Portugal Travel Planning

Motivation – Portugal Travel Planning

With architecture dating back to the 1500 – 1800s, when Portugal had a mighty maritime empire, a food culture centering around the bounty of the sea, and a tradition of winemaking that includes fortified, vintage Port, there are plenty of motivations to visit this gem of the Iberian Peninsula.  Portugal’s history has been touched by a variety of cultures, including Romans, Visigoths, and the Moors over the millennia – all have left something, adding to what is the modern day country and culture of Portugal. On top of all this, add the fact that Portugal is very affordable by European standards, with good weather year-round, a visit to Portugal is impossible to resist. And lastly, a visit to Portugal is a must for anyone wishing to round out their European immersive travel experiences.

 

Itinerary – Portugal Travel Planning

The calendar allowed for 9 nights on this trip, starting at the end of December, 2015. I resisted the urge to schedule more than 2 destinations, which would have diluted the amount of time spent at any one of them. My immersive travel motto calls for enough time at each destination to enable familiarity, and exploration, all leading to an immersive travel experience. Immersion happens best at a leisurely pace, where it’s more about being there than doing more.

The city of Porto, nestled on the Douro River, with its medieval architecture, friendly locals, the source of Port wine, and a food scene that simply must be experienced, was at the top of my list for destinations in Portugal – ahead of Lisbon.

Lisbon must be visited on a first trip to Portugal. As the seat of Portugal’s maritime empire, Lisbon is deeply steeped in history and tradition. Nestled on seven hills on the Tagus River, the city has some of most breathtaking views from these hillsides, and will enchant the first time visitor.

 

Porto – 4 Nights

 

Lisbon – 5 nights

 

Logistics – Portugal Travel Planning

At the time this trip was planned, there were no regularly scheduled, direct flights from my home base in Atlanta to either Lisbon or Porto. The best I could do to minimize travel time, and therefore optimize my immersive travel experience, was to book a direct flight to Madrid. There were plenty of options for connections from Madrid to Lisbon, but fewer and more complex options to Porto. Again in the interest of time, I elected to fly to Lisbon.

The choice to visit Porto first on this itinerary is borne by the logistics necessary to fly back to Madrid for the return trip home. Had I elected to visit Lisbon first, it would have required a very early train ride from Porto back to Lisbon to catch the connecting flight to Madrid. The connection times from the train station to the airport in Lisbon were too tight, and would have been an uncomfortable experience even if successful.

I elected to use the Portuguese rail system to get to and from Porto, rather than rent a car. I very much enjoy driving, as it adds to the immersion for me, but on this occasion it didn’t make sense. A vehicle was simply unnecessary for either Porto or Lisbon. The train was sufficient to go round trip to Porto from Lisbon, and it had some immersive travel experience all its own.

I rented an apartment in both Porto as well as Lisbon for this trip. Apartments make for a much more immersive travel experience, in my opinion. There were plenty of high quality properties available on multiple holiday rental websites. I had a good selection that met my criteria of being in residential areas, and in historic parts of town to choose from. There was no need to even consider a hotel.

 

Resources – Portugal Travel Planning

Indispensable for planning purposes: Google flights. It works well with mainstream carriers, as well as the puddle jumpers.  I use it to analyze costs related to date ranges, as well as stopover options for those destinations unreachable directly from my home airport – like Lisbon.  

I rely on several sites for apartment rentals.  In the order of preference:  HomeAway, booking.com, and last and definitely least, Airbnb.  Some may be shocked that I prefer to avoid Airbnb, but I have good reasons to avoid them.  Both apartments for this trip were booked through HomeAway.

Google maps is a staple, and I use it on every trip for a variety of needs.  On this trip, I mainly used it for navigating to restaurants and points of interest while on my discovery treks.

TripAdvisor is awesome for advanced trip planning, and I find the travel forums specific to my destinations particularly useful. There’s no better advice than from someone that’s already done what I’m planning to do.

With Google translate on my phone at the ready, I fear no language barrier. I did end up in places where English was not spoken, so this phone app was very handy.

 

Epilogue – Portugal Travel Planning

Reflections on Portugal. This trip was a fabulous entree to Portugal – a sort of nine-night highlight tour of some of the best the country had to offer. It whetted my appetite. While I had a wonderful time exploring Porto and Lisbon – and Porto was by far the more immersive travel experience, it left me wanting to come back and further explore the places in between. In my opinion, that is the hallmark of a well planned travel itinerary. It should be immersive, steeped in discovery, but always leave you wanting to further explore. And this lovely country, wonderfully affordable, with its friendly population, and its approachable culture, merits much more of my exploration in the future.

 

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/embed?mid=1WPJfZgQNwD48PRzzGbqjAbVvIJFp3Zbv&w=640&h=480]

 

Related Topics