Just got back from an almost two week trip to Portugal. Random thoughts:

Lisbon area:
-Loved the restaurant Lisboa Tu & Eu in the Alfama district. Ordered a bunch of stuff off the menu and loved everything. Best meal of the trip. We got there 20 min before opening and there was a line when we were leaving.
-if visiting Jerónimos Monastery in Belem, get there early. The lines get super long in the afternoon. We got there 30 min before opening and a line was already forming.
-Cascais was a cute beach town to explore as a day trip. Could combine with Cabo da Roca if you rent a car
-I really did enjoy a full day trip to Sintra, although I can see how people think of it as a tourist trap. Pena Palace was my least favorite - it was nice, I just didn’t get all the hype around it. I enjoyed the other places we visited much more. The Moorish Castle was great, I really loved Quinta da Regaleira. Must visit imo and be sure to see the well. The pastries at Casa Piriquita were also great - located in the town center area.

Porto area:
-Loved Porto, actually liked it better than Lisbon. Be sure to walk across the bridge and visit the port houses in Gaia.
Really liked the Church of St Francis.
Thought Livrario Lello was just ok, kind of over hyped.
Letraria was a cool beer garden if you get tired of wine and port.
We also took a day trip to the Douro valley - another must imo. We visited two quintas - Quinta das Carvalhas (red wine tasting here was great) and Quinta da Pacheca.
We had an extra day in Porto so decided to do a day trip into Spain to do something different. Visited Castro de Santa Trega and the surrounding town which was nice and ended up being a great day.


Other areas we visited:
-Obidos: loved it, definitely recommend. Walking the castle walls was a great experience. Get there early to avoid crowds since the whole town is pretty small.
-Tomar: loved convent of Christ and the castle. Could spend several hours here. Ate at a cool place in town called Taverna Antiqua
-Evora: views from the cathedral and also the Roman ruins were amazing. But thought the chapel of bones was a let down and over hyped. Was a lot smaller than I expected and way too crowded.

We loved our hotel too but it was in Vila Nova de Gaia which is across the river, basically still Porto. You SEE the city which is spectacular: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/opolg-forte-de-gaia-autograph-collection/overview/

It was a private hotel when we stayed but Marriott bought it this year. Also has a pool which is a bit more rare there.

Anonymous wrote:Loved our Porto hotel!
Castelo Santa Catarina: https://www.castelosantacatarina.com/

Also in Porto—fado concert was fun. Enjoy!

Thank you

Another vote for Obidos! It’s such a gem, like a time capsule, and there are a lot of local festivals there as well.

Anonymous wrote:Please!!!! Don't skip Sintra!!!!!
Yes.... very touristy. But one of our Portugal's trip highlights WAS the castles. Specially the Moorish Castle. We even walked up. No bus. It was fabulous. Do it early morning before the crowd wakes up!!!! The funny part was that it was very foggy. At the ticket office people were asking refunds. Husband and me made a decision... We don't care. Who knows if we ever could come back. With the fog surrounding the castle we felt like we were in a mysterious fairy tale.... We even enjoyed it. Then at one point the fog disappeared.... It was like a fairy tale. Ok. We love castles way too much... But that place was so magical that the picture of the place ended up being my phone screensaver. And whoever sees it ask what is that beautiful place....
Rent a car an drive the Atlantic coastline!!!!....

Guimaraes is close to Porto. It is an UNESCO site... That was an other highlights of our trip... AND !!!!! OBIDOS
The truth is we loved a lot more the smaller places than Porto or Lisbon.

We had an apartment in Sintra's center. We used the train to go to Lisbon. We were 5 of us and agreed that it was better than staying in Lisbon. Specially that we could park for free our rental car.

I loved Guimaraes and Obidos! We took an Uber from Porto to Guimaraes, then to Bom Jesus de Monte (must visit). The price was actually less than a tour for the two of us.

For some reason I preferred Quinta da Regaleira than the Pena Palace in Sintra.

We’d been to Lisbon (and Cascais and Sintra) before, so on our second trip, wanted to get up to Porto. On the way up, we stopped in Nazare (home of the “100 Foot Wave”). Loved it so much we never made it to Porto. Day trip to Obeidos, then back to Nazare, before flying home from Lisbon. Surprised me how much I enjoyed it!

Anonymous wrote:We did a Portuguese market visit followed by cooking class in Porto through Viatour that was awesome. We had wine, made an app, main, side and dessert, met interesting people from all over the world (we were 4, 10 in our cooking class), and learned what to buy in the market and how to make some Portuguese staples

Thank you, this is pretty interesting

Anonymous wrote:Loved our Porto hotel!
Castelo Santa Catarina: https://www.castelosantacatarina.com/

Also in Porto—fado concert was fun. Enjoy!

Thank you I appreciate this.

Please!!!! Don't skip Sintra!!!!!
Yes.... very touristy. But one of our Portugal's trip highlights WAS the castles. Specially the Moorish Castle. We even walked up. No bus. It was fabulous. Do it early morning before the crowd wakes up!!!! The funny part was that it was very foggy. At the ticket office people were asking refunds. Husband and me made a decision... We don't care. Who knows if we ever could come back. With the fog surrounding the castle we felt like we were in a mysterious fairy tale.... We even enjoyed it. Then at one point the fog disappeared.... It was like a fairy tale. Ok. We love castles way too much... But that place was so magical that the picture of the place ended up being my phone screensaver. And whoever sees it ask what is that beautiful place....
Rent a car an drive the Atlantic coastline!!!!....

Guimaraes is close to Porto. It is an UNESCO site... That was an other highlights of our trip... AND !!!!! OBIDOS
The truth is we loved a lot more the smaller places than Porto or Lisbon.

We had an apartment in Sintra's center. We used the train to go to Lisbon. We were 5 of us and agreed that it was better than staying in Lisbon. Specially that we could park for free our rental car.

We did a Portuguese market visit followed by cooking class in Porto through Viatour that was awesome. We had wine, made an app, main, side and dessert, met interesting people from all over the world (we were 4, 10 in our cooking class), and learned what to buy in the market and how to make some Portuguese staples