Discovering Portugal: A 9-Day Itinerary from Porto to Lisbon
Our neighbor country in the Iberian Peninsula has so many things to show, that we decided to stay 9 days in Portugal in route knowing it in depth. And we have to say, that was an incredible experience, it is an amazing country with a special charm, with an amazing gastronomy, kind people and lots of history, art and architecture that must be known.
Our route started in Porto and after discovering this marvelous city, we rented a car to discover some places between Porto and the capital, Lisbon, like Braga, Guimaraes, Aveiro, Coimbra, Obidos, Fatima, Nazaré, Peniche and Sintra.
As you can see, our route was a very complete one and we could enjoy calmly all the places we visited. At the end, we saw that Portugal had lots of interesting places between the most important cities, so we decided to try to cover all the possible places. You can do this route perfectly in car and without rush in the time we did it as we really think that 9 days are enough to do this route.
So, as we do always we travel, we want to bring us our vision of the strong (and weak) points of this route through this nice country.
If you want to discover more posts of our blog about our experience in Portugal, check these links. We hope that helps 🙂
- 4 days in Lisbon: The Complete Experience.
- Where to stay in Lisbon: Best Places and Accommodation
- The Must-Sees of Lisbon: The City of 7-Hills
- 15 must-visit places in Porto.
- 3 Days in Porto: The Best Detailed Guide
Let’s go!
Day 1: Porto
Our 9 days in Portugal started with a nice flight of one hour and a half from Barcelona to Porto. This first tourism day started after lunch, as we had to work in the morning (a real pleasure to do it while you are traveling). We enjoyed two days (1 and a half of tourism) in Porto and we loved it so much that we created a dedicated post in which we explain in detail the must-visit places of Porto.
As it’s usual, we did a free tour in our first day to see the key points of the city and know the habits and peculiarities. Follow this link to discover Porto’s free walking tours (we did ours in Spanish).
In the free tour, we recommend to see:
- Porto’s city hall
- Clerigos tower
- Lello’s bookstore
- Sao Bento’s station
- Porto’s university
- Miradouro da Vitória
We had to leave the tour before the Cathedral’s and Ribeira visit as we had the tickets to visit to Lello’s bookstore so, that’s where we went. We visited this incredible bookstore that inspired J.K.Rowling (even she denied it) to create Hogwarts.
After this visit and the whole day walking, we decided to have dinner and rest to wake up early and start the next day with full energy!
Where to sleep?
In Oporto we were allocated in Porto Spot Hostel, a small and economic hostal with the option to share a room or have a private one. It’s 15 min walking from Plaza dos Aliados, so we didn’t take any transport. Follow this link to book your stay in Porto Spot Hostel.
Where to eat?
At lunch time, we went to a typical Portuguese tavern called Restaurante Antunes. It is a typical place with low prices (10-15€) and great quality.
For dinner, we went to a top restaurant and one of the best we tried in this route of 9 days in Portugal, the restaurante Flor dos Congregados. This restaurant is more expensive than average in Porto, it’s 25€ per person. It is totally worth it!
Day 2: Porto
Our first visit of the day was the Mercado do Bolhao as it was close to our hostel. It is a quick visit as you will just see how is this market’s life, that usually tells you a lot of the society of the country and the city itself. As it was very early in the morning, after the market we went to visit the Clerigos tower and church, as it is normally a very crowded place from middle morning. It was a great decision as we went to the top of the tower alone and we could admire the beautiful 360º views of Porto.
Once we went out from the cellar, we visited some places in the area like the Half Rabbit or the Gaia’s cableway and we went back to the bridge.
After this stressful day, we relaxed in a cafe and we had a great dinner to have some rest!
Where to eat?
At lunch, we wanted to try the famous francesinha, one of the typical dishes in Porto. Check what francesinha is made of, as it’s completely crazy! 🙂 We went to Brasao Aliados, it costed 15€ per person and we really enjoyed it.
At dinner time, we visited a restaurant where Andrea had already been some years ago, the Laurear Porto. It is a very small restaurant property of a mother and a sister that is really top as they are so nice and the food is excellent. We strongly recommend it as a cool place to have dinner and the price is approximately 15-20€ per person.
Day 3: Braga and Guimaraes
This was the first day on our way by car to Lisbon that took us 4 days. We picked the car in Porto’s airport and our first destiny was Braga and Guimaraes. Those two destinies can be done as a part of a single trip to Porto doing a 1 day excursion to Braga and Guimaraes.
As our first stop, we decided to go to one of the holiest places in Portugal, Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga. It was a really nice visit, even though for us was raining a lot. It is completely worth it to go to see the place and the most attractive thing, the staircase.
