Portugal recommendations 1st time

I'll also add my Trip Report from September to the mix.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-part-1-hills-and-castles-portugal

I just returned from a week-long family vacation to Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais. My wife and kids were complaining that they wished they had more time! If you wish to go to so many places, you need to plan carefully. As for Lisbon, I can safely say that you don't need a car at all because public transportation is efficient. Places like Sintra is a nightmare if you drive there, I've seen people circling the town looking for parking and there was a traffic jam even in December when I was there. One thing I found out was that Uber was cheaper than I thought and because there were 4 of us, it actually was cheaper than the Metro or other forms of public transportation. But we did end up using all forms of public transportation because we bought the Lisboa Card for tourists that included all transportation plus free admission to the key sightseeing locations (a few skip-the-line admission too with the card). It was well worth it! There were many tourists in December (considered a low season) and there were long line-ups in a couple of attractions, but I was told by the locals that the crowd is worse in the Summer and Autumn months.

Be aware all the places you mention will be crowded in the summer, August a bit more than July, but not by much. I would suggest dropping the Algarve due to crowding (and it’s not my favorite part of the country). But, don’t totally avoid Lisbon and Porto because they are both pretty amazing. If you want to spend some time away from the crowds, at least a bit, you might want to consider someplace on the Silver Coast for a few days. It would require a car but the driving is easy, the crowds will be less and they have some very nice beach towns.

Ericeira and Sao Martinho do Porto are two of my favorites. From Ericeira, visiting Mafra is very easy plus there is a wolf sanctuary not too far away that is very interesting. From Sao Martinho, you can easily visit Nazare, Alcobaca and Batalha. Another option might be Tomar but it’s not on the coast.

One other thing, avoid the temptation to use your Spanish in Portugal. The Portuguese get a bit offended when people speak Spanish expecting them to understand. Most do, but are very proud of their language! That said, many, many people speak English so the language isn’t a barrier at all.

Thank you for the replies and suggestions.

We were talking today and would rather enjoy quality time in fewer places than feel rushed just to be able to say we were there.

We are leaning more toward June which, although crowded, should be slightly less than August? Maybe?

We don’t mind crowds but also feel we can taken advantage of some “hidden gems” since there is nothing we have as an absolute must see. I did a similar trip to Italy with my other daughter a few years ago. We had such a great time using airbnbs, wandering around and chatting with people. Found a lovely bed and breakfast in Levanto and spent time getting to know the owners and their friends. We explored Lake Garda, Como and Venice and had great experiences. I don’t want to give the impression we want to be isolated but I don’t need to be in the middle of a major tourist area either.

Thank you again for all the help.

-Terrie

Portugal is a relatively long skinny country. The trains in Portugal are acceptable but not super fast. My advice is to book open jaw tickets at the extreme points of your itinerary to avoid having to double back over long distances and wasting a full day of travel. In our case, we flew into Porto and home from Faro (Algarve). Good luck.

Central Lisbon is very safe, very hilly (more extreme than San Francisco, CA), and quite cheap compared to the US. I suggest taking Ubers (very cheap, mostly in the $4-8 range), as the subway and trams aren't efficient. We enjoyed going to simple places for big lunches more than going out for dinner (many places don't take reservations). We had an overall 'meh' experience with the food---for some reason, many dishes were served only lukewarm (this happened quite frequently during our 10-day trip, so it was not an outlier) and the same thing for coffee drinks. A nice lunch (grilled meat or fish, side veggies, olives, bread, glass of wine) will generally cost only $7-12 USD.