portugal trip recap

Here’s my travel recap of my trip to Portugal with my mom from 3/27-4/5 using a single check in luggage and backpacks. We are pretty fast paced travelers who like to eat and see major landmarks but don’t necessarily care about going inside all of them. Hope this is helpful and feel free to ask any questions.

General Notes/Tips

Uber and bolt are really cheap, trips to and from the airport were 15 euros max and most trips stayed around 5 euros. Typically uber is cheaper than bolt.

In Lisbon, just buy a ticket at the counter once and continue to use that Zapping card. If you buy new tickets, you get charged a small fee (0.50) for the new zapping card.

It was 50-70s virtually everyday, warm during the day and chilly during the night so bring a coat or jacket if you get cold easily.

Check the fork, sometimes a restaurant you want to eat at will appear and give you a 30-50% discount.

Be sure to press 2 2 for euros and reject conversion during payment if you don’t want to use the vendor’s expensive conversion.

The Douro valley is highly red wine centric but I would still recommend it even if you have a white wine palette. I personally do and the sweeter port wines and occasional white wine satisfied me. In addition, the scenery and the winery tours offer so much beyond the tasting that this is a good destination in my opinion.

Trains in the Douro will report their track number on the CP app and are often delayed. Sit on the right hand side when going towards Pochinho and the left hand side towards Porto. Note that after Pinhao the river will switch sides so you may want to change sides of the train.

Day 1: Lisbon

Got into Lisbon around 12pm and stayed in the baxia area. Good location but farther and cheaper locales would also have worked since uber and bolt are so cheap. We started by trying manteigara (by far the best pasteis de nata on the trip) and went to Praça do comercio. Disappointing lunch @ menina Sardinia with cod risotto and undercooked shrimps. We explored Alfama for the rest of the day, including various miraduoros, the cathedral, and the castle neither of which we went into. Overall just a nice neighborhood to wander through. We took a nap by the Graça Church to stave off jet lag and watched sunset which was lovely. Grabbed dinner at o Pitéu and the sea bass and veal stew which were ok.

Day 2: Sintra

We woke up early for an 8:00 train and had pre booked Pena Palace for 10:00. Don’t buy the bus tickets, they’ll charge you for an expensive hop on, hop off ticket; instead call an Uber. We bussed to the moorish castle which we wandered through before walking up to the palace.

The views from the pena palace of the surrounding countryside and the colors of the palace were really stunning. Note that you can actually explore a great deal of the palace before your timeslot. If you have a timeslot like 10:00 you can start in the palace early and when there are few people so I would do that instead of arriving to the palace right on time. After the palace, we walked the Cruz Alta then the Lagos trails which I would recommend.

Next, we walked downtown through the Vila Sasseti trail, a peaceful walk through the forest. The walk already felt tough on the way down, especially if you have knee problems as there are many stairs, so I wouldn’t recommend going up this way. The classical Sintra sweets were way too sweet for me at piriquita. But the fried octopus at cantinho da vila was yummy. We still had ample time before our 3:00 time slot at Quinta da regaleira. The garden was beautiful, be sure to enjoy more than the initiation well. We took the train out of Sintra at 5:50 and had dinner at Bairro da avillez where the beef sandwich was good but small.

Day 3: Belém and Lisbon

We started in the morning walking around chiado and bairro alto. The seafood stew at penalva da Graça was pretty good. After lunch, we then took an uber to Jerónimos monastery. You can go inside the church for free but if you want to the monastery, I recommend booking tickets. We didn’t and were left with the 3:30-5:00 timeslot which had a 40 odd minute wait for ticket holders. So I would book earlier than 3:30 if possible. The monastery itself is pretty but feels Instagram catered, akin to the leaning tower. I would still go if I did it again but wouldn’t go multiple times.

While waiting for our timeslot to come, we visited the national coach museum which was fascinating and impressive to see so many large coaches. Pasteis de Belem was solid but not great in my opinion. After the monastery, we strolled along the riverside until the Tower of Belém which didn’t feel too impressive. It was closed due to reconstruction so we didn’t go inside.

Then we took a car back to Nanarella which has great ice cream and took the tram for fun. Note that the tram will kick you off at the end of the line so you can’t just ride continuously. Dinner at the alfama taberna sal grosso was the best meal in Lisbon but requires reservation.

