July-October 2025 - Around Portugal in 80 Days

Buckle up for my longest post yet! These blogs are supposed to help Sandy and I remember specifics about each place we visit, with enough detail to help us decide which are worth revisiting, and where we might consider for a future home-away-from-home. After such a long trip, through so many different cities and towns, this post really got away from me! I’ve broken it into sections, so readers (including my future-self) can focus on what is the most meaningful to them:

• My TLDR list of tips and things to remember about traveling in Portugal

• General travel and food notes about this trip, with a bit of context for various items

• Play-by-play for each destination on our trip, with details on where we stayed, what we ate, what we did, and some general info on costs

Porto - Aveiro - Óbidos - Lisbon - Albufeira - Évora - Coimbra/Bussaco - Douro - Porto2

• Summary and wrap-up of what we liked, disliked, more cost info, and our final thoughts on traveling to Portugal

TLDR – the “Too Long Didn’t Read” summary:

• We flew Economy Plus – all good, with max flight of 7 hrs.  Would repeat for Europe.

• Newark is a terrible connecting airport - intentional delays and no good lounges.

• Newer electronic passports (with RFID tag) make the immigration process very easy in Portugal.  Global Entry makes the return to the U.S. very quick and easy.

• Booking lodging 1-2 weeks ahead had enough availability and kept our itinerary flexible.

• We prefer longer stays with “hub-and-spoke” travel rather than moving frequently.

• Speaking Portuguese is helpful but not necessary.  English is common in cities, less in smaller towns.  Duolingo worked well for us to practice.

• LycaMobile eSims worked well for our phones.  Unlimited data was only 8€ / $9 USD for 30 days.

• Electricity is 240V.  For hair irons, get a dual-voltage model and leave the U.S. appliance at home.

• Select payment in Euros with credit cards or tap-to-pay.  Watch the card reader and decline options to convert to dollars.

• The exchange rate was consistently around 0.85 Euros (€) per USD during our stay.

• Usually zero tipping in restaurants.  Consider tipping 10% in high-end places or for exceptional service.  Usually tip a tour guide 5-10%, depending on level of service.

• Only use Multibanco ATMs.  Get 80€ or 180€ to maximize the number of 20s vs 50s.

• 60€ cash per week of travel is enough unless you have specific cash-only plans.

• Train travel in Portugal is on CP.  Their app is good for schedules, planning, ticketing, etc.  Long-distance trains are ticketed, and checked by a conductor onboard.

• Local “Urban” train fares can’t be purchased in advance.  Get a tap-card at a station and validate before boarding the train.  Conductors often re-validate onboard.

• Bus operators vary city-to-city.  In Lisbon, use the Carris app for routes and schedules.

• Uber is great for short trips, and is identical to the U.S.  Bolt is a good alternative.

• Car rental was easy with Europcar.  All rentals include liability coverage, so only consider adding coverage for the car itself.  Our credit card includes primary coverage.

• Sidewalks are often cobblestone, fine for walking but difficult with a wheeled suitcase.

• It’s unusual to find breakfast restaurants or coffee shops open before 9am.

• Smoking is common outdoors and on restaurant patios.

• Many restaurants are open for lunch and dinner, but closed in-between.  Try larger “chain-style” restaurants for all-day meals.

• Many smaller restaurants are closed on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday.

• Tascas and tabernas are a good choice for a quick sandwich or snack.

• Restaurants don’t include water or bread with the meal.  Sometimes they’re placed on the table – if consumed, they’ll be added to the bill.

• Meals seemed to include meat, potatoes and/or rice, but not always vegetables.

• Favorite restaurant items include: bacalhau a bras (codfish with potatoes), grilled salmon, and porco preto (Black Iberian pork)

• Favorite snack/sandwich items include: tabua (charcuterie board), francesinha (sandwich), bifana (sandwich), and ovos rotos (potatoes with prosciutto and egg)

• We found traditional Portuguese food often under-seasoned, lacking flavor and color.

• Fado is traditional style of music with two guitars and a singer.  It’s worth seeing a show, though Sandy and I did not develop a taste for it.

• Best castle – Montemor-a-Velho

• Best palace – Pena Palace

• Best monastery – Batalha for self-guided, also Convent of Christ, though it was nice to have a guide there

• Óbidos is easy to visit from Lisbon, and is the most idyllic medieval experience that we found.  We recommend a short stay rather than a day-trip.

• Sintra is worth visiting from Lisbon, or consider staying in/near the town itself.

• Pick specific wineries in the wine-country and confirm details.  Not all accept drop-ins.

• Leave snorkeling equipment at home.

• Suitcase life worked great!  One bag + one carry-on was enough for each of us.

• We had a great time! Loved the history and the sights, found the food a bit bland. Best big city = Porto. Best small town = Óbidos. We will likely return, but are not in a rush.

General Portugal Travel Info

As we traveled, we had many observations of the way we like to travel, or of the larger country rather than the specific place we were at. For example, our flight preferences or how to ride the trains. Here is the 4-1-1 on those types of things:

We debated upgrading to business class, but settled on Economy Plus. We flew 4 hours from Denver to Newark, followed by a 7-hour overnight flight from Newark to Porto. Economy Plus gave us plenty of legroom, and though we couldn’t lie flat, the seats were fine for our overnight flight. We had a similar experience on the return. If we were to do it over, we’d make the same choice for Economy Plus. Our ticket cost was about $1,100 each, plus another $500 each for the Economy Plus upgrade, for a total of $1,600 each. Newark was not a good connection – its overcrowded and they intentionally delayed one of our flights. We will try a different airport next time.

One perk of Business Class is lounge access while you’re waiting in the airport. We thought we had some tricks up our sleeves, but they didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. First, Priority Pass – access to specific lounges as one of our credit card benefits. Second, Sandy has a Capital One Venture X card, with Capital One lounge access. We had to waitlist for about 20 minutes to get into the Denver Capital One lounge for our departure, but once in, we had unlimited free food and drinks, which provided a nice brunch and 2 Bloody Marys each! We hoped to use a lounge in Newark, but there’s no Capital One lounge, and Priority Pass has really cut back their network. Our Denver flight was delayed, so we didn’t have time for a visit anyways. For our return trip, we planned to use the Priority Pass lounge in Porto, but were met with a long line, estimated to be a three-hour wait, so we passed.

Clearing immigrations and customs in Porto was very easy. There was a longish-line at immigration and some empty kiosks for travelers from the European Union with electronic passports (newer style of passport with an embedded RFID chip. We joined the line, but an employee quickly arrived and directed anyone with electronic passports to the kiosks. Two minutes later, we were in Portugal, where we sat, and sat, and sat, waiting for our bags. (There was a national baggage carrier strike, which is apparently an annual occurrence.) An hour later, we claimed them and easily cleared customs with nothing to declare.

For our return, the Porto airport has a poor design. After checking bags, you pass security into the main part of the airport, with many waiting areas, shops, and restaurants. For international flights, there is one more passport check to go through, just before the gates. Many people report waiting 1-2 hours to get through this final check, so we headed there, to find no line, and with our electronic passports we were through in seconds, to a mid-size waiting area and a single restaurant.

Upon arrival in Newark, we saw a long line of people queued up at immigration. We both have Global Entry, so we followed the signs to find… no one waiting! The newer kiosks are surprising – no passport scan, just a photo, then a message to proceed. The immigration officer confirmed our names, no one looked at our passports, and we were officially back in the U.S! Customs was similarly easy – no questions about anything to declare, but we passed our bags through an x-ray, and rechecked them for our flight to Denver.

We have been using Tile tags to track personal items, and put one into each of our checked bags. United provided decent bag-tracking information along our trips, but it was reassuring to confirm that our bags moved along by seeing their locations on my phone.

The only lodging that we booked before our trip was our first Airbnb in Porto for 14 nights to give us plenty of flexibility in our itinerary. After that, we booked 1-2 weeks ahead as we traveled. We revisited this strategy a few times during our trip, and feel this worked out well for us. This year was unseasonably hot in Portugal. If we had pre-booked our full trip, we might have been stuck in hotter areas early in our visit. Instead, we were able to push hotter regions to September/October, reducing temps by 15-20 degrees.

Pre-trip, we weren’t sure if we would prefer to move frequently between destinations, or use more of a hub-and-spoke approach. We ended up preferring the hub-and-spoke, with more day-trips and less packing-and-moving. Our dynamic planning allowed us to adjust these options, add new locations, drop others, and also change our plans based on transportation options (train vs. bus vs. car).

Speaking Portuguese is helpful, but not necessary. In larger cities, like Porto and Lisbon, most people in the service industries speak some English. Our biggest challenge in restaurants was learning the names of various foods and dishes, but we could often place our order in English. Most guided tours had an English option, though we did take a couple tours in Portuguese. We struggled, relying on small paper handouts to get by. In a few of the smaller towns, we met people who did not speak English. Having a working knowledge of Portuguese helped us navigate these situations. For our Portuguese lessons, we used Duolingo. We normally practice Spanish daily through the app, but we switched to Portuguese for this trip. The two languages are similar enough that the learning curve was pretty easy, but different enough that having a daily lesson helped throughout our trip. For this blog the ~ symbol above an a is just another accent mark (ã).  Pronounce ç like s.

For cellphone connectivity, we maintain T-Mobile plans with international coverage. In Portugal, phone calls have a surcharge, texts are free, and data is capped for speed and total use. Based on advice in Facebook groups, both of us got an eSim from LycaMobile, with 30 days of unlimited data for 8€ ($9 USD). It took a few steps to get the eSims activated, but overall was pretty easy and the packages worked great for us. Our accounts were preset to auto-renew every 30 days, so we just canceled the auto-renewal before we left Portugal.

Electricity in Portugal is 240V.  We bought a 240V-120V transformer for a couple items that we have, but ended up shorting out Sandy’s hair iron in Porto.  We ordered her a new dual-voltage iron through Amazon, delivered to a pickup spot near our apartment.

Research pre-trip showed that we’d be able to use credit cards or Google Pay in Portugal. Places that accept cards bring the device to you, rather than disappearing with your card like they do in the U.S. The devices also take tap-to-pay and make it easy to review the charges and total – just be careful to watch for follow up questions on the device. Some vendors preset to charge in Euros (which is best!), but other places would have two prompts, basically asking the same question twice. It was important to watch and, if prompted, select “Euros” and “Decline Conversion”. Doing this saves about 5%-10% in foreign bank fees on each charge. More than once, an eager employee raced through the options and didn’t make the best choices. The exchange rate stayed around 0.85 Euros to 1 US dollar throughout our stay.

For tipping, early research suggested tipping 5%-10% of the bill for restaurants, which we found out is NOT accurate. Typically, ZERO tipping is recommended, unless at higher-end places or if service is exceptional. When paying by card, there is not usually a prompt to add a tip, so the two options are to tell the waiter the total amount to charge, or leave cash. On our trip, we tipped 10% in cash for the first week, feeling cheap compared to our normal U.S. behavior, then found it wasn’t really expected or appropriate, and stopped tipping in restaurants after that. Debate if you will, but our preference is to integrate with local culture, tipping at whatever the local custom is, not what Americans may be used to. We did feel “expected” to tip at 2 or 3 places, where there was a prompt on the card reader, or the waiter directly asked what amount we wanted to be charged. To be honest, that interaction felt more awkward than not tipping at all. Tipping tour guides is a different story, with 5% being a good guideline, and 10% for a great, personalized tour.

Though we could use our credit cards almost everywhere, we did find some smaller restaurants that wanted cash-only. We also occasionally needed change to pay for public toilets (typically 0.5€), admission to small churches, or for the occasional tip. To get cash, MultiBanco ATMs were easy to find and reliable (there is a lot of info online NOT to use EuroNet, so we never tested their ATMs). The ATMs defaulted to 50€ notes, so my first 100€ withdrawal wasn’t very useful. I quickly followed with an 80€ withdrawal to get some 20s, then bought a couple bottles of water to get some smaller bills and coins. After that, the main challenge was remembering any upcoming tours and intentionally buying groceries or a meal with a larger bill to have the smaller values on hand for tips.

How much physical cash is needed in Portugal? We used a total of 720€ over our 10-week stay, but could have easily gotten by on less. Early in our trip, I paid cash for a lot of smaller items instead of using a credit card, mainly to keep a supply of small bills and coins for tipping at restaurants. I also used up cash at the end of our trip so I wouldn’t bring too much home. Realistically, having about 60€ per week of travel would be sufficient, depending on how many guided tours are planned, and how many meals will be at smaller (possibly cash-only) restaurants. We saw Multibanco ATMs everywhere, so withdrawing either 80 or 180€ at a time is probably best (again, using “80” to get more 20s and less 50s).

You can get almost anywhere in Portugal using public transportation – trains, subways, or buses. I’ll admit that Sandy and I are often intimidated by the route networks and the different processes to get tickets, so we tend to avoid these options – especially since Uber is so easy! But for some of our trips, learning how to use the train or bus just made sense.

The Comboios de Portugal (“CP”) railway provides service between cities for the entire country. Trains seem to run multiple times per day between most locations. CP has an app and website, where it’s fairly easy to search for route times, understand stops and connections, and buy tickets in advance. For longer trips, the tickets will often be “Alfa Peninsular” or “Inter City” and include a reserved seat and have a space for luggage at one end of each car. Longer trips might also be on “Regional” trains, which can also be booked in advance, but don’t have assigned seating or a luggage area. Instead, you keep your suitcases at your seats or on an overhead rack. Conductors pass through the cars on all of these longer routes to validate tickets.

For shorter trips, CP operates “Urban” trains. In Porto, we tried to use the automated ticket machine but were confused by the prompts. We found it easier to go to the ticket office, wait in line, and have a real person issue our tickets. For our first trip, we bought a one-way ticket and were charged an extra 0.5€ (each) for a reloadable card. A credit for the amount of the trip was loaded on our new card, and a critical step with an Urban ticket is that you validate the pass by holding the card near a scanner before boarding the train. In Porto, this could be easy to miss, as the scanners are located near the entrance to the train platform. In Lisbon, the scanners functioned similar to turnstiles, with a gate that would only open after a card was tapped. Conductors often pass through the Urban trains, re-tapping tickets to confirm that they were validated. After our first trip in Porto, we typically bought round-trip tickets, loading to the same card, and always tapping the card before boarding each train. In Lisbon, we learned that the automated machines are confusing to everyone, because our local tour guide suggested that we wait in line and have a ticket agent put credit on our cards, just like we did in Porto. Last note – for whatever reason, the CP train company operates the trains in both Porto and Lisbon, but you have to get a separate reloadable card for each city.

Another option for travel between cities is by bus. We looked into this, but chose the trains because the bus lines seemed to have stricter baggage policies - no baggage over 20 kgs (45 lbs), which could have been a problem for us. Many bus travelers have commented online that their luggage was not weighed, but we chose to go by train, with no limits to worry about. Be aware that trains are not like airlines – you will load and unload your own bags.

We only took a city bus on a few occasions, mostly because of our discomfort at deciphering the route network. In Porto, we took a popular longer route to the town of Matasinhos, which was fairly straightforward. In Lisbon, we bought a package card known as the “Lisboa Card” for 31€ that provides admission to a large number of local attractions and unlimited bus/train/subway rides for a 24-hour window. We got this card once, stacking together multiple attractions that were close together. The buses in Lisbon are operated by Carris, and they have a good phone app. Just enter your destination and it will suggest 3-5 bus route options from your current location. It’s easy to check each route on a map to see where the actual pickup and drop-off points would be. The main challenge I had was figuring out when the next bus for each option would arrive, but for the routes we took, it seemed that a bus was coming by every 10-15 minutes. If we were living in a city longer-term, I’d probably make more effort to understand and use the bus networks, but changing locations frequently, it seems like the effort isn’t worth the time.

