Portugal has a way of making you feel like you’ve discovered something the rest of the world hasn’t quite caught on to yet — even though the rest of the world has absolutely caught on to it. After finishing our multi-generational Mediterranean cruise in Rome, Luca, my parents, and I flew west to Porto and spent three days chasing wine (especially my favorite, port), winding rivers, and gardens. Then I drove south with my parents through Sintra to the Algarve, where the landscape turns wild, and the coast gives way to sea caves and lagoon islands that feel completely removed from ordinary life. Here is how my one-week Portugal road trip went:
7 Day Portugal Itinerary
Porto in Three Days
We arrived in Porto in the evening and checked into Timbre Virtudes, a lovely hotel on Rua São Pedro de Miragaia, right at the edge of the Miragaia neighborhood with views over the Douro. We absolutely adored this hotel, with large rooms, an excellent breakfast, and a location that makes it easy to explore in many directions.
Porto rewards walking — the city tumbles down hillsides in layers of azulejo tile and crumbling baroque grandeur, and the best way to see it is to just start moving and see where you end up. Just be aware— around the next hill is an even steeper one!
On our first full day in Porto, we headed out into the region’s wine country to break up the driving we knew we would be doing later in the week.
The Douro Valley
Our first full day in Porto was spent out of Porto entirely. We booked a private Douro Valley food and wine tour, and it turned out to be one of those days that becomes a benchmark for all future travel days. It made me want to return for a Douro River cruise!
The ride into the Douro Valley was under two hours and is a trip unto itself. The National Highway 222 has been voted one of the most beautiful highways in the world. If you are lucky, you can see the antique train along the other side of the river. While on our drive, we stopped to see some locks and buy fruit from a local.
The Douro is one of the world’s oldest demarcated wine regions — designated in 1756 — and the landscape reflects centuries of human labor: terraced vineyards clinging to steep hillsides that drop to the river below. We stopped at Peso da Régua for views over the water, then wound up through Sabrosa and into the valley for a long lunch at a family-owned quinta, complete with a guided wine cellar visit and local cheeses, almonds, and the region’s extraordinary olive oil.
The town of Pinhão is the heart of it all — the painted azulejo panels at the train station alone are worth the trip — and from the viewpoint at Casal de Loivos, the whole valley spreads below you in a way that makes you understand immediately why this place produces wine that people travel across the world to taste.
Go. Do this day. Book a private tour.
Cantinho do Avillez
After dinner, we walked the hills for a truly fabulous dinner of International Portuguese food. It was one of the best meals of the trip.
Jardins do Palácio de Cristal
The next morning, I spent some time in this garden on the banks of the Douro. I love a good garden and could walk here from my hotel. There is no cost to enter.
Visit a Few Port Cellars
Across the river from Porto is Vila Nova de Gaia, where all the historic port houses are. It was a nice, 15-minute walk across the bridge from our hotel.
We took a self-guided tour and tasting at Sandeman’s, where we learned a lot and saw in practice what we had seen happening in the Douro Valley. Then we took a guided tour at Fonseca.
Be sure to book your visits to the port houses early, as they sell out.
We then had lunch on the water in Vila Nova de Gaia.
A Tuk-Tuk Around Porto
Because there are so many hills and my mom’s knee was hurting, we spent the rest of the day exploring a lot of Porto with a private tuk-tuk tour. We had done this before in Lisbon and Ostuni, and it is a great way to learn about hilly cities! Our guide gave us a pretty complete tour of the city and we saw many views we wouldn’t have been able to walk to.
Book your Porto tuk-tuk tour now.
Porto at Night: Progressive Dinner with Eating Europe
We ended our full day in Porto on an Eating Europe Progressive Dinner Tour through Porto’s streets, and it was the perfect way to spend an evening learning about Porto and Portuguese food.
The concept is simple: a small group, a local guide, four restaurants, four courses, and a lot of walking in between. We started at a family-run tasca where father and son poured us green wine and talked football; progressed to bifana sandwiches (a Porto institution, and the source of apparently endless local debate about who makes the best); moved on to a proper Francesinha — Porto’s legendary layered meat sandwich drowned in spiced tomato-beer sauce — and ended at a vintage 1920s-inspired bar run by two sisters, with tomato rice, codfish cakes, and a dessert called Nata do Céu that I’m still thinking about.
The tour ended at the base of the Torre dos Clérigos, Porto’s iconic baroque bell tower. Highly recommend this for anyone in Porto, traveling solo or otherwise.
