Portugal: Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais and the Arrábida Coast

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Lisbon

   Lisbon Airport to your hotel in central Lisbon

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), about 7 km north of the centre, where a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the short ride to the hotel that is your base for all six nights. Check-in is from mid-afternoon, so if you land early, leave your bags and walk down the Rua Augusta to the river at Praça do Comércio, the great square rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the week: which mornings start early to beat the queues, how the out-of-town days work, and what the streets are like underfoot, since Lisbon's polished limestone paving, the calçada, is slippery in the wet. You collect your earpiece, and we walk to a small restaurant nearby for a welcome dinner of Portuguese dishes. Plan to land by about 3 pm to reach the briefing comfortably; if you arrive later, your guide meets you at breakfast.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Lisbon Airport (LIS)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner near the hotel

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Belém at opening, Alfama by tram and on foot

   Lisbon to Belém, then Tram 28 to São Jorge Castle and down through Alfama

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém when it opens, ahead of the tour coaches, to walk the two-storey cloister of carved Manueline limestone, begun in 1501 with money from the spice trade, and to see Vasco da Gama's tomb in the church. The monastery and the Belém Tower were listed together by UNESCO in 1983, and we follow the river path past the Monument to the Discoveries for the view of the tower from the water's edge. A warm custard tart from the Belém bakery that has baked them since 1837 comes next, then a sit-down lunch. In the afternoon we board Tram 28, the old wooden yellow tram, at its Martim Moniz terminus; the afternoon queue there can be long, so your guide holds our place while you wait nearby, and the tram grinds up through the narrow streets of Graça to the castle hill. From the walls of São Jorge Castle you see the whole city and the Tagus, then we walk downhill through Alfama's stairs and lanes to the Sé cathedral. The evening is yours.

   Compris

   • Jerónimos Monastery at opening, with the cloister and the church
   • The Belém riverfront: the Monument to the Discoveries and the Belém Tower from outside
   • A custard tart in Belém
   • Sit-down lunch
   • Tram 28 ride to the castle hill
   • São Jorge Castle
   • Guided walk down through Alfama to the Sé cathedral

   Option plus facile : Our vehicle takes you from the castle to the Sé and the Baixa instead of the Alfama stairs.

   Option plus active : Walk up to the castle from the Baixa instead of riding the tram, a steep 20 to 30 minutes on stairs and cobbles.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : Jerónimos is closed on Mondays, so this day never falls on a Monday. Tram 28 is busiest in the afternoon; we board at the terminus and your guide queues for the group. About 6 km on foot, mostly downhill.

   

3. Jour 3 : Sintra at opening

   Lisbon to Sintra: Pena Palace, Quinta da Regaleira and Monserrate, then back to Lisbon

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave at 8:15 for Sintra, about 40 minutes west, to be on the shuttle when Pena's park opens at 9:00 and inside the palace on the first timed entry at 9:30, before the hill fills with coaches. Tour vehicles cannot drive into Sintra's historic centre, so we ride the last stretch up by local shuttle. Pena, built in the mid-19th century for King Ferdinand II on a rocky summit, is all yellow and red towers, with the Atlantic in view on a clear morning; the whole Sintra landscape has been on the UNESCO list since 1995. Next is Quinta da Regaleira, an early 20th-century estate of grottoes, tunnels and towers whose Initiation Well spirals down about 27 metres. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Sintra town, with a queijada or travesseiro pastry to follow. In the quieter afternoon we drive a few minutes west to Monserrate, a 19th-century palace in a garden of plants gathered from around the world, and are back in Lisbon by late afternoon.

   Compris

   • Pena Palace and its park at the first entry, with the shuttle up the hill
   • Quinta da Regaleira and the Initiation Well
   • Sit-down lunch in Sintra
   • Monserrate palace and gardens

   Option plus facile : Skip the tunnels and stairs at Quinta da Regaleira and wait in a café in Sintra town, or stay on the flat paths near Monserrate's palace.

   Option plus active : Walk down from Pena to Sintra town on the woodland path past the Moorish Castle walls, about 3 km and steep, instead of the shuttle.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Lisbon

   Activité : Pena's timed palace slots have no late entry, so we book the 9:30 slot and leave Lisbon at 8:15. About 7 km on foot with steep paths and stairs in Pena's park and at Regaleira.

   

4. Jour 4 : Tiles in the morning, fado at night

   The National Tile Museum, then a free afternoon in Lisbon, then a fado dinner

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 4

   A slower day in the middle of the week. Mid-morning our vehicle takes us east along the river to the National Tile Museum, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, housed in the Madre de Deus convent founded in 1509. Your guide walks you through five centuries of Portuguese tiles, from Moorish-style geometric patterns to blue-and-white Baroque panels and 20th-century designs, and the convent church, lined with gilded wood and tiles. The highlight is a panorama of Lisbon in blue and white, more than 20 metres long, showing the waterfront as it looked before the 1755 earthquake. Back in the centre by lunchtime, the rest of the day is free: the Gulbenkian Museum's collection from Egypt to Lalique, the LX Factory market, a long lunch or a nap. In the evening we meet again for dinner at a fado house in Alfama, where the city's own song, listed by UNESCO in 2011, is sung between courses.