Day 4: Cascais

We had finished all of Lisbon earlier than expected so did a spur of the moment day trip to cascais. In the morning, we hit up mantegeria again and visited Time Out Market while waiting for the train to cascais. We arrived in cascais around 12 pm and meandered the city before lunch at Hifen. The octopus was fine and the pica pau was pretty good. I would recommend this one because if you come early and have 2 people, you can be seated at an outside balcony with views of the beach. For dessert we had ice cream at Santini which was not as good as Nanarella. Then, we walked along the coast until Boca da Inferno at which point I biked to Praia da Guincho while my mom ubered. Would recommend biking! My bike ride with bird ended up being 10 euros but I think there are also other ways to get a bike.

Praia da Guincho is one of my favorite beaches ever!! The water is so vibrant and the waves are wild which crash up against tall cliffs. We had delicious tiramisu at spot which will just let you sit inside if you want to rest. After sunset at the beach, we took an uber to the station and a train back. Dinner at sauvage was interesting to see a modern take on Portuguese food and pretty decent.

Day 5: Porto

The train to Porto was at 9am and arrived at Porto campanha. We then ubered to our hotel in Jardins da praca da República. The location was fine and it was cheap but walking back uphill was not ideal.

Lunch at casa Guedes let us try bifanas and francesinhas which just weren’t my thing, the meat was pretty dry. We spent the afternoon wandering the city center and landmarks such as the miraduoros, sao bento station, Porto cathedral and the Clérigos tower. I think you can skip going inside the cathedral if you’ve been inside jeronimos, clerigos, and sao bento station. We wrapped up the day by walking to the crystal gardens which I really enjoyed. Around sunset, we were back at the ponte Luisi and walked the lower and upper bridge. I would recommend rua de candido dos Reis for a view of Porto flanked by vila nova de Gaia. Sunset was at Jardim de morro and we had a disappointing dinner at ponte de ferro.

Day 6: Matosinhos

We had finished most of the Porto activities and decided on a day trip to Matosinhos. We started with a pastel de nata cooking class which was fun, would recommend. After taking the light rail to Matosinhos we ate lunch at Lage sr da padrao. It was pretty good and the portions were incredibly generous. We walked along the coastline to foz do Douro and the lighthouse, taking a nice nap on the Matosinhos beach along the way. Then, we enjoyed sunset at the crystal gardens and ate dinner at pingo doce since we weren’t that hungry.

Day 7: Douro Valley

We had a train to pinhao at 9:25 which left on time but ended up being around 30 minutes late. This was the first day they were reopening the Douro line so I imagine there’s still kinks to work out. We placed our bags at the hotel casa tawny which I recommend; the location is decent and the breakfast is great while cost was cheap. We went to a wine tasting at 2:00 at Quinta de la Rosa. The winery tour was quite cool especially seeing their large Portuguese barrels for aging ports. I ended up purchasing a tawny port!

Then, we had booked an olive oil tasting tour at D’Origem for 5:00. The walk up here from pinhao is crazy steep so please use caution if you’re taking the direct walk instead of a more windy trail. The experience included a tour of the olive oil making process alongside a wine and olive oil tasting. I’m not sure if we just got a bad batch but the bread and almonds were really stale which made it hard to enjoy the olive oil. For dinner, we had purchased some food from the grocery store before hand since by the time we would get back in town, it would be 8:30.

In general, everything has very limited hours in pinhao often closing at or before 8 and closing for lunch. Be sure to plan your meals accordingly.

Day 8: Douro Valley

We ate breakfast at the hotel and booked a 1 hour boat tour with Douro tours for 11:30. We ended up booking the one with a personal guide rather than an audio guide. It was cheap and reasonable but I might explore other options if I were to do it again. In the afternoon, we took a train to Ferrao and walked to Quinta do Crasto. Note that the train was 30 minutes late so you really have to give some buffer time.

This was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. The 90 minute tour ended up lasting 2 hours and our guide was not only informative but engaging, well spoken, and very funny. In addition, they served us 5 glasses of wine, the most delicious bread, and olive oil to taste. If I were to only do a single thing in the Douro valley, this would be it. Dinner at veladouro was delicious and I would recommend the Iberian pork.

Day 9: Douro Valley and Porto

We had some extra time before our 11:20 train and decided to take the train to Pochinho, the end of the line, to see the whole length of the railway. Then, we rode the same train back through pinhao to Porto. I think this was a great idea as we got a nice scenic ride while not having to worry about getting good seats among a crowd of people.

Back in Porto, we stayed on the Ribiera which was a nice change of pace. It feels nice to walk downhill to your hotel at the end of the day rather than uphill. We had a decent cod at Bacalhau for a snack and meandered the city. We walked rua das Flores and saw a jewelry shop that had a free museum (highly recommend). There are also several free tastings you can do along the street. We had a great pastel de nata at Castro and strolled through the city until dinner at Tapabento.

We left from OPO the next day.