We have hired a personal driver to take us from Porto to Lisbon thinking that we'd like to make some stops along the way. We have all day to get to Lisbon on a Saturday in mid-October. We were thinking of stopping in Aveiro, Coimbra, Nazare, and Obidos. Is that too ambitious? Should we skip some or add other stops? Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
24448 posts
Go to DayTrip.com and put in the two cities and see what they offer. That would be a good start point for the research.
Posted by
Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England
35971 posts
since you have already hired the driver, perhaps ask her or him what they suggest?
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
24448 posts
Daytrip suggests Coimbra, Aveiro, Batalha, Obidos, Pena Palace in Sintra, Fatima and Nazare. Their site tells a little about each. Not suggesting you use DayTrip, just mine their data. Without stops they charge 339€ for the trip.
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY
4831 posts
You could definitely see Obidos is an hour. It consists of one Main Street from one end to the other. We were there for maybe an 1.5 hour and just stopped for an ice cream. It was very crowded. Maybe in October it will be less so and you would move faster.
Other posters like Coimbra, maybe that could be your second stop. It doesn’t take you far off your route, if at all.
Our other stops were Fatima (2hours cause we attended Mass), Alcobaca (1 hour to see the monastery and church, was there at lunch time, every place, and I mean everyplace closed, no food), Tomar (our base, the Templar Castle could be seen in an hour).
Posted by
OP
Boston, MA USA
29 posts
Thank you for the tip regarding DayTrip.com. Definitely will check into it. We will also ask our driver but wanted to get the input of this esteemed group as well! We decided we are fine with skipping Fatima but are interested in seeing a couple of coastal towns on way down hence the interest in Aveiro and Nazare. Definitely Coimbra as well.
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
24448 posts
I love the places in between destinations and I have used Daytrip a few times as a source to begin researching places to stop. And, I actually hired them a few times. But even if traveling by train their suggestions are generally very good. Just another tool.
Posted by
USA
160 posts
Personal car/driver was idea we got from this helpful forum.
Daytrips was the starting point for ides but we found out that they were very expensive when we found another company for Lisbon - Porto transfer with numerous stops - it was less than half at that time
- Obidos and Coimbra are great stops (you may want to add Fatima and/or Nazrrre but skip Aveiro)
- There are many car/driver available who are drastically cheaper than Daytrips
Posted by
OP
Boston, MA USA
29 posts
Thanks everyone for the input! Just back 2 weeks from our trip and we decided to stop in Aveiro where we walked around some shops and took an interesting canal tour, Coimbra which we took a stroll through the town and stopped in a couple of cathedrals and museums (nice city), and then in Nazare for a late lunch overlooking the sea which was beautiful. We really didn't have enough time to visit Obidos so we had to skip it before heading to Lisbon from Porto.
We were a group of 6 and had a great driver/tour guide who was expensive but in the end we all felt it was worth it.
Posted by
320 posts
Would you be willing to share the name of the company you used for the driver?
Posted by
OP
Boston, MA USA
29 posts
We used Luis Raposo from IBERYC private car service, www.iberyc.com. He was excellent as both a driver and a tour guide. His English was outstanding. We had a newer, and very comfortable Mercedes van that was able to seat 6 adults comfortably with luggage. He lives near Fatima and makes many trips between Porto and Lisbon. Highly recommend him!