Anybody travel to Portugal from the US?

[Frwinkley]

It looks gorgeous and is now on my radar as a trip for 2025!

Anyone with any tips or itinerary suggestions?

I'm thinking 10-12 days.

We love beautiful scenery, walkable towns, hiking, etc.

 

[goofyernmost]

I went to Lisbon, Portugal but it was back in 1967. Lisbon and the surrounding area was very nice. That said, however, that was 58 years ago so it is quite possible that a whole lot of things have changed since then. It's a country that is pretty quiet, you almost never hear about anything bad happening there so maybe it hasn't change much. I think it is well worth the time to find out.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

In 2 months I'll be there. Our cruise starts in Lisbon. We'll arrive 2 days ahead. The cruise then goes to Porto,Portugal before going elsewhere.

OP, you thinking of doing this after your Ireland trip?

 

[Frwinkley]

In 2 months I'll be there. Our cruise starts in Lisbon. We'll arrive 2 days ahead. The cruise then goes to Porto,Portugal before going elsewhere.

OP, you thinking of doing this after your Ireland trip?

Might be instead of our Ireland trio this year. We may delay Ireland and go with some extended family in 2 years.

So many places….

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Might be instead of our Ireland trio this year. We may delay Ireland and go with some extended family in 2 years.

So many places….

That's the same problem we have! So many places we want to go...it's how we're ending up in Europe 4 times in just over 2 years (between 2023 and 2025) and Japan was several months ago mixed in with some U.S. places and Puerto Rico. Lots more to see out there so hard to figure out when and where

 

[goofyernmost]

That's the same problem we have! So many places we want to go...it's how we're ending up in Europe 4 times in just over 2 years (between 2023 and 2025) and Japan was several months ago mixed in with some U.S. places and Puerto Rico. Lots more to see out there so hard to figure out when and where

First world problem. But a good one.

 

[tony67]

Lots to see and do. I've been three times in the last few years.

Faro is the south coast is very nice - and lots of day trips from Faro to towns on the south coast..
When you fly TAP you can usually get a free flight to Faro or Porto when you book your flight to Lisbon.
I like to fly into Lisbon and then take the train elsewhere. The highspeed trains are excellent - but the local trains in the Algarve are slow and don't go often enough. We also got a train to the Spanish boarder and took a ferry over as a Day trip so that was very cool as well.

We also went up north the Porto and also enjoyed that a lot. There is a town just south of Porto very similar to Venice.

The food is also amazing - just be careful to avoid places in the tourist areas - many are not run by locals and sever very poor quality food.
There are a ton of videos to watch on YouTube - just know that prices have gone up dramatically since 2020 - Portugal has become too popular.
Dave in Portugal is an American you moved to Portugal and travels around quite a bit - check him out on YouTube.

 

[Frwinkley]

We are considering the end of June, end of July or possibly the fall. We don’t want to be crazy hot, but would also like to avoid rainy season (if there is one).

 

[mylilnikita]

OP: Have you looked into visiting one of the Azores islands as well?

 

[BayouQueen]

You might read up a bit about Sintra. It has an interesting history and was our favorite overnight on a driving trip throughout Portugal. Also, they have the government program where old historical buildings are used as hotels. We stayed in some very cool places within that system.

 

[Frwinkley]

You might read up a bit about Sintra. It has an interesting history and was our favorite overnight on a driving trip throughout Portugal. Also, they have the government program where old historical buildings are used as hotels. We stayed in some very cool places within that system.

Yes! We are going to add this to our plans.

If I may ask: what time of the year did you travel? I’m concerned about the heat, so am thinking late Sept/early October.

 

[goofyernmost]

Yes! We are going to add this to our plans.

If I may ask: what time of the year did you travel? I’m concerned about the heat, so am thinking late Sept/early October.

I was in Italy, France and Spain just a few years back (2015 to be exact) in early November and found the weather in the entire area to be quite pleasant and for me T-shirt and Shorts weather. Since Portugal just the the east of Spain, I'd say that it was a great time to be in the area.

 

[Draco0801]

We travel to the Azores & Portugal every year. Lisbon is a busy city plenty to see & do.
Porto is nice for wine, if you are going when its warm go to Algarve, catch a live Fado performance in Lisbon and if you can swing it take a plane to St Michael Azores they have flights daily.

 

[rowan1813]

I went to the Azores last year in June - Terceira, Pico, Faial, and Sao Miguel. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[kdonnel]

Went to Portugal in 1998 as part of a cruise.

