10:45
Timeline
Eight days: Sintra's palaces and the cape, Óbidos and Nazaré, three monasteries, Coimbra's library, two days in the Douro, Porto before the flight.
Day 1 · Sat
Quinta da Regaleira and Sintra's old town
Lisbon to Sintraland 10:00👟 ≈ 8,000 stepsLand at 10:00, the car, 40 minutes to Sintra. Lunch, then Quinta da Regaleira's gardens and initiation well; Sintra's old town in the evening.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →12:15
food
Lunch and bags in Sintra📍 in Google Maps
€15–25 each
Leave the bags at the guesthouse. Tascas in the lanes behind the palace serve bacalhau and grilled sardines; then a travesseiro, a puff-pastry pillow of almond cream, at Piriquita.
14:00
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Quinta da Regaleira📍 in Google Maps🎟 book regaleira.pt
A millionaire's estate of 1910 full of symbols of the Templars and Freemasons, with a nine-level spiral well sunk into the hill.
about €15 eachday's highlightbook ahead
Ten minutes' walk from the centre. Go straight to the Initiation Well and walk down its spiral to the bottom, then out through the tunnels to the lake.
The gardens are steep and full of towers and grottoes; the house is the least of it. Allow two hours.
16:30
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Sintra National Palace📍 in Google Maps🎟 book parquesdesintra.pt
The royal palace in the centre of Sintra, lived in from the 15th to the 19th century, known for its two great conical kitchen chimneys and its tiled rooms.
about €13 each
On the main square. The Swan Room and the Magpie Room have painted ceilings; the Arab Room the oldest tiles in Portugal. The kitchen is under the chimneys. An hour.
20:00
food
Dinner in Sintra📍 in Google Maps
€25–35 each
Restaurants on the lanes up from the square; a middle option. Leitão, roast suckling pig, or arroz de marisco, a soupy seafood rice for two.
If you fall behind
- Skip the National Palace.
- Eat a quick lunch at the airport and get to Regaleira by 13:00.
Day 2 · Sun
Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, Cabo da Roca and Cascais
Sintra and the coastout 09:00👟 ≈ 11,500 stepsPena Palace at a booked 9:30, the Moorish Castle's walls, then the coast: Cabo da Roca, Europe's westernmost point, and an evening in Cascais.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:30
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Pena Palace📍 in Google Maps🎟 book parquesdesintra.pt
A 19th-century king's fantasy palace of yellow and red towers on a crag above Sintra, built by Ferdinand II over a ruined monastery.
about €20 eachday's highlighttimed slot
Do not drive up: take the 434 bus from the old town or a tuk-tuk, about €5 each. Book the first slot; queues for the interior reach an hour by eleven.
The terraces round the palace look over the coast to Lisbon. The park below has the High Cross, the hill's top. Allow two hours.
11:45
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The Moorish Castle📍 in Google Maps🎟 book parquesdesintra.pt
A castle of the 9th and 10th centuries whose walls snake along the ridge opposite Pena, with views of both palaces and the sea.
about €12 eachsteps
Ten minutes' walk from Pena. Walk the walls between the two towers; steep steps, no railings in places. Forty-five minutes, then the 434 bus down.
13:30
walkphoto ↑
Cabo da Roca📍 in Google Maps
The cape where mainland Europe ends, 140 metres over the Atlantic, with a lighthouse and a monument quoting the poet Camões.
freewind
Twenty-five minutes by car through the Sintra hills. Walk the cliff paths south of the lighthouse for the view back along the coast. Strong wind most days.
14:30
food
Lunch at Azenhas do Mar📍 in Google Maps
A village of white houses spilling down a cliff to a natural sea pool.
€25–40 each
Twenty minutes north. The restaurant above the pool serves fish and shellfish by weight; the view of the village is from the road above.
17:00
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Cascais and the Boca do Inferno📍 in Google Maps
A fishing town where the kings summered, with beaches in its bay and the Boca do Inferno, a sea arch where waves boom.
free
Thirty-five minutes south along the coast road. Walk from the marina past the citadel to the Boca do Inferno, 20 minutes. Dinner at the fish restaurants by the beach, then 30 minutes back to Sintra.