From this point, we decided to skip Braga’s visit due to the rain to go directly to Guimaraes and dedicate more time to it. Guimaraes is a small city with lots of history as it’s said that it was the first city of Portugal and it has a special medieval air, what makes it a very attractive city.
In Guimaraes, we could visit:
- Guimaraes Castle
- Aquí Nasceu Portugal
- Largo do Toral
- Largo de Oliveira
- Iglesia de nossa Señora de Oliveira
- Praça Sao Tiago
- Braganza Dukes palace
- Iglesia de Nossa Señora da Consolaçao
- Penha sanctuary (you must take the cableway, but it’s a really cool visit)
Where to sleep?
We slept in a small hotel near the Guimaraes city center called Trovador City Guest House. The truth is that everything was great, it was out of any luxury but it’s perfect in quality and price.
Where to eat?
As it was a crazy day, we ate a fast burguer near our hotel in Guimaraes.
At dinner time, we went to the restaurant in front of the hotel, that was well rated and it totally deserves it! It was one of the restaurants of this route of 9 days in Portugal that we could taste more typical food. It is called Taberna Trovador. The price is 20€ per person.
Day 4: Aveiro and Coímbra
Next, we went to one of the closest villages that we wanted to visit, Costa Nova. This place is a really must-visit, as it has a promenade with a peculiarity in the houses, all of them painted with different colors stripes, what creates a really nice view.
Once we took some photos in this area, we went to another of the most important cities of Portugal, the college town Coimbra.
The truth is that we went without many expectations and we were surprised by the city. As we didn’t have much time, we booked a free tour to see the main places in the city and have some insights about how the people live there and it was a success.
Before the tour, as we had time, we payed the entrance to the University (you can buy the tickets on the official Coimbra’s University website) and we could visit:
- Saint Miguel’s chappel,
- University tower,
- Capelo’s hall,
- academic jail and
- the most important place, the Library.
– Largo da Portagem (punto de encuentro)
– Almedina arc
– Baixa – Monasterio de S.Cruz
– Municipal Market
– Toga (official clothes store of the students)
– AAC (Asociación Académica Universitaria)
– Praça da República
– Jardim da Sereia
– Jardim Botánico and Arcos do Jardim
– University (outside)
Where to sleep?
We stayed near Coimbra’s city center in a super cool and nice apartment called Archisuites. Quality/price it was perfect.
Where to eat?
At lunch time, we took take-away food in a supermarket as we wanted to visit too many places and we didn’t have time to stop.
For dinner, we did it in a nice place in Coimbra called Arcadas Comes e Bebes, specialized in portuguese tapas, and it was one of our favorite restaurants in those 9 days in Portugal. The price was 15-20€ per person.
Day 5: Fátima, Batalha, Nazaré, Óbidos and Peniche
Firstly, we went to the Fatima Sanctuary, one of the most important Marian pilgrimage places of the world. It’s a really shocking place. We are not religious people but it was really surprising as it was huge and it has a mysterious aura. The entrance is free.
Next, we took the car to go to Batalha monastery, another great place to visit. It’s a gothic monastery and its Human Heritage of the UNESCO and one of the most important places in Portugal. It has an entrance price of 6€ per person and the most interesting and impressive place is the Unfinished Chapel, a open air pantheon that was never finished.
Our next stop of the day was Nazaré. It is one of the most important surf cities as it was the place where the biggest surfed wave was registered. In this visit, we went to the Suberco Viewpoint, the San Miguel Arcangel Fort and we took some photos of the amazing beaches and cliffs.
From here, we went to the medieval village, Obidos. The great attractive of this place is the wall, that is perfectly conserved and it’s surrounding the whole village. It is such in a good conditions, that you can walk on it and go around the whole town. It’s a place that looks like another period of time as the constructions and streets have a huge medieval air.
The last stop was Peniche, a fishermen city that has converted into a touristic point due to their amazing beaches around. We went there in Winter, so we couldn’t enjoy that part. It is a really good place for surfers, that crowd the beaches in summer to practice their sport. The reality was that we used this place to sleep as it was the southern place that we had for this day, but it has no big attractive places outside the summer season.
Where to sleep?
We slept in Peniche after this exhausting day. We slept in a hotel that had a good quality price rating called Sea Garden.
Where to eat?
In this day, we didn’t eat in any interesting place, we did a take away on both lunch and dinner times.
Day 6: Boca do Inferno and Sintra
The first place was Boca do Inferno in Cascais. For us, it’s not worth it to go if you just go to see that. It’s a geological formation created by the sea’s action that create a cave where the water flows. It didn’t surprise us and we wouldn’t recommend it unless you want to stay in the village calmly.
