Should I visit Portugal?

Not to hijack the Ireland thread and turn it into a vacation destinations thread, BUT...have you ever been to Portugal? If so, thoughts, please.

Nope. It's a very long drive and my wife is not a fan of flying, so no Portugal for us.

*off to catch some z's*

Good night, Anti!

Although I lived and worked for over two-and-a-half months in Spain
at various locations, I never made it over to neighboring Portugal (:-
I've been told by an artist friend of my wife's that it has the most
painterly sunsets anywhere on earth.

Not sure about Poland but for Americans Portugal appears attractive, they consider it equal to Italy when it comes to vacation. I'd say they are right about that (plus Portugal is cheaper).

I've been to Portugal twice by car, everything can be planned, although it's best to go without a plan, you can always find a hotel. But here you have beautiful Portugal and wonderful people at the end. Algarve, Porto, Fatima and, if it must be Lisbon, too.

With kids?

From Gdańsk to Lisboa it's 3300km. Such distance with children means at least three days on the road - one way! So altogether it would be about a week in a car, with two kids wanting to pee, wanting to vomit and constantly asking "are we there yet?".

Thank you very much indeed for your advice, Alien, but I think I'll pass.

Northern Italy is as far as I'm willing to go by car with kids, with one night stop in Ingolstadt.

I've been to Lisbon and Sintra.

Whereabouts in Portugal were you thinking of going?

I've been to Portugal once (Algarve) for a week vacation (side trip to Lisbon).

Very definitely worth visiting. Weirdly flights are not only long but for some reason significantly more expensive than to Spain (even than to Canaries which are much further away).

Food is interesting (much more interestingly flavored than in most of Spain) and wine is wonderful of course. Lots of interesting sweets (where egg yolk is a basic ingredient). I liked the tiles people put on their houses.

Coastal scenery is very nice though inland (at least between Algarve and Lisbon) is pretty unremarkable... The Atlantic is cool water and the beaches in Algarve were very nice.

The spoken language is a bit... uncompromising (Spanish with a thick tongue and almost no vowels) but if you know a romance language you can figure out signs. People are... friendlier than Spain as is service.

Admin started this thread as a spinoff from another thread where I was asking if Torq had been to Portugal. So, it's more a general question instead of a specific town.

How was Lisbon and Sintra?

I was thinking I might start in Portugal and drive to Poland.

EDIT:

Thanks for the info, Maf.

I guess Portugal is all right. You pay in Euro so is not as cheap as it used to be. People are more down to earth than Spaniards in general.
Nice fresh oranges.

Once we went with our several-year-old son, we spent 2 nights in hotels, he liked it very much, including sleeping in the car. However, the trip lasted a total of 3 weeks.

I enjoyed both and they're definitely worth a trip.

Be prepared for lots of steep streets in Lisbon. About the only bit that isn't on a hill is the harbour area.

The good news is that there are elevators, trams and funicular railways to get up to the higher areas such as Bairro Alto. This area has lots of bars that play traditional Portuguese music, fado.

Sao Jorge castle is definitely worth seeing and if you have kids they'll probably be more fascinated by the many peacocks running round the grounds. They're everywhere!

Also worth seeing are Jerónimos Monastery and the Tower of Belém.

The food was good and reasonably priced. I mostly ate seafood whilst I was there and you should definitely try Pastel de Nata ( Portuguese custard tarts ). You'll see them in all the bakery windows.

I went to Sintra mainly to visit this place, the National Palace of Pena:

parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-monuments/park-and-national-palace-of-pena/

And it didn't disappoint. It was well worth going.


Wow, that's a long drive!

Thanks for the info.


I'm American: I was born for the road. 🙂

It's like a drive from Denver to Florida.

I've done that or close to it (South Florida to NE Colorado) a number of times.... at least three full days of driving... morning to evening.... not recommended. Once was in a very bad heat wave in a car with no air-conditioning that had a habit of not starting reliably (ah... jumper cables and the kindness of strangers.....)

Done with that.

When I was in my 20's I spent a month driving cross-country. It was glorious, I returned loving America more than ever before. Now, I'm in mid-50's and still adore hitting the road. It's better now than when I was younger in some ways-my wallet is not as anorexic.

The places and sights you stumble upon when hitting the road rather than flying is worth the labor, IMO.

I can drive up to 1000 km a day, but I hate traffic jams, just like yesterday before and after Wrocław.

That's on your own schedule and very different from needing to get from A to B in X amount of time.... I've had jobs where I had to do a lot of that (a few days in one town then anywhere from 50 to 300 miles to the next)..... traveling on that kind of schedule gets old fast.

@mafketis

Yeah, business travel like that stinks.


You and me both.

Oh... and I forgot! This was before ATMs were everywhere (or could be used outside of a single state)... and it was also without a credit card so having to deal with things like cashier's checks

Dude, are you Nam's vet?

Not quite.... I was still too young while it was going on and general use of ATMs just anywhere wasn't a thing until much later..... I also remember banks with drive up stations with vacuum tubes for withdrawals or deposits (though mostly everyone did everything in state with checks).
Checks were never really a think in Poland which went from cash to debit cards with hardly anything in between.

Virtually the national dish of Portugal.

Yeah, their seafood is very nice.But in general. I was not keen on Portuguese cuisine.

I really enjoyed their grilled sardines.
They were very nice with wine.

HaHaHaHa!!!!

As if you have EVER been to Europe!

You obviously haven't, otherwise you wouldn't be such a narrow minded, ignorant bigot!

We can see right through you Jim.......

They serve them with egg tarts.
Most enjoyable.

Portuguese most definitely do not have grilled sardines and egg custard tarts together..... they have both but keep them separate....

No, you shouldn`t because it is unpatriotic to spend money in another country than yours.

Pawian #28
Just like shopping at Biedronka or from a Jew?🤭 (I'm sorry, but you rehashed the topic of Jews, which is actually non-existent).

Wrong comparison! The more you shop there, the more taxes will the Polish state receive from the owner.
When you go shopping in Portugal, what is the benefit for Poland from it??