If you fall behind
- Skip the Moorish Castle.
- Skip Cascais and have dinner in Sintra.
Day 3 · Mon
Óbidos inside its walls and the giant waves of Nazaré
Sintra to Nazaréout 09:00👟 ≈ 9,000 stepsSintra to Nazaré, about 1 h 45 min on the road. The walled town of Óbidos, then Nazaré: the cliff funicular, the lighthouse over the surf canyon, dinner on the beach.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:15
10:30
walkphoto ↑
Óbidos📍 in Google Maps
A small medieval town entirely inside its walls, given by Portuguese kings to their queens as a wedding present.
freeday's highlightwalls unfenced
Enter by the Porta da Vila, whose chapel is lined with blue tiles, and walk Rua Direita to the castle. Then climb onto the walls and walk them round; the inner side has no railing.
Ginjinha, the cherry liqueur, is sold in chocolate cups from the shops. Two hours.
12:45
food
Lunch in Óbidos📍 in Google Maps
€15–25 each
The restaurants away from Rua Direita, in the lanes by the church of Santa Maria. Then 40 minutes north to Nazaré.
15:00
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Nazaré and the funicular to Sítio📍 in Google Maps
A fishing town on a wide beach, where older women still wear seven layered petticoats and fish are dried on racks on the sand.
funicular about €2.50
Check in, then the funicular from the beach up to Sítio, the quarter on the cliff, two minutes. The viewpoint looks down the whole beach.
16:00
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The lighthouse at the Fort of São Miguel Arcanjo📍 in Google Maps
A 16th-century fort with a lighthouse on the headland over Praia do Norte, where an undersea canyon builds the biggest waves ever surfed, up to 26 metres in winter.
about €2 each
Fifteen minutes' walk from Sítio. In May the sea is usually calm; inside, a small museum shows the surfers' boards and photographs of the winter waves. Forty-five minutes.
20:00
food
Dinner on Nazaré's beachfront📍 in Google Maps
€20–35 each
Restaurants along the Avenida da República; caldeirada, the fishermen's stew, and grilled sardines.
If you fall behind
- Skip the lighthouse museum and stay at the Sítio viewpoint.
- Shorten Óbidos to the main street and the castle.
Day 4 · Tue
Alcobaça, Batalha and the Convent of Christ at Tomar, to Coimbra
Nazaré to Coimbraout 09:00👟 ≈ 8,000 stepsNazaré to Coimbra, about 2 h 45 min on the road. Alcobaça, Batalha and the Templars' Convent of Christ at Tomar; pilgrims walking to Fátima on the roads.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:30
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Alcobaça Monastery📍 in Google Maps🎟 book patrimoniocultural.gov.pt
A Cistercian monastery of the 12th century with Portugal's largest church and the carved tombs of King Pedro and Inês de Castro, the mistress he crowned after her murder.
about €10 each
Twenty minutes inland. The church is free; the ticket is for the cloister, the dormitory and the giant kitchen with a river running through it. The two tombs face each other so the lovers would see each other first at the Resurrection. An hour.
11:00
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Batalha Monastery📍 in Google Maps🎟 book patrimoniocultural.gov.pt
A Gothic monastery built from 1386 to give thanks for a victory over Castile, with the open-roofed Unfinished Chapels and the tomb of Henry the Navigator.
about €10 eachday's highlight
Twenty-five minutes on. The Founder's Chapel holds King João I and his sons, Henry the Navigator among them. The Royal Cloister's stone tracery is the finest carving.
The Unfinished Chapels, roofless after a century of building, are entered from outside the church. Allow an hour and a quarter.
12:30
food
Lunch in Batalha📍 in Google Maps
€15–25 each
Restaurants on the square by the monastery. Fátima is 20 minutes away: expect pilgrims on the roadsides and slower traffic today.
