2023 Portugal Details

2023 (73 nights March - May) - arrive Lisbon - 1 night Setubal - 15 nights Sao Martinho do Porto - 1 night Alcacer do Sal - 14 nights Lagos - 30 nights Olhos de Agua - 4 nights Seville, (Spain) - 2 nights Mertola - 3 nights Sesimbra - 3 nights Lisbon.

Accommodations

In 2023 we spent 73 nights in Portugal.  We spent 15 nights in Sao Martinho do Porto, about an hour and 15 mins north of Lisbon.  The two bedroom, two bath Vrbo there cost about $86Ca a night.   

We stayed 14 nights in Lagos on the western Algarve in an almost new, spotless and very modern one bedroom, one bathroom condo, which cost about $114Ca a night.  

We stayed 30 nights in Olhos do Agua, about 15mins east of Albufeira, in a two bed, one bath vrbo that cost about $66Ca a night.  This price as a bit deceiving as it was booked and partially paid for in early fall 2022 when the Euro was much lower than typical. 

We also stayed one night at the Pousada Castelo Alcacer do Sal (owned by the Pestana chain of Hotels).  This cost about $132 Ca for the night, including a fantastic breakfast.   The stop at Alcacer do Sal was enroute from Sao Martinho do Porto to Lagos.  We have stayed in two other Pestana Pousada Hotels in Portugal in 2022 - one in Beja and another in Estromoz.  These are very unique and very nice accommodation, great value for unusual hotel experiences.  The one in Beja is a former monastery, the one in Estromoz is in a castle.   If you Google Pousadas of Portugal you will see the unique elements of some of these accommodations.  Besides castles and monasteries they also have beach resorts and other historic properties.  

We also stayed 2 nights at the Hotel Museu in Mertola at a cost of about $130Ca a night (included a very good breakfast).

We also stayed 3 nights at the Sesimbra Hotel and Spa.  This was booked through Booking.com at a very, very good rate for the level of this hotel and its’ facilities and location.  This was a beautiful beachfront hotel that had a sixth floor infinity pool and a ground floor spa facility.  All rooms have an ocean view.   It cost us about $138Ca a night (included a fantastic breakfast).  The rate we found on booking.com for this place was about 33% cheaper than the hotel direct website.   It was a fully prepaid rate.  

We also visited Sevilla Spain, driving there from the Algarve and then going to Mertola, Sesimbra and Lisbon.  We stayed in an Airbnb in the Triana area of Seville for four nights.   It was a beautiful two bed, two bath unit in a non discrete looking building full of local residents.  This unit cost about $153 Ca a night.   It had a full galley kitchen.   

We stayed three nights in Lisbon at the Moxy Lisboa Oriente.  This is a modern funky hotel.  The cost was about $195Ca a night and included a good breakfast.  This hotel is in the Parque de Nacoes area and it is across the street from the modern shopping center, as well as a Metro and train station.  Also nearby is a world class Oceanarium, a casino and an indoor sports/concert arena (Altice Arena).  The Parque de Nacoes area is a modern area that was redeveloped for the Expo 98 worlds fair.  There are a lot of hotels in this area, some very expensive ones.  It is also only a short (10-15mins) taxi ride or a short (10mins) metro ride from the Lisbon airport.  It is about 20-30min Metro ride from the centro historic area of Lisbon.  In most previous trips to Lisbon we have stayed in the cento area or the Bairro Alto area of Lisbon.  This trip we stayed at the Moxy Hotel because on a Saturday night we were attending a Hans Zimmer concert at the Altice Arena, which is about a 5min walk away from the Moxy Oriente.

2023 Car (Peugeot 208 manual transmission) rental cost about 2,200 Euro for 72 days with unlimited mileage and full insurance.  

Other Costs 2023

It is hard to pin down what you will spend in Portugal.  It does depend on when and where you visit and your tastes in terms of levels of accommodations and restaurants.

If you plan on a long stay in Portugal and intend on eating in, you will find many grocery items cheaper than Nfld, though some items not common in Europe may be more expensive or not available at all. Tetley tea, for instance, forget it or bring some!

Itinerary Details

After arrival at Lisbon airport we departed the airport late afternoon for Setubal for a 1 night rest.   

On day 2 we departed Setubal and drove to our first destination - Sao Martinho do Porto.   This is a small town about 1.5 hours north of Lisbon, just south of the famous big wave surfing hub of Nazare. Sao Martinho is a smaller town that we had not stayed in before but it looked like a nice place to make a base to explore some towns along this area, before we departed for the southern part of Portugal, known as the Algarve.  There are many other towns along this coast that could serve equally well or perhaps better if on your first trip to Portugal and you wanted to spend some time exploring this area, known as the Silver Coast.

We stayed 15 nights here and explored the area of Portugal known as the Silver Coast.  

