What Are the Top 10 Things to Do in Portugal?
The top 10 things to do in Portugal, anchored on Coimbra: the University and Biblioteca Joanina, Sé Velha, Santa Cruz, Conímbriga, fado and the schist villages, with verified prices.
Coimbra, the university city on the River Mondego in central Portugal, is where the top-10 question actually gets answered. Most lists of the best things to do in Portugal scatter you across the whole country and quietly invent the numbers. This one stays inside what the official sources publish: the University's own visit pages, the national museums portal, the parish body that runs the city's two great churches, and IPMA's climate normals for the city's own station. Everything below stacks into one hill town of about 31,000 students, which is why so many Portugal itineraries now put Coimbra at the centre rather than the edge.
What Are the Top 10 Things to Do in Portugal?
The top 10 things to do in Portugal, on this site's verified list, are: visit the Paço das Escolas at the University of Coimbra, see the Biblioteca Joanina, enter Sé Velha, go into Mosteiro de Santa Cruz where Portugal's first two kings are buried, hear fado de Coimbra, explore the Roman ruins of Conímbriga about 16 km south, walk the schist villages of the Lousã mountain, stroll the Mondego riverside, wander the University's Botanical Garden, and take the family to Portugal dos Pequenitos. Seven of the ten sit inside Coimbra itself, and the other three are short trips out from it.
That concentration is the whole argument. The University of Coimbra's hill and the Rua da Sofia college street were inscribed by UNESCO in 2013 as "University of Coimbra - Alta and Sofia", list reference 1387, and that inscription is the anchor for the city's entire visitor circuit. Note the wording carefully: it is the university and the college street that are World Heritage, not the city as a whole, and guides that say otherwise are wrong.
Here is the list with what each thing costs on the official sources:
| # | Thing to do | Where | Verified entry cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paço das Escolas, the Royal Palace, St Michael's Chapel and the Science Museum spaces | University hill | 12.50 EUR, or 16.50 EUR with the Joanina Library |
| 2 | Biblioteca Joanina, the baroque library | University hill | Only inside the 16.50 EUR combined ticket, timed slot |
| 3 | Sé Velha de Coimbra, the Old Cathedral | Old town | 3.00 EUR individual |
| 4 | Mosteiro de Santa Cruz | Baixa, downtown | 5.00 EUR individual |
| 5 | Fado de Coimbra, the student fado in the old town's fado houses | Old town | Show tickets vary, check the listing |
| 6 | Conímbriga Roman ruins and museum | Condeixa-a-Velha, about 16 km south | 10.00 EUR, museum and ruins together |
| 7 | Schist villages of the Lousã mountain | Lousã, day trip | Tour prices on each operator's listing |
| 8 | The Mondego riverside and Parque Verde do Mondego | City centre | Free |
| 9 | University Botanical Garden | University hill | Guided tour 10.00 EUR |
| 10 | Portugal dos Pequenitos | West bank of the Mondego | Price on the venue's own ticket page |
Two absences from that table are deliberate. The Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro, built over a mid-1st-century Roman cryptoporticus, is closed for conservation work according to its own page on the national museums portal, so it cannot honestly be sold as a thing to do today. The University clock tower is also closed, the University's own information page says so plainly. For a fuller rundown of the city's sights, see the dedicated things to do in Coimbra page.
Which Coimbra Highlights Can You Cover on Foot in One Day?
Most of the top-10 list is walkable in a single day, because the Paço das Escolas, Sé Velha, Mosteiro de Santa Cruz, the Botanical Garden and the riverside all sit within the old town, and the University's own summer schedule runs 09:00 to 20:00 from 1 April to 30 September, so a full circuit is realistic in the long months. The one thing you cannot improvise is the Biblioteca Joanina, which admits 50 people every 20 minutes and refuses entry outside the printed slot.
The University's visit pages state the rule in their own words: entries to the Joanina are limited to 50 people every 20 minutes, the time on your ticket is the library slot specifically, and the rest of the combined ticket's spaces can be visited across two days. Online purchase closes 20 minutes before the visit time. That ceiling is the single most useful planning fact in the city, and it is why a guided tour that includes tickets is worth considering for the university portion of the day.
For travellers counting euros rather than minutes, the Coimbra Top Attractions Walking Tour covers the highlights on foot for from $5.85 per person, rated 5 from 151 reviews over 2 hours 30 minutes, and it exists precisely for this one-day circuit. If you want the deeper version, the why is Coimbra famous answer explains what each of these monuments actually means.
How Much Do the Top Coimbra Attractions Cost?