Instead of buses or trains for local transportation, we typically used Uber, which works the same as in the U.S. The only change I made is an option in the app to clear the charges in foreign currency rather than convert to USD for an additional fee. The overall price for rides seemed to be about half the cost of similar-length trips in the U.S. We tipped our Uber drivers through the app, following Portuguese convention of tipping 0.5-1€ depending on the length of the trip. The app doesn’t default to percentage tips like in the U.S. Instead, the options tended to be 0.5, 1, and 1.5€. Taxis were available everywhere we visited, but once you’ve used Uber, why would you ever go through the hassle of a taxi?? On occasion, we found it difficult to connect with an Uber driver, and would instead use the similar Bolt app. Some people say it’s more common and often cheaper to use. I did a few price comparisons and they were close, so I opted for the more-familiar Uber as my default, and only used Bolt if I couldn’t find an Uber driver available.

We rented a car on two occasions, both from Europcar. The rentals were straightforward, and having a U.S. driver’s license was sufficient (no international license needed). In Europe, liability insurance (damage to others) is required by law to be part of any car rental. The only exposure you have as a renter is to the car itself. Our credit card provides primary rental car insurance, so we could decline all coverage (not all cards have this, it’s one of the reasons we carry the Chase Sapphire and Capital One Venture X). With Europcar, a toll road sensor comes standard with a small activation fee. After the rental, toll charges are billed separately, plus a 20% service fee. On our first rental (only one day), our toll bill was 0.35€, but for our second rental (20 days), we managed to rack up about 60€ in charges.

Most of our destinations in Portugal were walkable, and unlike Mexico, Portugal has a decent network of sidewalks along most streets. The majority of these sidewalks are cobblestone, not surfaced concrete.  They are generally easy to walk on, but a bit difficult if pulling a wheeled suitcase. There were a few times that I carried my suitcase, fearful that I would snap a wheel off by pulling it. Ramps are not always provided, and awkward arrangements of steps are common to get into older buildings.

Typical path and doorway

For those that aren’t aware, smoking is fairly common in Portugal (all of Europe, really). As non-smokers, Sandy and I appreciate the smoke-free laws in U.S. restaurants and public spaces. Smoking is not permitted inside buildings or public transportation in Portugal, but it is permitted when sitting at a restaurant patio. This was not often a problem during our trip, but occasionally we chose to eat inside if there were smokers on the patio.

General Food Notes

Over the course of our journey, we found ourselves deciding where to eat by asking which category of restaurant we felt like eating at that day:

1) Tascas or tabernas – These small, independent spots have a short menu of simple sandwiches and snacks. The menus are usually very similar, featuring items like bifanas (pork loin sandwich), sandes (prosciutto sandwich), bolinhos (codfish cake), and sardinhas (whole fried sardines). These spots are the least-expensive, by far, but can feel “too simple” and a bit repetitive. We often dropped into one of these spots for a light snack in the afternoon, knowing that we would find a larger restaurant for dinner.

2) Small local restaurants – Many of these spots have a short, handwritten menu of daily specials. While they are very economical, we didn’t go to many of them because we didn’t like the idea of picking from a short, changing, seemingly random, list of options.

3) Larger local restaurants – These locations have printed menus, usually focusing on popular Portuguese dishes. These options are mid- to high-priced, but were our most common choice because it’s easy to research menus and reviews ahead of time.

4) Other – My general category when we didn’t eat Portuguese food, but instead had burgers, pizza, ramen, or some other international food.

We learned quickly that we needed to adjust to some differences for eating in Portugal. First, many restaurants operate two shifts. They are open for lunch around 12-3, then close for a bit, then reopen for dinner from 7-10. When traveling in Mexico, Sandy and I tend to eat 1 large meal mid-afternoon, then just have a light snack if we get hungry at night. But in Portugal, a large proportion of the places are closing right when we want to eat! We adjusted by eating a later breakfast, maybe have a light afternoon snack in our apartment, or share a sandwich at a local spot, then eat dinner around 7, which is still very early by Portuguese standards!

Many restaurants are smaller and independently-owned, and those are the spots that seemed to close during the afternoon were often also closed on Sundays, Mondays, and/or Tuesdays. We also found that while tascas or tabernas are good spots to get a basic sandwich or snack, not all of them stay open through the afternoon. Most frustrating are the spots that list their business hours as open all day, because the bar is open and you can get a drink, but where the kitchen shuts down so no food is available. Some larger “corporate” or “chain” restaurants might stay open through the afternoon, and also 7 days per week.

Restaurants don’t automatically include water or bread with a meal. Both are available to order, and sometimes they’ll be delivered to your table without asking (in many cases, it will be bread, olives, cheese, and/or some type of paté). If it's delivered and you eat/drink it, you’ll be charged. You can have the items removed, but some restaurants seemed to want to leave them throughout the meal. I learned that Portuguese law says that patrons cannot be charged for any item untouched or uneaten on the table, and we never had any issues with unwanted water or food added to our bill.

Getting vegetables with a meal seemed to be hit-and-miss. Rice and potatoes for a side dish is common – sometimes both! - but not always vegetables. Salads were included from time to time, always topped with oil and vinegar rather than the choice of dressings that we’d get in the in U.S. We did find assorted sauteed vegetables maybe once or twice per week, and they were usually pretty good. We saw plenty of vegetables at the markets, and also some vegan restaurants, but sides of vegetables didn’t seem to be common with the more-traditional Portuguese meals.

Seafood is very popular in Portugal. Bacalhau (salted codfish) and sardinhas (sardines) seemed to top the list, with whitefish, salmon, octopus, shrimp, and shellfish also being widely available. When ordering seafood, Sandy most-often got salmon, and I typically ordered bacalhau or octopus. I was initially worried that using salt for preservation would result in a super-salty bacalhau dish. However, I rarely found it to be over-salty when served, I suppose because it’s rinsed before cooking, removing much of the salt.

You’ll read in the play-by-play, that we did have some good meals, with favorites including: bacalhau a bras (codfish with fried potatoes), grilled salmon, and porco preto (Black Iberian pork). Porco preto is a general term, and there are numerous cuts and preparations to choose from. The pork is highly marbled, so it seems a bit greasier than we’re used to, and the pigs are traditionally fed acorns, so there is a slight nutty flavor that we both liked.

On the simpler side, one of our favorite dishes was the Francesinha. A Francesinha is a huge, traditional Portuguese sandwich that we shared many times throughout our journey – steak, prosciutto, and sliced sausage between two slices of bread, covered with cheese, a fried egg, and smothered in a unique flavorful gravy. Depending on the restaurant, the mix of meats within the sandwich and the gravy on top could be a bit different, but the majority were quite good.

Another of our favorite Portuguese dishes was ovos rotos, which is basically potatoes with prosciutto and a fried egg on top. The potatoes were typically French fries, but were occasionally a nicer dish of sliced home fries. The bifana is another popular sandwich, typically a thin slice of pork loin on a small roll, perhaps with a bit of mustard. We also enjoyed sampling tabuas (charcuterie boards), and just about any of the local pastries.

We learned that most cafés don’t open for breakfast until 9am. On the mornings that we planned an early day-trip, we wanted to grab a coffee and bakery item to start the day. That’s harder than it sounds, and even Starbucks doesn’t open until 7:30am! And for what it’s worth, don’t order a bagel in Portugal expecting something chewy. My experience has been something with the texture and flavor of a hamburger bun with a hole in the middle. The coffee is quite good, though it’s rare to find American-style drip coffee. Sandy typically gets a cappuccino, whereas I typically order an Americano. For those that don’t know, it’s basically a watered-down espresso, but still bold and flavor-packed!

Because we mostly stayed in Airbnbs, we found it easiest to eat breakfast at home. Initially, we bought cereal, yogurt, fruit, and coffee at local markets, at fairly reasonable prices. As time went on, we found chain stores, such as Pingo Doce, Auchan, or Continente, which were generally larger, cleaner, and with prices about half of the local shops. Most of our apartments and hotels were furnished with a Nespresso machine (similar to a Keurig), but we typically used the AeroPress that we brought with us, which uses ground coffee in a contraption that looks like a French press, but made of plastic and with a paper filter. Over our time in Portugal, Pingo Doce became our go-to favorite grocery store, and for many items, we felt that our groceries were cheaper than what we had been paying in the U.S.

With all of the discussion and descriptions I have of Portuguese food, you may be surprised to hear that our overall impression of Portuguese food was fairly average. We were surprised at the general lack of variety, color, and flavor at Portuguese restaurants. Yes, we had some highlights and favorites, but it seemed that many local restaurants had the same basic items, which became repetitive after the first month. Many meals were various shades of brown, with grilled meat, potatoes, and a lack of vegetables on the plate. Given Portugal’s history of sailing to the Indies for spices, we were also surprised to find much of the food left unseasoned, sometimes lacking any apparent salt or pepper. That said, when items did have added salt, it was often over-salted. We usually ate these items as-delivered, but Sandy did send back one particularly salty salad. Our impressions of Portuguese food could be a definite consideration when thinking about longer-term destinations.

Our Full Portugal Play-by-Play

Years ago, when Sandy and I first started talking about traveling the world, we debated where we would start. For multiple reasons, Portugal floated to the top of the list. It has many historic sights, a great climate, and the west coast of Europe is not too far away from the U.S. Portugal has good infrastructure and receives a lot of coverage for its attractiveness to digital nomads and low costs compared to other European destinations. With Gunner in tow when we started our nomadic journey, we put Portugal on the shelf. Now, it felt like the time had come to dust off our plans and head there.

Why 80 days?...  Most European countries are part of the Schengen Zone, where U.S. tourists are allowed to visit for up to 90 days out of every 180 days. We wanted to make the most of our available time, so we started at 90, then reduced a bit (just in case). Another goal was to simplify our trip by staying in Portugal, rather than visiting additional countries. It’s actually very easy to move within the Schengen Zone, just like driving from Colorado to Wyoming, but we didn’t want to have to switch languages, adapt to multiple cultures, or worry about any other potential differences. It’s our first new-style nomadic trip, so why overcomplicate things?  80 days in Portugal it is!

First Stop - Porto

Porto is an old port city (hence the name!), located on the Douro River, but very close to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s the second largest city in Portugal (behind Lisbon), with good infrastructure and is going through a rebirth-of-sorts – with a lot of renovations and upgrades to streets, subway lines, and buildings. It’s easy to get flights to both Porto and Lisbon, but we chose to start in Porto based on historic average temperatures – during July/August, the northern part of Portugal is generally cooler than the south, so we envisioned a loop from Porto heading south, then back north again for our departure home.

View of Porto and Douro River

Our flight from the U.S. arrived mid-morning, so we had some time to kill before our afternoon Airbnb check-in. We had a leisurely breakfast at an airport café, got cash from a MultiBanco ATM, then requested an Uber ride into town. Since we were still too early for our check-in, our host recommended that we go to the nearby São Bento train station and put our suitcases and backpacks in a locker while we took a walk around. This worked perfectly, at a cost of 9€ ($11 USD) for 2 lockers for 2 hours.

We had a nice Airbnb in the Ribiera district, which is a very touristy part of town, close to the river, with plenty of restaurants to choose from. Our Airbnb had a kitchen, dining area, small living space, and separate bedroom and bathroom. We had a washing machine, but no dryer, which seemed to be common throughout Portugal. Many apartments had clotheslines strung outside, though our apartment came with a collapsible rack that we could stand in the apartment to air-dry our clothes. Our building was packed/stacked next to other buildings on each side, with another building right behind us on the other side of a 10-foot-wide alleyway.

The weather was abnormally hot during the first week of our stay – average highs are typically in the mid-70s, but we started with multiple days above 90. Based on the “averages”, we hadn’t thought to look for an apartment with AC. With the hotter days, we kept our windows open and our host provided a small fan, which helped a lot. Since we were in a touristy area with open windows, we often heard people out and about at night, and often into the early morning hours. Our windows did not have screens, and we worried about insects, but had no issues during our stay. Based on this first experience with no AC, we made sure all of our future lodgings had it. And fortunately for us, the afternoon high temps returned to the upper 70s towards the end of our stay in Porto.

The Ribiera district around our apartment was quite hilly and we were always walking up or down, and rarely flat. You would think we were back in grade school, with every destination uphill both ways! Porto’s streets are narrow, often with one-way traffic, and are a mixture of asphalt or cobblestone blocks set in mortar. Most sidewalks were made from cobblestones – I’m not sure if we ever walked on a concrete sidewalk?  There was a lot of ongoing construction for upgrades to the local metro system, and also for apartment building renovations. There appear to be a lot of regulations in place because the areas were always kept clean and free of debris, and most areas were free of any trash as well.

Sights - There are plenty of sights to see in Porto, and we hit many of the standard tourist stops. The blue-tiled “azulejo” walls of the São Bento train station are worth a visit, though you will have plenty of time if you’re already passing through the station on a trip. Azulejos became a constant sight throughout our time in Portugal, with most murals depicting a local building or scene.

São Bento station and azulejos

We wandered by many old churches, cathedrals, and monasteries. Some were free, but others charged a fee to enter, often 1-2€ each ($2.50-$5.00 USD for the 2 of us). One notable stop was the Church of Carmo, where we paid 7€ each ($16 USD for the 2 of us) for a self-guided tour through the large church, including its rooftop view and a trip to see the catacombs below. Also notably, we decided to skip the Sé Cathedral, as it appeared to be getting some renovations, and tourists reported how crowded it was during our time there.

We also visited the local market – the Mercado Bolhão. It was overall similar to the traditional markets we’ve visited in Mexico, full of stands selling fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, or other items. But it was definitely geared towards tourists – neat and clean, with an upscale feel, and included a few vendors with wine or port tastings, or charcuterie boards known as “tabuas”. It was in the Mercado Bolhão that we had our first taste of Portuguese green wine (2.5€ / $3 USD) followed by a port tasting – 3 glasses of red port of various ages for 14€ ($16.50 USD). Overall, the value in the mercado was much better than seeking out similar food or port tastings at restaurants or the port houses.

Close to the river, we toured the Palacio da Bolsa. This building was historically the economic center of Porto, where business leaders met to discuss important regulations, and trials were held regarding financial matters. The inside is highly decorated, with a few themed rooms, including the very impressive Arabian room. The guided tour (in English) cost 14€ each ($33 USD for the 2 of us).

Palacio de Bolsa - Arabian Room

Many visitors to Porto flock to the Livraria Lello bookstore, which is thought to be the inspiration for the library in the Harry Potter series. To see the library, you need to buy the 10€ ($12.50 USD) tickets in advance for a specific timeslot, or on-site, which might be for 20-30 minutes after your arrival. You then enter with a huge queue of people, work your way towards the back of the shop, upstairs, then down again. Overall, we didn’t feel the fee or queue was worth the visit. That said, each ticket can be used as credit towards a book, and Sandy found a Portugal travel book, packed with photos, that really helped us research travel locations throughout our visit. In the end, our takeaway from the over-hyped bookstore was one very helpful 20€ book, discounted to 10€ ($12 USD) with one ticket credit (but really a 30€/$36 USD book since we had to have the tickets to get into the shop?).

Fado music was created in Portugal, and it’s possible to find stand-alone shows or to book a table at a restaurant with dinner and a show. Fado features 1 traditional guitar playing an underlying musical rhythm and 1 Portuguese guitar (with steel strings and shaped like a lute) playing a melody. Some of the music is instrumental, while some includes singing. There is an expectation of complete silence while the music is played, out of respect for the musicians. We attended a dinner show, with multiple rounds of music and singing.  It is a unique, traditional experience that everyone should try at least once. I will admit that Sandy and I did not really acquire a taste for fado. Perhaps it was our specific show, but the musicians felt disjointed. The underlying music was fairly complex, then combined with the Portuguese guitar often playing up and down the strings. Many times, these two guitar parts were playing at the same time that the singer was also performing, creating three separate, semi-competing musical tones.

Gaia – Porto sits on the north shore of the Douro River. A short walk across the Luis I Bridge brings you to the city of Gaia. Historically, this area was known for aging port wine, and it’s where most port tours and cellars remain today. Gaia has a nice waterfront, and we walked across the bridge from Porto multiple times. 

