Portugal Itinerary Thoughts

Great Itinerary Kathryn

You could also include Nazare in there since it is along the coastline. It is a picturesque beach town.

By order of convenience, you can trek like this:

Thurs - Lisbon

Fri - Lisbon

Sat - Lisbon (Drive to Evora)

Sun - Evora

Mon - Evora (Drive to Sintra)

Tues - Sintra

Wed - Drive to Coimbra (Stop by Nazare) 1 hour 11 min from Coimbra

Thurs - Coimbra

Fri - Drive to Guimaraes (Drop car off in Porto)

Sat - Porto

Sun - Porto (Fly Home)

I don't think you necessarily need to return to Lisbon on the way from Evora to Nazare, so I might travel Lisbon - Sintra - Lisbon - Evora - Nazare - points north. I have no idea how the scenery compares. The two routes come together near Obidos, so you'd be able to make a quick stop there either way.

I think your itinerary is great. We found Nazare an overcrowded seaside town with poor quality restaurants. But, we had good ice cream. Other than that one place I would skip when we return, and we will. We loved Portugal!

The new RS video of Portugal's Heartland basically reflects your itinerary on some of the places you want to cover.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/portugal

Thank you for your thoughts on the itinerary. I'm now trying to schedule out Sintra. We're pretty hardcore into history and audio guides and seeing everything at a site. With the winter hours that will be in effect, I am really trying to nail down how best to tour Sintra and get between sites to maximize our time. We are interested in visiting the following: Quinta de Regaleira and National Palace (both are open from 9:30-18h), and the Pena and Moorish Castle (both are open from 10-18h). If we start at National Palace, at 9:30 and spend two hours there, what is the fastest way to then get to Pena Palace? I'd like to be at Pena by noon, stay until 4, then go right to the Moorish Castle until 6 p.m. Then do Quinta on our way out of town the next morning. Should we get a taxi to take us between the two palaces as fast as possible? Thanks!

I'm not sure your plan works for Sintra, because most of the Moorish castle is outside, and I think it will be dark before 6 pm.

What about doing Pena and Moorish first thing in morning. Then walk down the hill to the Quinta ( long walk). Then next morning hit National bright and early before picking up car and driving to Evora.

By my count, you have 12 nights here in Portugal, and plan to stay in 6 different cities. To me, that is too many changes of hotels in such a short time. And, your estimates of driving times is quite ambitious. I’ve found posted driving times by Michelin, google maps etc., to be very much shorter than it actually takes.

Your choices of where to go are good, with the possible exception of Nazare. However, that time of year, there might possibly be some of the monster waves which Nazare gets in the winter. The website magicseaweed.com has wave forecasts several days out. If there are no monster waves, I would suggest skipping Nazare.

Re: Sintra - Pena Palace is best seen first thing in the morning. It will not take anywhere close to four hours, unless you want to hike around the grounds. And, the moorish castle is just ruins, so bear that in mind. The National Palace is fairly small. You can likely see it in an hour. I would suggest doing a day trip to Sintra rather than staying overnight, but I’m not overly fond of Sintra - and know I’m in the minority. Definitely take a taxi between sites. The public transport is slow and not very user friendly - especially since they pedestrianized streets in the city center.

In Evora, be sure to take the Megalith tour. It’s run by an archeologist and is one of my favorite things in the area.

Guimarães will be hard to see in one evening. I tried a couple of years ago and didn’t feel I did the city justice. You might want to look into a day trip from Porto to cut down on hotel moves. Or, skip it this time. I would rather spend my time in Porto than trying to fit in Guimarães. And, you won’t be able to do both Guimarães and Braga in one day - unless you are doing a tour. And, then, the visits would be more about ticking places off a list than doing them justice.

Lastly, you likely are aware of this, but November and early December could likely include rain. But, the good news is the biggest tourist hordes are gone!

I think your itinerary is good with a great GPS for locations for your cities and hotels you are planning to stay. Never drove in Portugal but almost every Western European country. My only hiccup was when the GPS reverted back to Spanish in Spain, after that I used my own GPS. Happy Travels

Reread your Sintra question. If you get into Sintra at 2pm, buy your tickets for the 3 sights (Pena Palace, Moor Castle, National Palace) at the TI in town actually heading to/from Quinta da Regaleira (tickets must be purchased on site). Sunday see Quinta da Regaleira & National Palace. Then Monday morning go directly to the Pena Palace at 930, be first in line, wait for gates to open, go immediately to the gift shop on right and but your shuttle tickets for the ride up to the palace. I took a taxi, you will have a car. No traffic when I was heading up there but about 15 minutes before opening the tour buses & tour guides with groups began to show up. The tour guides buy their group tickets at the gift shop and will try to maneuver they way ahead of you FYI. After the palace I walked through the park, across the parking lot to the Moor Castle. I like wall walking so it was neat as well as seeing Sintra & Pena Palace from there. If it were raining I’m not sure I would have ventured up. I walked the trail back down to Sintra. I was staying near the train station and walked everywhere with the one taxi to Pena Palace. Loved Sintra, the restaurants, the Ginjinha in the chocolate cups. Porto is my favorite city. Be very careful on the beautiful mosaic sidewalks in Portugal as they get extremely slippery. If rain was forecast for a significant time I was there I may be tempted to bring my yak tracks from home. Who needs an ER visit. Traveled in October 2018.