After that, we went up to the mountain top to visit Sintra, a place from a tale. We could do 2 visits in this day, Pena’s palace and Quinta da Regaleira.
Pena’s palace is the jewel of this area. It is placed in the top of the tallest hill and the main attractive thing is the super colorful facade that looks like is extracted from a Disney film. We were very unlucky here as we had a bad experience in the palace. Due to the fog, we were unable to see the facade, so it looked like we were not in this palace as we couldn’t see almost anything. The interior, is a succession of luxury rooms from the kings living there and it’s interesting, but we think it’s nothing compared with the external part. It has a price of 14€ per person.
Quinta da Regaleira is a place which didn’t give us many expectation and we were very surprised. It is a mystic palace surrounded by extensive gardens with hidden passageways and places. It’s said that it was used by the Masons so it has this mystery part that we enjoy a lot. For us it is a must visit as it’s different from other visits in the country and you can have a calm walk, discover the palace and visit the famous initiation well (typical photo of this place).
After this visit, it rained a lot, so we had to go to the hotel and be there until next dy.
Where to sleep?
We stayed in a cool hotel in Sintra called Casa do Vinho. It was good, very comfortable and well located. We strongly recommend it!
Where to eat?
At lunch time, we took a sandwich to be able to reach Pena’s Palace at our entrance time.
At dinner time, we wanted to try a pizzeria that was under our hotel, but it rained so much that the street was flooded. We had to go to a touristic restaurant that was really but and we won’t recommend it.
Day 7: Lisbon
The free tour was very good, they explained us a lot of Lisbon history and they showed us many interesting places to visit again for free. Interesting places:
- Praça do Comercio
- Praça dos Restauradores
- Calceteiro’s monument
- Casa do Alentejo
- Jewish memorial
- Santo Domingo church
- Praça de Rossio
- Converto do Carmo
- Santa Justa lift
- Chiado neighbor
- Bertand Library
- Rua Augusta
- Monumental Arc
Where to sleep?
That was the most beautiful hotel we stayed in this route of 9 days in Portugal. It’s located in Barrio Alto and it’s called The Independente Hostel & Suites. It’s a really cool hostel with lots of people and a viewpoint terrace with restaurant. The breakfast was amazing!
Where to eat?
That day we ate on a famous market of the city, where you can eat food from different parts of the world. It’s called TimeOut market.
Day 8: Lisbon
We started our 8th day in Portugal, visiting one of the most famous and interesting parts of the city, Belem’s area. We went from our hotel to Praça do Comercio and we took a Bolt to this area. There, we could discover by foot the famous Belem Tower, the impressive monument Padrao dos Descubrimientos and we walked through Ribeira de Tajo to take a photo to the famous 25 de Abril bridge, a replica of the famous bridge of San Francisco.
Our first intention was to go to Jeronimos Monastery that is close to this area, but we didn’t have any presale tickets, and as we didn’t go early, there was a long queue and we couldn’t go inside. It was a real shame, but we have a reason to go back!
After this route in the morning, we had an interesting tour in one of the most authentic and must-visit neighbors of the city, the Alfama’s neighbor. In this area we could see:
- Casa dos Bicos
- Sao Cristovao stairs
- Fado’s wall
- Chao do Loureiro viewpoint
- Santa Luzia viewpoint
- Lisbon cathedral
Where to eat?
At lunch time, we wanted to eat a typical soup rice, and it was really a good choice. We went to the restaurant O Arco (just 2 min from the most famous restaurant of this kind, Uma). The price is 15-20€.
Day 9: Lisbon and back home
After this, we went back to the city center to eat a Bifana, a typical sandwich made of pork meat. We want to a typical place called Casa das Bifanas.
Finally, we went to the airport with Bolt and we had to say goodbye to this amazing country and to our route of 9 days in Portugal 🙁
Where to eat?
We recommend to try the typical sandwich of Lisbon, Bifana. We ate it in Casa das Bifanas, 4€ per person.
Maps
Porto, Braga and Guimaraes
Aveiro and Coimbra
Fátima, Batalha, Nazaré, Óbidos and Peniche
Lisboa and Sintra
And that’s the end of this route of 9 days in Portugal. As you could see it was very intense but also a great experience. We would go back a thousand of times to Portugal, as it has all the required elements to a magic trip: gastronomy, history, monuments and fun. We completely recommend that, you won’t regret!
In case of need some extra help, don’t hesitate on contacting us, we will be delighted of giving you extra information! 🙂
