We just found out that we could travel to Portugal.
I am awaiting delivery of RS Portugal book.
In the meantime, with 3 weeks to play with, how many nights would you recommend for Lisbon and Porto? We would do a couple days trips from each city. We want to mainly use public transportation. Good idea?
Our dates are third week in March. Is it particularly rainy at that time of year?
Read the book when it arrives before trying to make many decisions. Then you can see what, besides Lisbon and Porto appeal to you. Yes, there is a potential for rain in March but it’s rarely an all day event. It’s a transitional month with temperatures but you will still need a light jacket.
When you have some ideas, then you can ask some specific questions and get better answers.
Some practical logistic info to start your planing.
The national train
https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/buy-tickets
Train system map, click on Network map for more detailed map
https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/how-to-travel
Urban commuter trains tickets can't be bought online, no seat reservations.
InterCity train tickets can be bought online a maximum of 60 days before departure, seat/time reservations required.
National bus
https://rede-expressos.pt/en
National bus map, the numbers are serviced cities not route numbers
https://rede-expressos.pt/mapa_rede_nacional_EN.pdf
Tickets can be purchased a maximum of 30 days before departure.
Other bus carriers
https://www.flixbus.com/
Alsa is a Spanish bus company that has some service in Portugal
https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus/home
Bus for the Algarve region
https://vamusalgarve.pt/#/
Vamus Algarve bus route map
https://vamusalgarve.pt/#/pt/vamus%20algarve/network-map
Larger town's have their own local public transit.
Thank you all. I finally perused the RS book, and also cut out one week from Portugal trip to spend a week in Germany with family. Free accommodations! We do love Germany, though.
So now I will have 14 nights in Portugal. Haven’t decided on day trips and how many. They all sound good!
Lisbon 5 nights - day trip
Porto 5 nights - day trip
That leaves us with 4 nights to spend elsewhere.
We plan to mainly use public transport if we can.
Where would you spend the 4 extra nights? We could spend two in one area and the other two somewhere else.
Some of the places I read about, most are from the book, are: Sintra, Obidos, Nazare, Fatima and Tomar.
Should we maybe spend the four nights between Porto and Lisbon (Coimbra) then day trip from there?
Would appreciate any advice or suggestions.
Here's another resource to get ideas. RS book leaves out large sections of Portugal and mainly focuses on the areas that his tours take. Not a bad beginning point, but I would supplement it.
https://juliedawnfox.com
Ideas north of Porto which can be reached by public transportation from Porto.
Guimarães - the birthplace of Portugal. UNESCO site with medieval architecture
Braga - has the wonderful Bon Jesus.
And from Lisbon - Évora, you can take a train or bus to get there. Can stay overnight and perhaps take a cork tour or megalithic tour. Also can be a day trip.
Hi Lynn,
After thinking about it, we decided maybe we could see a lot more by renting a car after Lisbon, and drop it off in Porto the day we arrive there. What do you think? I think public transport within Lisbon makes sense. I’ve been reading about issues with parking in some towns, so will have to keep that in mind. Right now no accommodations have been booked anywhere.
A car is useful for the towns between Lisbon and Porto but definitely not in either big city.
Of the small towns you mention, Tomar and Coimbra are likely my favorites. Fatima is really only interesting if you are catholic, IMO. Nothing else there besides the religious stuff. Obidos can be done in a couple of hours on your way from Lisbon north. You might take a look at Alcobaca and Batahla, lovely and worth a stop. There are many other beach towns besides Nazaré. You can google Silver Coast Portugal to get more information. The giant waves only happen in the winter associated with storms off the Atlantic.
Another poster mentioned Guimarães and Braga. Both are quite nice.
You won’t have difficulty filling four days, the trick will be to narrow your choices.
Kathryn, when we leave Lisbon and pick up the car, in order to maximise the time and see the places you mentioned, is there one place in that list somewhere to base ourselves for four nights?
So for Nazare, the waves won’t be big late March-early April?
I am thinking that if we found a central location and could visit the towns you mentioned, then we won’t have to pack/unpack every day. Thanks for the suggestions.
We did this same trip last October, also 2 weeks. We stayed in Tomar for 4 nights and did day trips.
Based on our experience, I would base in Coimbra and day trip from there. The towns were smaller than we realized and didn’t take long to see. We had a car and had no problem parking in any of the places we visited. Drives weren’t long and traffic light.
Tomar - town is very, very small. Parking by the Castle is plentiful
Obidos - parking lot, no problem. We spent the morning there.
Alcobaca - went on a Sunday and found street parking. Again, a few hours is enough
Fatima - huge parking lots. Only interesting if you are Catholic
None of these stops required a full day for us. We combined Obidos and Alcobaca in one day.
Basing in Coimbra gives you more access to places closer to Porto, such as Braga.
As others have stated, RS Portugal guidebook is not great for looking at day excursions from Porto and Lisbon.
I am using Moon Portugal and Rough Guides Portugal. Also google 'Portugal without a car' or 'Day trips from Lisbon (or Porto) without a car'.
Barbara and Karen, thank you both for the additional tips.
Should we keep the car in Porto if we are doing more day trips from there? Or better to use public transport?
São Martinho do Porto is a small town from which you can visit a lot of the places I mentioned. Coimbra is a bit far, though.
Yes, the waves in Nazaré are in the winter months. They have been frequent recently as we have had a number Atlantic storms, but will be gone that far into spring.
