Porto and Lisbon

[BigDahliaFan]

We are thinking of going to Portugal in early October, flying into Port and out of Lisbon (or vice versa). Friday to Friday. Any recommendations for days trips - how long to spend in each? Whether to do a night somewhere else too...

I was thinking 3 nights Lisbon and 4 nights Porto. Day trips to douro valley and to Sintra.

https://ponte516arouca.com/en/

The Paiva Walkways & Suspended Bridge was the highlight of our Porto stay.

We also visited Braga, Guimares & Aveiro but without a doubt, the Paiva Walkways plus bridge was the highlight for us.

Pinhao (duoro valley) we stayed for a few nights (part of our fortnight's road trip from Porto to Lisbon last summer).

Then we stayed in Nazare (we have stayed in Cascais on a previous half term week holiday), venturing to Obidos, Sintra, Lisbon & Sao Martinho do Porto.

We've visited Sintra twice over 2 holidays and still haven't covered all of it. My favourite part is definitely the Moorish Castle & the Quinta de Regaleira.

Would also recommend Sintra for a visit. When in Porto do at least a day trip up the Douro to some of the Port Quinta - probably best to get a car and driver for this - but it can be a very long day. You might want to do a night in the valley.

We've done both car and train between Lisbon and Porto. Either works - though I don't recommend driving around Sintra!

Do visit at least one of the port houses across the river from Porto - taste the diversity of white, tawny and the different styles of LBV/vintage ports.

The larger port Quinta in the valley are better set up for visits than the unfortified wineries in our experience.

We did them as separate trips, we did a week around Lisbon, with 2 full days in Sintra (and still didn't see it all) and a day in Belem. There is loads to do, and we had a 5 night trip to Porto, including a trip to Braga. I would probably err towards more time in Lisbon than Porto, but they are both fab.

We did a similar thing a few years ago between Christmas and new year. We spent more days in Porto as we headed to the beach. We spent three nights in Lisbon and then headed back to Porto for the last night. We took the train between the two cities, it was very civilised.

Great thanks all. Don’t fancy driving ourselves….is it easy to get a driver for Douro valley?

also would a stay in Sintra be worth it or Douro valley?

that bridge looks fab.

im finding it hard to get scale for travelling round.

Following this thread as planning a similar trip.

Getting a driver for the Douro should be easy enough.

We used Lab Tours a few years ago, though it looks like his prices have gone up a bit in the intervening period probably reflecting fuel prices and inflation... (we did the Wine tour)

labportugaltours.com

@macshoto thsnk you. Still considering staying overnight in the Douro but with only 4 days in Porto that might be a bit much….

I should add, we gave LAB tours a 5* review on TripAdvisor and would be happy to use them again based on our experience.

The day trip was a reasonably long day (c. 9 hours) as it's 2+ hours to get to Peso da Regua where many of the Port Quinta are. However, it gave good opportunities to see the Douro Valley and also visit a couple of Port Quinta and have a nice lunch.

Hi, we’ve just come back from Sesimbra but we flew in and out of Porto and did some sightseeing on the way there and back. We liked Porto but it’s quite small so like others have said I would prob spend more than half of your time in Lisbon. Port houses were good as was the Douro and we liked wandering through Ribiera.
Enroute we stopped at Aveiro which was lovely and Praia de Mira for lunch which was really nice. Óbidos definitely worth a trip to as well. We’ve previously stayed on the Silver Coast and lots of nice places there. Sintra is stunning, as is Lisbon and its beaches. Food is fantastic and really reasonable and the two cities are pretty easy to get between either by train or an easy drive- it’s about 3 1/2 hours with no stops or a leisurely drive stopping at some lovely places enroute.

You can take the train from Lisbon to Sintra, it was something like €3.10 return, but once in Sintra, you can’t just walk it, you need a car or you can take a tour bus. We hired a tuktuk for the afternoon, it was about €100. It’s a one way system up and down the mountain, very narrow roads.