Trip itinerary for April, 2023

Two weeks is a good timescale to cover Lisbon to Porto and towns in between. IMO it isn’t long enough to also include the Algarve. The first half of April in the Algarve can be quite mixed weather. Lagos, Tavira and Luz would be my destinations of choice for the Algarve, not Salema, particularly early in the season.

As with most places, if you don’t return the car to the same office that it was rented from, there maybe a small additional fee.

Skip the Algarve for that length of trip. You can easily spend two weeks without it. Check with your car rental agency about drop off fees. I always use Auto Europe and am quite pleased with it.

It’s been many years since I looked at Rick’s recommended trip so not certain if my picks match his. Other than Lisbon and Porto, these are some of my favorites. Evora, Coimbra (and Conimbriga), Tomar, Mafra, Ericeira, Alcobaça and Batalha. One town on the Douro - I’ve only stayed in Pinhao so can’t speak to Régua. North of Porto, Guimarães and, or Braga. Obidos and Sintra are always on all the lists but not really my favorites due to crowding. But, you really can’t miss at least a couple of the palaces in Sintra.

Rick doesn’t mention my home - Cascais- for which I (and all of my friends) are very grateful. But, it’s a easy day trip on the train from Lisbon and on a clear day, is lovely.

Thank you Jennifer for your informative response, so helpful. I will stretch our stay to 20 days since we both are retired, also will stay in Lagos as a base to explore the coast line of Algarve😊

Thank you Kathrynj for your informative response so helpful. I will definitely stretch our stay longer, perhaps 20days, we both retired. Rick’s best two week trip by car itinerary is: 4 nights Lisbon, 3 Salema, 1 Evora, 2 Nazare, 2 Coimbra, 1 Douro valley, 2 Porto. Since my trip is scheduled for April, I am not sure about Douro valley, steep hills perhaps are not turning into green yet. I heard you can tour the caves in Algarve by kayak, not sure if those tour are operating in April, those caves are so beautiful based on pictures online. I will definitely quietly visit your home town Cascais😊

Also thank you for car rental information, so useful. I just checked they post 3 levels of rate: basic rate, inclusive rate w/deductible and no deductible rate. Which one would you recommend to take, Kathrynj? Thank you so much.

Just be aware that Easter is 9 April, and the larger cities were pretty busy when we were there last Easter. Long trip reports on Fodors, with one individual surprised with how popular Portugal has become. They were limited to public transportation. Our experience was yes, in Porto and Lisbon there are crowds. With a car, you can find Castles to explore where you may be with only a few people.

We are heading back in 2023, same first weeks of April. I encourage you to take advantage of your rental car. The different drop off location isn't large. We've rented with Hertz and picked up/dropped off in downtown Lisbon and Porto. There are tons of castles along the Spanish border, many built by Knights Templar. The historic Schist villages are great to visit, and not crowded. We would visit 3-4 castles a day, driving through beautiful countryside, listening to history podcasts of the region (or comedy podcasts). Stayed in Castelo Novo for 2 nights. Getting to feed week old donkeys, after you have your own delicious breakfast, wood stove going in your suite as you're up in the mountains, Pretty special.

Thank you bdokeefe for your information, I will definitely put Easter holiday in to my planning equation. This will be our first Portugal trip, planning to stay for 20 days, and have to be back home by May 1, so we probably leave 10th to avoid Easter crowd.

Now I come up a preliminary itinerary for April 2023 Portugal trip, and would love to hear, pro travellers like you, your comments: 4 nights Lisbon, then rent a car heading North to Nazare 2 nights, Coimbra 2 nights, Porto 2 nights, Guimaraes 1 night, Marvao 1 night, Evora 2 nights, Tavia 2 nights, Lagos 2 nights, Lisbon 1 night, then fly back Toronto, thinking of leaving April 11, and flying back May 1. Thanks.

Personally, too much jumping around. Guimaraes is an hour train ride from Porto, you could it do as a day trip. I've both stayed there, and done the train visit. Or stay in Guimaraes and take a train for the day to Porto. Last trip, we flew into Porto and picked up a car as we left. A car in Porto, like Lisbon or Sintra, is not a good thing.

