The Algarve gets the postcards. The Douro gets the afternoon.
Which Benagil boat actually goes inside the cave. What a Douro day with lunch costs. Whether Sintra works out of Lisbon or wants its own night. Reviews of every tour you can book in Portugal.
Five bookings a first Portuguese fortnight hangs off.
Lisbon on foot, the palaces at Sintra, an afternoon up the Douro, the Algarve sea caves and a ridge in Madeira. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningHistory, Stories and Lifestyle Walking TourThree hours through Alfama and the Baixa on foot, before the hills get hot and the tram queue reaches the corner.
02The Sintra daySintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca & CascaisPena, Regaleira and Cabo da Roca in one run out of Lisbon. The palaces are the headline; the coast road back is the part people remember.
03The Douro afternoonDouro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchTerraced vineyards, two quintas and lunch, with the river leg on the way back into Porto.
04The Algarve boat dayBenagil Caves Speed Boat Tour with Sunset OptionOut of Portimão by speedboat to Benagil. The small hulls are the ones that get inside the cave.
05The Madeira daySkywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal, and Fanal 4WD TourFanal, the Seixal rock pools and a glass skywalk over a 580-metre drop, by 4WD out of Funchal.
In Portugal the good day usually leaves from a jetty.
Sea caves cut into the Algarve limestone, six bridges on the Douro, dolphin pods a mile off Funchal. Three kinds of day afloat, what it costs to board each one, and where it sails from.
Two cities, one coastline, two islands out in the Atlantic.
Lisbon on its hills and Porto on its river bank, the cliffs between Lagos and Faro, palaces in the cloud forest at Sintra, and the volcanic pair a flight west. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Portugal’s most booked days out.
Every Portuguese tour we have reviewed →More travellers book these than anything else in Portugal. What earns each one its place is underneath it.
1
The Unvanquished Tour in Porto City Center
You’ll walk through Porto’s upper city for about two and a half hours, visiting Aliados, Livraria Lello, Clérigos, São Bento, Rua das Flores, and the cathedral. Guides such as Tiago, Jaime, Diogo, Sara, and Adriano share local stories, history, food tips, and practical advice. You pay what you want at the end.
From · $3
Read our review →
2
Lisbon City Center Tour – The Unmissable Lisbon
from $3
3
Pena Palace and Park Entrance Ticket
from $11
4
Jerónimos Monastery Entrance Ticket
from $21
5
Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise
from $101
6
Six Bridges Cruise
from $21
7
Sunset Boat Party Cruise with DJ and Open Bar
from $27
8
Pena Palace, Sintra, Cabo da Roca, & Cascais Daytrip
from $91
9
True 4Hour Private Tuk Tuk Tour: Discover Lisbon with a Local!
from $108
Portugal drinks better than its prices admit.
Tawny poured in a Gaia lodge at eleven in the morning, a quinta afternoon upriver, custard tarts pulled out of the oven while you watch. After the boats, this is what the country sells most of.
Lisbon: the hills first, the tiles after lunch.
All of Lisbon →
Alfama before the heat, a tram up to Graça, tiles and pastries out in Belém, then fado in a room with twelve chairs. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Alfama, Moraria and the Baixa
Up through the oldest quarter before the sun clears the roofline, down through Mouraria where the fado came from, then out into the grid the earthquake rebuilt.
Fado in a room with twelve chairs
The small houses in Alfama and Bairro Alto put two singers and a Portuguese guitar in front of you and drop the lights. The big dinner shows are easier to book and half as good.
Under the bridge as the light goes
Sailboats and party catamarans leave Doca de Santo Amaro and turn under the 25 de Abril while the city goes orange behind them. The quiet ones are the sailboats.
Madeira and the Azores are the same flight and two different countries.
Madeira is vertical: channels cut along the cliff face, laurel forest sitting in cloud, a ridge walk that starts in the dark. São Miguel is volcanic and green, with crater lakes, hot springs and whales offshore from spring onwards.
Every Atlantic-island day out →
What a Portuguese day out really costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Portuguese days come in under the price of dinner.
Old-town walks, palace tickets, cellar tastings and the short Algarve boat hops.
The full-day standards: the Douro with lunch, Sintra with pickup, Madeira by 4WD.
Private guides, chartered hulls and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Three things you can only do in Portugal.
Cliffs and cellars exist all round the Atlantic. A cathedral-sized hole in the rock at Benagil, irrigation channels you can walk for twenty miles, and a music with its own legal protection do not.
The Benagil Cave
A collapsed roof let the daylight into a sea cave the size of a church, with its own crescent of sand at the bottom. Nothing is allowed to land there now, so the choice is a kayak, a paddleboard, or a hull that noses in and turns around. Atlantic swell decides all three, and the first flat morning after a rough week is the busiest one of the month.
- 12.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin Watching★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,710 reviews
- 2Benagil Caves Speed Boat Tour with Sunset Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,329 reviews
- 3Benagil Sea Caves Speedboat Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,546 reviews
The Levadas
Madeira carries water from the wet north to the dry south along 1,300 miles of channel cut into the cliff, each with a maintenance path beside it. Walking one means walking a contour, so the gradient is nothing and the drop beside you is everything. Rabaçal and the 25 Fontes are the two people fly in for, and both need a head torch for the tunnels.
- 1Enjoy a Guided Levada Walk in the Rabaçal Valley★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,197 reviews
- 2Madeira Walks – Rabaçal and the 25 Fountains★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,204 reviews
- 3Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 841 reviews
Fado
It came out of the Mouraria in the nineteenth century, one voice over a Portuguese guitar, and UNESCO now lists it. The houses that matter seat about thirty, turn the lights off between sets, and will not bring your food while somebody is singing.
- 1Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,498 reviews
- 2Live Fado Show with Port Wine in Historic Center★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,166 reviews
- 3Cálem Cellar Tour, Fado Show & Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,530 reviews
Four things in Portugal you cannot leave until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged from a café table the night before. These four run on timed entry slots, sea conditions and sunrise, none of which take any interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Pena Palace and Park Entrance TicketThe palace interior runs on half-hour slots with a cap on each. The park you can usually walk into; the rooms sell out days ahead through summer.
- 022.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin WatchingNothing goes inside the cave when the swell is up, so operators cancel at short notice and the whole coast rebooks onto the next flat morning.
- 03Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided HikeThe Pico do Arieiro sunrise walk leaves in the dark, and the car park at the top fills before it. This one is booked, not turned up for.
- 04Quinta da Regaleira Skip-the-Ticket-Line Entry & AudioguideQuinta da Regaleira is timed entry as well, and the initiation well is the bottleneck: the queue inside it runs longer than the queue at the gate.
Rain in Porto, north wind on the Algarve, cloud sitting on the Madeira peaks.
Portugal is a wet country doing an impression of a Mediterranean one. Boats cancel on swell, the Arieiro ridge disappears into cloud for days at a time, and Porto can rain from November through March. All three have the same answer: go underground, or go indoors.
By place — the two cities, the coast, the islands
By kind of day — boat, cellar, palace or trail
Lisbon, Sintra, Porto, the Douro, the Algarve: the fortnight almost everybody does first.
Douro ValleyThe newest Portuguese tour reviews.
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