In May, we will be traveling back home to the US from Barcelona through Portugal. The airline allows stopovers of up to 5 days in either Porto or Lisbon. We will probably do just a 3 night stopover. Would someone kindly give us recommendations of which town to "stop over" in an any particular sites. Thank you for your considerations.
Mike
Definitely Lisbon. Porto is a lot smaller and has far less to offer in my opinion - unless you love wine and would enjoy the a tour of the Douro Valley or something. I spent a few nights in both cities last May, and by the time I got to Porto it had started raining (or the next day anyway), so I didn't even bother going out to the Douro Valley. I also found there wasn't much to do in Porto on a rainy day. In Lisbon, you have much more to do on a rainy day in the way of museums, etc. on days like that.
I'd choose Lisbon and take the full five days. Day-trip to Sintra and also visit Cascais.
We love both places. However, I suggest going first to Lisbon and do three nights there for the city, then spend two more nights and days on day trips to Evora, Sintra and Obidos/Batliha.
Another vote here for Lisbon, and the full five days. Portugal is great - you will be pleasantly surprised.
Chances of raining in May are much lower in Lisbon than Porto. But of course weather is umpredictable. However I agree with the others: you have much more offer in Lisbon than Porto (the number of museums, for instance).
Last April we did exactly what acraven and david suggests. We took advantage of TAP's Portugal Stopover Program and we stopped over in Lisbon for 5 nights on our way home from visiting our daughter and her family in Marseille. We have not been to Porto so I can't compare, but we LOVED Lisbon. We spent about 3.5 days in Lisbon, and one day in Sintra and Cascais. We don't usually do bus tours, but we were tired by the end of our trip, so we did take a bus tour to Sintra, which included a brief stop in Cascais.
There is so much to do in Lisbon. I suggest getting a guidebook. Some of the things we did: Gulbenkian Museum, Coach Musem, Sao Jorge Castle, wander around the Alfama, Jeronimos Monastery, went to top of Discoveries Museum, wander around other neighborhoods and visit miradouros (viewpoints), and a few small churches. Don't remember the names. One is in or near the Alfama, and the adjacent monastery has beautiful tile work.
There are other smaller museums that we didn't have time for, such as the Tile Museum.
Thank you all for your help and kind advice. Much appreciated.
Mike
Spent two nights in both Porto & Lisbon in September after a religious pilgrimage to Santarem &Fatima Portugal plus Spain and Lourdes.
My initial thought is Porto, it was beautiful. Sao Bento train station with the beautiful azulejo tile murals, many of the buildings with these tiles, Port wine lodges, we toured one directly on the river front immediately to the left of the bridge, Douro river cruise, fun tram ride, shopping! , Harry Potter inspired Lello & Irmao Bookstore and Majestic Cafe, university students in their black capes, Stayed at Moov Centre in Rick Steves book-great prices and great location. Just felt better, smaller than Lisbon.
I am returning in 2 weeks to visit both cities again. I will post late October to give you my thoughts.
I did the TAP free stopover this summer.
Is a great feature and honestly I probably would have never gone to Portugal if not for that offer.
We choose 5 nights (since we figured it may be our only time to go)
I would go with Lisbon. Between Lisbon and then the coast near Sintra it is very easy to occupy the 5 night stay. We split it between 2 places to lay our heads and had a rental car (helpful in Sintra area and for day trips but not useful or recommended in Lisbon) so squeezed a good amount into the time.
