Ideas for trip to Lisbon, Albufeira, Cascais, and Sintra in April, 2026

Day 3 tower of Belem sometimes has long lines to get in, the outside is more beautiful than the inside.

Day 4 train to Albufeira, from my own personal experience I choose seats on the right side of the train in the morning and the left side of the train in the afternoon - this is to avoid having the sun in my eyes as the train travels south.
Train tickets can be purchased a maximum of 60 days before departure.
Use only the official train site https://cp.pt/en/ .

Day 6, I would go directly to the hotel, check in and afterwards go sightseeing without the worry of luggage.

Day 7 I would stay in Lisbon and take the train to Cascais for the day instead of moving/packing/unpacking.
The train ride is about 50 minutes from Lisbon Cais do Sodre station to Cascais.
You'll need the Navegante Ocasional card to use on the Lisbon to Cascais train and Lisbon to Sintra train, it can also be used on the Lisbon Metro (subway), Lisbon Carris buses and Lisbon ferries to cross the river.
You can buy the card at the train or Metro stations in Lisbon, use the "zapping" function by scaning the card as you enter and exit at the card readers, only load enough money for your trips because it's non refundable.
One card per person.
https://www.metrolisboa.pt/en/buy/viva-viagem-card/

I find the Metro the easiest way to get around Lisbon.
Map of the Metro and intersecting train lines.
https://www.metrolisboa.pt/en/travel/diagrams-and-maps/

Thank you, Autopone. This is very helpful.

Are there escalators or elevators at the Oriente, Alameda, and Rossio Metro stations if you are taking luggage? Or would you recommend taking a taxi from Oriente station to our hotel after we arrive back in Lisbon from Albufeira?

We do not plan to go inside the Tower of Belem, just enjoy it from the exterior.

I still have a lot to learn about the Lisbon area.

When we were in Lisbon, we got the Lisboa Card, which not only gave us admission to several attractions and transportation around Lisbon (and to/from the airport), but it also included the train to Sintra and the train to Cascais. (We did day trips to each.) I don't often think these cards are worth buying, but I thought the Lisboa Card was good value. So, you might want to look into that and see if it would be worth it for your trip: https://lisboa-card.com

Every Metro station that I used has elevators and escalators, the problem is that quite often they don't work. Maybe you'll be lucky and they work when you're there .

Personally I would opt for the taxi from Oriente to Rossio because I don't want haul luggage in the Metro or city buses.
Whatever makes the journey easier and more enjoyable, less stressful, it's worth in my opinion if you can budget for it.

The taxi from Oriente to Rossio should be about €20 depending on traffic plus surcharges for each piece of luggage, night surcharges and weekend surcharges - those are legal surcharges for the taxis in Portugal.

Oriente station has 4 levels:
Level 4 is the top level is for the trains
Level 3 has the ticket booths
Level 2 is the street level, taxis and buses are on the north side of the station at street level
Level 1 is the lowest level, the Metro line is on level 1

I'm adding a link to my trip report if you want to check in out, it's quite long but has some practical info that might be useful to you, the prices are out of date but the rest of the info is ok.
https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/extended-trip-to-portugal-1711933/page2/

Thank you BB and autopone. This is great information. I appreciate it.