Portugal vacation need travel tips

3 days in Lisbon 2 in Porto would work well. When in Porto (loved Porto) take a day trip by train to the Duoro Valley

Are you driving?

no driving as of now but this could change.

Certainly get Rick's Portugal guide and/or others. The advice for 3 days in Lisbon and 2 in Porto is perfect. You can see the sights of Lisbon itself in a day and half, spend a half day in Belem and have a day to visit a nearby town/site. Porto is worth a day with a day for the Duoro Valley or nearby site/town. While in Porto be sure to partake of Port tastings and tours.

Porto is about a 3-4 hour train ride from Lisbon. Lisbon is an overnight train from Madrid or short flight. Coordinating the travel between Spain and Portugal is tricky.

I suggest you beg, borrow or steal, or even buy, a guide book for both countries. You'll find it worth the expenditure.

Whatever you do, you have to alot some time to the Southern coast (beaches!) of one of these countries. Especially in May.

If not the Algarve in Portugal, then somewhere in Spain.

When we were in Portugal we liked Lisbon, loved Porto, but had a wonderful time on the beaches in Algave. We have not been to Spain, but would consider some of coast there before we would consider Portugal beaches.

And, you MUST buy Rick's books and use it to plan your trip. His tips were "right-on-the-money".

We found that a car was invaluable in Portugal. The freeways were excellent, and there was hardly any traffic.

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a day cruise on the river in Lisbon or anywhere in Portugal?
Jean

Jean, get a copy of Rick Steve's Portugal book. If you go to Porto (we loved this town) there are several cruises available on the Duro river. A one hour cruise, a seven hour cruise, etc. We did not do them becaue they were not available when we were there at XMass time.

Short cruises (one hour ?) leave from the east end of the recreational boat basin. The name of the outfit is unremembered, but you can't miss it.

If you like to shop, get some cork in Portugal. I got a cork phone case, and bracelets. Almost bought a purse...I also got my mom a cork table runner at a bazaar. ALso the ceramics there are great, but cork is lighter.

The most amazing place in Portugal for us was Sintra which is about a one hour train ride outside Lisbon.

My wife and I spent 10 days in Portugal last fall and really loved it. We loved Porto and also spent the night in Obidos.

What we really liked, though, was Braga. It was really off the beaten path. In Coimbra and Lisbon we saw a lot of tourists (even in October), but it seemed like we were the only Americans in Braga.

RS doesn't cover north of Porto in his guidebooks, but we found Lonely Planet to be reliable.

--Steve

We were in Portugal recently and found it to be the least expensive place in Europe that we have visited. Meals and hotels were very well priced in Lisbon. Be sure to see Sintra and the castles there. We did not have a car and flew Easy Jet to Madrid from Lisbon. Train connections between those two cities are not good.

Portugal is great, we were there in September-October 2008. Lisbon is easily worth four full days, three at a minimum. Our experience was that compared to major tourist hubs like Paris, London,etc. the tourist crowds were nonexistent. Porto is nice enough though grittier. With only five days it's not worth it to go to Porto. With so little time, I would suggest two nights in Sintra and three in Lisbon. Or one and four coming into Lisbon after spending the second day in Sintra.