   Compris

   • National Tile Museum with your guide
   • Fado dinner in Alfama

   Activités en option

   • The Gulbenkian Museum
   • The LX Factory market
   • A tile-painting class

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : The Tile Museum is closed on Mondays, so this day never falls on a Monday.

   

5. Jour 5 : The Arrábida coast and Setúbal by boat

   Lisbon over the 25 de Abril Bridge to the Serra da Arrábida, then Setúbal and a boat on the Sado estuary

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave at 8:30 and cross the Tagus on the 25 de Abril Bridge, opened in 1966, and drive south to the Serra da Arrábida, a limestone ridge that drops straight into a clear green sea, protected as a natural park since 1976. The ridge road runs high above the coast, past the white Arrábida Convent on the slope, and we stop at the viewpoints in the clear morning light, then go down to Portinho da Arrábida, a small cove with a fishing quay. We reach Setúbal by about 11:00, while its Livramento market is still busy (most stalls wind down around midday), a a long hall lined with tile panels and full of fish, Azeitão cheese and fruit. Lunch is a sit-down meal of choco frito, the town's fried cuttlefish, with a glass of Moscatel de Setúbal. In the afternoon we board a boat on the Sado estuary to look for its resident bottlenose dolphins, out towards the Tróia sand spit, and are back on the quay by about 4:30, before the hour's drive back to Lisbon.

   Compris

   • The Arrábida ridge road and viewpoints
   • Portinho da Arrábida
   • Setúbal's Livramento market with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Setúbal with a glass of Moscatel
   • Dolphin-watching boat trip on the Sado estuary, about 2.5 hours

   Option plus facile : Skip the boat and spend the afternoon in Setúbal's old town and cafés; the vehicle collects you on the quay.

   Option plus active : Walk a stretch of the ridge path between two Arrábida viewpoints, about 3 km with short climbs, and meet the vehicle at the next stop.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : The market is open Tuesday to Sunday in the morning, so we are there by about 11:00 and this day never falls on a Monday. This is the longest day: about 2.25 hours of driving in three legs and a 2.5-hour boat trip from about 2 pm, back on the quay before the winter sunset. In high summer private traffic is restricted on the coast road to Portinho, and we use the ridge road and the local shuttle. In winter the boat sails only in fair weather; if it cannot, we visit a Moscatel wine house in Azeitão instead. Dolphin sightings are likely but never certain.

6. Jour 6 : Cascais to Guincho on foot, and Cabo da Roca

   Lisbon to Cascais, the seafront path past Boca do Inferno to Guincho, then Cabo da Roca and back to Cascais

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lisbon
   Détail du jour 6

   We drive about 40 minutes west along the coast road to Cascais, the fishing town that became the royal family's summer resort in the 1870s, and start walking from the harbour. The path follows the shore past the citadel and the marina to Boca do Inferno, where the sea surges into a collapsed cave in the cliffs, then runs on a flat paved seafront track beside the Guincho road, with dunes and rocky coves on one side and the hills of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park on the other. After about 8 to 9 km and two and a half to three hours of easy walking you reach Guincho, a long Atlantic beach known for its wind and kitesurfers, and a sit-down lunch of grilled fish. Our vehicle then climbs to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, where cliffs drop about 140 metres to the sea. The late afternoon is free in Cascais, and we drive back to Lisbon in the early evening.

   Compris

   • Guided walk from Cascais past Boca do Inferno to Guincho beach
   • Sit-down lunch at Guincho
   • Cabo da Roca
   • Free time in Cascais

   Option plus facile : Walk only from Cascais to Boca do Inferno, about 2 km, and ride the rest of the way to Guincho with the vehicle.

   Option plus active : Stay on in Cascais for dinner and take the coastal train back to Cais do Sodré in Lisbon, about 40 minutes, at your own cost.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon free in Cascais

   Activité : About 8 to 9 km on a flat paved path (we confirm the exact distance), exposed to wind and sun with little shade.

   

7. Jour 7 : Lisbon to the airport, or on to Porto

   Your hotel in central Lisbon to Lisbon Airport, or Santa Apolónia station

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 7

   The morning is yours for a last walk: coffee and a pastry at a counter in the Baixa, a ride on the Santa Justa lift, or a final look over the city from the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint, which is lovely in the clear early light. Check-out is late morning, and our vehicle takes the group to Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), about 20 minutes away, arriving around midday, in time for flights from about 2:30 pm. Your guide checks your flight details the evening before and sees you to the terminal. If you want more of Portugal, this week works as the start of a longer trip: our Lisbon, Porto and Douro Valley route heads north, and our Alentejo and Algarve walking trip heads south, and we can drop you at Santa Apolónia station for the train or add hotel nights in between. Earlier flights need a separate transfer, which we arrange at cost.

   Compris

   • Drop-off at Lisbon Airport (LIS) or Santa Apolónia station

   Temps libre : Morning free

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 2:30 pm.

Faune et météo : Spring and autumn are mild and the best months for walking. July and August are hot and busy in Sintra and Belém, so we start early. Winter, from November to February, is mild but wetter, with short days and quiet sights: the plan stays the same, Sintra closes earlier, and the Sado boat sails only in fair weather, with a Moscatel wine house in Azeitão instead if it cannot. The Sado estuary has a resident group of bottlenose dolphins seen through the year, though sightings are never certain.

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