The Drive South: Porto to Sintra to the Algarve
July 10th was a long but spectacular day. I picked up a rental car in Porto at 8 AM and set a course for the Algarve — about a five-hour drive, but with a mandatory stop in Sintra along the way.
Sintra
Sintra is a magically cool place, and we did it too quickly, stopping only to take in this village built into a hillside, full of spectacularly designed and unique gardens, museums, and buildings. The next time I visit the area, I plan to spend at least a whole day here. And be sure you book all your tickets here far ahead of time.
Sintra is almost unfairly beautiful. Perched in forested hills just west of Lisbon, it’s the kind of place that looks as if someone read too many fairy tales and decided to build them. The palaces — bizarre, colorful, improbable — emerge from the mist and the green.
We spent about 5 hours here and used them well: Pena Palace first, with its wildly painted neo-Romantic towers and dizzyingly eclectic architecture. Then we visited the bizarrely Baroque Quinta da Regaleira, whose gardens contain a spiral “initiation well” that descends nine stories underground. It reminded me of California‘s Winchester Mystery House with unexplainable surprises around every corner. Both require timed tickets booked in advance. Both are absolutely worth it. Next time I would definitely allow myself a day to explore Sintra, especially the gardens, which I missed this time. There is so much to see there! Also, it was very crowded. We also did a tuk-tuk tour in Sintra.
Then back in the car, heading south as the landscape flattened, the air grew drier, and the light turned that particular gold that only happens in the south of Portugal.
The Algarve: Two Days of Cliffs and Islands
Day One: Olhão and Ria Formosa
We stayed in Olhão, in the Eastern Algarve — a working fishing town that feels distinctly un-touristy, full of North African architectural influences and home to some of the best seafood markets in Portugal. It’s also the gateway to the Ria Formosa, the extraordinary lagoon nature reserve that defines this stretch of coast.
It was much cheaper to stay where we stayed, and it was close to Faro, which my parents were interested in, but I would recommend staying in the Western Algarve, where it is much more beautiful.
We took the morning ferry from Olhão’s waterfront out through the lagoon to Culatra — a car-free fishing island of low white houses, sand tracks, and wooden docks — then walked the beach path south along the ocean side to Farol. The fish we had in this port was stunning in its simplicity and freshness.
The ferry ride alone is worth it: the lagoon is alive with oyster beds, fishing boats working through the channels, egrets standing in the shallows, and water that shifts from green to turquoise to deep blue depending on depth. Culatra’s village has the wonderful quality of being entirely real — people actually live here, nets dry on the docks, cats sleep in the alleyways.
Armona was my favorite- a resort, beaches, and a lighthouse adorned with uniquely stunning gardens.
Book a Three Island Ferry to the Ria Formosa Islands here.
Day Two: Carvoeiro and the Western Algarve
The views in this part of Portugal rival anything I have seen in the world- so gorgeous. And there are many miles of walking trails, making exploring easy.
The western Algarve around Carvoeiro and Lagos is dramatic in a different way than the east: towering sandstone cliffs carved by the Atlantic into arches, caves, and sea stacks. The highlight is a boat tour to the Benagil Cave — a sea cave so vast and cathedral-like, with a round opening at the top letting in a column of light, that it genuinely takes your breath away. You can only access it by sea, and the tour operators leave frequently from the beach at Benagil.
We took our tour from Carvoeiro, a cute beach town and a convenient place to hike from, and it’s well worth it. You can also swim from the beach or from caves a hike away.
The Ponta de Piedade trail near Lagos and the Seven Hanging Valleys trail near Carvoeiro are both worth a few hours if you want to walk the cliff edges with views that stretch to the horizon.
We had a gorgeous seafood dinner at Camilo in Lagos followed by another walk along cliffs.
This was one of my favorite days of the trip.
Portugal keeps revealing more of itself the longer you stay. These seven days felt like barely scratching the surface—which is, of course, the best possible thing a destination can do for you.
I had been to Lisbon in the past and had to get back to work, but know I will return to experience more of the good life in Portugal. My parents continued on for another week, enjoying Lisbon and one of their favorite experiences, a day trip to Nazare and Fatima.
How Is Driving in Portugal?
Earlier this year, I took a magnificent road trip (and did some of it solo) through southern Spain. I found Portugal just as much of a delight to drive. Logical, well-maintained roads and good drivers.
Have you done a road trip in Portugal? What did you love best?
*Thinking about a Portugal itinerary? Let’s talk. I specialize in crafting personal, off-the-beaten-path travel experiences throughout Europe. Reach me at [email protected] or adventurousyoutravel.com.*