We spent the day at Expo 98. I wanted to be able to say I had attended a World's Fair.

While I didn't learn much about Portugal in particular, it was where I learned that acceptable personal space varies dramatically by country/culture.

Many of the exhibits were structured like a Disney ride. There would be a long snaking line followed up by a standing pre show, and then finally the show/ride. Think the Monster Inc Laugh Floor.

While standing in the snaking line my wife and I would leave a normal(enough for one person), well normal for many western countries, amount of space between us and the group in front. The people behind us, if they are not also from a pro personal space culture, would try and fill in that gap with some from their party. The person trying to fill the space would get pulled back by others in their group who would explain to them we were Americans and we left too much room. That was at least what we understood with our not so great Spanish.

Then when in the preshow area, people would be packed, and I mean packed, in the front of the room. Packed so tight that only 50% of the preshow area was used. So the front 40% would contain 90% of the people and the back 60% would contain 10% of the people. The back was people from the US, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, etc. The front was packed with people from Asian or Hispanic parts of the world.

 

[Kitty 34]

It looks gorgeous and is now on my radar as a trip for 2025!

Anyone with any tips or itinerary suggestions?

I'm thinking 10-12 days.

We love beautiful scenery, walkable towns, hiking, etc.

My sister (65) will be traveling to Portugal than off to Greece with her granddaughter early June. I am sooooo excited for her and my lovely niece. It's my niece's Graduation present from HS.

 

[Frwinkley]

My sister (65) will be traveling to Portugal than off to Greece with her granddaughter early June. I am sooooo excited for her and my lovely niece. It's my niece's Graduation present from HS.

What a lovely gift! Memories and experiences are so much better than "stuff".

 

[Frwinkley]

Ten to twelve days is perfect. Definitely check out Sintra (magical castles!), Porto (wine!), and the Algarve (stunning coast). If you like hiking, the Serra da Estrela Natural Park is gorgeous. Learn a few basic Portuguese phrases

Is it reasonable to be able to do this while flying in and out of Lisbon (from the US)?

My thought was this: first night in Lisbon (recover from jet lag), train to Porto for 3 nights, train from Porto down to the Algarve for 3-4 nights, rent a car to explore this area, train back to Lisbon for the last 3 nights.

 

[Draco0801]

Is it reasonable to be able to do this while flying in and out of Lisbon (from the US)?

My thought was this: first night in Lisbon (recover from jet lag), train to Porto for 3 nights, train from Porto down to the Algarve for 3-4 nights, rent a car to explore this area, train back to Lisbon for the last 3 nights.

the train to Porto is 3 hrs depending on what you are interested in but 3 days in Porto sounds good, Algarve train from porto is the issue its at least 5 hrs train ride from Porto. We did Algarve from Lisbon it was 3 hrs that way just worked for us that way but the farthest point we went was Porto from Lisbon.

 

[goofyernmost]

Went to Portugal in 1998 as part of a cruise.

We spent the day at Expo 98. I wanted to be able to say I had attended a World's Fair.

While I didn't learn much about Portugal in particular, it was where I learned that acceptable personal space varies dramatically by country/culture.

Many of the exhibits were structured like a Disney ride. There would be a long snaking line followed up by a standing pre show, and then finally the show/ride. Think the Monster Inc Laugh Floor.

While standing in the snaking line my wife and I would leave a normal(enough for one person), well normal for many western countries, amount of space between us and the group in front. The people behind us, if they are not also from a pro personal space culture, would try and fill in that gap with some from their party. The person trying to fill the space would get pulled back by others in their group who would explain to them we were Americans and we left too much room. That was at least what we understood with our not so great Spanish.

Then when in the preshow area, people would be packed, and I mean packed, in the front of the room. Packed so tight that only 50% of the preshow area was used. So the front 40% would contain 90% of the people and the back 60% would contain 10% of the people. The back was people from the US, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, etc. The front was packed with people from Asian or Hispanic parts of the world.

SLIGHT TOPIC ALTERATION: I thought I was the only one that traveled a long distance for a worlds fair. The 64 Worlds Fair was in NYC but I was to young to go on my own. I was old enough for the 67 Worlds Fair in Montreal and since it was only 60 miles away I went to that a number of times. (in fact I still have a large overhead photo of the entire grounds, framed and on the wall of the room I am presently in). Then I traveled all the way to Vietnam and took R&R in Osaka, Japan to see the 70 Worlds Fair.

Minor disclaimer here, I can't say that I got there on my own, the United States Air Force was a lot more responsible for my being in that area of the world than I had. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.