We woke up very early in the morning to reach Cais do Sodré metro station, where we took a train across the south coast of Portugal.
Prices:
- one simple metro ticket is 1,45 Euro/pers and one for the whole day, in the Lisbon zone costs 6.30 Euro/pers having access to bus, metro and tram.
Good to know: before buying tickets you need to buy a transportation card called Viva Viagem card where you will put all the money for public transportation. One card costs 0.50 Euros and can be used for 1 year.
- a train ticket from Lisbon to Cascais is 2.25 per person.
After buying the ticket, we entered the train and in 30-40 minutes we reached a brilliant resort of Portugal, spoiled by the sunlight which barely made its presence felt.
We stayed a little bit on the beach, then wondering around the beautiful and colourful houses of Cascais, while reaching slow but steady Boca do Inferno, a spectacular place.
Our trip continued to the westernmost point of Europe, Cabo da Roca, but railway routes do not reach that place. Our alternative was to take bus 403, which leaves hourly,everyday.
Cabo da Roca is situated 15 km away from Cascais, in the north, which can be reached in 15-20 minutes, after a beautiful journey in the serpentine road between the two locations.
Prices:
- A bus ticket from Cascais to Cabo da Roca is 4,30 Euro/person
Good to know: when you reach Cabo da Roca, please note that this is an open space and it might get very windy even during summer. You should probably have a warm coat when you get here.
With the same bus that took us to Cabo da Roca, we continued our trip to the fairytale city, Sintra. The distance from Cabo da Roca to Sintra is 18 km, which we reached in 25-30 minutes.
Prices:
- A bus ticket from Cabo da Roca to Sintra is 4.15 Euro/person
Our objective was to visit Cascais and Cabo da Roca before 10am and then go to Sintra in order to spend the rest of the day there. Please note that most objectives from Sintra open to tourists after 10 am, which represents a good reason for our strategy.
Bus 403 lets you in the center of Sintra and from here you can easily access bus 434 which will take you to all tourist attractions or you can walk to each one of them, but the distances are really long between them.
In order to visit everything in Sintra you will probably need 2 days, but having only one day at our disposal we visited only a couple of attractions.
Pena Palace
This building is similar to the ones from fairytales, therefore we were. Besides the fact that it is an architectural wonderland, it is well situated on a hill that offers a good visibility to the surroundings around Sintra.
Pena Palace was constructed as a residence for Queen Mary II and Prince Ferdinand II on the site of an ancient monastery, at the beginning of the 19th century. It represents one of the 7 wonders of Portugal and it is said that Walt Disney was inspired by this castle.
Prices: one ticket to enter the Pena Palace is 14 euro/adult and 12,5 Euro/child and senior.
Quinta da Regaleira
Our next stop in Sintra was Quinta da Regaleira, a magnificent place surrounded by mistery and history, less promoted than Pena Palace, but in our opinion is much more impressive.
The garden that surrounds Quinta da Regaleira is filled with caves, caverns and different fountains that offer incredible images. For us, the most impressive place was the fountain in spiral formation, having a 27 meters depth with stairs around the well.
Prices: one ticket to enter Quinta da Regaleira is 6 eur per adult and 4 eur for a child or a senior.
Other places that you can visit in Sintra: National Palace from Sintra situated in the old part of the city, Moors Castle dating back to the 9th century or Monserate Palace surrounded by beautiful gardens.
After visiting these two remarkable places (Pena Castle si Quinta da Regaleira), we visited the streets from the old part of the city in order to interact with the place where the locals live.
We visited Sintra at the beginning of the December and all streets were filled with Christmas music.
On our way to the train station from Sintra, we found an amusement park, where kids were waiting for Santa to come. He arrived in a carriage with horses escorted by dozens of motorcycles.
Price: the return price from Sintra to Lisbon was 2.25 euro/person.
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