October 19
Our first day of Portugal was spent in Porto. A few of my friends and I flew into Porto around mid-day, checked into our Airbnb and started exploring. Our first attraction was visiting Mercado do Bolhão, which is an open-air market. I quickly noticed that people were walking around with wine and tasting a bunch of Portuguese delicacies exactly like pintxos, so I knew what to do. I beelined for a stall, got some Port wine and started going to different stalls to try different Portuguese specialities. Note that Porto is well-known for its seafood, so I would strongly recommend trying that out if you’re interested.
After the tapas crawl, we made our way to the Porto Cathedral. The cathedral was quite beautiful, with lots of gold and incredible blue-and-white tiling. We then made our way to the São Bento Station to check out the beautiful tiling in the station. Lastly, we explored Palacio da Bolsa. I will unequivocaly assert that this is completely skippable. Yes, it had interesting rooms, but the timed entry, expensive tickets and the necessity to go with a guide made this an annoying attraction. I would recommend skipping this attraction.
Afterwards, we made our way back home and got caught in a flash rainstorm. We immediately ran back home and ordered some food. Afterwards, we drank some wine, watched Fight Club and crashed.
October 20
We took an early morning bus from Porto to Lisbon. After we arrived in the capital city, we dumped our bags at an Airbnb and rushed to catch our walking tour. The 4 hour walking tour was incredible. The guide was incredibly knowledgable and taught us a lot about Portuguese history, such as famous explorers, the destructive 1755 earthquake and reconstruction efforts and the al-Andalus influence on Portugal. We explored a lot of different areas, such as the Carmo Convent, Alfama, Praça do Commericio, and Miradouro de Santa Luzia. I would highly recommend taking a walking tour of Lisbon; the city is best explored through walking.
We then walked back to Praça do Commercio to try to catch the sunset but it was a little too cloudy. Feeling a little hungry, we walked over to Timeout Market, a well-known food hall. They have an insane variety of food; I got some famous codfish dishes but struggled to find seats to eat it (this easily took 30 minutes to find seats in the busy hall). We then made our way home and rested.
October 21
We finally got a non-cloudy day in Lisbon and decided to take an early train to Sintra, the site of Portuguese royalty’s summer residence. Once we arrived at the Sintra main station, we took a Bolt to the Pena Palace. The Bolt dropped us off at the main gate but it required a 10 minute steep walk to the actual palace. I thought this was a gorgeous piece of architecture with incredible views of the surrounding countryside, but it was incredibly crowded. The entire palace is basically a giant line of people slowly making their way through the palace rooms. The crowded aspect of the marvel made it a little difficult to enjoy the views.
We then walked from the palace to the Moorish Castle. The walk to the castle was incredible and the views were amazing. I would highly recommend this castle! We then took a tuktuk (which are strangely ubiquitous in Portugal) to the main Sintra town and got lunch. Finding a lunch place was a little difficult because they were expensive, but we eventually found an Indian spot that could also satisfy our vegetarians.
The last part of Sintra was visiting Quinta da Reglaeira, which has a famous Imitation Well. I honestly would skip the well, as the line is incredibly long. Instead, we explored the park and views. It was a pretty interesting estate, although I am still not sure why this was built. This builds on a general criticism of Portugal: museums and tours often don’t give tourists much information. I had to learn about the significance of Sintra through books I picked up at the Pena Palace giftshop.
We then took a train from Sintra back to Lisbon, where we chilled and crashed after our long day.
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October 22
The weather this day was quite annoying, so we decided to visit museums. We stored our bags at a train station so that we could check out from our Airbnb. We then took a Bolt to Belem Monastery. I personally found the monastery quite boring given the lack of information but it was beautifully tiled. We then checked out Belem Tower (which I think is also skippable) and the Wind Rose Square which had an impressive monument to Portuguese explorers.
Afterwards, we had lunch and checked out Pasteis de Belem, which has Portugal’s best egg tarts. This entire trip, my friends and I were eating an egg tart a day and I can confidently say that this bakery has the best egg tart. If you are going to eat egg tarts, pour icing sugar and cinnamon on it; I promise you the taste becomes magnified.
The last activity in Portugal was checking out the National Tile Museum, which wasn’t in our plans. I am incredibly glad I went to this museum because it was fascinating. This museum did a great job displaying the evolution of tile art from its Andalusian origins to its modern abstract implementations. I had a great time in this museum. There is also a gorgeous, opulent chapel in the museum which is in of itself worth visiting.
We then made our way to the airport and flew out to Madrid.
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Tips
- Porto
- Porto is really only worth a day tops. There isn’t a lot to do
- Try to catch the sunset since it’s right next to the coast
- Skip Palacio da Bolsa
- Busses are often a lot cheaper than trains when travelling from Porto to Lisbon
- Taking the bus out from Porto can be a little confusing. We missed our original bus because the path from the metro station to the bus station was unexpectedly closed and we had to make a 20-minute detour. Schedule ample time to figure out how to get to the bus station
- Lisbon
- Highly recommend booking a walking tour! It’s really worth it
- Sintra
- Make sure to buy all your tickets in advance. Lines are incredibly long! Tickets are also timed, so buying it in advance can help make planning a lot easier
- Try to reach Sintra as early as you can to beat the crowds
- Take a Bolt from Sintra main station to wherever you are trying to go. The busses are not that much cheaper, quite slow and crowded