We did take one port cellar tour and tasting in Gaia. We found a common technique for the cellars is to offer a tour/tasting price, but with a partial credit back towards any purchases. The credit is per-person, so you really only get the full value by buying at least two items. We ended up buying two bottles of 7-year port, for 20€ ($24 USD) each, so the tour/tasting only set us back an additional 5€ ($6 USD) each.

Other than port tours, there are a few other sights, but we enjoyed Gaia mostly as a nice place to wander. Many tourists stay on the Gaia side of the river, but we felt that the Porto side had more lodging options, sights, and restaurants, so we would likely stay in Porto vs. Gaia if we return to the area.

Douro Valley – We booked a guided tour for our first visit to Portugal’s wine country. We found a good option on Viator with 3 wine tastings (actually 10 different wines/ports at 3 different locations), lunch, an introduction to olive oil, and a short river cruise in the valley (compared to other options with fewer tastings, lunch at cost, or no river cruise). Our guide provided a lot of information about the region and personalized the tour to our interests, and the tour gave us a great exposure to the region in a stress-free but packed day. Our price for the tour was 140€ ($162 USD) each, and we gave our guide a 30€ ($35 USD) tip from the 2 of us. Though we had a wonderful time, that 310€ ($360 USD) day motivated us to consider staying in the Douro Valley, rather than taking additional day trips from Porto.

D'Origem Winery, Douro Valley

Matasinhos – We made a day trip to this small, coastal town west of Porto. There is a bus that runs between the cities, and it’s popular enough that it is the only double-decker bus route in the area. Because we planned to make stops along our journey, we bought a 24-hour pass for our reloadable cards for 7.5€ ($9 USD) each, basically giving us a hop-off-hop-on experience. On the way to Matasinhos, we stopped at two different forts. Both had been restored and were somewhat interesting, but lacking any historical information.  Matasinhos is on the Atlantic Ocean and is the main port for shipments coming into the area. The town itself is pretty small, with a large market and lots of seafood restaurants. We had a nice seafood lunch (but pricey – 60€ / $71 USD) before walking along the beach to catch our bus back to Porto. Though we skipped any real exploration of the town, we thought the beach was the main attraction in the area, and are not likely to return.

Guimaraes – For our 1-hour journey to this town northeast of Porto, we loaded “Urban” train tickets onto our cards (6.8€/$8.30 USD round trip for the 2 of us). Guimaraes is known as the “birthplace of Portugal” because the nation’s first king, King Joao I, was born there, and some battles in the 1100’s are what established Portugal as an independent nation. Today, the town is known for its castle and palace, which is what we went to see. It was in this town that we discovered that a Portuguese “castle” is not necessarily a giant walled structure with multiple buildings and a palace, like you see in the movies. In Guimaraes, the castle is quite small, and is basically a fortification where soldiers could make a defensive stand. There is a palace built next to the castle, which was unfortunately abandoned and fell into disrepair in the 1800’s. The modern structure has been extensively rebuilt, with new furnishings brought in from other sites. A combined ticket to the two places was 7€ ($9 USD) for each of us. Overall, we were a bit let down by these two sights. If Guimaraes is your only chance to see a castle and palace, then it’s worth a visit.  But if you can travel elsewhere, we recommend the Montemor-a-Velho Castle and the Pena Palace instead.

Braga – This is another small town 1 hour north of Porto, and we took another “Urban” train to get there. The primary attraction in Braga is the “Bom Jesus do Monte” cathedral and park. There are buses to the site, but we struggled to understand when the right bus might be coming by. Rather than wait, we decided to use Uber, at a total cost of 13€ ($15.50 USD) for our multi-car round-trip, rather than the 8€ (4€ each, $9.50 USD total) that it would have cost for the buses. The Bom Jesus monument is quite ornate and worth a visit, though it takes at least 2 hours to fully wander, climb stairs, and explore the area. After visiting Bom Jesus, we also explored the town of Braga a bit, including the local cathedral (2€/$2.50 USD each), some gardens, and even the ruins of some Roman baths (also 2€/$2.50 USD each). We struggled finding lunch in Braga, with many restaurants either closed mid-afternoon, or already full and not taking any seatings. In the end, we wandered into the local Letraria Brewery (which appeared dark and closed from the street) and ended up having a decent lunch and some good dark beers. By the end of this day trip, we liked the feel of Braga and thought it could be a nice town to return to for a longer visit.

Tourists – Porto is a very popular destination for tourists, both Portuguese and foreigners. English is frequently spoken and we had very few issues communicating at shops or restaurants. Most restaurant menus were available in English, Spanish, and even German as well. The city streets and sidewalks were often crowded, but still reasonably easy to navigate.

Food – Most of the restaurants around our Airbnb seemed to be Portuguese spots. (Maybe that goes without saying, but other cities we visited seemed to have a larger number of Italian, Indian, and even Mexican restaurants.) Because we were just getting to know Portugal, having mostly local options was great for us. Our favorite was probably the Taberna do Largo, where we had some traditional tapas (small plates) and a nice D’Origem Reserva red wine. We also enjoyed Bo ta Quente and Taberna Casa Louro for light, simple sandwiches and snacks such as the flaming chorizo. In this dish, the chorizo is delivered on a tiered platter, with cooking-grade alcohol in the bottom and the chorizo on top. The alcohol is lit on fire, and you rotate the chorizo to cook/crisp it until the alcohol burns out.

Flaming chorizo at a tasca

As beer-lovers, we were happy to discover the local Nortada brewery, with decent Belgian-style beers and a tasty Francesinha. The brewery was a nice, comfortable spot that reminded us of home, and we visited 3 different times during our stay.

Last, we enjoyed Taberna Real do Fado, where our fixed-price meal (80€/$95 USD for 2) included appetizer, dinner, dessert, and 3 rounds of traditional Portuguese Fado music. We added a bottle of wine, so this dinner was a real treat for us!

Ongoing Travel Planning - Based on the higher-than-expected temperatures in Porto, we scanned the 10-day forecasts for towns in Portugal to decide where to head next. Aveiro and Óbidos, located south of Porto, are both near the coast, with temperatures forecasted in the upper 70s during our timeframe. Those became our next two stops en-route to Sintra and Lisbon, and we made reservations for 5 nights in each town. I also worked through our train options to get to these 2 stays, and bought those tickets as well.

Porto Summary - Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Porto.  We liked the mix of traditional buildings with a modern feel and the overall laid-back vibe of the city. We enjoyed the waterfront of the Douro River, and we had no challenges staying busy and entertained during our two-week stay. The city is definitely touristy, but we feel the benefits (i.e. restaurant variety, ease of getting around) outweighed any challenges that we might have faced. Porto is definitely on our “return” list.

Next Stop - Aveiro

After our two weeks in Porto, we took a CP “Inter-City” train to the small town of Aveiro, about 45 minutes to the south. Many people refer to Aveiro as a seaside town, but there is actually a very large lagoon between Aveiro and the coast. We chose Aveiro for its near-coastal location, lower temperatures, and its touristy reputation as the “Venice of Portugal” because of the canals running through town. Our Inter-City train, with reserved seats, from Porto to Aveiro plus two Uber trips to/from the train stations cost us a grand total of 35€ ($41 USD) for the two of us.

Aveiro is a smaller town, and we decided to stay for five nights to give us four full days to explore – hopefully enough for 2-3 days of exploration, and also some built-in downtime to allow us to relax and not feel too rushed. For shorter stays, we often find that the cost of an Airbnb doesn’t make sense. After adding a cleaning fee, and without a longer-stay discount, the costs are typically higher than a hotel. Instead, we got a room at the Hotel Molicero, which was a bit pricey at $159 per night, but was located right in the heart of town, had a very nice full breakfast buffet, and our room had AC! Temperatures barely reached 80 during our visit, but it was still nice to have AC. It was in Aveiro that we learned that many hotel chains in Portugal provide 2 twin beds as an option for a larger bed. The beds are pushed together, similar to king-bed size, but fitted with independent sets of twin sheets.

Sights - I already mentioned the canals, which are Aveiro’s biggest attraction. Historically, they were used to move people and goods around the city, but are now blocked off and used solely for tourism. We took a 1-hour city tour on the canals for 15€ ($17.50 USD) each. There are a few different companies offering these tours, and all seemed to take the same route, and for the same price. The canal cruise was a nice way to see the city, but since the boats don’t stop, you can’t use them to travel to different parts of town, and there’s really no reason to take multiple rides.

Aveiro canal cruise

Aveiro canal and town at sunset

Aveiro’s tourism was centered in the neighborhoods around the canals and our hotel. Many streets have been turned into walking malls, lined with shops and restaurants. Many of the restaurants have outdoor seating, taking space from the walking malls and filling the larger city squares and plazas. We walked the area daily, admiring the buildings, churches, and shops, many of which have large azulejo tile patterns outside.

Praia de Barra – On one of our days in Aveiro, we took an Uber about 20 minutes to the coast for a cost of about 8.5€ ($10 USD) each way. There’s a nice boardwalk along the beach, so we walked for a bit, then found a spot to lay out towels and relax. Sandy walked the beach looking for shells, but otherwise we just sat or laid in the sun, surrounded by many other beach goers. Visiting the beach is very popular in Portugal, and we learned that the beach near Aveiro is a common getaway spot for those who don’t have a lot of time or the funds to go to the more-popular southern coast.

Tourists – Aveiro is a very popular tourist destination, and we saw a large number of Portuguese families on vacation here. English is spoken frequently and we had no issues communicating at our hotel or in restaurants.

Food – Since our hotel stay included breakfast, I’ll start with that. The majority of the buffet was classically European, with meats, cheeses, breads, and fruit. There were also eggs and bacon, and we generally had to make an effort not to eat too much.

The town of Aveiro had a large variety of food and drinks within its small footprint. The Portuguese restaurants typically featured seafood and were very popular, especially during dinner hours. Rather than wait in lines, we migrated to other styles – an Italian place one night, and pizza at Pizzarte that Sandy claimed was “the best she’s ever had in Europe” (that list would include Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy!). We also found a small local Portuguese spot, away from the center of town, featuring leitao – suckling pig. It was tasty, and we both agreed that we would have it again.

What was unique in Aveiro was the sweets and pastries. First, ovos moles – a sugary egg-yolk mix inside a bite-sized wafer shell. We tried them from a few different shops, and while the flavors were very similar, we preferred those with a smooth, rather than gritty, sugar filling. Another local sweet is the tripa, which is a large crepe, made to order, and filled with any number of fillings (we chose dark chocolate). If cost is a deciding factor when you’re buying sweet treats, go with the 2€ ($2.40 USD) burrito-sized tripa, rather than the 1.20€ ($1.40 USD) bite-sized ovo mole.  Or… stay at the Hotel Molicero, where ovos moles are included on the breakfast buffet!

Also unique to our stay in Aveiro – Belgian beer. While walking through a square one afternoon, we were surprised to see a bar advertising Leffe blonde beer. We were even more surprised when we entered to find their menu packed with a large selection of Belgian beers, most priced between 6-9€ ($7-10.50 USD). Because we thought this Belgian beerhouse might be an anomaly in Portugal, we visited the Casa da Praça on three separate occasions during our 5-night stay!

Ongoing Travel Planning – While in Aveiro, we looked at where we would head after our next stop (Óbidos), or approximately 7 days ahead. We were wanting to stay in the popular tourist town of Sintra, west of Lisbon, but there was currently a risk of wildfires. Nothing was actually burning, but the vegetation was apparently very dry, and all of the sights in the area had all been closed. Rather than stay in Sintra, with potentially nothing to see or do, we made an Airbnb reservation for Lisbon. Our stay in Porto had been for 2 weeks, to which we added 1 week to (hopefully) allow enough time to see the larger city of Lisbon, plus potential trip(s) up to Sintra if/when the sights reopen. With our Lisbon Airbnb booked, I made our train reservations, also about 7 days ahead.

Aveiro Summary - We enjoyed our time in the small, touristy town of Aveiro. Temperatures were in the upper 70s, much more comfortable than our time in Porto. We think we saw most of the sights, but enjoyed the overall area and think it would be a nice, relaxing spot to return for another visit.

Third Stop - Óbidos

For our next stop, we were looking to continue our coastal journey south, and we had read about the interesting walled city of Óbidos. People talked about its magical, medieval feel, and how unique it was compared to other small Portuguese towns. With this in mind, we planned another small town, 5-night stay to give us time to explore at a reasonable pace.

The travel for this leg of our trip may have been the most confusing for me to plan, so let me record that confusion forever in our blog – Uber to the Aveiro train station, then a CP “Alfa Peninsular” train to Coimbra, wait for an hour, then transfer to a CP “Regional” train to Caldas da Rainha. One option was to transfer to yet a 3^rd train for a 5-minute trip to the Óbidos station, but we’d then need an Uber for the final 2 miles to our hotel. Ultimately, we skipped the 2nd transfer to the 3rd train, and just de-trained at Caldas da Rainha, followed by an Uber from the Caldas station to our hotel. Last challenge – Óbidos is a walled city, with limited traffic allowed inside. There are three portals to enter the city, and I was able to use Google Maps to figure out that one of the portals was within 100 yards of our hotel.  That portal would be our Uber destination and drop-off point.

The first leg of our trip, by Alfa Peninsular train, was a high-speed train with assigned seats and limited stops. Using my phone, I tracked a top speed of 130 mph during our short 20-minute trip! Our 1-hour transfer in Coimbra was non-eventful, though the station was quite small, with only a small café serving a limited selection of food and drinks. After our transfer, the Regional train to Caldas da Rainha did not have assigned seats or a luggage rack, but we had no problem snagging a set of 4 seats facing each other, and we kept our bags right in front of us during the 2-hour trip. The Regional train made frequent stops, which was inconvenient because of the overall slow-ness of the trip, before arriving at the Caldas da Rainha station, about 5 miles from our final destination. It was easy to get an Uber from the station to Óbidos, and it was good that I knew which city gate was closest to our hotel. The walk to our hotel was simple, but with cobbled streets, our suitcases rocked and clattered the entire 100 yards. Total travel from Aveiro to Óbidos – 5.5 hours at a total cost of 54.5€ ($64 USD) for the two of us.

Óbidos portal and cobblestone walk

Sights - The main attraction of Óbidos is that the historic city-center is surrounded by its original 30-foot-high wall. We specifically looked for lodging INSIDE the wall, and found only a few hotel options and nothing through Airbnb. We chose the Pousada Vila Óbidos hotel for its good ratings, air-conditioned rooms, and the fact that it was the closest to the portals to the city. The city sits on the side of a hill, with the main roads staying mostly flat across the hillside, and many alleys and stairways connecting up or down to the next street. Traffic is only allowed for deliveries and the occasional taxi, so the streets are typically vehicle-free. We really enjoyed walking the narrow streets inside the walled city, which had a completely unique feel from all the places we stayed in Portugal.

Óbidos has plenty of modern buildings outside the walls, but we focused our exploration to the sights, shops, and restaurants inside. Our hotel did not serve breakfast, so we began each morning with a walk to a local café for coffee and pastries. We wandered around town, often finding new shops or walkways that connected through to another street. 

We also walked up on top of the wall multiple times. The wall doesn’t make a full loop, but you can walk about 90% of it, generally about 30 feet above the pavement or gardens below, and typically with no railing or protection from falling! During our stay, the town had a medieval fair inside the city’s castle. Admission was only 5€ ($6 USD) each. The fair had some interesting exhibitions for knights’ armor and fighting, and a few entertaining shows, but overall was not as large or exciting as the similarly-styled Renaissance Festivals that we’ve been to in the U.S. If we understood correctly, there was a larger fair earlier in the summer, so it seemed that the fairs may be a recurring event.