Here is a summary of our time in this area:

We spent 15 nights (March 4-19) on the Silver Coast of Portugal, an area near the coast north of Lisbon but south of Porto, staying all 15 nights in Sao Martinho do Porto.   We stayed in a rented vrbo condo very close to the north peninsula point just outside the main center of Sao Martinho.  It was about a 2min walk from the condo to the fishing promenade of Sao Martinho.   It was late winter and start of spring so the weather was variable.  Daytime high temperatures were mostly in the 14-17 degrees C range, more cloud than sun during the day.   It did climb above 20C a couple of days.   It was cool in the nights and early mornings, there were occasional rain showers that might last from minutes to maybe an hour or two, but never an all day kind.   We commonly dressed in layers, light long or short sleeve or under layer, maybe puffer vest and light gore tex rain jacket (not necessarily for rain but for wind break when along the coastal areas where there is often a cool breeze).  I think this is about average weather for this time of year in this area of Portugal.

It was a great two weeks of adventure.   We spent a nice amount of time, scattered among different days walking around Sao Martinho town, nearby hills and paths and beaches as well as us doing a number of great day trips to other towns.   

The day trips included:

-Caldas da Rainha (multiple times as this is the best place in the area for groceries at supermarkets and also daily local outdoor produce market, etc.)  In this town they have an outdoor market where fresh fruits, produce and flowers are sold 365 days a year, since the 15th century!  It is setup early each day and taken down each day before 2pm.  

-Alcobaca (two trips) - location of well known monastery.

-Batalha - location of another well known monastery.   

-Fatima (famous Roman Catholic pilgrimage site)

-Nazare (multiple trips) - famous for big wave surfing 

-Leiria - castle town.

-Foz do Arelho - short stop here, a small seaside town where an estuary runs into the ocean with striking beach.

-Peniche & Baleal - also a site for world class surfing.

-Bombarrel (Budda Eden Garden) - location of largest oriental garden in Europe.

-Tomar- famous Knights of Templar town and Convento do Cristo.  

-Porto de Mos - out of the way a bit, location of unique castle.

-Grutas da Moeda - location of unique underground caves.

Some of these visits only lasted a few hours while others were the better part of a day.

All of the towns visited were very interesting and had different appealing characteristics.   I think we would not hesitate to recommend visiting any of these places.   Most of these towns, except maybe Nazare and Fatima were not very touristy and there were very few tourists anywhere, given the time of year.  This made it great to have a day trip lunch in each place, getting great value with the prato do dia (menu dish/meal of the day) at different restaurants.   This is common on many restaurant menus in Portugal and usually includes a main dish, sometimes salad, dessert and a drink and coffee.  The cost of all of that per person usually ranged from 9-12 Euros.

There was a world tour surfing event in Peniche when we were there that did attract a significant number tourists at that time.  There are also more tourists in Nazare, attracted by the  publicity around large wave surfing.

Two common sites to visit in many towns in Portugal are the churches and the castles.   We visited lots of those.

The beaches.  Although not beach weather most days, though we did have a couple of great weather days, we still did visit a number of beautiful beaches in different weather, just to take in the sites and go for walks.  The beaches in Portugal vary greatly in terrain and landscape, from low lying with sand dunes to surroundings of spectacular cliffs.  Here are the beaches we visited:

-Town beach in Sao Martinho do Porto (Praia da Sao Martinho do Porto)

-Praia da Gralha

-Praia do Salgado

-Praia do Norte

-Praia da Nazare

-Praia da Foz do Arelho

-Praia Beleal Norte

-Praia Beleal Sul

-Praia dos Supertubos

-Praia do Sao Sebastiao

We did lots of driving in this area.  Our odometer said we drove about 1,366km, from time of pick up of the rental car to when we left the Silver Coast.  The roads were quite good, of course the tolls roads, which we did use regularly, are exceptional, but locals roads were not busy and we had no problem using these quite frequently.  You just need to master how to enter and exit a roundabout!  The tolls roads are four lane divided highway with speed limit of 120 km/hr.  Local roads are undivided two lanes, with lots of roundabouts and speed limits of 50-70km/hr.

The older people you would encounter in this area of Portugal don’t always speak great english, but without exception, everybody we met among the local Portugal people were very friendly and helpful.  They do speak better english than we do Portuguese.   It is like they have an extra appreciation for visitors in this area as they do not get as many tourists as maybe Lisbon, the Algarve or Porto, but they do welcome and appreciate visitors.

You might notice we did not visit Coimbra.  We did not get that far north on the silver coast as it was about 2 hours drive north of Sao Martinho and we had visited and stayed overnight in Coimbra on a previous trip to Portugal.  The other notable town we did not visit in this area is Obidos.  That is because we had visited it twice before on previous trips to Portugal.   Both of these towns, Coimbra and Obidos are great places to visit.  

We visited Nazare multiple times, as it was fairly close to Sao Martinho, mainly to try and catch a view of some big wave surfers, but we managed only to see medium height waves and no big wave surfers, oh well.   We had stayed in Nazare on two previous trips to Portugal and have seen some big wave surfers on one of those visits.  

