I recently spent three days in Óbidos, Portugal on a slow-travel trip through Portugal. Although I loved having three full days to spend in Óbidos, I know that not everybody has that much time. Fortunately, nearly all of the best things to do in Óbidos can be enjoyed in one day!
The good news for travelers in Portugal is that Óbidos can be an easy day trip from Lisbon, especially on weekdays when intercity bus service is frequent. The bus to Óbidos from Lisbon will drop you off right at the gateway to the historic city center, making for an easy day of exploring (and taste-testing!) in this charming medieval town.
Is Óbidos worth visiting for one day?
Óbidos’s proximity to Lisbon and compact historical district make it worth visiting for one day. Since the bus trip there and back is only one hour each way, you can easily spend a full day taking in this medieval fortified city and its historic attractions.
Things to Do in Óbidos in One Day
To help plan which things to do in Óbidos you want to prioritize, pick up a map at the tourist information office near the town gate. It will highlight the important buildings, monuments and historical sites within Óbidos’ medieval walls.
Óbidos Castle
It’s usually free to enter the grounds of the Óbidos Castle, where you are welcome to stroll around the the gardens, the belvedere and the interior courtyard. You can’t actually enter the building itself, however, because in 1950 it was the first historic castle in Portugal to be converted into a guesthouse.
The only time you would have to pay to enter the Óbidos castle grounds is during the annual Óbidos medieval festival, which warrants an overnight visit and is certainly worth the entrance fee!
Castle Walls
The castle walls in Óbidos wrap around the historic center and offer some of the best views of the village. In total, there are about 1.5 kilometers of castle walls in Óbidos. Depending on where you ascend, plan to spend 20 to 40 minutes strolling along…
… but be careful, because there are no ledges to keep you from falling over the side, and there aren’t very many access points. If you are prone to vertigo or have a fear of heights, enjoy the views of the walls from street level, rather than from their semi-precarious ledges!
I don’t have a fear of heights but I did find the sharp drop induced a little bit of vertigo (especially when I had to pass another walker on the outside). Still, I (slowly) made it from the south access point (near Porta de Vila) all the way to the castle at the north end of town.
Medieval Óbidos
One of the most pleasant things to do in Óbidos is simply to stroll around the medieval town center. The cobblestone streets zig and zag up the hillside, taking you along busy shopping streets and narrow alleys, under ancient stone arches and above crumbling rooftops.
You’ll probably enter the medieval center through the town gate, which has a stunning chapel on its upper level. As you walk along Rua Direita, the main street, keep your eyes peeled for the sixteenth-century pillory and nearby portico that used to serve as Óbidos’ public market.
I recommend that you wear sturdy footwear in Óbidos as some of the streets are quite steep and the cobblestones can be slippery. I wore running shoes every day that I was in Óbidos, and I was glad that I wasn’t in flip-flops or high heels.
Churches in Óbidos
There are quite a few churches in Óbidos, and generally it was easy enough to wander inside to check out their pretty interiors.
Church of Santa Maria
The nicest church in Óbidos is definitely the Church of Santa Maria. Inside, you’ll find the walls are beautifully decorated with azulejos, Portugal’s famous blue-and-white tiles. The tiles on these walls are more than 300 years old!
Similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Church of Santa Maria was originally a Christian church (under the Visigoths), then became a mosque when the region was under Muslim rule during the al-Andalus period, and then became a Catholic church in the 12th century.
Sanctuary of the Lord of the Stone (Santuario do Señor de la Piedra)
You can see the Sanctuary of the Lord of the Stone from the castle walls in Óbidos. It’s an easy drive to this church just outside the town limits. It’s also an easy walk; it takes about fifteen minutes and there’s only about 50 meters where you have to walk along the edge of the highway (only because a local hotel lets their guests park on the sidewalk).
According to the local tourism office, there are all sorts of legends about how and why the church here was constructed in the 18th century, but darkly, all of the legends have to do with period of time when the local community was ravaged by disease or their crops suffered from terrible conditions. Yikes.
