Coimbra is just fantastic. We are really glad that we stayed here for ten days. Coimbra is centrally located in Portugal, on the high speed train line between Lisbon and Porto. You can tell that the city is being kept up. Nice old town. Nice pedestrian zone and shopping areas. Wide sidewalks. Large parks. Good bus system. And a lot of ongoing public works projects appear to be nearly completed.
One of the first things we noticed was that restaurants in Coimbra have reasonable prices. I’m sure it helps that this is a university town. If students and their families make up a large portion of your customer base, you can only charge so much. And there are a lot of young people in town.
We could not have asked for a better place to wrap up our trip to Portugal.
A week before our arrival in Coimbra our Airbnb host messaged to advise us that our apartment was unavailable because the water was shut off for some reason or another. We were offered a nicer, larger apartment as a substitute at no additional cost. The only downside is that the other apartment is across the river in Santa Clara, farther away from where we wanted to be located.
We searched for other options in Coimbra near the grocery stores and old town with no luck. So we took the apartment in Santa Clara. Although nicer and larger, it added a 15 minute walk, each way, for us to get anywhere.
For groceries we decided to load up for our stay, buying almost everything that we could conceivably want at Continente, and paying for a Bolt ride to haul us and our groceries to the apartment. It actually worked out okay.
The most interesting sites in Coimbra are up on the hill, so be prepared for steep sidewalks and stairs. A public elevator (the Elevador do Mercado operated by SMTUC) cuts down the uphill walking quite a bit, but it was on the opposite side of the city from where we were staying and not worth the detour.
On our first full day in town we visited the University of Coimbra, which is definitely the largest tourist attraction in town. The University, dating back to 1290, is one of the oldest in Europe and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A visit to the historic campus is self-guided through several different venues: Palace of Schools (Royal Palace, Joanina Library, the Chapel of St. Michael); Tower of the University (which was closed for renovations); the Cabinet of Curiosities; Physics Lab; Chemistry Lab; and, Academic Museum.
Several ticket options are available. We paid €16.50 each for the complete package, and easily visited everything in one afternoon. The tickets are good for two days. I’m really not sure why anyone would divide up their visit over two days, but it’s possible.
A less expensive €12.50 ticket is an option, but does not include the Joanina Library, a Baroque library built in the early 1700s. A more expensive €25.00 ticket is available if you want a guided tour of the Palace of Schools.
We purchased tickets online. Thankfully a map was provided with our tickets, otherwise we would have had no idea where to go. Our visit started at Paço das Escolas, the Palace of Schools. The main square is bounded by the Royal Palace, the Tower, the Chapel of St. Michael, and the Joanina Library. The square is also super hot, as it is in full sun all day with little to no shade.
Our visit started at the Joanina Library for the simple reason that a timed entry is required. This is the only venue that mandates a timed entry. A major benefit of purchasing tickets online a day or two in advance is that you can select a time slot that works best for your schedule. We selected an early afternoon time slot to kick off our visit.
The Baroque library tour takes about 20 minutes. It starts with a walk through a few prison rooms in the basement before proceeding upstairs to a digital library exhibit. For the last 10 minutes we were in the Joanina Library itself. This large library consists of three rooms with about 60,000 volumes spread over two stories of bookshelves. Lot of wood; lot of gold trim painting.
Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed. But you can see photographs of the library on the University’s website.
Each night the furniture is covered with blankets as bats fly through the library taking care of any insects that may be present.
A maximum of 50 people per time slot are allowed into the library. Our time slot had about 30 people. And it felt crowded. A full complement of 50 people would have been suffocating.
After our time in the Joanina Library concluded, we walked back out into the baking heat of the square and headed next door to the Chapel of St. Michael. A sign on the door asked visitors to knock to enter. After knocking, an employee inside the chapel admitted us. I gather there is a limit to the number of visitors that can enter at any one time, as there was a line outside the door waiting to enter when we left.
It’s a nice chapel, not particularly large, with décor – notably the walls of blue tiles – dating to the 17th century.
Next up was the Royal Palace, which was built in the 10th century, becoming the palace to the first king of Portugal in 1131. Interesting, but short, as the tour only encompasses four rooms.
The Academic Museum portion of the visit is located several blocks away from the Palace of Schools. Basically the museum illustrates what it was like to attend the university hundreds of years ago. Chemistry and physics labs are comprised mostly of display cases full of instruments, with a few practical exhibits. For us these were basically quick walk throughs.
The Cabinet of Curiosities is perhaps the most bizarre natural history room you will ever encounter. It’s a mix of skeletons, stuffed animals, shells, fossils, and indigenous art, among other weird things. You can’t help but spend time in the Cabinet of Curiosities because it is so damn odd. On the way you pass by cabinets full of rocks and minerals … and colored lights.
After finishing up at the University of Coimbra we walked downhill to end our day at Star Kebab & Pizza. Whenever we want to go out to eat, but can’t decide where to go, pizza and kebabs are it. We were pleasantly surprised when Star Kebab & Pizza turned out to be one of the best kebab places we have been to in years.
Garrett and Stephanie
If you have not already done so, read our other post about Coimbra:
Coimbra, Portugal (November, 2025, Part II). Exploring the churches, and monastery, on the hill.
For additional posts about Portugal, or elsewhere in the world, check out our Travel Blog. It contains collected links to all of our travel posts.
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