highlanderfil

After all the years of saying "next year for sure", we've finally got tickets booked. Flying into Faro in the evening of the 18th of May, leaving from Porto in the evening of the 26th (that date isn't yet set in stone, but that's what we're aiming for). Neither my wife nor I know much about Portugal, but, luckily, we have nine months to do some thorough research. We plan to have a car at our disposal, so can take pretty much any route. The general plan is to split our time between three main spots - the Algarve, Lisbon and Porto - and take day trips from the respective locations. We're definitely going to want to see some castles (I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Sintra), but other than that we're totally open to "sampling" the main highlights, so to speak. We are not party people by any means, so would be keen to avoid loud environments and huge crowds (to the extent possible, obviously).

I know it's hard to give advice without at least some direction, so it would probably be helpful to list some of the things we like... All things automotive (including scenic drives), soccer, architecture and city life, small furry animals and nature in general, random quirky things, warm beaches (bit early in the year for that, though, I imagine), good (non-spicy for the wife) food and the occasional outlet mall. But touristy must-sees are definitely fair game, as well, since this will be our first trip to the country.

Also, what would be particularly helpful is recommendations for places to stay. Not specific hotels, but areas of Faro/Lagos, Lisbon and Porto that are most convenient (and hopefully not super expensive).

I'll likely try to save here some of the things I manage to find out about on my own, but, as always, welcome any and all suggestions!

highlanderfil

Algarve:

• Right off the bat, found a zoo with a lemur feeding experience in Lagos
• Benagil cave if we can catch it early or late in the day so that there aren't too many tourists

Lisbon

• The tram, of course
• National Palace of Pena
• Castelo dos Mouros
• Belem/Pastéis de Belém
• Mercado da Ribeira

Porto

• Aveiro canals (on the way)
• Luís I Bridge
• Livraria Lello
• Mercado do Bolhăo
  

Palal

Since you're driving, I'd add Óbidos, Nazaré and Coimbra on the drive to Porto. As for scenic drives - driving along the Douro is very beautiful.

ijgordon

That's really not a lot of time -- you'll probably want 2-3 days in Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve, so there really isn't a lot of opportunity to see much along the way.
We just did 10 nights at end of August/beg of Sept, flew into Lisbon and out of Porto, 3 nights in each (but only ~2.5 days). We rented the car in Lisbon center at the end of that stay, and dropped it off right when we got to Porto, you don't really want/need the car while you're in the city). We decided against the Algarve altogether because it was peak summer and seemed like it would have been like Cancun with a bunch of Brits. And also it would be a looong drive from there up to Porto. Flying into Faro wasn't a good option for us because of limited connecting flight availability on BA via LHR.
So instead of Algarve, for our "beach/relaxation" portion, we spent 3 nights outside of Ericeira on the Atlantic coast about 45 minutes north of Lisbon, and then from there made our way north. Even in late August it wasn't really beach weather - the ocean is FRIGID and it was quite windy, although warm in the sun.

We drove past Obidos on the way north but hadn't really planned anything so tried to drive up toward the castle (along some steep/narrow/windy roads) per the GPS but couldn't figure out parking so just kept going. We stopped in Nazare for an hour or two which was neat - but only in the "upper" area so we walked out to the lighthouse. Having watched some of the 100 Foot Wave documentary on Netflix it was cool to be there (even though there are no big waves that time of year).

Coimbra came up from lots of people as a recommendation, it's the university town where a lot of Harry Potter inspiration came from apparently.
Guimares was another one, closer to Porto, could probably do a day trip by train.

I highly recommend the Duoro River Valley / wine country, especially if you like wine. It's stunningly beautiful there as well. We spent one night there on our way from Ericeira to Porto.

We did NOT make it to either Cascais or Sintra during our Lisbon stay, we might have been able to cram Cascais in but we didn't want to be running around so much. We also spent a half-day on the beach in Caparica (south of Lisbon) so that cut into sightseeing time. Again, windy (you couldn't even sit on the beach, everyone was up in the dunes) and frigid water.

highlanderfil

We've chopped our time down even further. Flying in on the 16th of May now (into LIS), leaving on the 23rd. Skipping the south altogether. Beach isn't going to be important as it won't be warm enough yet. Flying back likely from Porto. So basically that gives us two full days plus a day to acclimate in Lisbon (16-19), a day on the road (20) and a couple of days in Porto (21-22). If there are worthy places to stay a night on the way, we could adjust Lisbon by a day.

