Portugal in 8 days: Lisbon, Sintra and Porto

Day 2 — Alfama, the castle, tram 28

• 09:00 — São Jorge Castle at opening (~€15, book online): Moorish ramparts, peacocks, and the whole city-and-river map below.
• 11:00 — Get lost DOWNHILL through Alfama — the medieval quarter that survived the earthquake: laundry lines, fado murals, the Miradouro de Santa Luzia’s tiled terrace, the cathedral. Lunch at a tasca (grilled fish + wine, €10–15).
• 15:00 — Tram 28, done honestly: it’s a beautiful rattling museum piece AND Lisbon’s pickpocket capital with hour-long queues at Martim Moniz. The play: board at Graça or Campo de Ourique (the quiet ends), ride a half-route, zips closed, phone in front pocket. Or photograph it on the Alfama curves — the outside is the better view anyway.
• 17:30 — LX Factory under the bridge (creative-factory shops, the bookshop with the flying bicycle) or the Time Out Market food hall for grazing dinner (€10–20).
• 21:00 — Optional: fado in Alfama — the €40 dinner shows are fine; the €10 “fado vadio” (amateurs, locals, goosebumps) in Mouraria taverns is the memory.

Day 3 — Belém: monks, caravels and the tart

• 09:00 — Tram/train to Belém, the launch ramp of the Age of Discoveries. Jerónimos Monastery first (~€18, book the slot): the cloister is the single most beautiful room in Portugal — Manueline stone carved like rope and coral, Vasco da Gama’s tomb by the door.
• 11:30 — The waterfront line-up: the Monument to the Discoveries, the Belém Tower (~€15 — the honest note: the interior is a queue for narrow stairs; the exterior is the masterpiece, and skipping inside costs you little), and the riverside walk between them.
• 13:00 — The pilgrimage: Pastéis de Belém (since 1837, the original custard-tart recipe, ~€1.40 each) — the queue is for boxes; the sit-down halls inside move fast. Order four, regret nothing, compare with every pastel de nata for the rest of your life.
• 15:30 — MAAT’s wave-roof museum or the coach museum (world’s best golden-carriage flex, ~€8), then back for a Cais do Sodré riverside evening.

Day 4 — Sintra: the fairy-tale day

• 08:15 — Train from Rossio station (~€2.50, 40 min) — beat the ridge’s tour buses. At Sintra station, bus 434 loops to the palaces (day hop ticket ~€13.50) — don’t drive; parking is a myth.
• 09:30 — Pena Palace at your timed slot (€20 palace+park — book days/weeks ahead): a Bavarian-Moorish-Manueline fever dream in red and yellow on the ridge top, mist willing. Walk up from the gate (25 min through the park) or shuttle (€3).
• 12:30 — Picnic or vila lunch, then Quinta da Regaleira (~€15, at regaleira.pt — it’s outside the official Sintra bundle): the masonic millionaire’s garden with the Initiation Well — the moss-green spiral staircase sunk nine storeys into the earth — and tunnels that exit behind waterfalls. For many, the day’s real winner.
• 16:30 — If legs allow: the Moorish Castle ramparts (€12) — or the wise alternative, pastry #2 (travesseiros at Piriquita) in the old town.
• 18:30 — Train back; gentle Chiado evening. Pack for the north; tomorrow’s train is booked (right?).

Day 5 — North to Porto

• 09:30 — Alfa Pendular from Santa Apolónia or Oriente (2 h 50; €35.70 full / from €16 promo booked ~60 days out; Campanhã arrival — your ticket includes the 5-min hop to gorgeous São Bento station, so take it and arrive under 20,000 azulejo tiles).
• 13:00 — Check in, lunch on a francesinha — Porto’s melted-cheese, meat-stacked, beer-sauce sandwich (€12–15, split one, no shame) — or the lighter bifana (€3).
• 15:00 — First wander: Livraria Lello (the neo-Gothic bookshop with the forked crimson staircase — ~€10 voucher, redeemable against a book; book the entry slot online, and go near closing when the crush thins), then the Clérigos Tower climb (~€10) for the rooftop panorama.
• 18:30 — Down through the Ribeira’s tumbling lanes to the river: the Dom Luís I bridge double-decked over the Douro, port lodges glowing across the water. Dinner riverside (€15–25 pp).

Where to stay in Porto (three nights)

• Luxury: Torel Palace Porto — 4.9/5 (~740 reviews), literary boutique palace with city views. ~€250+.
• Mid-range: PortoBay Flores — 4.8/5 (~1,300 reviews), spa-calm on pedestrian Rua das Flores. ~€150–200.
• Value: Moov Hotel Porto Centro — 4.3/5 (~3,500 reviews, the city’s #1 Best Value), by São Bento in an old cinema. ~€75–100.

Day 6 — Porto: cellars and the six bridges

• 09:30 — Morning icons: São Bento’s tiles properly, the cathedral terrace, the Igreja do Carmo azulejo wall, coffee at a belle-époque café (the Majestic is beautiful and charges for it; Café Guarany does the job at half).
• 12:00 — Walk the top deck of the Dom Luís I bridge (pedestrian, vertiginous, free) to Vila Nova de Gaia.
• 13:00 — Lunch in Gaia, then the reason Porto is a verb: a port-wine cellar tour (Cálem, Sandeman, Graham’s — €20–28 with three tastings, book the English slot): barrels the size of rooms, the difference between ruby and tawny finally explained, and the discovery that white port + tonic is summer’s answer.
• 16:30 — Six Bridges cruise (~€20, 50 min) from the Gaia quay — the lazy, perfect river hour — then the cable car or stairs back up.
• 19:30 — Dinner in the Ribeira backstreets; sunset from the Jardim do Morro with half of Porto and a guitarist.

Day 7 — The Douro valley

• 08:00 — Full-day Douro valley tour (~€100–120 pp with two quinta visits, tastings, lunch and usually a 1-h river stretch; the DIY train to Pinhão — one of Europe’s great rail rides along the water — runs ~€28 return if you’d rather freelance): the world’s oldest demarcated wine region, terraced like a contour map in green and gold. September = harvest chaos, the best kind.
• 19:00 — Back by early evening; last supper: modern Portuguese tasting rooms run €35–60 pp here and outclass twice-the-price Lisbon. Toast with a 10-year tawny.

Day 8 — Fly home

• Porto’s airport is 25 min by metro (€2.25). Connections via European hubs — or the €16 promo train back to Lisbon for the Emirates non-stop, booked when you booked everything else.