Sandy descending the giant city wall

Porto do Mos / Batalha / Leiria / Nazaré - In addition to exploring the city, we made 2 day-trips from Óbidos. For the first, we had difficulty connecting with an Uber driver, so we used Bolt to arrange a ride back to nearby Caldas da Rainha, where we rented a car from Europcar for the day. First stop, breakfast, because cafés don’t open until 9am and this was the first chance we had to eat. Our first attempt was a local spot, but it was still closed at 10am! We didn’t know where else to go, but saw signs for McDonalds, so we headed there. This location didn’t have a breakfast menu, so we ended up with a cheeseburger and chicken nuggets for breakfast. Not fast, not cheap, not good, will not repeat, do not recommend! From there on, our day-trip improved. Our next stop, was the scenic Castelo do Mos. The castle was busy, with a constant trickle of visitors entering and leaving, but it was easy to drive right up to the castle and find a parking spot. The entrance fee was only 2€ each ($5 USD for both of us), and we spent about 30 minutes wandering through two levels of the small, reconstructed castle.

Our next stop, the Batalha Monastery, was easily the highlight of the day. There is a large, free parking lot right next to the monastery, and our first tip is to walk counter-clockwise (to your right) from the lot to the monastery. Otherwise, you’ll have to walk ¾ of the way around to get to the entrance. The entrance fee here was 15€ each ($35 USD for both of us) and we felt that it was worth the cost for the extensive self-guided tour that we had inside the massive and impressive structure. The monastery has an enormous cathedral, ornate hallways, and two large chapels, one of which was never finished. Following our tour, we had a nice lunch at a local café next to the monastery before continuing on.

Batalha Monastery - unfinished chapel

Batalha Monastery - entrance

Batalha Monastery - chapel

Our third stop was a hilltop castle in the town of Leiria. There is a large, free parking lot at a stadium just north of the castle, and then you can take a funicular up to the top of the hill. There, we paid another 2€ entrance fee ($5 USD for both of us), for another self-guided tour. The Leiria castle is quite small, but the Portuguese royalty built a palace just down the hill, which is included in the tour. The palace has some historic displays and a very nice terrace with a view of the city.

With our three planned stops completed, we headed back towards Óbidos. Because we had a bit of time left, we decided to detour to the seaside town of Nazaré. Many tourists talk about visiting this town, or the church on the cliffs overlooking the town, but we were honestly not impressed. We headed to the church, where parking was free, but congested and difficult. The area felt super-touristy, with many stalls selling food, trinkets, and souvenirs. The church was nice, but not unique in any way that we could tell. From our viewpoint overlooking the town, we could tell that the city center was also crowded with busy, congested streets. Overall, we didn’t get much from Nazaré.

We had rented the car for 24 hours, and the office was closed by the time we got back, so we took the car to Óbidos and parked in a large city lot by the southernmost gate. From there it was a short 10-minute walk back to our hotel. In the morning, we returned the car to Europcar, with no issues. Our one-day rental was 62€ ($73 USD), plus 20€ ($24 USD) for gas, and 0.3€ ($0.35 USD) for a single toll, for a total of just under $100 USD for the day’s travel.

Peniche / Berlengas - Our second day-trip was to the Island Nature Reserve of Berlengas, just off the western coast of Portugal. We booked this trip a few days in advance, directly with Berlenga Tours through their website. We were surprised that there was limited availability, and took the only option available to us. Looking at their site more recently, there is plenty of availability, even same-day, so it’s likely better to book a week ahead in August, though it may not be needed the rest of the year. Prices also appear to be about 25% higher during August compared to the rest of the year. We booked an afternoon “fast boat” option for 32€ ($38 USD) each, plus a 10€ ($12 USD each) add-on for a glass-bottom boat tour at the island. 

On the day of our Berlengas tour, we used Uber (20€/$25 USD) for our 20-minute ride from Óbidos to the seaside town of Peniche. We left early enough to have time to explore and have a snack before our tour. Along the way, our driver asked if we wanted to see some sights, so he went off the prescribed Uber route and showed us some nice seaside towns and told us about the local surfing community. He was a great unofficial tour guide, and we actually gave him a pretty good tip through the Uber app.

Once in Peniche, we wandered a bit of the town near the marina, including the local fort and attached museum. While the museum was a decent way to use up our time, we didn’t feel that it was worth the 10€ each ($24 USD total) entry fee.

For our tour to Berlengas Island, we were excited to get on our “fast boat” - a small, rubber-hulled speedboat, that looked far more exciting than the larger, slower ferry. The ride was fun, bouncing us along the waves, with many of us getting splashed a bit. On the island, the glass-bottom boat really wasn’t necessary, as there aren’t many fish swimming around, but it seems that all the tour operators use them to explore the natural caves and tunnels around the island. Those caves and tunnels were quite interesting to see, and we thought the additional cost for the small-boat tour was worth the cost.

Fast-boat to Berlengas

Forte de São João

Berlengas Island has many trails to explore, and some people camp or stay in bungalows on the island for multiple nights. The highlight of the island is the view of Forte de São João Baptista (Fort of St. John the Baptist). This small island fortress is connected to the main island by a rock bridge, and the view of the fort and bridge from the main island is very unique and beautiful. Admission is only 1€ ($1.20 USD), though the only benefit to entering the fort is being able to climb up to the second floor for a view, or to have access to the restrooms. Unless you need the restrooms, consider skipping the interior of the fort.

Tourists – Óbidos was generally crowded with tourists. We overheard a lot of English-speakers every day, though many seemed to be with a guide, so we concluded that they were on short day-trips to Óbidos. In the evenings, the town was clearly much emptier, and most of the people we would see wandering around appeared to be more regional (Portuguese) tourists. Though the city was touristy, we found that some of the restaurants only provided menus in Portuguese, and some of the wait-staff didn’t speak a lot of English. In this regard, it was a nice change, and made us feel that we were starting to see more of the “real Portugal”.

Food – Our meals in Óbidos focused on traditional Portuguese items, with mixed reviews. For example, I had an under-seasoned lamb stew that had lots of potential, and Sandy discovered a new type of flour-based sausage called “farinheira” that neither of us cared for. Farinheira has an interesting story – early in Portugal’s history, Jewish people needed to hide their religious affiliation and created this mushy flour-based sausage so they could give the appearance of eating pork. We did sample farinheira a second time while in Lisbon, with no change in our rating. On the plus side, we ate some good cod, seafood rice, and more flaming chorizos in Óbidos.

Traditional Portuguese dinner - pork belly + lamb stew

We also discovered the “ginga” liqueur – a sour cherry liqueur developed by the local monks many centuries ago. Ginga is traditionally served like a shot in a chocolate cup in Óbidos. We tried the complementary ginga in our hotel, and also at a local bar (1.5€ / $1.80 USD each). The brands we tried were similar, but had some variety in their flavor. We thought about buying a bottle, but decided against it in the end.

Since our hotel did not provide breakfast, we ate at a local café most mornings – typically an Americano, a cappuccino, and a few pastries – averaging 18€ ($21 USD) per day over our stay. Our favorite food/drink location in Óbidos was undoubtedly their branch of the Letraria Brewery that we had discovered in Braga. The food was consistent, the beer was good, and we enjoyed the atmosphere.

Ongoing Travel Planning – Our plans for our next stop in Lisbon were already complete, so we didn’t do any further planning from Óbidos.

Óbidos Summary - We enjoyed the atmosphere in Óbidos, with its medieval feel, traffic-free cobbled streets, and the uniqueness of being surrounded by a giant wall. Temperatures remained nice for us during this time – typically in the upper 70’s. We would definitely return for another short visit, but it’s hard to say how long we could stay before getting bored, or before the romanticism of the area wears off.

Our Fourth Stop - Lisbon

Lisbon is Portugal’s largest city and capital. It seems to be on every visitor's bucket list, and that’s really our “why Lisbon” as well. For our transit from Óbidos to Lisbon, we used a CP train once again. Reviews for the local Óbidos station stated that it’s worn-down, with no facilities, and no staff. Instead, we hired a Bolt ride back to Caldas da Rainha, then took a 2.5-hour “Regional” train to Lisbon, with no transfers (there were cheaper options with transfer, but I screened those out, preferring simplicity over cost). The Óbidos station was an early stop on our ride, and the reviews were correct. A few passengers boarded at the abandoned station, and we were glad that we started in Caldas da Rainha. Once in Lisbon, we used Uber to get to our apartment. Total for the train and 2 car rides from Óbidos to Lisbon: 5 hours and 34€ ($41 USD) for the two of us.

We had booked our Airbnb about a week before traveling here. We had a reasonable selection, but only a few choices remained once we filtered for a washing machine and air conditioning. Based on price, we chose an apartment about a 30-minute walk from the heart of town. (I have tried to figure out the name of the neighborhood, but can’t, so will just say it was close to the Santos train station.) We didn’t mind being outside of the city center, and liked that it would ensure that we get some exercise on most days, having to walk a bit further to see the sights. Our apartment was on the 3^rd floor, which in Europe means the 4^th floor because the ground floor starts at zero. We struggled a bit getting our large suitcases up the very narrow staircase, but every other trip in/out was fine.

The apartment was small and had a studio layout. Because I tend to wake up 1-2 hours earlier than Sandy, we try to avoid studios, but somehow overlooked the layout in this listing. The apartment worked for us, but we would likely look somewhere else if we return. We had good internet, and appreciated the AC, as the weather reached the mid-80s for the first week of our stay, dropping to upper-70s by the end of our time in Lisbon. We actually had a bad AC unit when we moved in, but the hosts quickly had it fixed, so we got to experience life in this apartment both with and without AC. Nights were cool enough that we opened the windows (again with no screens, and again with no insects). Surprisingly, our host asked that we not flush toilet paper. Of all our stays in Portugal, this was the only place with this restriction, though we are quite used to it from our time in Mexico.

Sights - After some trial and error, we settled on a ‘normal’ route into the city center, which avoided major hills and some of the more run-down areas nearby. Walking in Lisbon was similar to the other spots we’d been, with narrow cobblestone sidewalks, kept reasonably clean and maintained. Lisbon refers to itself as the “City of 7 Hills”, and though we walked up/down a few of them, we definitely didn’t find them all. We spent most of our time in the city center, known as Baixa (meaning “low”) - a flat, low-lying area on the north shore of the Tagus River. We explored a bit on our own, then signed up for a walking tour through Viator (online). The tour was listed as one of those “free city tours”, though Viator charged a 3€ ($3.50 USD) fee to book. Because we had some rewards credit, we ended up paying only 1€ ($1.20 USD) to book, and then gave our guide a 20€ tip (10€/$12 USD each) since he wasn’t making any income from the bookings. We enjoyed the tour, learning a lot about local history and architecture, including the impact of the large earthquake that destroyed the city in 1755. That earthquake led to a complete redesign of Lisbon, creating the large, flat Baixa neighborhood with its organized grid of streets that exists today.

For exploring in town, Lisbon offers a tourist-targeted “Lisboa Card”, which provides free or discounted access to a number of sights, and unlimited use on any bus or train for a 24-hour period, for a fixed price of 31€ ($36 USD) per person. One complaint with the Lisboa card is that you need to find a location to pick up a physical card, which wasn’t clear on their web site. Second, it’s important to know which sights are included with the card and which of those you really want to see. As we considered where to visit, we found that most sights were not clustered together, and therefore difficult to combine in a single day. In the end, only the suburb of Belem had a few clustered places we wanted to see, so we only bought the Lisboa Card for a single day of our stay.

Belem is located about 20 minutes west of our apartment by bus. I will admit that I struggle reading bus routes and schedules in big cities. The maps are not intuitive to me, and since buses are in traffic, it seems that they’re often running behind schedule. I also find it difficult to pre-calculate bus fares, and different cities expect different forms of payment (cash, pre-loaded card, or in Lisbon, it seemed one could use tap-to-pay with a credit card or cellphone). The buses in Lisbon are operated by Carris, which has an app that I installed on my phone.  You use it somewhat like Uber – it knows your location, and after selecting a destination, the app will list multiple options for nearby bus stops and the bus line (or lines with transfers) that connect through. The app was reasonably easy to use, and we were able to get to and from Belem, selecting options with no transfers, mainly because that’s an extra level of hassle that I didn’t want to deal with. I didn’t see fare information anywhere in the app or on signs, but we had 24 hours of unlimited rides, so upon boarding the bus, we just tapped our Lisboa Cards on the reader by the door. Everything went smoothly, though our day with the Lisboa Card is the only day that we attempted traveling by bus in Lisbon.

In Belem, we were mostly interested in seeing the Jeronimos Monastery (15€/$17.50 USD, or “free” with Lisboa card). We had some interest in the Discoverers Monument (10€/$12 USD, or “free” with card) and also the Belem Tower (10€/$12 USD or “free” with card). The Belem Tower was closed for renovations during our stay, but there is also a royal coach museum in the area, for 10€/$12USD (again “free” with card). Based on those options, we talked ourselves into getting the Lisboa Card and hitting the three open sights. After visiting them all, we would say that the Jeronimos Monastery is overrated – much of the building has been repurposed, the tour is primarily through the cloister, and admission to the adjacent church is free. Really, the most impressive and picturesque views of the monastery are from outside on the street. The Discovers Monument has a nice view from the top, but I’m not sure that it’s 10€-good. The coach museum was an unexpected surprise. It was interesting to see how many royal coaches have been used, and to see the progression of coach technology and comfort through the years. We probably would have skipped this museum if we didn’t have the Lisboa Card, so, again, an unexpected surprise.

Jeronimos Monastery

Royal coach at the Coach Museum

Pasteis de nata

Also noteworthy in Belem is the pastries from Pasteis de Belem. This bakery is the reported creator of the famous pasteis de nata custard tarts. These pastries can now be found all over the country, and I’ll concede that they’re pretty tasty wherever you find them. But if you want the original, you have to go to Belem.

Even without the benefit of the Lisboa Card, we still visited a number of other sights in Lisbon, including the Carma Archeology Museum (7€/$8 USD each) located in an open-air cathedral that lost its roof in the 1755 earthquake. We also visited the well-known Castle of São Jorge (15€/$17.50 USD each), where we purposely timed our arrival with one of the free guided tours provided in English. The tour was good, providing additional information about the construction of the castle, and also giving us unique access to an area with old Moorish ruins. South of the castle, we visited an area where Roman ruins were discovered beneath the city. A small amphitheater has been uncovered, and a small museum nearby has multiple floors with an excavated cross-section transitioning from modern day, to early Lisbon settlements, to Roman construction in the 1^st century. The museum is small, with only a few artifacts, but was interesting enough to justify the 3€ ($3.50 USD) fee.

With seven hills around the city center, Lisbon is also known for its miradors (overlooks). We found a few of these miradors, but didn’t feel that any of them provided spectacular views, so we stopped searching for the rest. Baixa, in the city center, seemed to be the hub of Lisbon’s activity, and constantly busy with tourists. We walked there about half of our days in Lisbon, either to explore, or to find a new restaurant. We did most of our exploration on foot, only relying on Uber once within the city. On the day we visited the São Jorge castle, we strategically Uber’d to the top of the hill, wandering from top-to-bottom as we saw all of our sights for that day, before the 30-minute walk back to our apartment.

Tomar – Sandy and I have a bit of a long-standing, conspiratorial interest in the Knights Templar, an organization established in Portugal in the 12^th century. The Knights Templar fought in many holy wars in the Middle East and helped various kings of Portugal defend their borders. The Knights also established an early banking system, allowing travelers to deposit money in Portugal, receive escorted passage through Europe or the Middle East, then withdraw money at their destination. This built the Knights Templar into a very wealthy organization, leading to many conspiracy theories about what they did with their money and what other treasures and secrets they had - watch Tom Hanks in “The Da Vinci Code” for more on this topic.

