If you had 7 to 10 days to spend on a first trip to Portugal, where would you go, and what would you do?
Mrs. Tullius and I are thinking of going there for the first time in April or May and could use some suggestions. (Why? Well, we’ve never been there before; it seems like a pleasant country; and it seems relatively cheap.)
We plan to spend about half the trip in Lisbon and surroundings (Sintra). After that, we’re still trying to decide between trips to Coimbra, Porto, or the Algarve (maybe Salema). While we’d like to spend some time seeing historic sites, we’d also just like to relax in pleasant surroundings for a few days.
I recommend, if you can afford it, the Hotel Altis is Lisbon. When I was there last, it was about $90 a night for a true 5-Star hotel, that had a staff that was freindly and spoke great English. The breakfasts were gorgeous as well.
The little shopping district down by the bay is nice. The Castle Jorge in Lisbon is interesting, but there’s not much there. In general, you can have a decent time walking around Lisbon and seeing sights, but there isn’t much to see really. Nice town, though.
Oporto is supposed to have a couple of very good art galleries, but I did not make it up there.
My fondest memory of Lisbon was going to a small restaurant that offered me seconds of my meal at no charge. Unfortunately, it was just one of those places I wandered into.
Lisbon, and by extension, the rest of Portugal, is quite different from the rest of Europe. The standard of living isn’t quite as high as other Western European countries, although it is definitely not bad.
Lisbon is very hilly.
And the weirdest thing about Portugal is that the trains use the same gauge as most of Europe. Except Spain uses the wider gauge. So trains from Portugal have to stop at the first Spanish city and then you have to get on another train.
However, Portugal only borders one country in Europe: Spain.