Change of plans...now headed to Portugal in December

Thanks, PA! I’m planning to split the time pretty evenly between Lisbon and Porto.

I’m amazed at the quality of the hostels. I’m staying at two of the highest ranked hostels in the world for $18/night. It’s fantastic! This is my first time solo traveling so I’m excited to see who I meet along the way.

What Airline are you flying and out of where? I'm looking at going to Portugal in the future but I really would like to fly with only one connection.

Love Indian. What are your spots?

Did two weeks in Portugal this summer, its fricking dope and pretty cheap. Did 5 days in Cascais/Lisbon for a wedding, then spent the. Ext week in Porto/Douro valley before heading back to Lisbon for a few days.

I know a lot of people echo the previous poster's opinion that Porto is better than Lisbon, but I really liked Lisbon. Spend a day just walking between miradours and stopping at each one for a Sagres and some food.

Sinatra lives up to the hype.

The Douro Balley is legitimately the most breathtaking landscape I've ever been in. Don't know how it will be in the winter, but It's definitely worth a trip.

Everyone is super friendly and they all speak English.

The food is awesome. If you love seafood you'll be in paradise. Eat as much octopus as you can.

I could go on and on...

If you're into beer let me know and I'll recommend a craft beer bar in Lisbon, which are hard to find. The owners family is german and he says he's trying to "convert" Portugal on beer.

I went in July and posted a trip review. Here's a quick overview of what I would recommend.

Porto - do a tour of a Port Lodge. We did Graham's. Very affordable. If you do the deluxe tasting, you get a glass of the 1972 vintage that is insanely good. Excellent restaurant on premises.

Aveiro - Skip it. I'd recommend checking out Tomar or Coimbra instead. Preferably both. Tomar has a really cool medieval vibe. Badass aqueducts as well as a Templar castle. Coimbra has a really cool university that was fun to check out.

Sintra - Awesome. Pena Palace and the Castle of the Moors are walking distance from each other, so I would recommend starting at Pena first thing in the morning so you can have a chance to enjoy it before it gets swarmed with tourists. May be less crowded in December, though. Quinta da Regaleira was cool, and Monserrate Palace was awesome. Doing a lot of restoration on Monserrate, though. Sintra is incredibly hilly and the traffic is miserable. Be prepared for that.

Lisbon - I was wiped out by the time we got to Lisbon, but definitely check out Belem Tower and Jeronimos Monastery. We stayed in Baixa district, which was a really cool place. The main plaza there has a really cool archway and a statue where people will incessantly try to sell you drugs, if that's what you're into. The area has a lot of cool stuff to see, but is also full of tourist trap restaurants trying to pull you in to eat their overpriced, bullshite food. Make sure you ride the Santa Justa elevator up to check out the ruins of an old convent that they have repurposed into an archaeological museum. They have some mummies.

The rest - We had originally planned to go to Braga to see that badass church they have, but we saw one that was very similar in the Azores, so we skipped it. Went to Aveiro instead. Regret making that move. I don't know much about the other locations on your list because I didn't do any research into them when planning our trip, but I've heard Evora and the Algarve, as well as the Duoro Valley are all awesome.