The core sightseeing set is three tickets: 16.50 EUR for the University's combined ticket including the Joanina Library, 3.00 EUR for Sé Velha and 5.00 EUR for Mosteiro de Santa Cruz, with Conímbriga adding 10.00 EUR if you take the day trip, and a one-euro-per-night municipal tourist tax on top, capped at three nights, from age 16, paid at the accommodation. Groups of more than 10 at Sé Velha pay 2.50 EUR each, and Santa Cruz groups of 12 or more pay 3.50 EUR each.
The tourist tax deserves its own sentence because it is so widely misreported. The municipality's own service page states 1.00 EUR per guest per overnight stay, maximum three consecutive nights, in force since 5 April 2023. A rise to two euros was approved as a proposal in July 2026, but the published rate on the municipal pages remains one euro until the tax pages themselves change. The municipality's own study put its cost per overnight stay at 3.49 EUR, against 698,151 overnight stays recorded in Coimbra in 2025, which is why the rise is coming.
What Day Trips from Coimbra Belong on a Portugal Top-10 List?
Two day trips earn their place on verified grounds: Conímbriga, the Roman town about 16 km south in the parish of Condeixa-a-Velha, whose museum and ruins cost a combined 10.00 EUR and open daily 10:00 to 18:00, and the schist villages of the Lousã mountain, where a set of highly rated small-group tours runs from Coimbra for around 88 to 105 dollars per person. Conímbriga is the best Roman site this site can point to with sources, and the Lousã villages are the landscape half of the list.
Be precise about Conímbriga's geography, because guides get it wrong in both directions: the site is in Condeixa-a-Velha, in the municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova, not in Coimbra at all. The national museum's own page gives the address and the hours, and the combined 10.00 EUR ticket covers museum and ruins together. The is Conímbriga worth visiting answer goes deeper on what the ruins contain.
The schist villages are a different register: stone hamlets on the forested slopes of the Lousã mountain, reached by tours rated 4.8 to 5 from dozens to hundreds of reviews, running about four hours. This site's Coimbra Travel Guide coverage includes full pages on both, and the tour listings carry the current prices and dates.
When Is the Best Time to Do These Ten Things in Coimbra?
September is the best-kept window, because IPMA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Coimbra / Bencanta station show a September mean maximum of 27.4 C, actually higher than June's 26.3 C, with only 49.9 mm of rain, while July at 8.9 mm is effectively dry and August is the hottest month at a 29.1 C mean maximum with 10.9 days above 30 C. The autumn rain holds off until October, when the monthly total jumps to 114.5 mm, and November is the wettest month at 121.5 mm.
That table inverts what most visitors assume. September is both hotter and wetter than June on the normals, not drier, but the real story is that the crowds thin while the weather holds, and the University's summer schedule, 09:00 to 20:00, runs to 30 September. If you go in May instead, plan around the closures: the University shuts its visitor circuit on 24 May, and Santa Cruz closes for the Cortejo parade.
For month-by-month detail, the is Coimbra worth visiting for tourists answer covers the trade-offs, and the how many days do you need in Coimbra answer tells you how much of the ten you can realistically fit.
Common Questions About the Top 10 Things to Do in Portugal
What are the top 10 things to do in Portugal?
On this site's verified list: the Paço das Escolas, the Biblioteca Joanina, Sé Velha, Mosteiro de Santa Cruz, fado de Coimbra, Conímbriga, the schist villages of the Lousã mountain, the Mondego riverside, the University Botanical Garden and Portugal dos Pequenitos, with seven of the ten inside Coimbra itself.
Can you buy a ticket for the Biblioteca Joanina on its own?
No. The University's own visit pages state the Joanina exists only inside the 16.50 EUR combined ticket, admits 50 people every 20 minutes, and refuses entry outside the printed time slot.
Is Coimbra a UNESCO World Heritage city?
No, and this is the most common error in guides to the city. UNESCO inscribed "University of Coimbra - Alta and Sofia" in 2013, two components inside the old town: the university hill and the college street. The city as a whole is not inscribed.
How much is the tourist tax in Coimbra?
The published rate is 1.00 EUR per guest per overnight stay, capped at three consecutive nights, from age 16, paid to the accommodation. A rise to two euros was approved as a proposal in July 2026 but is not yet the published rate.
Is the Machado de Castro museum open?
No. The museum's own page on the national museums portal states it is closed for conservation work, so leave it off your list until its own site announces the reopening.
Which day trip from Coimbra is best for Roman history?
Conímbriga, about 16 km south in Condeixa-a-Velha. The national museum's own page lists a combined 10.00 EUR ticket for museum and ruins, open daily 10:00 to 18:00.
Ten things, one hill, and a train line that connects it to the rest of the country: that is the honest shape of the answer, and every number in it comes from a page the venue or the municipality publishes itself.