How many days do you need in Portugal?
Five days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Portugal, across Lisbon and Porto.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Portugal · 5 days Lisbon → Porto
Best time: April to June or September to October: warm, bright, and short of the August crush.
Lisbon: Jerónimos MonasteryDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMJerónimos Monastery
The Manueline masterpiece built on pepper-trade money to thank God for Vasco da Gama’s route to India. His tomb is inside the door. The carved cloister is the finest room in Portugal; book ahead.
🚗 ~14 min · 3.9 mi
🖼️1:30 PMCalouste Gulbenkian Museum
One collector’s flawless sweep from Egyptian amulets to Lalique jewelry, in a modernist pavilion set in its own garden. Many curators’ favorite small museum in Europe.
🚗 ~8 min · 2.2 mi
🌆6:00 PMAlfama
The Moorish-rooted maze that survived the 1755 earthquake, laundry lines, grilled-sardine smoke, and fado drifting from doorways after dark. Get lost on purpose.
Lisbon: Belém TowerDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMBelém Tower
The 1519 fortress that waved the caravels out of the Tagus, reopened in May 2026 after a year’s restoration, its limestone cleaned back to pale gold. Entry is timed and capped at 900 a day, so reserve online.
🚗 ~15 min · 4.3 mi
🥾1:30 PMParque Eduardo VII and the miradouros
The formal hilltop park aligned straight down to the Tagus, and the city’s viewpoint circuit, Senhora do Monte and São Pedro de Alcântara are the sunset picks.
🚶 ~48 min · 🚗 ~6 min · 1.8 mi
🎟️6:00 PMFado evening in Alfama
Portugal’s UNESCO-listed song of longing, heard close-up in a small casa de fado over dinner, the room goes silent when the guitarra starts. Book a table; respect the hush.
Lisbon: São Jorge CastleDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMSão Jorge Castle
The Moorish citadel on Lisbon’s highest hill, rampart walks, pine shade, peacocks, and the whole red-roofed city falling away to the river.
🚶 ~14 min · 🚗 ~2 min · 0.5 mi
🌆6:00 PMBairro Alto and Chiado
Elegant literary Chiado by day; by night Bairro Alto’s grid becomes one open-air bar, glasses in hand on the cobbles.
Arrive in PortoDay 4
🚄8:30 AMTrain to Porto
Lisboa Santa Apolónia or Oriente to Porto Campanhã in about 3 hours on the Alfa Pendular (the Intercidades takes ~3h20). Book a seat a few days ahead on the CP site for the cheap fares.
🚄 ~3h · 170 mi
🏛️2:00 PMRibeira and the Dom Luís I Bridge
The medieval riverfront and the 1886 double-deck iron arch above it. Walk the vertiginous upper deck to Gaia at golden hour, metro trains rumbling behind you.
🚶 ~3 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 0.1 mi
🌆6:00 PMVila Nova de Gaia riverside
The south-bank quay under the wine lodges, tasting rooms, rabelo boats at anchor, and the definitive view back at Porto’s stacked facades at dusk.
Porto: Clérigos TowerDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMClérigos Tower
The 76-meter Baroque bell tower that is Porto’s compass needle, a tight spiral of some 240 steps to the best rooftop panorama in the city.
🚗 ~9 min · 2.5 mi
🖼️1:30 PMSerralves Museum of Contemporary Art
Álvaro Siza’s white museum in an Art Deco villa’s 18-hectare park, treetop walkway included; go as much for the grounds as the galleries.
🚗 ~10 min · 2.8 mi
🎟️6:00 PMPort-wine cellar tasting in Gaia
A guided cellar visit under the lodges where port has aged for three centuries, ending with tawny in the tasting room, the essential Porto evening, no operator loyalty required.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
This is one of 126 free itineraries. Open it, change anything you want, and it becomes your trip.