Portugal 2020!

[Nemo2]

I did not go to Obidos. Did not even know about it till now.

Another reason for a return trip.

Here are a few pics:



https image host

 

[NW-Bound]

I drove down to Lisbon from Coimbra, and could make a stop in Obidos if I knew of this place.

Oh well. Relying on serendipity may cause you to miss out on some places, compared to planning.

 

[lordjust]

Lagos was not bad .. massive beaches but no crowds ... very pretty.

 

[Nemo2]

Relying on serendipity may cause you to miss out on some places, compared to planning.

Serendipity takes many forms.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

How serendipitous- we were just talking about Portugal as a potential vacation destination...

Serendipity takes many forms.

 

[Nemo2]

How serendipitous- we were just talking about Portugal as a potential vacation destination...

Serendipitist Cognoscentes R Us.

 

[NW-Bound]

I highly recommend Portugal for a vacation. Outside of Lisbon, it is not too crowded. Even Porto is not bad compared to other European large cities.

I had the impression that Portuguese people knew English better than the Spanish, or Italian. At the Airbnb places that we rented, the local TV cable channels had quite a few channels of US networks in English with no Portuguese captions. It appeared to me the locals were encouraged to learn English. In other countries, American movies often had captions or were dubbed. Maybe Portugal is a smaller country, and they realize they need to know English, similarly to people in Scandinavian countries.

 

[Nemo2]

I had the impression that Portuguese people knew English better than the Spanish, or Italian.

https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/qa-why-is-portugal-known-as-britains-oldest-ally/

 

[NW-Bound]

I dunno.

The US and France were buddies during the Revolution War, and Jefferson and Ben Franklin were reportedly Francophiles.

Now, few Americans know French, and the French don't want to speak English. Some years ago, some French farmers even tied a chain to the golden arches of a McDonald's to tear it down, as they detested the hamburger.

PS. The destruction of a McDonald's in France was easily 30 years ago. I now see McDonald's quite popular in France. It took a while, but they are now used to it.

 

[stephenson]

This is GREAT stuff!

Thanks - please keep adding as you think of something.

I try and pay this help back by summarizing our trips - the last one was England-France-Space 2019 ...

 

[Retireby45ish]

I few places I enjoyed.

+1 for Óbidos

Bull fight in Lisbon. Similar to Spain but Portuguese don’t kill the bull

Less populous south eastern coast below Lisbon

Nazaré is a cool fishing city between Porto and Lisbon

If you are into religious (catholic) stops you can go in to city of Fatima. Def a pilgrimage site.

 

[walkinwood]

We had started planning a trip to Portugal in 2018, but other plans intervened.
Here's the thread I started at that time:
http://www.early-retirement.org/for...og-web-site-recommendations-needed-91308.html


We now plan to go this April. The rough itinerary is Lisbon (the city, a bicycle ride from cascais along the coast, Sintra), rent a car and drive to Lagos to see the coast line, then to Evora. See Monsaraz and a couple of neolithic sites. Then drive to Obidos, then onto Coimbra stopping at Alcobaca & Batalha (maybe Tomar if we have time). From Coimbra to Porto. Day trips to the Duoro region and Minha region.



We'll spend about 17 days in Portugal.

 

[Jerseytunahunter]

Love Portugal

My wife and I treated our family to a vacation in August to celebrate our 30th anniversary. There were seven of us on the trip. Our kids/spouses ranged in age from 24-29. Flew into Porto and stayed at an urban B&B called Feels Like Home. Check this place out online, highly recommended. The cost was only $120/night and it's right in the heart of the city-we walked to everything. The only downside is they do not have an elevator. While in Porto we did a walking food tour, ghost tour and history tour. We also did a full day tour of the Duoro Valley which is very much like Napa. For the second half of the trip we took a train to Lisbon and then an uber to a really cool ancient seaside town called Cascais. From here we did a castle tour, history tour, took a cooking class, did a day trip to Lisbon and just hung out. Great trip, great food & wine and great company. The entire trip was eight days and we hit our budget of $23k.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We are going in the fall for a week and I wish I were more excited about it. DH is planning it and I’m just along for the ride. Everyone I know has been there and have become very competitive about what they've seen—lots of “I can top that city, I went to this even better/more undiscovered/less touristy place” which is making me want to just stay home. I hope I’ll love it anyway.

 

[Moemg]

We are going in the fall for a week and I wish I were more excited about it. DH is planning it and I’m just along for the ride. Everyone I know has been there and have become very competitive about what they've seen—lots of “I can top that city, I went to this even better/more undiscovered/less touristy place” which is making me want to just stay home. I hope I’ll love it anyway.

