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Two Week Itinerary Advise

Posted by on

Hi there,

My husband and I are trying to finalize our itinerary for our first trip to Portugal in late September/early October and I would greatly appreciate your advice. We'd like to experience Portugal highlights as well as off-the-beaten path and/or local places, but want to take it slow enough to actually enjoy ourselves and hopefully have some relaxing time for things like swimming in there as well. We have airline tickets round trip to/from Lisbon and plan to rent a car.

Here's our draft itinerary, but nothing is set in stone (except flights)!

Sept 22: Fly from USA to Lisbon
Sept 23: Land in Lisbon, Half Day Lisbon
Sept 24 Full Day Lisbon
Sept 25: Full Day Lisbon and nearby sites
Sept 26: Get Rental Car, Spend half day in Evora, stop and see Elvas on way through, spend night in Marvao, Castelo de Vide or nearby town
Sept 27: Day in Marvao and/or surrounding area, 2nd night in Marvao area
Sept 28: Drive north thru villages and Serra da Estrela natural park, spend night in Pinhao
Sept 29: Day in Pinhao and surrounding area
Sept 30: Drive to Porto
Oct 1: Full day Porto
Oct 2: Full day Porto and/or surrounding area
Oct 3: Drive South, Morning in Costa Nova Beach/Alveiro area, afternoon in Coimbre, spend night in Batalha or Tomar area
Oct 4: Day exploring Batalha/Tomar/Beaches around Peniche/Nazare/surrounding area
Oct 5: Drive south and spend time in coastal towns, spend night in Sintra
Oct 6: Full Day Sintra
Oct 7: Return rental car & Fly Home

Thanks in advance!

Posted by
336 posts

I like the general balance and looks similar to what we did in 2012. It's still a lot of driving and could be seen as intense for some.
A few additions or food for thoughts:
1-around Evora is also another great little white village called monsaraz, well worth seeing
2-instead of driving north from Marvao, we went east to Caceres in Spain, a unesco site and then north to Salamanca, which is an amazing city. I thought caceres wasn't a must but wow, Salamanca is definitly one. Just an amazing ciy to spend a day. We then headed west to serra de estrala to go at the highest point which gave us great sceneries of course.
3-Alveiro did nothing to me. They call this the Venice of Portugal... Sorry but it's not the same league at all. :-)
4-not enough time i thing for october 4th especially if you want to have a bit of time relaxing. Visiting Bathala, driving, go to Tomar, all of this take time. Around there is also Obidos and a castle called almourol, you might want to google both to see if it is of interest for you

Hope this gives you some more ideas.
Enjoy your trip
Claude

Posted by
3 posts

Thanks for the great tips, Claude! Salamanca looks beautiful, I'll definitely look more into it. And will see if I can shift days around to get us another day in the Batalha area.

Posted by
336 posts

Pleasure!
The Plaza in Salamanca is certainly one of the most beautiful in Europe.
If you like historical buldings, a lot to see as well such as a few wonderful cathedrals, convents, the university. All are 3 stars must see places.
I based my general planning on the green Michelin guide and didn't regret at all.
You will enjoy your trip very much

Posted by
8322 posts

Pretty good plan. Also, I like the suggestion from others.

When in Porto, consider staying at a wonderful B&B, the In Patio Guesthouse.

Driving up the Douro Valley will be slow, it is very hilly but very scenic.

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