Trip motivation
In summer of 2025, our family took a trip to Portugal! We loved spending a few days in Lisbon with some history and museums and then took the train down to Lagos and the Algarve area where we soaked in the sun and beach vibes. We love European travel as it always has family-friendly towns, easy navigating with trains and so much history and beauty. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting but with a little preparation and research and tips from other travelers, we had a successful trip!
This post covers our flights, itinerary, planning process, and international logistics such as using the subway, getting a phone card, and finding budget restaurants.
For more on our Portugal Adventure, see our posts here
Planning our Itinerary
I love planning trips, especially through well-traveled places where there’s a ton of information to read through and make plans for. Many online blogs were really helpful! We were in each home-base for around 4 days and read numerous blogs and books (Rick Steves is always a must-read for Europe trips). One tip for traveling with kids is take a 3-day best of guide and cut out half of it to make it actually realistic to manage in those same 3 days. Mix in some kid-focused/less touristy options like malls, playgrounds, hotel pool. We did a lot of bus and train travel on this trip and our kids loved reading their new kindles on the trains and this was a great time for just chatting and reconnecting with gorgeous views.
Several months before, I sketched out our plan in excel and on google maps with a balance of activities, rest time, food, rest, and fun. We made sure to research how far areas were and tried to schedule several anchor points with a few optional activities so we didn’t overstuff our schedule.
Overview
Day 0: Layover in Ireland
Day 1: Lisbon city walks and Belem sights
Day 2: Parque das Nações Science Museum
Day 3: Side trip to Sintra sights with evening ferry to Cacilhas
Day 4: Train to Algarve and beach walk
Day 5: Benagil kayaking and town exploring
Day 6: Lagos walk and Meia Praia beach bike ride
Day 7: Train to Faro and ferry to beach hangs
Day 8: Return home
Flying to Portugal
We used American express points transferred to Aer Lingus for our flights (Nashville to Dublin, Dublin to Lisbon) and United Miles for our flight from Faro (Layover in New York)
Tips for Long Plane Rides
Sleeping on planes West to East:
- Plan to sleep! For the overnight red-eye flight to Europe, we emphasized that after dinner service, everyone was going to try and get some sleep. I gave each kid a dose of melatonin and they passed out pretty immediately. We packed these cheap pillows from Amazon (They came with eye masks!).
- On arrival, get outside and try to limit naps so you can readjust.
Activities for long flights East to West
- On the long flight, the kids were happy playing with the personal screen and alternating between coloring, reading, tv, games, and snacks. Ellie has been loving the Magic Treehouse books and when they were little, they used to love activities in the Magic Ink and small play pack coloring books (Amazon links). We have one Nintendo Switch that the kids love.
- For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here.
Transportation in Europe
Train travel and public transportation is one of our favorite things about Europe. Everything is pretty straightforward and inexpensive. We did learn that the trains are not always on time and to make sure you’re on the right stop when you stop!
In Lisbon, we did a combo of walking, bolt/uber rides and public transportation. One top tip for international travel is to download the city map to google so that it doesn’t continue to use data every time you load.
We took trains between Lisbon and Lagos and between Lagos and Faro. We should have purchased tickets ahead of time as prices went up closer to departure. We also got a little “lost” on our way to Lagos as the train was delayed and the number of stops and timing made us get off at the wrong stop. We ended up calling a taxi found through rome2rio
In both cities, we stayed at apartments found on booking.com/recommended by friends. These were bot in the old town section and very convenient to walking. If we had a slightly younger kid, it would probably be more important to stay close to a main train line. We didn’t have a car for either portion of our trip.
I love how easy train travel is in Europe. We mapped destinations using google maps and compared the time/cost/effort to use a taxi, train, bus, or walk. We used bolt/uber or the train depending on where/how far we were going. If you have little ones, it might be harder to use a taxi due to the car seat. If you plan on using a stroller on the subway, many have elevators, but be prepared to fold it and carry up stairs.
Eating in Portugal
We stopped by grocery stores for breakfast meals to start our day and snacks for the hotel room. LIDL and Pingo Doce bakery items are amazing and so cheap.
During the day, we tried to balance quick meals with sit-down meals. We did do a few fancy meals like a waterfront seafood restaurant in Cacilhas and a Brazillian steakhouse. We also did sandwiches and quick meals. A few restaurants had kids menus or we would get entrees to share. We always say trips are for eating. We ate a wide variety of yummy foods (Yum Pastel de Nata!)There are so many delicious things to eat!
Other International Logistics
Passport: Before you fly internationally, check those expiration dates on your passports! Note that some countries require your passport to be valid for 3-6 months after your flight
Phone/Internet Have you heard of an e-sim card? Prior to our arrival, we bought an Airalo e-sim card. For $30 each, we had a phone with 5 GB of data. The phone switched to the international sim without needing to stop by a store to physically put a sim in.
Language: Besides a few cab drivers, everyone spoke English. You could get a book to prepare the kids for the adventure. It is always a good practice to learn hello, good morning, excuse me, and thank you in any language though! We did use google translate on a few occasions.
Currency Exchange We had to use cash for a few of our cab drivers and at the bike rental store. We stopped at a bank and used our bank debit card to pull out the equivalent of $300 for some Euros.
More Portugal 2025 Posts
For more on our Portugal Adventure, see our posts here