14:00
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The Convent of Christ at Tomar📍 in Google Maps🎟 book conventocristo.gov.pt
The castle-convent of the Knights Templar and the Order of Christ, whose 12th-century round church copies the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
about €10 each
Forty minutes east. The round church, the Charola, is painted and gilded from floor to dome. Outside the chapter house is the Manueline window, carved with ropes, coral and sea creatures. Allow an hour and a half.
16:00
20:00
food
Dinner and fado in Coimbra📍 in Google Maps
€20–35 each
Coimbra's fado is sung by men in student capes, gentler than Lisbon's. Fado ao Centro runs a short concert most evenings at 18:00, about €12; dinner in the lanes of the lower town after.
If you fall behind
- Skip Alcobaça and start at Batalha.
- If Fátima traffic is bad, skip Tomar and drive on to Coimbra by the A1.
Day 5 · Wed
Coimbra's Biblioteca Joanina, then up to the Douro Valley
Coimbra to the Douroout 09:00👟 ≈ 6,500 stepsThe Biblioteca Joanina at a booked 9:30, the old university on its hill. The drive to the Douro after lunch, the quinta by late afternoon.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:30
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The Biblioteca Joanina📍 in Google Maps🎟 book visit.uc.pt
A baroque library of 1728 at the University of Coimbra, three gilded halls of 60,000 books, guarded at night by a colony of bats that eat the insects.
about €14 each with the universityday's highlighttimed entry
Up the steep lanes or the lift from the lower town. Entry to the library is timed and only a few minutes long; the ticket also covers the palace rooms.
Below the halls is the old academic prison. No photographs inside the library.
10:30
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The University of Coimbra📍 in Google Maps
One of the oldest universities in Europe, here since 1537 in a former royal palace, a World Heritage site.
included
The Sala dos Capelos, where doctorates are conferred, under a painted ceiling; the tower is a separate climb with the best view of the city and the river. An hour.
12:00
food
Lunch in the lower town📍 in Google Maps
€15–20 each
Down the Quebra Costas stairs. Chanfana, goat stewed in red wine, is the region's dish; a pastel de Santa Clara, almond pastry, after.
13:30
getting there
Drive to the Douro Valley📍 from 🏁 The quinta
2 h 15 mintolls
The A24 by Viseu to Peso da Régua, then along the river towards Pinhão. The last part to a quinta is often a steep single-track lane; ask the quinta for directions.
16:30
food
Check in at the quinta and an evening tasting📍 in Google Maps
dinner €30–45 each
Most quintas with rooms offer a tasting and a dinner for guests; book it with the room. The terraces of vines drop to the river below.
If you fall behind
- Skip the university tower.
- Eat lunch on the road at Viseu.
Day 6 · Thu
The Douro: the N222, a quinta tasting, a boat and Casal de Loivos
Douro Valleyout 09:30👟 ≈ 5,000 stepsThe N222 along the river, a tasting at a big quinta, a boat from Pinhão in the afternoon. Sunset from the Casal de Loivos viewpoint.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:30
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The N222 from Pinhão to Régua📍 in Google Maps
The road along the south bank of the Douro between Régua and Pinhão, through terraced vineyards, often called one of the world's best drives.
free
Half an hour each way, longer with stops. The best stretch is between Pinhão and Folgosa, with lay-bys over the river.
10:30
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Tasting at a quinta near Régua📍 in Google Maps
A quinta is a Douro wine estate; Quinta da Pacheca, by Régua, is one of the oldest to bottle under its own name, from 1738.
€20–40 eachday's highlightbook ahead
A tour of the cellar and the old granite lagares, where grapes are still trodden by foot at harvest, then a tasting of whites, reds and ports.
The driver should spit or share. Lunch at the quinta's restaurant is the easy option; book it with the tour.
12:30
food
Lunch at the quinta📍 in Google Maps
€30–45 each
A proper restaurant with tablecloths and the estate's wines by the glass.