There is a high speed train from Lis-Porto, you could visit those 2, day trip by train to Guimaraes, and pick up car when leaving Porto, say day 8 ish, then stop at places on way back. Haven't been to Coimbra, staying 3 nights this next trip. Maybe Tomar, my daughters and I really liked the Monastery from the Knight Templar, and nearby aqueduct that was built nearby to supply the convent. We visited Marvao on the way to a few night in Evora. I can imagine that at night Marvao would be really nice to walk around and get some neat pictures. Evora was nice as you can wander into local diner type places to eat, that are right off the tourist route by a block or two. Stand up bar for 3-4 people, seating for 10-12, and great food. The fresh OJ is always a good pick me up in the afternoon, while the guy next to me is having his 1 Euro glass of wine.

thank you for your comments on my preliminary itinerary, bdokeefe, very helpful, much appreciated. I am revising my itinerary. I found Portugal CP railway offers high speed train services between Lisbon and Porto, takes about 2 hrs 50 minutes, again thank you for the suggestions. So we will take train to Porto, and pick up a rental car on day 8, perhaps at Porto's Campanha train station while leaving Porto for touring the rest of Portugal by car, then drop off the car at Lisbon airport on the day fly back home, Toronto, Canada. I tried to book a car on Auto Europe website, it won’t let me to do it if not dropping off the car at the same location the car was picked. I am sure there is way to do it, I just need to find it out, perhaps give them a call to reserve a car...instead of doing it online.

I use expedia for car booking. For our upcoming trip, it's $673, 6-16 Apr, p/u Coimbra, d/o Lisbon. Probably was cheaper in previous years, but that is a busy time. It's an economy, we rent the smaller cars, and really appreciate it in places like Evora. We parked by the aqueduct, easy enough, but dropping off bags near apartment was 'inside' old city, and very tight. As were a lot of castle towns. It's with Hertz, mainly as we've used the downtown Lisbon location and it's easy enough to find, and then catch a taxi/uber to wherever. Rua Castilho 72.

Enjoy your trip, try not to overbook when you have the car, as there are so many things that will catch your eye on the secondary roads. The highways, like your 401 or USA I-81, are toll. The rental company has a transponder installed, you drive under large overhead contraptions that read your car, and charge you. Your credit card is billed separately, and typically comes in as several charges. It's maybe 40-50 euros for our 10-12 day rentals, and well worth it. The roads are well maintained, not very highly traveled due to the tolls, and a joy to drive on, especially compared to 401. We live on east shore of Ontario from you, snow belt, and use to fly out of Toronto, to get good fares. The flying part was so much safer than the drive....

Thank so much bdokeefe for sharing your car rental information, so helpful and much much appreciated. I booked many trips on Expedia in the past loved the experience with them, will definitely book my car with them this time, p/u Porto and d/o Lisbon downtown location as well, I heard Lisbon airport dropping off location is a little tricky to find, like a small size car which is easy for parking which I am terrible at. After finalizing my itinerary in next couple of days, I will book my car as well.

So lovely, perhaps we are not too far away from each other. I am about 85 km west of Toronto, in a small city, Guelph Ontario, not far from east coast of Lake Ontario😊 so appreciated your help. I might bump into you some where in Portugal!

Happy to help, neighbor!

Have a great trip, you relieved a lot of stress by picking the train for first jump to Porto.

We downloaded some podcasts to listen to while driving. We learned a lot of Knights Templar, which is so neat while you're visiting some of the castles they built. Then some comedic stuff for afternoon.

We're not foodies, when out in smaller places we ran into a lot of lunch specials, usually 8ish Euro, with just a few choices. A soup or salad, main dish, dessert, wine/beer, and sometimes coffee at end. When I was with my two daughters, we guessed, one of each. No shared language, some pointing, Grandma beaming from the kitchen as we tucked in. Another time, we were brought back to the kitchen to see what was available. Most were great, and we always had a nice experience. WIth wife, my were visiting a lot of towns on Camino routes, and they always had the specials for the Pilgrims (and whoever else came along).

Lastly, you'll see lots of municipal gardens, all well tended. We stayed in Viseu 4 nights, and every morning they had teams of workers tending the flowers gardens, that were in parks, round-abouts...tulips were going crazy, some kind of cherry/flowering crab apple. Real pride in their town, we loved it, have stayed twice.

Lisbon Airport Dropoff: Not sure if it was with Hertz, but first trip the rental car return was weird, luckily Son in law was navigating, he was calm and good. Even then, there is another building close by that had a Hertz sign, but it was for corporate work. The place I recommended downtown isn't terribly hard to find, and is off a major access road, we came over bridge from Evora and it wasn't bad. Hotel a few doors down, so taxis frequent the street. We had sporadic phone coverage, phone problem, not network. WiFi was typically available somewhere.

The Porto pickup location seemed to be a straight shot out of town, not terrible. Closer to downtown, terrible traffic, we took a taxi once and poor guy got caught in traffic, Apartment was on one way street, no way around it, trip took 3x's longer than it should have. I would not have the patience for that.