Back to the blog – the Knights Templar were headquartered in the town of Tomar, Portugal. We found a tour online, this time through “Get Your Guide”, another online booking site, similar to Viator or TripAdvisor. Our full-day Templar-oriented tour started with a 1-hour drive to the castle of Almourol. It’s a very interesting site, built on a small island in the middle of the Tagus River. We had to wait for a small boat to ferry us to the castle, where we could go up into/on top of the castle tower, and also read through some displays with information about the Templars, their history, and their use of the site, though we were a bit disappointed that our guide did not dive any deeper into the site or the Templars. After Almourol, we drove another 20 minutes to the town of Tomar. There, our guide led us through the Convent of Christ. At this site, she provided a lot of information not available on the displays, and also gave us some free moments to look and explore on our own through the unique circular “charola” with its extensive Manuelian décor. Next, we went to the city center of Tomar and were given 1.5 hours to explore on our own and to find some lunch. Sandy and I went to a medieval-themed, tourist-targeted restaurant, and waited longer than we should have to get a table. I say that because we basically used up our sightseeing time, only having time to see the town square and church close to the restaurant. Our final tour stop was the Santa Maria do Olival church, where at least one of the early Templars has been entombed. Overall, we enjoyed our Templar tour, but both wished that our guide would have expanded on some of the more common modern-day conspiracy theories. Our cost for the tour was 80€/$95 USD each, which included all entrance fees (Almourol Castle 10€, Convent of Christ 15€), and we also gave our guide a 20€ / $23.50 USD tip. Having seen most of Tomar, we would only return if our visit coincided with the annual Knights Templar Festival (typically in July).

Armourol Castle

Convent of Christ - circular chapel

Convent of Christ - Templar fountain

Sintra – Tourism to Sintra began hundreds of years ago – it was actually the place that royalty and wealthy families would go to get away from the summer heat of Lisbon. The town of Sintra, and the nearby National Park, are about 20 miles west of Lisbon, but slightly higher in elevation, and located where cool coastal breezes blow through, maintaining a very moderate temperature year-round. The area is filled with tourist destinations, though we only visited a few on our visit.

For our first visit to Sintra, we decided to book a half-day guided tour of the town at a large estate known as “Quinta Regalera”. We found the tour on “Get Your Guide”, at a cost of 35€ each ($82 USD total). We were supposed to have a group tour, but the other guests apparently cancelled and never showed up, so we basically ended up with a private tour. On the morning of our tour, we walked to the local (Lisbon) Rossio train station. Our guide helped us buy the correct round-trip train tickets for the day, then we all jumped on the next “Urban” train heading to Sintra. We talked a bit during the 45-minute ride, learning about Sintra and the surrounding area. Once we arrived in town, we walked a bit, learning about some municipal buildings, then stopped to buy a couple of local pastries – a flaky-shelled quejada and a soft crepe-like travisero. Both were sweet and tasty, though I think I prefer pasteis de nata myself. Next, we walked about 30 minutes to the Quinta Regalera. Our guide showed us through stables, gardens, and walkways before taking us to the highlight – the “Initiation Well” rumored to be associated with the Templars and the Illuminati. We descended into this famous well, and then through some tunnels below. Our guide had a lot of information about the rumored initiation processes, and we had a great time. By mid-afternoon, it was time for us to part ways, after which Sandy and I explored the manor house and on-site chapel (with clear Illuminati symbolism), before taking a second self-guided journey down the Initiation Well and through the tunnels. We walked back to town, stopping for lunch at Café Saudade for salads and sandwiches, before boarding a train back to Lisbon.

Quinta Regalera - descending the Initiation Well

Quinta Regalera - chapel with Illuminati eye and Templar crosses

For whatever reason, we ended up with back-to-back days at Sintra. Our guided trip helped immensely, as we planned for our second day to be self-guided. We repeated the process of walking to the Rossio station and getting round-trip train tickets. Once in Sintra, we exited the station, but this time located the nearby Sintra “Hop-On-Hop-Off All-Day Bus”, known locally as the “Sintra434 Bus”. This city-operated bus has 2 different routes running every 10 minutes. For 12.5€ each ($29 USD total) we were able to ride a circuit through the national park, rather than have to walk to the sights we wanted to see.

Our first stop for that day was Pena Palace. This is an iconic destination, with many people remembering the bright-yellow palace walls, even if they have forgotten the name. You can get tickets just for the park, or pay a bit more to include a tour inside the palace (our full-admission tickets were 17€ / $20 USD - worth it!). The tour has timed entries, so it’s best to buy your tickets in advance for a convenient time slot. If you wait to buy on site, you might get an entry for much later in the day. We bought our tickets about 1 week ahead, which worked well, though it did cause me a bit of stress throughout the morning because of the number of different walking-train-bus steps to get to the site on time. That was the one time I wished we would have stayed in Sintra rather than Lisbon, as it would have been much simpler to arrive for our time slot. Once on site, we still had to wait in a queue, then the tour itself is basically a self-guided procession through the entire palace. The interior is beautifully decorated, and you progress past a number of bedrooms, sitting rooms, dining areas, and even the kitchen. Once you’ve finished inside, the tour leads outside, where you can re-join all of the tourists who got the basic park ticket. We both agreed that Pena Palace is a beautiful and worthwhile tourist stop, and recommend planning ahead to reserve a time slot for the interior tour.

Following Pena Palace, we walked about half a mile down the road to the Moorish Castle. Note – we were walking the reverse of the Sintra434 route, else we would have ridden instead. If you want to hit these two sights on the same day, it would be simpler to see the castle first, have your palace reservation for later in the afternoon, and ride the bus between the two. As with other castles in Portugal, “castle” refers to a walled fortification, rather than a large building. We spent a couple of hours wandering inside the walls, and what was unique here is that the fortification was actually around 2 separate hills, so there was a bit of up-and-down. We got some great views from the castle walls of Sintra, the Quinta Regalera, Pena Palace, and even Portugal’s western coastline. There were a few placards discussing historical information of the castle, but it seemed the main attraction was the views.

The colorful Pena Palace

Up and down the walls of the Moorish Castle

Lunch at Cafe Saudade

Following our tour of the Moorish Castle, we waited for the Sintra434 bus, then completed our loop back to town. There, we walked a bit, eventually deciding to have a meal at the same Café Saudade as the day before. The food was still very good, and we would probably eat there again if we’re ever back in Sintra. Speaking of which - there is still much for us to see in and around Sintra, so yes, we would like to return someday.

Tourists – Lisbon’s city center (Baixa) was easily as-touristy-as, if not more-touristy-than, Porto. We felt that the streets and sights were generally busier, and the restaurants were always more active than those in Porto. Reservations were recommended at a few of our dinner spots, which we had not worried about anywhere else. Visitors seemed to be from everywhere, notably Brazil and Italy (people that we met).

Food –The Baixa district seemed to have the highest concentration of restaurants, with a decent variety overall. We also found some good spots closer to our apartment, or along our walk to Baixa. Favorites included tapas at the Taberna de Baixa, as well as traditional Portuguese meals from Anta and Taberna de Santos. For simpler dishes, we thought our best francesinha in Lisbon was at Restaurante Marco, and the best bifana sandwiches (by far!) were at O Trevo – a small, local, cash-only hole in the wall. We also had a great meal at a tiny local spot near our apartment – the Tasca T’xika, where we had soup, meatballs, pork steak, beer, coffee, and dessert for the low, fixed-price of 10€ ($12 USD) each. It was at this tasca that we had our first “baba de camelo”, a rich, sweet dessert that translates to “camel drool” (based on appearance, not taste!).

For international options, we had Italian food at multiple spots around the city, and we also liked Patife for wood-fired pizza (3 visits) and Shifu for ramen (twice).

For sunset dining, locals recommend heading to Almada, on the south shore of the Tagus River. From Lisbon (on the north shore) the sun sets over the city. From Almada, the sun sets over the river. Most tourists book a table at Ponto Final, but we took some online advice and booked at the lesser-known Atira-te next door. We easily booked a 7pm reservation (only a few days ahead) for a wonderful meal of sangria, padron peppers, salmon, duck, and dessert, timed to catch the sunset at 7:45.

Duck, salmon, sangria, and sunset at Atira-te

Ongoing Travel Planning – We did a lot of planning in Lisbon. We passed the halfway point of our trip and decided to outline some plans to balance sights we wanted to see with available time left. We researched using our new travel book from the Livraria Lello in Porto, supplemented with tips from Facebook and Google. Our list included the southern coast of Portugal (“the Algarve”), multiple castles and prehistoric rock monuments around the town of Évora, and the city of Coimbra. We had enjoyed the Douro Valley and Porto and allotted some time to revisit each. This led to us to plan 12 days in the Algarve, specifically the town of Albufeira. We then allowed 1 week in Évora to see the castles and prehistoric rock monuments, 1 week in the Coimbra area, 5 nights in Douro Valley, and 5 nights in Porto, filling up the remaining time until our departure date. One of the sights we wanted to visit near Coimbra was the Bussaco Palace Hotel. After some research, we thought we would have a nicer visit by staying at the hotel itself, so we split our week into 5 nights in Coimbra and 2 nights at the hotel.

With the trip outlined, we booked Airbnbs for the Algarve, Évora, and Coimbra, the Bussaco Palace Hotel, and a local hotel in the Douro Valley – basically every remaining stay other than Porto. In terms of timing, our reservation in Albufeira was booked about 2 weeks in advance, and the furthest out – Douro Valley – was booked over a month in advance, the furthest-in-advance for our entire trip! I’m recording all this detail to remind my future-self that we’ve had no issues planning all of our in-country lodging and transportation with a fairly short window.

Along with the destinations and lodging, I sorted out our transport. There are plenty of rail and bus options, but we would want a car in Évora and the Douro Valley. I looked into multiple options for renting and returning, including various pick-up and drop-off cities (Évora, Lisbon, Coimbra), and finally decided that it would be cheaper and easier to get a car in Albufeira and drive all the way back to Porto. The total rental cost was 420€ ($495 USD), which included a 150€ ($175 USD) one-way drop charge, or about 23€ ($27.50 USD) per day including the drop charge. Of course, there’s also gasoline, and I’ll discuss that for each leg of our trip.

Lisbon Summary – For some reason, Lisbon never really caught our attention. There was plenty to keep us occupied, but the city felt more worn and less interesting than Porto. It also felt as if we were constantly dodging tourists on the sidewalks. Overall, we enjoyed our stay, our side trips, the sights, and the restaurants, but we don’t see Lisbon calling us back.  We would consider passing through to revisit Sintra, but would be unlikely to stay in Lisbon for another long stay.

Fifth Stop – Albufeira (the Algarve)

We looked at a handful of towns to visit in the Algarve, then settled on staying in just one – Albufeira. Comparing the towns on the south coast of Portugal, all have different concentrations of Moorish history, Roman history, wildlife, lagoons, and beach access. We chose Albufeira for its relatively easy beach access, as well as a good marina for water tours along the large cliffs of Portugal’s south coast.

Travel from Lisbon to Albufeira was fairly straightforward. When I booked our train tickets two weeks ahead, I found that we could start at the beginning of the route (Lisbon’s Oriente station), or board at either the 2^nd or 3^rd stop, both of which would be closer to our apartment. We decided to pay a bit more (about 1€ each) to board at the Oriente station, mainly to give us extra time to board, and also hoping that we’d be one of the first on the train and would find space to store our luggage in the racks at the end of the car. We used Uber to travel from our apartment to the Oriente Station - only 12€ ($14 USD) for our 45-minute trip. We had time to kill before our train ride, so we put our bags in a locker and explored a nearby mall, also finding a spot for lunch. Once our train ride began, we confirmed that our strategy worked – we had plenty of time to board the train and also found luggage space, whereas the tourists that boarded at the 2^nd or 3^rd stops seemed rushed and had to keep their bags in the overhead racks or on the floor by their seat.

When buying our train tickets, we decided to spend an extra 6€ each ($15 USD total) to upgrade our “Inter City” tickets from 2^nd class to 1^st class. Many people say it’s not worth buying 1^st Class, so why would we do that? Mainly just to see the difference for ourselves, so I could put some personal reminders in this blog, and also because the incremental cost was so low. Outcome – there’s no special lounge at the station, no special perks on the train, no additional services or pampering that you might get on an airplane, and the main benefit is a larger, more-comfortable seat with more legroom. The value is debatable, but for a trip >2 hours, I would probably upgrade again in the future. Total train cost: 58€ ($68 USD) for our 1^st class tickets for our 3-hour journey.

Once in Albufeira, our first observation was how much hotter it was – close to 90 when we stepped off the train at 5:45 PM. We used Uber to get to our condo.  Total travel for the day:  8 hours, 80€ ($94 USD).

Our condo in Albufeira was nice, though a bit worn and dated. We had a king-size bed (not two twin beds), living room area, small kitchen, washing machine, AC, and wifi. The community we were in had tennis courts, two large swimming pools, and a lot of trees. The main challenge – we were at the top of a small hill, so every trip back from town ended with a 5-minute slow walk back up the condo. This stay was also the only location where our host recommended that we drink bottled water rather than tap. We were a little surprised, given the great infrastructure we had encountered in Portugal, but we’re not unfamiliar with this suggestion.

Our biggest challenge in Albufeira was that we found cockroaches living under the kitchen cupboards! We informed our host, she and a maintenance person came over the next morning, and we didn’t have any further issues with insects. Because of the bugs, we relied completely on the AC to keep us cool, as we did not feel comfortable leaving windows or doors open during our stay. We also had a problem with our wifi, again quickly resolved by our host. Overall, this Airbnb was not our best stay, but we were happy that we had such a responsive host to fix our issues.

Sights – The temperatures in the Algarve were perfect for our plans for this part of our trip. Daytime highs were mid-80s, perfect for relaxing by the pool or on the beach. That’s how we filled most of our time there – 1 afternoon at the pool, 4 days at the local town beach, and 2 days traveling to some nearby beaches. The beach in town was only about 15 minutes by foot, so easy to get to/from. The other two beaches were easily accessible by Uber, approximately 4-5€ ($5-6 USD) for a one-way trip, with the exception of one return which cost 8€ ($9.50 USD), maybe due to higher demand. All of Albufeira’s beaches were rough sand, kept virtually trash-free, and with only small areas of moss or seagrass washing ashore. The waves got rough around high tide, but many people would float in the waves, or paddleboard/kayak beyond the breakers. Due to the waves, most of the water was a bit cloudy. We had hoped to find some spots for snorkeling, but didn’t see anything worthwhile at any of the beaches we visited. As we left the final beach, we wandered the nearby cliffs and found a calm, protected cove with very clear water – clear enough to confirm that the only fish swimming around were small sardines. Snorkeling would have worked well, though I don’t know that we would have seen anything. Note to self – don’t pack snorkel equipment when visiting Portugal.

Albufeira - local fisherman near the city beach

Early in our stay in Albufeira, we investigated boat trips to Benagil Cave. Portugal’s southern coast is primarily limestone, with a softer lower layer that’s been eroded by the ocean, creating a series of caves accessible from land or ocean. The most popular stop in the area is Benagil Cave, large enough to enter by boat, and with a huge opening in the roof. We couldn’t decide which online tour option would work best, so we walked about 20 minutes to the marina (down the hill, but in the opposite direction from town). There, it was easy to book a 2-hour tour for the next morning, at a cost of 35€ each ($82 USD for the two of us).

Our boat tour started at 9am, and like our trip to Berlengas, we specifically chose the small rubber boat option. During the first hour of our tour, we headed west along the coast, stopping to see many named rock features or to look inside some caves, including Benagil Cave. The features and caves were varied enough to stay interesting, and our highly-skilled boat captain was great at navigating the small spaces and getting us close to the best sights. For the second hour, we headed south into the ocean to look for dolphins. We found one pod early, but surrounded by other boats, so our captain made the decision to move on. I worried that we were just going to ride around seeing nothing, but our captain spotted a churn of sardines in the water and headed that direction. Once there, we found a fishing boat collecting sardines, and pods of dolphins and gulls enjoying the action. We spent at least 30 minutes as the only tourist boat in the area, having dolphins swim around and under our boat. None were friendly enough to slow or play nearby, but it was a great, unique experience.

