We arrive in Lisbon on June 2 and start a RS tour of Portugal at 5:00 pm on June 5. My original thought was that we should just use that time to reset our biological clocks. Is there an itinerary you could suggest for those 2.5 days before the tour starts? I am wondering whether it is possible to head to one of the beach towns for the day without a car or whether we should just slow down, sip some coffee/port/vinho verde and watch the world go by. Thanks!
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1714 posts
You could easily come to Cascais for those days without a car. The last I heard, RS wasn't that high on Cascais (and that's great for those of us who live here)! So, the tour will likely not include this area. There are several small beaches plus a very large one a couple of miles out of town.
Or just sitting at a few of the miradouros in Lisbon drinking wine for two days would be great, too!
If you are interested in Cascais, feel free to PM me and I would be happy to give you pointers on hotels, restaurants, etc.
Posted by
WA, USA
330 posts
Hi there,
Went on the Portugal tour and stayed in Lisbon for 4 days to adjust to time and to see a few extra things.
Before the Portugal tour, we went to Sintra for one day and half the day to Cascais and Estroil. Both easy to get too.
In Lisbon, If you interested in the tiles, I would go to the Tile museum. Please note, not much is in English at the museum. We took a taxi to get there, but a bus back. The RS tour doesn't go there. Also, the tour didn't visit the insides of the Carmo and the Sao Roque churches. I only went to the Carmo, very lovely. Some others on the tour went to Sao Roque and said it was really nice. These two churches are very close to each other.
My favorite was the St. Vicente de Fora church and cloisters (RS tour doesn't go by it at all). To get to the cloisters, it is next to the church on the right. A little difficult to find at first. Get there before 4 pm. They have the most beautiful blue tiles throughout the cloisters. Other art items throughout.
We also went on a ferry ride to the Christo Rei. We took another ferry back to Belem and went to the Monument to the Discoveries. The RS tour will stop here, but if you want to go up in the elevator for the view, its difinitely worth it. There wasn't time to do it with the group, so I was glad we did it prior to the tour starting. I am a part-time photographer, and the view/photo of the map on the pavement was beautiful.
When we went, there was half a day for exploring on one of the RS tour days, so we did St. Vincente at that time.
The tour was really nice. We had Cristina as our guide, she was fantastic! The food was delicious!
Have a wonderful time!
Posted by
Washington State
7 posts
We are doing this tour in October with Rick Steve's.... I will be curious to hear your experiences and thoughts. We will arrive 2 or 3 days before the tour and I was considering staying in Cascais and day tripping to Sintra. Staying a few days in Lisbon sounds fun, too.
Posted by
South Salem, New York, United States
11 posts
We are doing the Portugal tour in May. The itinerary says the tour does the three neighborhood walks on the morning of Day 2, the first real tour day. Can someone who has done the tour advise, does it really cover the 3 walks in Rick's book? It seems a lot of ground to cover in a morning, so I wonder if they don't take some shortcuts, or leave some parts out.