If it's easy enough to get to all the main sights in Lisbon without a car, we'd probably do the same as you and pick one up on the 20th in the morning, but need to make a call over whether to drop it off immediately in Porto or hang on to it and have a ride to the airport. One-day rentals are usually pretty expensive, so might not make a huge difference, as long as we can find parking.

One thing I really need advice on is what areas of both cities to target for hotels. Would ideally like to blow some IHG points, but am not 100% wedded to the idea.

lamphs

Having just been in both cities...

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express City Centre in Lisbon. Historic building, but likely the nicest HI Exp that I've ever stayed. Short walk to the the main sites.

I stayed at a Hilton Tapestry (Arts) in Porto. A bit on the pricey side, but it was also made everything I wanted to see walkable.

Given your limited time, and the traffic in both cities, I recommend that you stay as close to the city's historic areas as you can. You don't want to spend all of you time in taxis, ride shares, etc. I was in each city for 3 nights and essentially 3 full days and I still didn't do everything that I wanted.

highlanderfil

I assume by Holiday Inn Express City Centre you mean the Ave. Liberdade HIE? The green building? Looks like it's the highest-ranked IHG property in the area, according to Tripadvisor. I'd have considered the Intercontinental, but I'm pretty sure Platinum members don't get Club Lounge upgrades, so not sure if it's worth the extra points. Fourth night free, so in on the 16th, out on the 20th.

lamphs

Correct. I had a corner room that looks out over the intersection. I wrote about it here: FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Holiday Inn Express Lisbon - Liberdade MASTER THREAD

ijgordon

I would not plan on using the car to drive around Lisbon or Porto, that will be a big pain to constantly find parking, and many of the roads are narrow, steep, and windy. But there are some lots you can park overnight (there was one a block from our hotel in Porto we were going to use if we got to town after Hertz closed), so you can do the math on whether it's worth keeping the car to drive yourself to the airport. I believe the taxes on returning the car to OPO may be meaningful, vs. dropping in the city. I suspect getting rid of the car sooner rather than later will be the better option.

Lisbon, I'd stay in Principe Real/Barrio Alto, Baixa, or Av de la Liberdade. I wouldn't stay up near the Intercontinental / Four Seasons, that area seemed a bit removed.
We stayed at an AMAZING boutique hotel called the Palacio Principe Real.

In Porto, the Intercontinental is well-located but there's been tons of construction of a new metro line right there so it's probably noisy and half the roads are closed off (you can see in Google Street View), not sure how bad it will be next year.

beltway

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highlanderfil

Bumping because I think we've settled on a provisional route and I just want to sanity-check it.

May 16: Arrive in Lisbon, take it easy for the day, maybe walk around the centre in the evening.
May 17-18: Explore the centre and Belem - I've got a Wanderlog itinerary packed with about 10 places I'd want to see (it's not particularly well-organized yet, so I've just piled everything haphazardly into the first day).
May 19: Day trip to Sintra (alternatively, if a buddy of mine from Malaga comes to hang out for a couple of days, we could do Sintra on the 18th and try to go see a Sporting match on the 19th if I can find tickets - it's the last match of the season, not sure how easy that'll be).
May 20: Drive to Caceres in Spain where the Kings Landing scenes of GoT were shot; finish the day in Monsanto (House of the Dragon scenes).
May 21: Monsanto - Igreja do Castelo Templário in Tomar - Coimbra - Porto.
May 22: Full day in Porto.
May 23: Morning flight to London.

If my friend does not end up joining us, there's also the option of driving to Sintra on the 19th and breaking up the road trip further by spending a night in Coimbra instead of pushing all the way to Porto on the 21st. But even if we don't do that, it's only four hours of pure drive time, which gives us a fair bit of opportunity to still see stuff on the way. Not dissimilar to a trip I took with the same friend last May from Puertollano to Malaga via Cordoba and Antequera, which was a packed day, but we still got to see a ton of stuff and even managed to fit in a decent hike in the Antequera hills.

Thoughts?

ijgordon

Too packed of an itinerary for my tastes, but YMMV obviously.

highlanderfil

I'm thinking Caceres and Monsanto are going to get 86-ed. Too much driving for too little time.

beltway

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highlanderfil

Surprisingly, my wife (who is usually the conservative voice of reason) has overruled me on this, so we're doing the detour but essentially skipping Porto. Which is just as well, considering everything I'm reading and watching suggests that two days there really aren't enough, anyways.