Inside Benagil Cave

In town, we discovered the Albufeira “tourist train”. This train is actually a train-shaped diesel tractor pulling a series of enclosed passenger carts along the city streets. There are two routes in town, so we opted for the full ticket, allowing us to transfer trains and make a loop around different parts of Albufeira. Our learning – the west loop is more functional for us, traveling from the marina, into the city center, then up towards our condo, before going back to the marina. We caught the east loop near the city center, the made a loop through a shopping district, then two stops in the entertainment district known as “The Strip”, then a stop in a condo area, before arriving back at the city center. It was a nice way to see the eastern half of Albufeira, confirming that staying on the west side of town was better for us, away from the strip of bars, restaurants, and youngster-nightlife.

There’s a bit of history and culture in Albufeira, with a town museum and some placards along the remnants of the old city walls, but nothing truly notable. Albufeira was originally a Moorish settlement, but there’s very little physical evidence of it remaining. As with most of the towns along Portugal’s southern Algarve coast, Albufeira is really focused on summer tourism and relaxation on the various beaches. Most of what remains of Moorish influence is the name. (During our time in Portugal, we learned that most locations whose name begins with “Al-” have a Moorish origin.)

Tourists - Albufeira was busy with tourists, but not crowded. August is the most popular vacation month, so our trip at the end of September was entering shoulder season. The beaches were busy, but we never had trouble finding a spot to relax. Restaurants were manageable, rarely having an issue getting a table. Many of the tourists appeared to be Portuguese, but just as many seemed to be from outside of the country. We heard (we think) German, French, and English, and learned that the Algarve region is a very popular destination for British tourists.

Food – Being right on the ocean, we focused our meal choices around seafood. It was here in Albufeira that I tried robalo (sea bass) and dourada (sea bream). I ordered each grilled (not on the same night!), and found both to be firm, slightly sweet, and relatively easy to pick out the bones. Of the two, I think I preferred the dourada. One evening, Sandy and I sought out a huge bowl of shellfish and shrimp known as a “cataplana” at Taberna do Pescador. It was very tasty, but also a lot of work. Overall, we think we prefer the additional flavors you get in a paella with rice compared to the cataplana.

Our giant cataplana of fresh shellfish

Piri piri chicken and grilled dourada

During our stay, we also sampled scallop risotto, spicy piri piri chicken, and even visited an Irish bar, where we had a basic burger, a gyro, and draft Guinness beer. We had Indian food twice, once near our condo, and the second time at a restaurant near the Strip, on the advice of our Indian Uber driver. Perhaps our favorite meal was the bowl of mussels and octopus salad that we had at the Castelo Beach Club west of town. Both dishes were very flavorful and fresh, and we had a perfect setting on a patio by the beach to enjoy our meal.

It’s also worth mentioning the Portas da Villa bar, where we learned about a “caipirinha” – a Brazilian drink, similar to a margarita, but using a sugar-cane liquor in place of tequila. We stopped here for a drink at least 3 times, and the caipirinhas were consistently very good.

Ongoing Travel Planning – While in Albufeira, we finalized our plans for Porto, about 1 month in advance of our stay. We decided to spend our final night near the airport, booked that hotel, and then found an Airbnb in town, a bit further north than our first stay.

Albufeira Summary - We definitely enjoyed our downtime in Albufeira. We enjoy relaxing on a beach, and having a block of time without a schedule full of exploration was a nice break for us in the middle of our trip. If/when we return to Portugal, we would likely not return to Albufeira, as we feel that we saw and did everything that it has to offer. Instead, we would probably explore a different coastal town in the Algarve, possibly Lagos or Tavira.

Stop Six – Évora

Recall us picking up a Portugal travel book in Porto? Sandy and I both flipped through it, and Sandy gave me a list of castles and prehistoric formations that she wanted to visit. I plotted them all in Google Maps, and we determined that Évora would be a good base for many of these sights.

We rented a car for this part of our journey, because it’s impossible to see all the small towns with castles and fortresses, as well as the remote prehistoric rock formations, without one. We took Uber to a nearby Europcar rental office, where we had a very straightforward pickup. I’ve been making videos of our rental car pick-ups and drop-offs, worried about scratches or getting charged for damage that we didn’t cause. Our two Europcar experiences were very good – an employee walks the car with us at both pick-up and drop-off, and we haven’t had any follow-up after our rental seeking payments for random damage. The car came with an electronic toll reader, and while we could have navigated to avoid most of the toll roads along our road trip, we typically just followed the quickest/easiest route in Google Maps.

Leaving Albufeira, we headed north, then stopped after an hour to see some sights near Beja. First up, a collection of Roman ruins. These small ruins were designated as a national site, but appeared to be fenced in a backyard and managed by an older lady who only spoke Portuguese. We paid her 3€ each ($7 USD total), after which she showed us a small room with some displays on the wall, a video with English subtitles, and then handed me an iPad. The iPad had information on specific areas within the ruins, and used the iPad’s GPS and some augmented reality to give us a semi-guided tour of the ruins in English. It was a pretty good use of technology, and I was surprised that more of the national sites that we visited didn’t have something similar. The ruins were quite interesting, with a number of restored mosaic tile floors as well as some large Roman bath foundations.

After the ruins, we headed into the small town of Beja. We parked next to the castle, then wandered into town to find a snack/lunch. Our first attempt was a bust, as the restaurant I had found on Google Maps was closed. We saw another spot across the street, and were welcomed inside, then ignored for about 10 minutes. Walking next door, we found an overworked lady running a small café by herself, and had an empanada, a toasted sandwich, and two beers for the grand total of 7€ ($8 USD). I gave her 1€ extra for a tip, not much, but she seemed to really appreciate the gesture.

Next, back to the castle. It had a very small footprint, and only took us 20-30 minutes to tour. The highlight was climbing the tower, which is 40 meters (130 feet) high, and is reportedly the tallest castle tower in all of Portugal! Following the castle, we toured the small city museum, which had many old Roman stones, as well as a rusty, crusty, Visigoth sword that was discovered in a 5^th-century grave.

The 40-meter-tall Beja Castle tower

We drove on to Évora, arriving around 5pm, and went directly to our apartment on a side street outside of the city center. It was a huge place, with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen with dining area, and a family room with a couch, chair, and TV. We had good wifi, a washing machine, and reasonable AC. This Airbnb was also our best deal in Portugal – only $76 USD per night. 

Sights - With only 7 days, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to see all of the sights on our list. We developed a plan to start at the furthest towns and prehistoric sites, hoping to catch 1 or 2 additional sites on our drive back each afternoon. Temperatures were still hot in this interior part of the country, with 80s most days, and cooler at night. We only had two rainy days during our entire 80-day trip – both during this stay in Évora. Luckily it was only one afternoon and the following morning. On that second day, we used the overcast afternoon to explore the town of Évora itself.

The town of Évora has a number of interesting sights.  Our favorite was the Chapel of Bones, which is exactly what it sounds like! The walls of this 17^th-century chapel have been lined with skulls and bones to remind parishioners of the transience of human life. The 6€ fee ($14 USD total) let us explore the chapel, plus visit a museum upstairs, as well as an enormous private collection of nativity scenes from around the world. We also toured another cathedral in town and even an old Roman forum.

Inside the Chapel of Bones

Outside of Évora, our strategy for visiting multiple sights worked for the most part, allowing us to see:

Monsaraz – It was easy to walk through this small, walled city in just a couple of hours. At one end, there is a small castle (free!) with a unique courtyard surrounded by stadium-style stone seating – the only place we saw the courtyard furnished this way. After the castle, we visited the Ervideira winery shop, where we tried a unique red wine – one bottle was their traditional red wine, and the second was the same wine, same vintage, but aged underwater in the very cold waters of the nearby river. The difference in the wines was quite surprising, and the river-aged wine was very nice (though we didn’t buy it). We had a very good lunch at O Gaspacho, a small local tavern, which featured an outstanding “tortilla” that was more of a thick potato cake. After lunch, we drove to two different prehistoric cromeleques with arrangements of huge, rounded stones (think Stonehenge, though smaller). We saw everything that Monsaraz had to offer, and enjoyed our day in this small town (would recommend).

Mourão – It took us about 30 minutes to explore this small, circular walled city. The exterior walls are very nicely restored. On the interior, there are numerous areas where steps have been restored to access the walls, but most of the interior structures are gone or deteriorating. Access was free, and we had nice views of the enormous Alqueva Reservoir. It was nice, but out of the way, and we didn’t find much else to see in the surrounding town. Overall, would not recommend, unless you have plenty of time, or like us, want to see all the castles in the area.

Elvas – Based on the operating hours of the various attractions, we started at the small star-shaped Fort of St. Lucia. We paid 5€ each ($12 USD total) for a self-guided tour of the fort and its military museum. The two highlights were the unique “vertical staircase” at the top of the governor’s mansion and some tunnels near the exit of the fort that we almost missed. These tunnels were used to access underneath the moat surrounding the fort, and are now home to a small family of bats! Next, we went to the Fort of Our Lady of Grace. For another 5€, we wandered through the extensive maze-like hallways of this fort, where we learned that the star-shaped walls provided better defensive positions and made it harder for attackers to approach. Much of the fortress was empty and abandoned – we could have wandered for hours, but there weren’t many displays and most of the rooms were empty and repetitive.

Model of the star-shaped Fort of Our Lady of Grace

Vertical stairway - Forte de Santa Luzia

The best ovos rotos at Mau Maria

After the two forts, we headed into the city of Elvas. Though Elvas is now a larger town, the historic city center is a star-shaped walled city. Using Google Maps, I had found a couple of public parking lots near the walls and were able to squeeze into one of the few remaining spots. Once inside the town, we discovered that there were a couple of underground parking garages that we could have used. We started with lunch at Mau Maria, where a waiter answered all of our questions about the famed porco preto (Black Iberian Pork). We settled on a roasted cut of tender pork neck meat (I don’t remember the name of the cut) and the best ovos rotos from all of our tastings in Portugal, topped with some very rich and tasty porco preto prosciutto. After lunch, we explored the tiny castle of Elvas. There was a small museum, but really it was just a couple sets of stairs and a quick walk around the perimeter wall. We poked our heads into a couple of local churches – the Igreja das Dominicas is worth a stop to see the chapel extensively decorated with azulejo tiles. We enjoyed our day in Elvas, and would recommend stopping at the town and the forts if you’re in the area.

Juramenha – We took a quick walk through this abandoned walled city. Some of the city has been restored, but much of the interior remains to be updated. You really need to know where this site is, though, as there is very little signage, and no clear area for parking. We parked on the side of the road, then wandered inside the city for about an hour (no fee). The highlight of Juramenha is that it’s on the banks of the Guardiana River, so the other side of the river is Spain! We thought about visiting Spain during our time in Évora, but we would have had to pay some exorbitant extra fees on our rental car, or find other transportation from the border, which is reportedly difficult. On the way back to Évora, we stopped at another Stonehenge-like cromeleque, and are still wondrous about the people who would have built these arrangements of stones.

Vila Viçosa – This small town is known for its castle and Ducal Palace, and now for marble mining. We saw a few marble-processing operations on our way into town, with large blocks of rock and smaller-cut slabs. We found tour information about a couple of these places, but didn’t have any spare time to see them. Instead, we started our day at the Ducal Palace, where we booked a (Portuguese language) tour later that afternoon. We then explored an ornately decorated convent that has been converted to a hotel, followed by a walk across town to the castle. The castle is small, nicely restored, and is now home to a huge collection of artifacts, taxidermy, and weapons worthy of its 5€ fee ($12 USD for both of us). We stopped for lunch at a small local café, then went back to the Ducal Palace for our tour. The palace is very nicely decorated, and the guide explained quite a bit in each room, though we could only read our English pamphlet as the spoken tour was entirely in Portuguese. The tour cost 8€ each ($19 USD total), and probably would have been worth it if guided in English. As it was, the décor was nice, but no photos permitted, and we would not recommend the palace, though we do recommend the other sights.

Evoramonte – This is another small walled city on the top of a small hill. What’s unique here is the three-story Manuelian-styled fortress that was used mostly as a hunting lodge. We arrived to the castle late in the day, and were surprised to pay no fee, as it was “national free tourism day”. We hustled to the roof to catch some nice views of the countryside, as well as some very dark and imposing clouds approaching. Heavy rain started, so we spent some time inside looking at the exhibits, before catching a break in the rain and hustling back to our car. On the way home, we stopped near the town of Zambujeiro to see a large anta – flat stones standing in a tight circle to form a burial mound. The anta at Zambujeiro is one of the largest in Portugal, and we again wondered in amazement at the prehistoric people who maneuvered these enormous stones. We also saw a Roman mile marker in the area, and the remains of an old aqueduct. All recommended.

Evoramonte Castle

Anta Grande near Zambujeiro

Estremoz – This small walled city has been fully restored, though privatized inside, and the castle has been converted to a modern hotel. You can park by the castle walls, then get permission at the hotel desk to climb up the old castle tower to appreciate the view. For me, the highlight in Estremoz was finding an overlook to the city walls where a drawbridge was still in use at one of the city gates. We even drove across it, just for the entertainment value. Estremoz was nice, though there was not a lot to see.  Overall, would recommend.

Arriolos – We stopped at this abandoned, small, circular, walled city on the way home from Estremoz. There’s an impressive tower still standing, though no access to climb inside. There’s also a small chapel in the middle of the city walls, but it was closed during our visit. The sights were very nice, but since nothing was accessible, stopping is only recommended if you have time to spare.

Marvão – Of all the walled cities we visited, this was the most reminiscent of Óbidos. It was medium-sized, with a fair number of modern homes and shops inside. We wandered up to the castle, where a sign announced that admission was free while they addressed an insect infestation. As we explored the castle, this all made sense as we soon encountered small clouds of what appeared to be flying earwigs, with occasional swarms of them on walls or ceilings. We were able to wander the walls, climb the castle tower, and explore the full site, though we definitely rushed our way through. One unique sight at Marvão was that we could go inside the old castle cistern. After the castle, we walked through town, where Sandy found a unique cork-wrapped bottle of ginga that she bought to bring home. We both enjoyed Marvão and were disappointed that the insect infestation chased us away early – would recommend.

Castelo de Vide – This town is just across the valley from Marvão. It’s city-center was quite busy, and we had a challenge finding parking. Once that was resolved, we walked up to a disappointing castle. There are a number of private homes inside the walls, and really nothing to see. The tower was closed during our visit, so we basically just climbed a hill and wasted an hour of our afternoon. The highlight of the town was the local Inquisition Museum. The (surprisingly free) museum outlined the years of the Catholic Inquisition and its impact on the sizable Jewish population in this small town. Some exhibits were a bit amateurish, but we appreciated the breadth and depth of historical information that we got here. Overall, we don’t recommend the castle, but do recommend the town and museum.

Cromeleques, Antas, and Dolmens – As I’ve mentioned, we saw a few of these prehistoric sites as one-offs after some of the walled cities and castles that we visited. There are a number of these sites near Marvão, so we grouped them into a bit of a loop. First was the menir of Meida, which is a singular giant carved stone about 25 feet tall. Researchers say it’s the largest in the Iberian Peninsula, and reportedly the oldest in the world. We then explored a series of antas – the flat-stoned circular burial mounds. These were all much smaller than the anta we saw closer to Évora, and in various states of disrepair or reconstruction. Access to the antas varied – some were close to the road, some required a 10-minute walk, and one even required navigating a trail through thorny bushes. All of the antas were interesting in their own way, and all of them are worth seeing if you’re interested in these sorts of prehistoric monuments. Just be sure to allow plenty of time – this loop took us at least 4 hours, and we got back to Évora around 9:30pm.

Cromeleque de Vale Maria

Anta de São Gens

Escoural Cave – While researching sights around Évora, we learned about this cave, and emailed the local museum to coordinate a tour. They got back to us, but wouldn’t be able to give the tour until the morning of our departure. We set it up, adjusted our departure plans, and you can read more in the next section.

