We visited continental Portugal in the autumn of 2019 and had a fantastic time. Portugal has such a wide variety of sights and activities that it is likely that even the pickiest of travellers would be able to find something to enjoy. We split our vacation between the Algarve and Greater Lisbon which gave us a perfect balance of stunning natural scenery and man made marvels. In this guide I hope I can inspire you to visit and to save some money while you are at it.
Planning
We decided to visit Portugal in October due to the pleasant weather and the low cost of flights. We looked at flying into Faro and just holidaying in the Algarve but found that flights were more expensive and there wasn’t enough to fill our time for the 8 full days we were planning on being in Portugal. As such we decided it would be fun to split our time between the Algarve and Lisbon, spending half the time in each. Since we managed to find cheap flights to Lisbon we had to decide how to get from Lisbon to the South coast. We looked into train travel, but this seemed quite difficult to plan since you would need to connect in Tunes to get to whatever town we chose to stay in. We would also have to figure out how to get around once we were down there. In the end we went for car hire which was a pretty great decision. Lisbon seems to consistently have some of the cheapest car hire rates of any place I have driven. We were able to rent a car for an average of 5 Euros a day for the length of our trip which was frankly ludicrous.
Our next decision was where to stay in the Algarve. The Algarve hugs the Southern Coast of Portugal so pretty much all travel is East to West. As such if you want to be able to visit all of it while minimising the length of travel, it is sensible to pick somewhere which isn’t to one extreme or another. Faro is the capital of the Algarve and it’s largest city. It is also the furthest East so doesn’t make a good base if you are planning on visiting Sagres. The central area of the Algarve stretches from Lagos to Armação de Pêra. We decided to stay in Lagos due to the availability of reasonable accommodation as well as its easy access to other areas we wanted to visit.
Itinerary
We chose to pick a major city per day, so we had a day in Lagos itself, another in Sagres, a day where we took a boat trip from Armação de Pêra and visited Silves and finally a day in Faro. This route really gave us a good appreciation of the variety that the Algarve offers. We
- Ponta da Piedade was truly breathtaking;
- Sagres was beautiful but incredibly windy;
- The boat ride was fantastic, especially since it ended up being private;
- Silves was very quaint and little person really enjoyed running around the castle at the top; Faro was a really interest contrast with the old walled town, the new marina and a huge shopping mall.
The Algarve was also the place where I discovered how good Portuguese piri piri chicken is. Whilst we were in Silves we decided to stop for some chicken on the way back to where we had parked. We noticed a reasonably popular restaurant called Churrasqueira Valdemar, and were essentially told what to order by the person who seated us. This remains one of the best decisions I have ever made. That chicken pretty much changed my life, until that point I never knew that grilled chicken could actually be that delicious. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend going there.
The second half of our trip, as I mentioned earlier, was in Lisbon. We had a day each set aside for drives to Sintra and Cascais and spent the remaining three days exploring the different parts of Lisbon. We chose to stay in a very inexpensive apartment close to the airport since getting around Lisbon is fairly easy, though negotiating entrances and exits to the highways was a bit hair raising.
In Lisbon we visited the Oceanarium which little person loved, explored Belem, used the old trams, and the Santa Justa elevator, and went to all the major sites in the city including Edward VI park which had one of my favourite views ever. We also crossed the bridge and visited the Sanctuary of Christ the King, Lisbon’s version of Christ the Redeemer which we had spotted on the flight in from London. The city is truly beautiful and well worth exploring in full. It is also a very outdoorsy city with many people spending evenings relaxing by the river which was lovely.
While we were in Lisbon we spent time engaging in sampling our other big Portuguese love, Pastel de Nata, the little custard tart which seems to be taking over the world at the moment. I had first tried these on a solo visit to Lisbon to take care of some family business so I was keen to explore them fully with Shleah and little person. We tried them from Manteigaria, Fábrica da Nata, Pastelaria Batalha, Pastéis de Belém and Confeitaria Nacional. In the end our favourites were Manteigaria and Fábrica da Nata with Manteigaria as our favourite.
Sintra was an amazing day trip from Lisbon, we chose to drive since we had the car anyway, but found a free car park close to the train station then bought a day bus ticket to get us up to the Pena Palace and Castelo dos Mouros.
After returning to the car we were able to drive out to Monserrate palace which was much less crowded than the other two. If you are visiting Pena Palace with young children it is important to remember that you do not need to stay in the line to get into the palace, which can be incredibly long. There is a separate much shorter line for people with young children or health problems so make sure to use that.
Cascais was also a really nice place to visit, serving as a contrast to the more metropolitan Lisbon. It is not very big so you do not feel like you need to rush to see everything. At the same time the beach is very picturesque and the Boca do Inferno (Hells Mouth) is really very impressive indeed.
All in all we really enjoyed Portugal, and the fact it was easy on your pocket was an even bigger benefit. Here are a few recommendations for if you are considering a Portugal trip of your own.
- If you want a trip on the trams in Lisbon, get the 24 hour public transport ticket. This costs under 7 Euro per person and gives you access to all of the trams, the funiculars and also the public lifts, most impressive of which is the Elevador de Santa Justa.
- Free parking is available in Belem if you are willing to walk into Lisbon city centre, this can save you a reasonable amount on parking fees if you are not staying in the centre and have a car.
- Watch out for the entrances and exits of the various roads around Lisbon, their condition is pretty bad and many of the exits are very abrupt.
- Wherever you are in Portugal, lookout for the Churrasqueiras that you can find almost anywhere. The Portuguese love eating chicken, and getting a take away from the local rotisserie shop is almost a right of passage. Supermarkets also do chicken, but the takeaways are generally tastier.
- For a taste of Lisbon, we definitely recommend visiting Time Out Market Lisboa, one of our favourite food halls. It lets you try excellent plates of food without having to commit to a particular restaurant. Ensuring everyone can try something different.
