Portugal in July?

[Anonymous]

This will be my teen’s first international trip. I’d like to visit Portugal for the history and the food.

How is Portugal in mid-July in terms of weather and crowds?

Which city do you suggest, Porto or Lisbon? We will be there for 1 week.

I’d also love to hear any hotel, tour and restaurant suggestions you may have.

[Anonymous]

Bumping for visibility

[Anonymous]

I did a Portugal trip pre pandemic in July. It was lovely there. The algarve was surprisingly mild temperature wise. Lisbon had a few very warm days. I don’t remember crowds being terrible. In a week you could probably do Lisbon AND porto. We did day trips to the algarve and sintra based out of Portugal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did a Portugal trip pre pandemic in July. It was lovely there. The algarve was surprisingly mild temperature wise. Lisbon had a few very warm days. I don’t remember crowds being terrible. In a week you could probably do Lisbon AND porto. We did day trips to the algarve and sintra based out of Portugal.

Sorry I mean based out of lisbon*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did a Portugal trip pre pandemic in July. It was lovely there. The algarve was surprisingly mild temperature wise. Lisbon had a few very warm days. I don’t remember crowds being terrible. In a week you could probably do Lisbon AND porto. We did day trips to the algarve and sintra based out of Portugal.

Sorry I mean based out of lisbon*

Also, we stayed at the pouseda de Lisboa. Very centrally located and walkable in Lisbon

[Anonymous]

Definitely based on Lisbon, especially with a teen.

I highly recommend the We Hate Tourism tour! A couple locals take you around in the back of their Jeep, order for your a local hole in the wall bakeries and restaurants, history lessons along the way. We loved it

[Anonymous]

In a week you can do Porto and Lisbon. I went in July and it was summer feeling but not oppressive. Every tourist location was crowded. This was pre-covid. We loved Portugal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely based on Lisbon, especially with a teen.

I highly recommend the We Hate Tourism tour! A couple locals take you around in the back of their Jeep, order for your a local hole in the wall bakeries and restaurants, history lessons along the way. We loved it

Not OP but filing this away for a future trip!

[Anonymous]

HOT AS HELL

[Anonymous]

I am planning a trip to Portugal this July but for 2 weeks. I've been researching the weather and the heat does not seem to be oppressive, especially if you stay in coastal areas. My kids are much younger but this is our itinerary:

Fly in/out of Lisbon:

Drive to Cascais (30 minutes from Lisbon) and spend 3 nights. There are beaches right there that are nice and you are less than 20 minutes from Sintra and the castles/gardens/national park.

Drive to Obidos and spend 1 night (beautiful village, you can stay in a castle cheaply)

Drive to the Bucaca National park (about 1.5 hours from obidos) and take a nice hike/picnic and spend the night in Aveiro (another 30-45 minute drive) (beautiful canals and colorful boats) then have a beach day in Costa Nova (beautiful beach though possibly some rougher waves and colorful houses)

Then drive 45 minutes to Porto and spend 3 nights there. Maybe do a short boat/wine tour if there's one appropriate for families out in the douro valley, otherwise we might just drive and check out a couple of places.

Start making our way back and visit Coimbra (about 1.5 hours from porto) - medieval city and nearby roman ruins and spend the night there and then back to Lisbon for 3 nights.

I don't love the idea of moving all over but at the same time, it makes more sense than driving extra time and we'll pack light. Some of the places we'll need to just have a quick overnight bag and so we'll leave some stuff in the trunk of the car.

This was the itinerary recommended to me for a mix of beaches/hiking/beautiful villages, some history, and some city life. Hope that's helpful in planning your trip!

[Anonymous]

We did this years ago over Labor Day weekend and loved it. Portugal is small, charming and very accessible. We did a week and flew in and out of Lisbon with a rental car. (DH is fearless about driving in other countries although you couldn’t have paid me to do it - but it worked really well.) We did Lisbon, Sintra, Porto, and then drove down the center of the country to a couple days on the Algarve for the beaches. I would absolutely skip Algarve. It’s nothing impressive at all and feels very touristy. If I could do it again, I would have stayed longer in Lisbon and just done Sintra as a day trip instead of changing hotels (although we stayed at a nice place that was owned by Ritz Carlton but not flagged as such) and then spent longer in Porto and done some wine touring.

Enjoy, it’s a great trip!

Oh and PS: funny Portuguese quirk that makes tons of sense - if drivers in the left lane think the car in front of them is going too slowly and should get in the right lane, they put their left blinkers on even though there isn’t another left lane.

[Anonymous]

This is all very helpful, thank you!

9:47 PP, are you using hotels or Airbnb for your rentals in the different locations?

Is my US drivers license all I’d need to rent a car over there?

Will my Amex work fine in Portugal or do they prefer cash/euros?

[Anonymous]

Piggy-backing on this discussion: if you have a week, fly in nto Lisbon and stay there the whole week, with day trips mentioned in this thread? Or fly into Lisbon and then fly out of Porto and split the time between two places?
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I know someone already recommended a tour group, but I highly recommend Celia from Culinary Backstreets. She is amazing. She took us on an amazing tour of the ruins and we had the most beautiful dinner there. I booked them through the Atlas Obscura tour group but I think you can go on Backstreets and book directly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is all very helpful, thank you!

9:47 PP, are you using hotels or Airbnb for your rentals in the different locations?

Is my US drivers license all I’d need to rent a car over there?

Will my Amex work fine in Portugal or do they prefer cash/euros?

You usually need an international driver's license (easy to get from AAA, only costs $20)