15:00
tourphoto ↑
A boat from Pinhão📍 in Google Maps
€15–20 each
Back along the N222. Boats leave the quay by the bridge about every hour for an hour up and back between the terraces; buy at the quay. Look at the tiled panels of the Pinhão station before you go.
18:30
walkphoto ↑
Sunset at Casal de Loivos📍 in Google Maps
A viewpoint in a hilltop village above Pinhão, looking down on a great bend of the Douro and the terraces on every slope.
freesteep road
Fifteen minutes up a steep road from Pinhão. Sunset is about 20:50. Dinner at the quinta, booked.
If you fall behind
- Skip the boat and stay at the quinta's pool.
- Do the tasting at your own quinta instead of driving to Régua.
Day 7 · Fri
Down to Porto: the Ribeira and a port lodge in Gaia
Douro to Portoout 09:30👟 ≈ 9,000 stepsThe Douro to Porto, about 1 h 45 min on the road. The car back in the city at midday, the Ribeira, and a port lodge across the river in Gaia.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:30
12:00
food
Return the car and lunch📍 in Google Maps
€15–20 each
Lunch near the hotel: a francesinha, Porto's sandwich of meats under melted cheese and beer sauce, is the city's own dish.
13:30
sightphoto ↑
São Bento station hall📍 in Google Maps
A railway station of 1916 whose hall is covered with 20,000 blue-and-white azulejo tiles of battles and country life.
free
Stand in the middle of the hall and turn round. Fifteen minutes.
14:00
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The Ribeira📍 in Google Maps
The old riverfront quarter of tall coloured houses facing the port lodges across the Douro, a World Heritage site.
freesteep lanes
Down the stepped lanes past the cathedral to the river, 15 minutes. Then over the lower deck of the Dom Luís I Bridge to Gaia.
15:30
tourphoto ↑
A port lodge in Gaia📍 in Google Maps🎟 book grahams-port.com
The port houses' cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, where wine from the Douro is aged in oak before shipping.
€20–40 eachday's highlightbook ahead
Graham's, up the hill, and Taylor's and Cálem, near the quay, run tours of the barrel cellars ending with a tasting. Book a slot.
Afterwards, the Gaia cable car up to the Jardim do Morro and back over the top deck of the bridge at sunset, about 20:50.
20:30
food
Last dinner in Porto📍 in Google Maps
€25–40 each
Wine bars and restaurants on Rua das Flores; petiscos, Portuguese small plates, and a last glass of tawny.
If you fall behind
- Skip São Bento and go straight to the Ribeira.
- Do the lodge tour without the cable car.
Day 8 · Sat
Livraria Lello, the Clérigos Tower and the flight
Portoout 09:00👟 ≈ 5,000 stepsCheck out, bags at the reception. Livraria Lello at its opening, the Clérigos Tower, the Bolhão market, and the metro to the airport at 13:30 for the 16:00 flight.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →
09:00
09:30
sightphoto ↑
Livraria Lello📍 in Google Maps🎟 book livrarialello.pt
A 1906 bookshop with a carved wooden ceiling and a red forked staircase, said to have given J. K. Rowling ideas while she lived in Porto.
about €10 each, off a bookday's highlighttimed ticket
Book the first slot; the price comes off a book if you buy one. Twenty minutes inside.
Afterwards, the Clérigos Tower is two minutes away.
10:15
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Clérigos Tower📍 in Google Maps🎟 book torredosclerigos.pt
The 75-metre baroque bell tower of 1763, Porto's landmark, with 225 steps to a balcony over the city.
about €8 each225 steps
The balcony looks over the river, the bridges and the sea. Forty-five minutes.
11:30
food
Lunch at the Bolhão market📍 in Google Maps
Porto's covered market of 1914, reopened in 2022, with fish, fruit and counters to eat at upstairs.
€10–20 each
Bifanas, pork sandwiches, and oysters at the upstairs counters. Tinned fish in bright boxes makes a light present to take home.
If you fall behind
- Skip the Clérigos climb.
- Take an Uber to the airport if short of time.
