A week in Portugal for Christmas with a baby and without a car

Hi everyone,

It’s all in the title—we’re planning to travel with three of us: my wife, our 2-year-old baby, and myself for Christmas in Portugal. Is this a good idea? We don’t have much time to figure out everything we can do or visit. We were thinking of flying into Porto, staying there for 2 or 3 days, and then traveling by train to either Lisbon or Faro—I’m not sure yet. Book 2 nights for the arrival and then decide the rest once we’re there. Will we manage without a car? I’d love all your tips! 🙂

Richard

hi there, spending a week traveling all the way to Faro with a 2-year-old seems like a lot; Porto is a very pleasant city, the public transport is great (metro, buses), and a car is unnecessary in Porto. If you stay 3 days in Porto, you’ll have 5 days left. To get around Portugal, there’s a train network: https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en the site lets you check travel times and destinations. By bus, Porto to Lisbon is roughly 4 hours—you can check the routes and durations here: https://rede-expressos.pt/en Without a car, you’ll stick to cities and their outskirts, but there’s plenty to do in a week, especially during Christmas. There are beautiful decorations everywhere and often street performances. A week without a car is totally doable, in my opinion. Happy trip planning! 😏

https://portosecreto.co/magia-das-luzes-de-natal-no-porto/ https://lisboasecreta.co/natal-em-lisboa/

If you arrive in Faro, it’s different—it’s the Algarve. Even so, the festive Christmas decorations are up no matter where you are, and Christmas is widely celebrated in Portugal. In fact, Christmas decorations are already in the shops...