We drove A LOT while seeing the sights around Évora. I didn’t keep track of the miles, but we spent about $130 USD on gas, and racked up the majority of our $75 USD in tolls during these tours.

Tourists – Évora was not as touristy as the other cities we visited. The city center was always active, though never crowded. Most of the people out-and-about appeared to be Portuguese rather than foreigners. We attribute this to Évora’s small footprint and its short distance from Lisbon - there are likely day-trippers visiting, but not too many with extended stays. The surrounding small towns, castles, walled cities, and prehistoric sites were never crowded, and sometimes we were the only people at the smaller spots.

Food – As we headed into Portugal’s interior, we were exposed to a larger proportion of restaurants with limited hours, smaller menus, and not as much variety between them. We found it easy to get a snack, such as a bifana, toasted sandwich, or a drink. Compared to the larger cities, a greater number of restaurants served lunch, closed for the afternoon, then reopened for dinner after 7, or even later. We managed to work through these limitations, but also found a large number of restaurants had their hours listed incorrectly on Google Maps. Basically, as our trip through the interior continued, our challenges (and frustrations) with finding decent places to eat continually grew.

Our go-to meal in Évora seemed to be hamburgers and craft beer. On our first night in town, we visited CraftBBS, primarily because that’s what we were craving. Upon arrival, we quickly picked our beers, but were told that the kitchen wouldn’t open for another hour! Later in our visit, we had a similar meal at the open-all-day Magnifica Beer House, and we returned to CraftBBS for a 2^nd time toward the end of our stay. Rounding out our meals in the area were tapas or tabuas, including more Black Iberian pork (“porco preto”) and ovos rotos. We enjoyed our tabua at Tasca Tosca in Évora, with its two different styles of cured pork. Our best porco preto experience was at Mau Maria in Elvas, previously described for its selection of cuts and outstanding ovos rotos, topped with nutty porco preto prosciutto.

Évora Summary – In hindsight, we needed more time to visit Évora and the surrounding region. We saw nearly everything on our list, but it was a go-go-go visit for sure. We were out and about by mid-morning every day, and arrived back home after dark more than once. We didn’t have a single day to relax and catch our breath, and could easily have stayed here for 10-14 days to allow us to see everything at a more reasonable pace. We enjoyed the area overall, and though we had plenty of frustration with the restaurants, we would consider returning to see more sights in the region, and also to explore the nearby Alentejo wine country. We tried a number of Alentejo wines at restaurants throughout Portugal, and it would be nice to visit a few of the wineries someday.

Stop Seven – Coimbra and Bussaco

The university town of Coimbra, with its long and storied history, was also on our Portugal visit-list. While discussing how long to stay, we realized that another popular sight – the Bussaco (properly written Buçaco) Palace Hotel – was nearby. We originally thought about staying in Coimbra long enough to include a day-trip to Bussaco, but after finding that the cost for a room at the hotel was actually quite reasonable, we decided to split our stay between the city and the palace.

Our drive to Coimbra began with the Escoural Cave tour that I mentioned when discussing Évora.  The tour was very good, with just a few of us exploring the cave with our guide, at a cost of only 3€ each ($7 USD total). We started with some cave art that is estimated to be between 50,000 to 100,000 yrs old, and then continued to an area with newer art, around 5,000-7,000 years old. In the newer areas, we saw some inscriptions and carvings in the walls of the cave, and researchers uncovered some bones and pottery in the area as well. Overall, it was a very interesting site, with interesting prehistoric artwork.

After our cave tour, we continued on a 3-hour drive north to Coimbra. Coimbra is a small university town, packed with academic history. With a focus on the school and a lack of other industry, I would describe the town as “worn”. Most of the buildings looked older and a bit dirty, and my (possibly incorrect) impression was that neither the city nor its residents had a significant source of income to refurbish and maintain many of the buildings or streets. The exterior of our apartment had the same worn appearance, though the interior was recently remodeled and very nice. We had 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, a modern kitchen and dining area, a comfortable couch (rare to find!), a washing machine, good wifi, and, of course, AC. We had looked at hotels for our short 5-night stay, but couldn’t find a reasonably-priced spot close to the city that included easy parking. As a bonus, our Airbnb rental included a private garage!

When we checked into our Airbnb, the host’s daughter met us to ensure we understood the keyless entry system and to show us the garage unit for our car. She gave us a welcome gift of almond pies, as well as some eggs and fruit from her family’s farm – something that hasn’t been common at any of the Airbnb’s we’ve rented, in any country. She also told us that we were visiting at an interesting time – it was back-to-school week at the university, so the students were having a 4-day party to welcome the incoming freshmen and kick off the school year. The festival started the day we arrived, ended the day we left, and featured a giant tent with a stage and live music that would often go until 6am! To be honest, it bothered us a bit, but wasn’t too bad, and we’re glad that she explained it to us at the beginning of our stay.

Sights - Temperatures in Coimbra were in the low 80s during our stay – a bit warm when out in the sun, but overall very nice. We spent our first full day there relaxing and basically catching up from our rapid-paced stay in Évora. We have already reminded ourselves that we need to build in down-time, and allow extra days in our stops so that we can recharge, refresh, and not burn out.

Like Albufeira, Coimbra had a tourist train, with a single 1-hour loop for 8€ each ($19 USD total). We made this our first stop, allowing us to become familiar with the layout of the city and some of its sights. 

In town, the primary tourist destination is the university. After some research, we found that self-guided admission to the best areas cost 16€ ($19 USD) per person, or you can book a guided tour for 25€ ($29.50 USD) each. Since the tour would be provided in English, we felt the extra cost for a guide was worth it,though admittedly we felt that the cost for either university tour was a bit expensive!

The university sits on a hill, and following our Lisbon strategy, we took an Uber to the top and walked our way down. We started our university tour at their “palace”, which is an ornate building used for some administrative activities, ceremonies, or other gatherings. Our tour then moved to the library, where tourist-entry is highly controlled, with maximum visitation times to allow the books to “air out” from any moisture. The library was packed with great décor and old books, but unfortunately taking pictures was not allowed. Our final stop was the university chapel. It was nice, though similar to many of the other chapels that we visited during our time in Portugal. Overall, the tour was decent, and we got a lot of historical information from our guide, but we would not recommend going out of your way to tour the university.

University of Coimbra hilltop

On our way down from the university, we walked past a series of azulejo tile murals highlighting the top destinations in the city, and also stopped at a few different churches. Coimbra has a nice, vibrant city center, including a short walking mall, lined with shops and restaurants. 

Closer to our apartment, we explored the Santa Clara-a-Velha Monastery for 4€ each ($10 USD total). The monastery sits in a low area, next to the river, and was flooded many times over the years before being abandoned. It has only been restored and open for tourists in the past few years. The restoration of the monastery was very well done, and the site itself was pretty interesting and worth the stop.

Santa Clara-a-Velha Monastery with visible floodlines

Caves and Ourem - From Coimbra, we used our car to take a trip to two great caves and a small castle, all about one hour south of the city. The first cave was the Grutas da Moeda, or Coin Caves. Here, we had a small guided tour, and our guide spoke to us first in English before repeating the information to others in Portuguese. The cave is primarily dry, but does have running water in the rainy season, and therefore some stalactites and stalagmites which don’t grow very fast. The formations were impressive and the tour was quite good. Up next was the Grutas Mira de Aire, near the town of the same name. This tour felt mass-produced, with a group of 60-70 people moving through the cave. Narration and information were limited, and always in Portuguese. But where the tour lacked, the cave made up for it. We walked through some of the largest and most impressive caverns that we’ve ever seen. The site has done a great job making permanent walkways and stairs through the caverns, while highlighting the original passages that the explorers used many years ago. Overall – the better tour was Moedas (18€/$21 USD for both of us), the better cave was Mira de Aire (17€/$20 USD for both of us), and we would recommend them both. Our last stop on this loop was the small castle of Ourem. From the town below, the castle looks very impressive, until you get up to the site and realize that you’re actually looking at the Palace of the Counts, next to the castle. We enjoyed our short tour of the palace and the views from the balconies, but were a bit disappointed by the remainder of the castle.

Grutas da Moeda

Grutas da Mira de Aire

Montemor-o-Velho and Conimbriga - On our departure day from Coimbra, we visited two more sights, filling the time before our Bussaco check-in. Our first stop was another walled city/castle named Montemor-o-Velho. We wandered through this well-maintained site, exploring some partially-restored churches, and admiring the views from atop the castle walls. Given the size of the castle, as well as the amount of restoration and ongoing maintenance, we concluded that Montemor-o-Velho was our favorite castle of all that we visited in Portugal. As an added bonus – no entrance fee!

Hilltop with Montemor-a-Velho Castle

Our second stop on our short relocation drive was the Roman ruins of Conimbriga. Upon arrival, we discovered that the staff was on strike – we’re not sure why, and while the museum was closed, access to the ruins was still open, for free (normally 10€/$12 USD per person). The ruins at Conimbriga are huge, and it's easy to wander for hours, taking in the full extent of the city. We saw many more structures and mosaic floors than we had at Beja, including the remains of a 40,000-square-foot home, public baths, aqueduct, forum, Roman road, and city walls. It’s a very interesting and amazing site, and would definitely be worth paying the official entrance fee.

Forum at Conimbriga

Mosaic floors and Roman road at Conimbriga

Following our tours, we drove 45 minutes north to the Bussaco Palace Hotel. The site was originally a convent, then was to be converted to palace, but was instead converted to a hotel. It’s famous for its ornate décor and location inside a small national park. Because we were staying two nights, we had one full day to explore the hotel and free access to the park. The hotel is decorated extensively with blue azulejo tile murals, as well as giant frescos. All of the windows and doors are highlighted in the traditional Portuguese Manuelian style. Neither of us could get enough, wandering the hotel and looking at the fine details of the décor. It was also great that we had a room there, because the hotel staff was very good about keeping tourists out. Given the beauty, we were quite surprised that rooms start around $150 per night (with a nice breakfast buffet included!).

Bussaco Palace Hotel dining room

Bussaco Palace Hotel sitting room and bar

Bussaco Palace Hotel stairway and murals

Bussaco Palace Hotel

Tourists – Coimbra did not feel very touristy. Most of the people we saw out-and-about appeared to be locals, and perhaps university students. The university tour was well-attended, mostly Portuguese, a few native English speakers, and we were a bit surprised to be joined by a decent-sized group of Japanese tourists. Bussaco Palace was also a popular destination, with tour buses arriving on both days of our stay with day-trip visitors. English was commonly spoken in both Coimbra and Bussaco, with no challenges in any restaurants or at our lodging.

Food – We enjoyed the food in Coimbra, though we only ate traditional Portuguese food once, at Dona Taska. We had some shrimp, scallops, and bacalhau with broa (dense corn bread), plus 2 glasses of wine for 44€ ($52 USD). We visited the Praxis brewery twice – mainly for their good craft beers at only 3€ for a 25 cl pour ($4 USD for 8.5 ounces). We also recommend the authentic Sicilian pizza from Da Vinci, which we had with two imported Italian beers, for only 19€ ($22.50 USD).

Next, the food at Bussaco – I primarily use Google Maps to read restaurant reviews, and opinions of the hotel restaurant were surprisingly hit-and-miss. With that in mind, we decided to head to the nearby town of Luso for dinner, dining at the highly-rated Pedra de Sal. Reviews suggested making a reservation, which I was able to do online for the same night. The place was crowded when we arrived, so it was good that I did. Our meal at Pedra de Sal was excellent – actually it was the best meal that Sandy and I had during our time in Portugal. The waiter suggested a Monsaraz Reserva red wine from the Alentejo region, and we started with bread, olives, and a cheese plate. For dinner, Sandy had a veal and shrimp skewer, and I ordered Black Iberian pork loin (porco preto!) with some sort of red pepper sauce. We really could have split either entrée, especially considering we also got salad, French fries, rice, and beans served family style. After a great meal, we even opted for dessert and shared a great “Morgado” cake with walnuts and honey. I finished with an Americano coffee and Sandy got a flight of 3 fortified wines – Port, Madeira, and Moscatel, all of which were good (though none “great”). This outstanding multi-course meal also came at a surprisingly reasonable price of 93€ ($110 USD).

Veal/shrimp skewer + porco preto at Pedra de Sal

Our meal at Pedra de Sal was so good that we made a reservation for the following night. Our second dinner of Iberian pork loin strips, colloquially called “lagartos”, meaning “lizards”, and octopus was unfortunately not as impressive. The lagartos did not have a sauce, and neither dish had much added spice or flavoring. It was still a good meal, but nowhere close to the first night.

We did eat breakfast in the Bussaco Palace Hotel on both mornings. They had an extensive buffet of food and drink, and it was a nice way to start each day. Whatever issues people had with the hotel restaurant were not an issue for us at breakfast.

Coimbra and Bussaco Summary - Overall, we thought Coimbra was just ok, as we weren’t really impressed by the town or its sights. The caves and the Bussaco Palace Hotel were the highlights of this portion of our journey. The caves can be seen in a day, even driving up from Lisbon. And as I’ve noted, the Bussaco Palace Hotel is best appreciated by staying for a couple of nights, allowing plenty of time to wander, explore, and enjoy. We are unlikely to return to Coimbra, and would only return to Bussaco if we needed a great place to stay overnight while passing through the area.

Stop Eight – Douro Valley

Touring the Douro Valley from Porto inspired us to set aside time to revisit the area. We targeted the cooler temperatures of September and October, and while would have liked to see some harvesting activities, we weren’t willing to juggle our itinerary just to hit an event. We locked in our dates for early October, booked our stay, and ended up with a traditional tourist visit, with no special harvesting or winemaking going on.

Our trip from Bussaco to Douro took about 2.5 hours by car. We made a mid-afternoon stop in Viseu to break up the drive with a visit to a couple of churches and some azulejos in town. Nothing was particularly notable, and we probably should have just passed them by.

In the Douro Valley, we stayed at a small quinta (guesthouse) halfway up a hill, surrounded by grape vines, on a narrow windy road. These quintas seemed to be everywhere, and we don’t have any tips for picking the right one, other than noting that we had a great time at the “Quinta da Portela – Douro”, available for booking on Expedia. The quinta was basically a small hotel with about 5 or 6 rooms. We had a king-size bed (2 twin beds pushed together), AC, wifi, pool, and a wonderful breakfast buffet. Every morning, the staff would offer us bacon and eggs, made-to-order, along with fresh-cut fruit, baked goods, cheeses, meats, and a carafe full of strong, dark coffee.

Winery at Quinta da Portela in the Douro Valley

Sights - Temperatures in the Douro Valley were perfect during our stay, with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s. Our room had AC, but we only needed it for the one day that we stayed in, and we kept our windows open at night.

Entertainment in the Douro Valley is focused on wine, wineries, and wine tastings. With three full days in the area, we planned one drive north, one drive south, and one day relaxing at our quinta. The challenge is that there are many small wineries in the area, and it’s hard to know which are open, what their specialties are, and if they’re large enough to support drop-in tastings. It would have been better for us to pick a few favorite wineries and make reservations or confirm that they can handle unscheduled tastings.

North from our quinta, we targeted wineries around the town of Pinhão. Our first stop was the D’Origem winery, which we had visited on our tour in August. We had enjoyed the bottle of 10-year-old port that we bought on that tour, and picked up another bottle that we could take home to the U.S. We then headed into the small town of Pinhão, where we shared a 25€ ($29.50 USD) walk-in tasting at the Carvalhas winery (one of the few discussed online as a good spot for walk-in tastings). The tasting was good, with some unique blends of red wines, including a good “field blend”. Modern wineries keep their grape varieties separate and do all their blending in barrels, but we learned that wineries used to plant a mix of grapes in their fields, allowing the blending to happen naturally. Carvalhas had some 100+ year old vines, producing a very nice 54€ ($64 USD) bottle of wine that we did not buy.

