Which is best base city to use for Tomar, Fatima, Batalha using 2 or three nights

Since you’re spending a day in Fatima and it’s only a 45-minute drive to Batalha and Tomar, sleep in Fatima.

We are Catholic too, and even so, and even with my super-devout husband in tow, we would have been hard pressed to spend a whole day at Fatima. Three or four hours, max, is more than enough. The 2 churches are nice, but nothing to write home about. The tombs of two of the 3 children merit a walk by as you make your way through the church, nothing more. An hour or so for both churches is plenty. I think a few Masses are said during the day, but our timing was bad. There are confessions in the basement of the new church. Six or eight priests, confessions heard in English, Portuguese, German, Italian, French and Spanish on the day we were there. Full service, no waiting! There are only a few beggars, and in a surprise to me, nobody on the property hawking rosary beads and T shirts. There is a small gift shop, but we didn't go in. Be prepared to hear the rosary being said constantly over a very effective loudspeaker in the huge cement plaza in front of the two churches. For me, it kind of loses its' meaning in that setting. Unless you're determined to see it, avoid the 14th of the month (I think, check the day), when about a zillion pilgrims make their way to the site to visit where the children had their apparition. It's nothing but a mob scene. When arriving, don't take the first parking lot you see. Keep going to get closer to the church. There's a bathroom outside the entrance to the old church, but nicer ones in the basement of the newer church.

I wouldn't stay in Fatima unless the town is more than we saw driving in -- grungy buildings, nasty-looking restaurants. garages and auto repair places, depressing apartment buildings. Both Alcobaca and Tomar are more pleasant.