Since you are a pilot an aviation enthusiast, let me know if you want a contact of a friend of mine that lives in Lisbon and just completed his second tour around the world in a Bonanza. Maybe he can show you some of Portugal from the air.

This is his website – http://www.asasdateimosia.com.pt/eng/indexeng.htm

Some good suggestions so far. Stay in Lisboa for a few days, and don’t miss Sintra. I also agree with Alexandre – in Lisboa check out the Bairro Alto. The Tile Museum is interesting. Lisboa was the site of the 2000 Expo (world’s fair), and the Expo site has some interesting things, including a marvelous aquarium. For entertainment, dinner at a Fado restaurant would be high on my list (Fado = Portuguese soul music). Good restaurants and night life can be found at As Docas, on the river (ask your cab driver to take you to Doh-cahsh). As an aside, the cab drivers in Lisboa are the worst in the world. They don’t seem to know where anything is! Sintra is a good day trip from Lisboa and a good place to load up on lovely Portuguese ceramics. Cascais is a costal resort town just north of Lisboa where the leaders of Europe hid out while Hitler was rampaging. Some nice shops and restaurants there. South of Lisboa, drive through the cork forest and visit Evora. It is part of Portugal that was occupied by the Moors, and has “Moorish” architecture. Near Evora, there is evidence of the ancient celtic civilization in Portugal – the stone circles, or Dolmas as they are called locally. I visited one by following small hand-lettered signs, down dirt roads and across cow pastures. It was quite an adventure. When driving in Portugal (2nd highest traffic fatality rate in the world – Spain is #1) I found traffic lights, signs and road markings to be COMPLETELY OPTIONAL! One last thing – I found the best and most helpful Port shop (as in Port wine) to be at the Lisbon Airport. Enjoy – I’m envious.

I’ m suspicious to recomend you a visit to Portugal since I’m a portuguese…

All the above recomendations are good: spend some days in Lisbon and surroundings (like Sintra or Cascais), some more in Oporto and then you have visit to two main towns of this countrie.

However if you simply do so you’ll be simply one more amrican “fast” tourist: you don’t believe that you know France simply by visiting Paris, do you?

So, I would recomend you 3 or 4 days of a more “deeper” kind of tourism:
–> you could do some rural tourism by renting a house in the Douro valley or staying in “Pousadas de Portugal”, a kind of traditional and very confortable hotels
–> you could do the same thing but in a farm in Alentejo or in the beachs of the Alentejanian coast
–> you can also visit two very traditional towns: Braga and Coimbra (they are relatively small – around 100.000 habitants – and you can visit each of them in a single day)

Avoid going to Algarve: it’s a “touristic” spot mainly due to it’s climate and in this time of the year it would not be good enough togo the beach.

Don’t forget while staying in Lisbon to go to “Bairro Alto” that is somewhat resembling to Barcelonian Ramblas. There you MUST NOT miss a fado concert (traditional portuguese music).

Try to taste the maximum wine possible (ok, maybe not THAT much): portuguese wine is one of the best of the world.

Traffic is a little messy in the towns but there are good highways connecting each town. However I think you picking up a car maybe a little scary in portuguese streets since we are a little crazy driving (but not as much as italians). Travelling by train is a good choice because they are fast (Lisbon – Oporto in 3 hours) and you can enjoy a much more interesting vision of the country.

Finally, I think for an american tourist everything is quite cheap so you could enjou premium services in the hotels and restaurants (notice that tips are not compulsory anda 10% is a good one!).

Hope you enjoy visiting us as much as I enjoy living here.

Cheers.

For eight days, I’d recommend 3- 4 days in Lisbon & around (esp. Sintra), maybe 2 days somewhere in Algarve (e.g. Faro) and optionally some time in the north (Porto, valley of Douro, or Aveiro & Coimbra) It is possible to use the public transport system (trains & buses) but a car is probably a more comfortable option.

You will love Portugal. I recommend renting a car and exploring to the north. Look at Abreu travel’s Royal Roads self-guided tour. My wife and I took it in February and loved it. We have been back and have toured the south as well. The food and drink are wonderful. The people are gracious. If you can, stay at the Hunting lodge in Bussaco.

Last summer we spent 3 or 4 days in Porto, but in retrospect one day would have been plenty. Learning about port wine and walking across the river is grand, but parts of the downtown area are unsalubrious. A city that surprised me was Coimbra. Nobody boosters Coimbra, but the university there is breathtaking, there are 3 or 4 excellent day trips from there, and it felt very safe. My two cents worth-have a great time.

i agree with the above comments, and would add a few (acknowledging that i haven’t been there in a long time). the weather might be nice (april is certainly gorgeous), and warmer in the south. if you spend a few days in lisbon (without a car), plus a couple in the north (with a car), and a couple more in the south (again, with a car), you will really see gorgeous diverse spots. while the southern coast is beautiful (lagos, etc.), years ago most of it was overrun with other europeans leaving it a bit less portugeuse feeling, but still striking. my favorite was the then small town of sagres, in the sw corner of the country, with nice beaches and the henry the navigator’s school – formerly considered the end of the earth. great to travel north through the mountains, cool, lush and beautiful. sort of en route to lisbon, the walled city of evora was also real nice. i don’t think you can go wrong. enjoy.

Lisbon is a beautiful city that puts forward little pretension. You can easily spend a week there and make day trips. For a day trip, make sure to visit the Castelo dos Mouros in Sintra. The only problem is your timing. It may be a little wet. I’ve been there in May and June and May seems like the best time to go – warm with few tourists.

Portugal is beautiful, and you’ll have a great time there. But, I’m not sure if March is the best time to visit, you might still get cold weather and rain. End of April or May would be a better time.

Being a Portuguese immigrant to the US, I’ve been back lots of times. If you’re going to start in Lisbon, you may not want a car until you’re ready to venture out further. You can get around the city pretty well on the local transit system. But, to go much further out you’ll probably want a car because Portugal doesn’t have the high-speed rail system that other european countries do.

Like Filipe said, Porto would be a great city to use as a base to see the northern part of the country. And, you could pick an area in the south like the Algarve too. Sure, it’s touristy, but that’s what you are… Seriously, it does have nice beaches (especially those that haven’t been over-developed). But, March isn’t really beach time anyway.

If you like old historic sites, you’ll love Portugal. A friend of mine went on a castle tour of the country and had a great time.

A car gives you much freedom and outsite of cities, the roads, built quite recently for EU money, are good. Cities can be stressful – that’s true. Talking about turistic places I would recommend to go to Sintra, it’s just 20km from Lisbon. I don’t know if this would be a spoiler – but you can see my photos from Portugal at http://zby.aster.net.pl/kwiki/index.cgi?Portugal (look at Sintra – it’s magic).