Previously mentioned, we’ve never been to Portugal. We love a mix of city and rural, art and architecture, history, natural beauty and just plain old wandering. If you’ve been to Portugal or have heard great things about some particular area or place or food or … well, whatever… please leave a comment.
We started reading about all things Portuguese to get a sense of what would, well, make sense for a month in Portugal. Searching the web for local sources, skimming through the traditional guidebooks, talking to friends and family who had been there – we hatched a plan.
In southern Portugal, we will base ourselves in Lisbon and explore not only the city of Lisbon, but the surrounding region including the famous Algarve area on the southern coast. Initially we will stay here a week, then head to the north for a couple of weeks then back to Lisbon for our last 10 days.
In northern Portugal, we will base ourselves in Porto (yes, Port wine) and explore the Duoro Valley (a wine maker and wine drinker’s heaven), small coastal towns and possibly the gorgeous Parque Nacional Peneda-Gerės. We will also spend a few days in Coimbra before heading back down to Lisbon.
We’ve opted not to rent a car. There are plenty of trains and buses available and we are happy to travel by public transport. Yes, there are places we might miss but local busses go almost everywhere and we can join an occasional day excursion tour to get to some out of the way places.
Time to arrange some accommodations.
Wynette and I like taking buses and prefer it to taxis or a car. You meet more people and see how they live. By traveling slower you end up seeing more.