Óbidos Municipal Museum
Another free thing to do in Óbidos is to visit the small municipal museum. The lower floor and part of the upper floor is filled with important religious icons, relics and paintings from the churches in Óbidos and its surrounding areas. The other part of the upper floor features rotating exhibits. At the time of my visit they had works from Josepha de Óbidos (a female painter from the 18th century) and a more contemporary portrait illustrator.
By the way, the courtyard beside the museum has clean public toilets (and in my opinion, one of the prettiest entranceways to a public toilet I’ve ever seen!).
Taste Ginja in Óbidos
Ginja is a unique Portuguese liqueur made from sour cherries. You’ll find it all over Portugal, but it has unique association with Óbidos for two reasons.
First, the sour cherries (ginha) in the region are being considered for PGI (protected geographical indication, or official status as a traditional regional specialty). Second, in Óbidos ginjinha is typically served in a small, edible chocolate cup.
There are lots of cafes, shops and restaurants in Óbidos where you can taste ginja. Based on the queues and crowds at many of the restaurants and street vendors, you’ll quickly realize this is one of the most popular things to do in Óbidos!
I stopped at the shop shown above to taste-test this drink for myself. I thought it was quite similar to the vyshnia I had tried in Ukraine, but I have to admit the chocolate cup is a nice touch!
Óbidos Aqueduct
If you have time at the end of your one day in Óbidos, make sure to check out the city’s historic 16th-century aqueduct. It’s just one block away from the bus stop to and from Lisbon, and you can follow the pretty (and flat!) cobblestone path along its arches for about ten or fifteen minutes.
The Óbidos Medieval Festival
My trip to Óbidos happened to coincide with the town’s annual medieval festival. This is a huge event that takes place over ten days to two weeks each July, and it sees the Óbidos Castle grounds converted into a massive medieval marketplace complete with food, drink, knights, jousting, troubadours, jesters, magicians and more.
If you want to visit the Óbidos Medieval Festival on a day trip, make sure to come on a weekend when it’s open all day. Otherwise, you’ll likely miss out, since it usually opens in the early evening on weekdays. For more information, click through to my complete guide to the Óbidos Medieval Festival.
Where to Eat in Óbidos
I’m not embarrassed to say that I ate at the same restaurant every day when I was in Óbidos! Avocado Coffee & Healthy Food is open daily for breakfast and lunch, and the food was amazing. Seriously, just go here!
They have vegan, vegetarian and meat-based options. My favorite dishes were the goat cheese salad (shown above, with gooey warm goat cheese on top of crispy whole-grain toast) and the sunrise oatmeal with turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and poached pears.
If you’re in Óbidos for dinner, Avocado won’t be open. Fortunately their next-door neighbor, A Janela, opens at dinner time and serves amazing sourdough-crusted pizza. You have to order the one with tomato sauce, pesto, cherry tomatoes, arugula, Parmesan and burrata… and then come tell me how much you loved it!
One Night in Óbidos
One of the things I noticed during my time in Óbidos is that the town gets much more quiet around 18:00, when the last of the tour buses leave. I had many streets and squares to myself as the sun began to set.
So, while you may only need one day in Óbidos, you might enjoy arriving in the afternoon, staying overnight, and departing the next day around lunch.
Read my guide to the best hotels in Obidos for a complete run-down of all of the best properties in (and around!) Obidos, including hotels, guesthouses, hostels and more.
How to Pronounce Óbidos
Before I go, I just wanted to share one more important point. Before I arrived in Óbidos, I was pronouncing it incorrectly! The last “s” in the name makes a “sh” sound, so Óbidos is pronounced kind of like “oh-bee-dosh”.
If Obidos looks like the type of place you love to visit, make sure to also check out Guimaraes when you’re in Porto. It’s a similar day trip to an equally charming historic town.
I also have a new, curated list of the ten most memorable tours and excursions that I took during my two months in Portugal. You can book them here.
If you have two days, an overnight stay in nearby Coimbra also definitely worth it!
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