We'd appreciate any input on this!
My wife and I will be travelling the last 2 weeks of April and are basically doing the 2 week itinerary right out of the book but can't decide whether to use the trains and buses or to rent a car. So that's 4 nights in Lisbon, 3 nights in The Algarve, 1 night in Evora, 2 nights in Nazare, 2 nights in Coimbra and 2 nights in Porto. Using public transit seems to be a very viable option but the car rental option would not only give us reduced time travelling but also more flexibility regarding when we travel between locations. I think that even if we rented a car we would still use public transit within the towns we're visiting and I think we'd likely rent a car for our time in The Algarves anyway. I believe we're leaning towards renting a car but have concerns about where we would park it while we're in the urban areas?
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6553 posts
Unless you plan on stopping at places between the places you mentioned there’s no need for a rental car unless there are no good public transportation connections. We had a rental car, but took a number of day trips from our lodging locations. We didn’t travel south of Óbidos so can’t speak to Lisbon or the Algarve, or Evora, but other than Porto we didn’t pay for parking anyplace. We selected lodgings that had free parking.
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1675 posts
Public transport is very doable to get all these places except Nazare. The trains wouldn’t be good but a bus might work. The train will get you to the Algarve but once you are there a car is a must IMO. You do not want a car in Lisbon or Porto! You might rent when you leave Lisbon and turn in when you get to Porto.
You didn’t ask this question but I’m going to offer my opinion anyway. You are trying to do way too much for two weeks. The driving or public transport will take up way too much of your time. Skip the Algarve and visit beaches in the Silver Coast area.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
1195 posts
Rent the car when you depart Lisbon and drop it off in upon arrival in Porto.
Posted by
West Sacramento
11 posts
My two cents. While we not been there before, I would tend to agree with the thoughts of "too much" for that time period, in particular if your tied to only public transportation. We been to numerous places in Europe but have not been in Portugal. And only 1 time out of say 12+ big 2 week trips to Europe have we ever rented a car, we ALWAYS simply took trains and such. (and that was only because of a rail strike while in Paris and we could not get to a pre-planned 2 day trip we planned. In the this trip we will be a group of 5. We are doing about 2 weeks, but are renting car after we do 4 nights in Lisbon.
We then plan to do 1 night in Evora, 3 nights in Nazare (with one or two day trips), 3 nights in Coimbra, 3 nights in Porto.
We will plan to drop the car off in Porto (and then on the 4th day there, we will take the train to Lisbon and take evening flight to CDG)
Our thought was same as yours, I don't want to deal with driving or parking in Lisbon or Porto. Our group originally also said they wanted to do Algarve, but was too much to squeeze in we realized (and others told us!) So we will keep that for the next time (as I am sure already there will be at least another trip here, as I am still not sure why we took so long to get this first one to Portugal!)