So, moving onward from the Silver Coast area, we will go to the Algarve Region, with a brief one night stop in a small town called Alcacer do sal along the journey.    If you find the day trip reports interesting, stay tuned.   

After leaving the Silver Coast area we travelled south, taking a brief 1 night stop in the quaint town of Alcacer do Sal.   This was just under a 2 hour drive from Sao Martinho do Porto and about 2 hours drive north of Lagos, our next stop.

In Alcacer do Sal we stayed in a beautiful Pousada Hotel called the Pousada Castelo Alcacer do Sal.  Although only here for 1 night it was a great stop to explore this town on the banks of the Sado Estuary.  The castle is on a hilltop overlooking the river and town.   

From Alcacer we drove south, after a brief drive out to look at Comporta and the Costa da Gale area for a couple of hours.   We then went to the town of Lagos on the Algarve, Portugal’s southern coast.  We had visited Lagos on a couple of previous day trips but never stayed there.   Lagos is a popular place to stay for people on short holidays or for longer winter stays.  

Lagos has a nice old town historic area, an area of pedestrian alleys filled with shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.   Lagos also has a great marina, from where many boats tours and other sea adventures leave from.  Nearby Lagos are multiple great beaches, scenic coastline great for walks and hiking and a selection of golf courses not far away.

From Lagos we undertook day trips (or part days) to:

-Many nearby beaches - Meia Praia, Ponta da Piedade area of scenic beaches and cliffs, Porto de Mos

-Luz, Burgau and Salema - lovely seaside towns.

-Sagres (edge of continent, like Cape Spear) and nearby beaches including Bordeiro Beach

-Alvor and Ferroguda - seaside towns.

-Portimao - working city with beautiful seaside resort area of Praia da Rocha.

After 14 nights in Lagos we moved to Olhos de Agua.  Olhos de Agua is about 15mins east of Albufeira.  It is a small town area, really just a bedroom town of Albufeira, and has a small beach.  It was a good hub to explore this eastern end of the Algarve.  We had stayed several times before in Albufeira, so decided to try a change this year.

From Olhos de Agua we visited various other locations on day trips or part days:

-Albufeira multiple times, grocery shopping, go to beaches, people watch in old town, eat out at restaurants.

-Loule (beautiful Saturday market town)

- Sao Bras de Alportel (for their Easter Sunday flower festival).

-Silves (quaint castle town)

-Vilamoura & Quarteira (golf area also with nice marina and beach)

-Tavira (beautiful riverside town, popular winter destination for some).

-Olhao & Armona Island (couple of hours visit via local ferry).  Olhao is a small less touristy town with impressive local markets for produce and seafood.

-Beautiful beaches - Falesia (ranked on world best lists), Maria Luisa, Barril near Tavira.

-Organized bike tour of wetland area near Faro.

After leaving Olhos we drove to Seville, Spain and stayed here for four nights.  Seville is about 2.5 hour drive from Olhos de Agua or Albufeira, via the toll road in Portugal and free multilane highway when you cross the border into Spain.

We stayed 4 nights in a very nice Airbnb in the Triana area of Seville.   While in Seville we visited the following sites and/or did the following activities (all well worth it):

-Did an organized walking tour the first day led by a local of the centro historic area of Seville.

-Cathedral of Seville including Giralda bell tower (advance ticket)

-Real Alcazar and Royal Alcazar Gardens (advance ticket). 

-Maria Luisa Park, including one of the museums.

-Plaza de Espana

-Setas de Sevilla

-Attended a Flamenco (music & dance) show.  

While in Seville we did not use our rental car, it stayed parked underground at our Airbnb.  We walked everywhere, averaging over 30,000 steps per day.  We also undertook the local custom of afternoon siesta to keep our energy up as it hit a high of about 32 degrees each day!

After we left Seville we drove back into Portugal to the hill/river town of Mertola.   This was about a 2.5 hour drive.   We stayed in Mertola for 2 nights at Hotel Museu.   It is a small picturesque town along a river with a castle set on the town’s hill top.  

From Mertola we drove about 3 hours to the seaside town of Sesimbra.   We stayed here for three nights at a beautiful oceanfront hotel, Sesimbra Hotel & Spa.  While in Sesimbra we walked the beach, relaxed in the beautiful hotel, walked around the town streets, eat our meals in local restaurants in the town, visited the Sesimbra castle and took a part day trip to Cabo Espichel and Praia do Meco Beach.

After our time in Sesimbra we drove back to Lisbon, about a 45min-1 hour drive.  We drove to our hotel, the Moxy Oriente Lisboa, checked in, dropped off our luggage and then drove to the airport, dropped off the rental car and took the metro (3 stops, very easy) back the metro station across the street from the hotel. We stayed three nights in Lisbon, traversing the city to see some new things we had not visited before and on our second last night we attended a Han Zimmer concert (amazing!) at the Altice Arena, a short walk from our hotel.