You will love it so go with the flow and enjoy the trip .

 

[NW-Bound]

... Everyone I know has been there and have become very competitive about what they've seen—lots of “I can top that city, I went to this even better/more undiscovered/less touristy place” which is making me want to just stay home...

It's easier to stay home and watch videos of "Bald and Bankrupt" visiting a village called Morki in the Mari El Republic of the old Soviet, and learning a few words in the Mari language.

Nobody visits this place. The local intercity bus does not even go there. I went on Google Map to look for street views. Nope, the Google Map camera car has not been there.

 

[Nemo2]

We are going in the fall for a week and I wish I were more excited about it. DH is planning it and I’m just along for the ride. Everyone I know has been there and have become very competitive about what they've seen—lots of “I can top that city, I went to this even better/more undiscovered/less touristy place” which is making me want to just stay home..

Don't worry about it...if you're only going for a week you'll miss seeing most of it anyway.

 

[NW-Bound]

Perhaps what could take the fun out of travel is that it has become too competitive. It's not good enough just to go to places that you have not seen. You have to go where few people have been. And that's tough to find.

Just look on Google Map, and see what corners of the world are not yet on Street View. When I bought my boondocks home 15 years ago, the satellite map of the area was very old and blurry. And Google did not have my address for lookup, nor the view of the road leading to the subdivision. Google Map did show all the roads on the map though, as they worked off the county records which had the lat/long coordinates of the roads as planned 30 or 40 years ago.

Then, one day about 5 years ago, I saw a new satellite map with my home clearly seen. It was another year or two before the Google Map camera car explored down my road. However, they turned back a few hundred feet before reaching my lot. I guess they did not know if there were more homes down the road, or if the road was passable.

 

[gerntz]

I had the impression that Portuguese people knew English better than the Spanish, or Italian.

As with the scandinavian countries & Netherlands, P is too small to make dubbing English language TV & movies into the local language profitable. Net, the shows are just broadcast in English & the locals more pick it up.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Don't worry about it...if you're only going for a week you'll miss seeing most of it anyway.

I think you’re kidding? We don’t want to be away for several weeks. We’re not going to cram a lot of places into that week so I am sure what we do see will be good enough. DH has been told in the past to completely rearrange our plans to another country that he spent months researching because she knew a “better” place—he is nicer than I and patiently listened to her.

It's easier to stay home and watch videos of "Bald and Bankrupt" visiting a village called Morki in the Mari El Republic of the old Soviet, and learning a few words in the Mari language.

Nobody visits this place. The local intercity bus does not even go there. I went on Google Map to look for street views. Nope, the Google Map camera car has not been there.

I’ll drop that place in conversation with my know-it-all acquaintances and see if any of them plan their next trip there.

 

[explanade]

We are going in the fall for a week and I wish I were more excited about it. DH is planning it and I’m just along for the ride. Everyone I know has been there and have become very competitive about what they've seen—lots of “I can top that city, I went to this even better/more undiscovered/less touristy place” which is making me want to just stay home. I hope I’ll love it anyway.

IS that true of every destination or just Portugal?

 

[Bestwifeever]

IS that true of every destination or just Portugal?

It’s Portugal right now, I’m finding, maybe because of its fairly recent status as a tourist destination (for example, we went to Spain last fall and didn’t get this at all). I never mind being a touristy tourist and I know we will enjoy everything DH finds for us to do, even if the places are old news to many people. Plus we are going with four good friends who love everything, so we might collude on wild stories and imaginary events of the trip. Then WE can be the know-it-alls....

 

[Bestwifeever]

Perhaps what could take the fun out of travel is that it has become too competitive. It's not good enough just to go to places that you have not seen. You have to go where few people have been. And that's tough to find....

Yes—maybe because we have the time and money and interest in travel now, so we notice this more, and the social media and cameras on our phones to document it all.

I didn’t mean to hijack the thread—sorry to the OP. I am passing along to DH all the suggestions about Portugal, which are most helpful!

 

[NW-Bound]

Air travel is so painful that my trips have been at least 6 weeks to make it worthwhile.

Even when RV'ing, we now need to go further out a few thousand miles from home, and cannot have short trips as going there and back takes 2 weeks of driving already.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Air travel is so painful that my trips have been at least 6 weeks to make it worthwhile.

Even when RV'ing, we now need to go further out a few thousand miles from home, and cannot have short trips as going there and back takes 2 weeks of driving already.

I get that. We'll actually be away for two weeks, but only one week in Portugal. We don't have anyone to check on our house while we're gone, so I don't feel comfortable being away more than two weeks any more. Plus our little dog loves the kennel with its playtime everyday but not for longer than that.