while to enjoy. As well the Quinta de Regaleira is a fabulous garden to explore with little kids. All sorts of tunnels and areas to climb up.

Hi!

"Day 3: Douro Valley, Visit Quintas and farms that kids can play at, Drive N222 (Night 3 Porto)"

I understand you are thinking of driving all the way to Douro Valley through N222. If this is your idea, let me say it would be better to take the highway to "Peso da Régua" and then N222 there towards Pinhão. N222 is just an impossible road.

Thank you again for the feedback.
So you can drive two different routes going from Porto to the Douro Valley? I would only want to drive parts of the N222 to view the beauty of this road and Douro Valley.

Do you recommend stopping places to eat, do tastings, visit farms, etc. in this area?

Hi again!

I'm not the best person to advise, as I don't like that much the Douro Valley. It's all about vineyards, mountains and the river. Booring... But this is just my opinion, and I'm alone here... no one agrees with me.

But one thing I can tell you: even before we have (we, I mean we portuguese, I'm from Porto) highways, the way to go to Douto Valley was through the north side of the river. You will have a road scenic enough (it is considered one part of road the most scenic in the world) driving N222 between Peso da Régua and Pinhão. As I'm not found of Douro Valley I cannot tell you much, except: buy those sweet things women are selling on the streets at Peso da Rágua (we call it only Régua), and I can also tell that one of the best restaurants in Portugal, is DOC, from chef Rui Paula, exactly at that part of N222 that is the most scenic. Search google. Meanwhile I must say it is expensive, very expensive.