I have found that RS's ratings (3, 2 or 1 or None) triangles to be a good guide overall. In reading his RS Portugal I noticed that in "sights in Tomar" hes does not give any stars to any place in Tomar. Yet he seems to recommend it overall.
We are visiting (between Lisbon and Coimbra) the towns of Obidos, Alcobaca, Batlha and Tomar. Not sure if we can squeeze in Nazare. Recommendations as to how to rank these?
I believe RS guide first added Tomar in 2019 which possibly might relate to the lack of stars. Because I did not have a car and had limited time, I only visited Tomar of the towns you list so I can't compare. I thought Tomar was perfect for a one night (or one day) stop. The Knights Templar Convento was worthy of a star. I especially liked the lack of crowds compared to long lines to get into the Jeronimos Monastary in Belem. In Tomar, I wondered corridors for several hours with few people in sight. Tomar also has a site of a very old synagogue, an art deco cafe from early 1900s, a small historic center, several other small museums.
We really enjoyed the monastery at Alcobaça. The architecture was simpler than Batalha and it held the tombs of King Pedro and his beloved Ines. Look up their rather bizarre love story; much of it took place in Coimbra.
Batalha's monastery/cathedral was large but did not grab us like Alcobaça did. Regretfully, we stayed in Obidos a few nights. The parador was lovely but once outside it was crowded, a pretty town ruined by over tourism. We skipped Tomar.
We had lunch in a beachfront restaurant in Nazare, delicious seafood. Didn't spend any more time.
My ranking: Alcobaça, Batalha, Obidos, Nazare. Skipped Tomar as it a religious holiday and we were advised not to go there due to crowds..
Not specific to your Tomar question but about the ratings overall as being your literal planning guide. I have taken several RS tours and loved them and use his books extensively but- several of my pre-Covid favorite travels were to sites or sights he either didn't rate ( per your question) or, said it wasn't worth the time. You should do your own additional research based on your personal interests rather than using his ( and his stable of writers) as an absolute!
Thanks everyone for replies. Yes, i also try to read Lonely Planet, and try to judge for myself. Overall his guidance is good. I think he likes local culture/food etc more than we do - we are for one vegetarians and we don't drink (but food is never a problem and travel is great). We just love to walk the cities. And places of natural beauty we tend to care about I think more than RS might. I find his "Walks" to be good - he gives a time estimate and they are quite interesting way to see things too. Doing walks w/ audio guide is fun too.
We toured Portugal in 2016 and did not visit Tomar. After seeing the RS blog & video I wished we had! I would rank: Alcobaca, Batalha, and Obidos. We had a wonderful lunch in Nazare. It was a brief stop. As far as our 2 nights in Obidos, it was our least favorite stay. It was crowded during the day and extremely noisy on the Main Street fronting our hotel during the night. Obidos is known as the Wedding town.
https://blog.ricksteves.com/blog/tomar/
After living in Portugal for almost six years and visiting all the sites you mention - some more than once - Tomar is worth your time IMO. I would rate it above Nazaré, Obidos (crowding) and maybe Batalha.
I agree with the other poster that some of my favorite places in Portugal and other countries have not received a mention from RS. Some of that has to do with the fact that when places become a RS favorite, they seem to be overrun with tourists…
Go with your gut after all your research. Portugal is quite unique and lovely. I’m thinking you will enjoy it no matter which towns/monuments you visit.
I spent 3 nights in Tomar with a car. For me it was a very good base for Alcobaca and Batalha (both of which I loved), Obidos which was very touristy but worth it if you aren't visiting any of the other hill towns (I saw more than a few in eastern Portugal), and Nazare which I didn't like at all. I wish I'd used the time to visit some other seaside town, but I got lazy with the research. I didn't find all that much of interest in Tomar itself. The monastery was not nearly as interesting as the others (or Belem in Lisbon for that matter). It was easy to drive in and out of and there was good parking. There are good restaurants as well. One of my favorite experiences in Portugal was a pre-Columbian dinner at Taverna Antiqua in Tomar, though.
We stayed in Alcobaca and day-tripped from there to Fatima, Batalha and Tomar. I thought Tomar, while crowded, was well worth the day. I thought we’d need a full day for Fatima, but didn’t, and so we threw in Batalha as a bonus. Of your list, I’d vote for Batalha, Tomar, Alcobaca, with Fatima as a nice option. (Unless you’re Catholic, then it’s pretty much a must-do.) Nazare was good for lunch, but there’s plenty of good food elsewhere. It wasn’t worth the effort. The parking was bad, really bad, but I’m not a great parallel-parker. We also were there in August, and the place was mobbed with vacationers, so we probably hit it at the worst possible time. We could have ditched it easily. I’ve expressed my views on Obidos in other threads, but let me summarize it here. Don’t bother. In no way is it worth the price of admission.
I think it depends on when you plan on traveling. We just returned from Portugal. I loved Obidos, but then part of it's charm was just sitting looking out over the green fields, wandering around the streets and the overall quietness of the place. There were just a few other individuals, enough to add a bit of a positive vibe, but no crowds. When crowed, I'm sure my opinion would be very different.
We had a car and also visited Alcobaca and Baltha. They are very different and I liked them both, so not sure how to rank them.
We had planned on visiting Tomar (which I was really excited to see), but they were experiencing a heat wave and I didn't feel like I could enjoy the place when too hot. I would rank Tomar partially based on the time of year, summer perhaps being a bit too warm.
We tried to see Nazare, but that was the one place where we did run across crowds. Parking seemed to much of a challenge, so we choose to skip it and spend our time at other less crowed beaches.