After our time at Carvalhas, we walked the disappointingly-small town of Pinhão, hoping to find a tasting at a wine bar or a snack at a restaurant. We struck out on both counts, with one wine shop no longer providing tastings, and all of the local restaurants closed for their mid-afternoon break. We ended up going back to our quinta for a few hours before heading out for a traditional late meal.

Heading south on day 2, we started in the tiny town of Ucanha, famous for the Portugal’s only medieval toll bridge and also for a local moonshine called bagaço.  After walking the bridge, we went into a local bar, struggled with our limited Duolingo-Portuguese to converse with the non-English-speaking owner, and managed to get a shot of straight bagaço (hot, but not the worst moonshine we’ve ever had) and a shot of a chocolate bagaço liqueur (it was over-chocolatey, such that you couldn’t really tell it was alcohol). Next, we drove 20 minutes further to the town of Lamego. There, we climbed a huge flight of steps to a church, reminiscent of our climb to the similar Bom Jesus in Braga. After our tour of the church, we stopped for a wine tasting with chorizo and bread, then went to the top of a small hill to see the tiny three-story Lamego Castle and nearby archeological museum. The castle and museum had a lot of historical information, but we felt rushed to take it all in, as it was almost closing time. Returning to downtown, we hustled through a massive and impressive cathedral, then grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to the quinta.  We used about half of a tank of gas, around $38 USD, on these two days touring the valley.    

On our 3^rd day in the Douro Valley, we took a break and relaxed at our quinta. They have a working vineyard on site, and we scheduled a tasting for our final afternoon in the valley. We shared 5 different wines (1 white, 1 rosé, and 3 reds) for 25€ ($29.50 USD) and a very nice charcuterie board – probably the nicest, and most diverse of our entire time in Portugal – for another 20€ ($23.50 USD). We enjoyed the wine enough to buy one bottle of their reasonably priced red for 12€ ($14 USD).

Wine tasting and tabua at Quinta da Portela

After checking out of our quinta on day 4, we had one more wine tour scheduled at the Vallardo winery across the Douro River. We got a very nice tour of the vineyard, presses, fermentation, bottling, and aging facilities, followed by a tasting of 5 wines. Overall, it was a good tour, and we felt it was worth the 35€ charge each (70€ / $82 USD total).

Tourists – The Douro Valley is Portugal’s best-known wine region and easily accessible from Porto – of course it’s touristy! Wineries and restaurants were busy, and the medium-sized towns were all a bit crowded. It was only in the smallest towns, off the main roads, that we felt the area was not over-touristed.

Food - Our quinta provided breakfast, and the staff provided a few restaurant suggestions in two nearby towns. The first town, Peso da Régua, has a touristy downtown district and has also revitalized their old railway station with a series of bistros and wine bars, where we found an inexpensive tasting, tabua (charcuterie board), and toasted sandwich for dinner at Pecados do Vinho. This was our most-economical wine tasting in the valley, where we shared 3 wines for only 10€ ($12 USD).

Up into the mountains from our quinta is the tiny town of Almamar, with only a handful of restaurants. We chose Fonte Nova, and found that the traditional pay-as-you-go model was replaced with unlimited appetizers of soup, bread, sausage, olives, and cheese. We both only filled 1 small plate, as we knew that our meals were coming, though dinner itself was unfortunately not very memorable. The host was nice, the food was ok, and the main reason I’m mentioning them in the blog was the unique unlimited tapas.

By our third night in the Douro Valley, our restaurant frustrations hit their limit. Searching Google Maps for places to eat, with a decent menu, open when we want, and with some basic pricing information leaves only a few options, and then presumes that the information is accurate. To summarize our challenges, we never ate at our first choice in the Douro Valley, attempting multiple restaurants on each night of our stay.

For wine, it seemed that the best tasting prices could be found at small restaurants in the towns, rather than at the wineries themselves. The wineries seemed to focus on creating an experience and exposing visitors to their higher-end wines, whereas the eateries provided exposure to lesser-known wineries, some with lower price-points.

Douro Valley Summary – After all of my complaining, we did enjoy our short visit to the Douro Valley. It’s a beautiful area, and the quinta was a great place to relax when we weren’t exploring the vineyards in the valley. However, we’ve made a note to ourselves to be more prepared before any future wine-region stays, so that we’ll have a better idea of specific wineries we’d like to visit. We also need to be better prepared for, or more tolerant of, challenges with finding places to eat. Portugal has a few other wine regions, and we would probably try to visit a different region before we return to the Douro Valley.

Stop Nine – A Short Return to Porto

At the beginning of our trip, we started with only two weeks in Porto, knowing that we could return later in our journey. As we finalized our travel plans, we settled on five additional nights at the end of our trip. We split our stay, with four nights in the city and our final night at an airport hotel.

We drove from Douro to Porto after our final wine tour, stopping in the town of Amarante for a small lunch and to look at the city’s monastery and church. We had stopped here during our first Douro Valley tour, but didn’t have much time to look around. This time, we spent an hour touring through town before stopping in a familiar pastry shop to buy some treats. We had learned about the bakery from our Douro Valley tour guide, and who did we meet there again?? - our guide, Tiago, who was quite surprised to see us two months later. We had a nice chat with him before heading on to Porto.

We debated logistics for our arrival into Porto and settled on returning the rental car, then taking an Uber for a short half-mile to our apartment. The rental car return was quick and painless, documented again by cell phone video, and the Uber ride was also uneventful.

Our second apartment in Porto was terrific. On our first stay, we were in the Ribiera district, halfway down a steep hill to the river. For this visit, we found a place further north, more on top of the hill. We ended up with a very new, nice-sized, 1 bedroom apartment on the 2^nd floor. When we booked, the Airbnb was brand new, with no reviews, which was a bit concerning. Sometimes we will find a new property, but are reassured by finding that the host has good reviews on other properties. This apartment seemed to be our host’s first property, but with some investigation, I found that there were co-hosts with a long list of good reviews. Semi-confidently, we made our booking. We ended up having a great stay and felt reassured that our property- and host-research processes are working out ok.

Our Porto apartment had all of our normal wish-list items including AC, good wifi, and washing machine. The entire building was new and modern, with wood floors throughout, and smart locks on both the exterior main door and our interior apartment door. We also had a small balcony, and while the wider city view was nice, the immediate area behind the apartment was a bit neglected and an eyesore. The neighborhood around the apartment was very modern and generally clean. It was easy to walk on the wide cobblestone sidewalks, but the rough cobbles confirmed that taking an Uber with our luggage had been the right choice.

Sights - Temperatures were perfect during our stay, with daytime highs in the 70s. It was wonderful weather to be wandering around, and since we had seen so much of the city during our first stop in Porto, we didn’t feel rushed to see a massive number of sights.

Since we had missed the large Sé Cathedral and a couple of churches, we made sure to hit those. The cathedral has a very traditional façade, and the interior was similarly decorated with gold leaf, frescos, and azulejos. We also walked through the nearby Episcopal Palace and St. Lawrence Church. Probably the most impressive sight was the Church of Santa Clara. From outside, you would never know this church existed, but knowing where to enter will lead you to the most highly-decorated, gold-embossed chapel that we have ever been in! Total for all the sights was 26€ ($30 USD) for the 2 of us. 

View of Sé Cathedral

Extensive gold leaf in the Church of Santa Clara

We also took a “six-bridge” cruise, a popular offering with a number of tour operators, providing a river cruise under six bridges close to Porto. While searching for a decent option, most of what I found were 50-minute, large-boat cruises, with rows of plastic chairs on the deck of a boat, all in the 20-25€ ($23.50-$29.50 USD) price range. But I also found some two-hour cruises, on smaller boats, and with port tastings on board for about 2x the price - 50€ ($59 USD) per person. We went this route, and appreciated the small boat, with only 6 other passengers. Everyone else sat upstairs while we sat on the bow, so the trip felt more like a private cruise and port tasting. That said, we really didn’t care for any of the four ports included in our tasting, so was the tour worth it? We’re still not sure!

Tourists – Our second trip to Porto confirmed our prior observations. Still touristy, still popular, still easy to travel and navigate, and still a nice city to visit!

Food – Closing out our trip in a familiar city, we revisited a few of our favorite restaurants. First, Taberna do Largo, for more tapas, but unfortunately, they did not have any more bottles of our favorite D’Origem wine. We also revisited the Nortada Brewery, for more good beers and another francesinha. While passing through Gaia on our way home from our river cruise, we stopped at a local spot memorable only because we tried a new Portuguese dish – rojoes – basically cubes of tender pulled pork. They were very tasty, but when we sampled rojoes at another restaurant the next day, the flavor and texture was quite different and not to our liking.

Porto Summary - Stopping in a familiar city was a great way to end our trip. Rather than spending time researching sights and places to eat, or rushing around to everything we wanted to see, we were able to hit a couple new places and eat at some of our favorites one final time. It was a nice way to coast to the end of our trip in a low-stress way. Additionally, moving to an airport hotel for our final night was a good decision. We arranged for late check out from our Airbnb at noon, then caught an Uber to the hotel, where check-in started at 1pm. We had plenty of time to adjust our suitcases, ensuring the weights were under 50lbs. Our final morning was just a leisurely breakfast and low-stress shuttle ride to the airport. When it makes sense, I’d like to do this again – a familiar city to end a country, and an airport hotel for the final night.

The Grand Summary

From everything above, we hope you can tell that we had a nice time in Portugal. The weather started hotter-than-expected, but cooled to more tolerable temps after the first 2 weeks. Everywhere we went was very walkable. Trains and buses were confusing, but manageable, and Uber/Bolt were very reliable for point-to-point trips. Renting a car and driving in Portugal was very easy and not too stressful.

We enjoyed all of our destinations, some of which felt “unfinished” and others that we see no need for a return. For the larger cities, we preferred Porto to Lisbon, though we’re having a hard time putting that preference into words. Both are busy, touristy places, but Porto seems to have gotten the jump on their revitalization, and didn’t seem as run down as some areas of Lisbon, where it seemed easy to walk from nice surroundings to sketchy on the same street. Lisbon also seemed to have more street vendors, which we didn’t care for. Porto’s waterfront is better-developed, with scenic bridges, more restaurants and activities right along the river, and it’s easy to cross to the opposite shore for more sightseeing and exploration.

View of Porto from Gaia

For the Algarve region, we feel that we played out Albufeira, and would head to a different city if we returned. Perhaps Lagos further west, or perhaps skip this part of Portugal and explore the southern coast of Spain instead.

In the interior, there are too many natural and prehistoric sites for anyone to visit. The Évora / Alentejo region is a nice area, and we would enjoy returning to explore more sites, as well as the wineries in the area. It’s also close to Badajoz, Spain, which would be easy to tie-in with a future trip.

Having criss-crossed the country, our ultra-short-list of favorite sights would include the decent-sized and easily-accessible Montemor-o-Velho Castle, the very touristy but impressive Pena Palace, the walled city of Óbidos, and the immense and ornately decorated Batalha Monastery (with Tomar’s Convent of Christ a less-visually-stunning, but still impressive and interesting runner-up). We also enjoyed the Anta Grande near Zambujeiro, the Roman ruins of Conimbriga, and both the Grutas de Moeda and the Grutas Mira de Aire.

For dining, we probably ate at Portuguese restaurants about 75% of the time, and while most of the food that we tried was good, very little struck us as impressive. We quickly put francesinhas, bifanas, and ovos rotos into high rotation. The Black Iberian pork (porco preto) was typically very good and slightly nutty, though sometimes a bit greasy for our liking. Bacalhau was also typically good, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t order it more than once or twice per week. We occasionally felt a bit stuck – sitting at a new restaurant, but feeling like we're looking at a familiar menu, with a familiar list of items. Overall, we felt that Portuguese food was often missing color and was surprisingly light on spices, including salt. As I noted, we occasionally ate other styles of food, such as burgers, pizza, Indian food, ramen, and even barbeque. We also saw Mexican, Chinese, and French restaurants, but never gave any of them a try.

Francesinha at Nortada Brewery

Bifana, sande, and bolinhos at Tasca Tosca

Porco preto at Mau Maria

For wines and ports, we confirmed that we prefer red wine, and don’t care for the unique Portuguese style known as “green wine”. We eventually came to the realization that “touriga nacional” was a consistent grape varietal in the wines we liked, so we started looking for it on labels or descriptions in shops and restaurants. For pricing, we found that off-name bottles in grocery stores in the 4-5€ ($4.50-$6.00 USD) range were often good (though not consistently so). For ports, we concluded that we like tawny ports the best – red grapes, aged in barrels. The best that we tasted were aged 30-40 years, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy these expensive treasures, instead buying bottles aged 7-10 years.

Port cellars at Quinta Vallado

Tawny port tasting at Mercado Bolhão

Travelers frequently mention how affordable it is to explore Portugal. After 80 days there, we would agree and say “yes, but…”.  In general, we felt groceries and meals were cheaper than their U.S. equivalents. Over our entire trip, we averaged about 25€/week ($28 USD, or $4 USD per day) for groceries, which was basically coffee, breakfast ingredients, and snacks like fruit, chips, meat, cheese, or bread. Our restaurant meals (cost for two) typically ranged in price from 10-20€ ($12-$25 USD) for sandwiches or tapas to 30-40€ ($35-$47 USD) for plated dinners, with national dishes on the lower end, and international or seafood meals on the higher end. Adding water, olives, or a basket of bread were typically around 2-3€ ($2.50-$3.50 USD) for each item. Our total meal costs also varied depending on if we had a domestic beer (2-3€ / $2.50-$3.50 USD), craft/imported beer (5-6€ / $6-$7 USD), glass of wine (4-6€ / $4.50-$7 USD), or bottle of wine/pitcher of sangria (15-20€ / $18-$25 USD). All-in, we averaged about 55€ ($63 USD) per day for dining out. We feel that comparable U.S. meals would have cost more, but also felt there was a general lack of mid-range or fast-casual options in Portugal. So – comparable places seemed cheaper in Portugal, but we ate more consistently at nicer venues than we would have at home. This table has a breakdown of our basic costs for our 80 days, averaged over the number of days per stay in each spot:

Some cost notes:

• The exchange rate was pretty consistent during our trip, around 1€ = $0.85 USD.

• We paid about 1.89€ per liter for gasoline ($8.40 USD/gallon), at 95-octane because that’s what Europcar required.

• Óbidos food costs were higher due to café breakfasts, averaging 18€ ($21 USD) per day.

• Albufeira food costs were higher due to eating more seafood and international options

• Albufeira relocation covered the longest distance, and we also bought 1^st class train tickets

• Costs for historic sights like churches and forts was highly variable – a few were free, most were around 2-3€ ($2.50-$3.50 USD) per person, and a few were in the 7-15€ ($8-$12 USD) range.

  
  

Overall, we enjoyed our time in Portugal, and could easily see ourselves returning for another visit to Porto, Óbidos, the Évora/Alentejo region, or to the Algarve region. Costs were medium to high, skewed by living like tourists as opposed to residents - meaning short-term stays, limited grocery shopping, and very few meals at home. As much as we enjoyed our trip and all of the places we saw, with our so-so review of the food, we don’t currently see Portugal as a top option for a future home-away-from-home. I am positive that we’ll be back, but with this visit under our belts, we’re not in a rush to do so.

From a traveler-perspective, our new suitcase-life is going great! One bag and one carry-on each was enough for everything we needed. Over the past four years, we had already cut back on the clothes that we traveled with, and this trip encouraged us to cut back on our supplies and miscellaneous items as well. I’d like to reduce a bit more, as our suitcases weigh around 45-50 lbs, and our carry-ons were 20-25 lbs. Those weights increased while in-country, as we would often take a few grocery items or supplies from city to city.

Pena Palace

One suitcase and one backpack each

Queen and King, having a great time!

We also decided that 80 days is longer than we should stay in one country. That doesn’t have anything to do with Portugal, but because our bucket list of destinations is too large. Staying 80 days means we would only see 4-5 new countries per year, and we think we need to move a bit faster than that! Time will tell if we can set a reasonable pace to visit all of these places without making ourselves crazy or tired from the travels.