This is a vague itinerary. We have 7 nights total, early July. We arrive in Porto and depart from Lisbon.
I’m thinking of two nights in each of these places, but I have one extra night to spend somewhere. Maybe Lisbon, as it seems there are a number of day trips we can do from there that will allow us to go to the places I’ve mentioned below.
Porto, two nights
Aveira, two nights
Lisbon, two nights.
We’d like to see Evora, Obidos, Sintra, Cascais. Is this itinerary reasonable? If it matters, there are 6 of us, and we plan to use trains, buses and taxis. 4 of our party are young adults.
Sintra is a whole day between the palace, the old Moorish castle walls, and Quinta de Regaleira (which is also a must see). Honestly we felt like we could have used an overnight just in Sintra. (You could combine Sintra and Cascais).
I don’t think you need two nights in Aveira unless you are using it as a home base.
Leave time in Porto to visit the Douro Valley (can do on a boat) and going to tastings in the port houses.
With only a week I would limit to two places. Lisbon and Porto with a couple of day trips. Or south region and Lisbon. Or just Porto and Coimbra and wine region. Depending on your interests.
We had 5 days in Portugal in 2023 and went to Porto and Lisbon. We did a tour of the Douro Valley (via bus and boat) which was a whole day when we were in Porto. We went to Sintra for the day via train when we were in Lisbon. I think 2 places for the amount of time you have would be just right.
We stayed in Baixa and loved it. This is the hotel we stayed at. It had a kitchen which they kept stocked with coffee, tea, milk, eggs and fruit. Each morning they left a bag of fresh pastries on your door.
We spent ten days all in Lisbon, and did two day trips, one to see a friend in Setubal and one to Sintra/Cascais. We prefer to settle in and live more like a local, rather than being on the move all the time. Check out the carriage museum. Sounds weird, but it’s cool. Also, you can get pastel de nata everywhere, but no one does them as well as the original, Pastéis de Belém. No need to try anything else there.
We spent 4 days in Lisbon and ended up doing 2 day trips. I think that if you do 2 days in Lisbon proper and allow 1 full day for Sintra that you will be satisfied but will not be able to see every possible tourist site of course. Go for Porto plus Lisbon and allocate as you wish. Lisbon was amazing. We combined it with a trip to Sevilla/Cordoba.
We went mid May and Lisbon was already packed. Long lines for everything. I’d try to book tours that included admission so you don’t spend hours waiting in line. Porto wasn’t as busy.
A slightly differing opinion here. D and I had 5 nights in Portugual in November prior to meeting family in Spain. We spent 3 in Lisbon, and the last two in Cascais. Cascais is just a half hour or so from Lisbon, but far more relaxing. And so beautiful! From Cascais we took a tour of Sintra that included a bit of the nearby coast. The day we left, on a midday flight, we Ubered right to the airport from Cascais. Another time, I hope to see more of Portugal.