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One week for Lisbon, Sintra and Cascais

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My wife and I are in our 60’s and planning our first trip to Portugal next October.
We want to visit Cascais, Lisbon and Sintra to start. We are thinking of doing things a bit backwards. Instead of staying in Lisbon and taking day trips to the other towns, we want to stay in Cascais for a week as our home base and “commute” to Sintra and Lisbon. We figure it is off-season so Cascais should be relatively inexpensive and less crowded and more relaxing than Lisbon. We also think there is enough to see in Sintra and Cascais to warrant more than a day trip from Lisbon and that we can see the best of Lisbon in a couple of day trips with short train rides.

We have driven many times in Europe for flexibility and convenience but we have heard parking is difficult in these towns so we thought it best to use trains/buses to get to and from each location. For local travel in each town we would use trams or metro and we also plan to book organized tours via booking.com and/or getyourguide which has worked well for us in the past. These tours may also help with travel, especially in Sintra which we hear is very hilly and not easy to walk around.

Does our approach make sense? Any thoughts or suggestions? Are we missing anything?

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Posted by
7744 posts

Cascais is a cute town, I don't see anything wrong with your approach, except, it won't be off-season, and I suspect lodging in Cascais would be more than lodging in Lisbon. We visited in April, well after Easter. Cascais was quite busy.

Posted by
137 posts

I think your approach makes sense, our first trip to Portugal (2019) we chose Sintra as a base and we loved being there at the end of day and in the evening once the day trippers had left. I also really like Cascais. And after several subsequent trips still prefer spending some time in both over Lisbon, just my preference. Parking is difficult, we found trains and buses easy to use and used Uber between Cascais and Sintra. We walked everywhere in Sintra, so much to explore.

Posted by
1970 posts

As a previous poster mentioned, October is still pretty busy in Cascais. But, it is definitely more relaxing than Lisbon. Early October is better for weather but busier.

I agree with not renting a car. The train to Lisbon from Cascais is easy and inexpensive. You can get to Sintra by bus, but it’s slow. Uber or Bolt is better and around €7 one way.
Cascais has many restaurants with lots of variety of cuisines and it’s great to wander, have long lunches by the water and just people watch.

You might try an Airbnb for better pricing but I think they are still expensive, especially if you want to stay in the historic center. If you are a bit out of the center, inquire about how close the apartment is to the bus routes. We have a pretty extensive bus system. It’s €2 a day. Once you buy, you can ride as much as you want. I’ve lived here for ten years without a car and live very comfortably with the buses and Uber/Bolt.

Posted by
6 posts

Thank you all so much for your insights. Good to know that Oct is not exactly off-season but that is ok. I also appreciate the suggestion to use Bolt or Uber to get to Sintra – I didn’t realize it was that inexpensive

I neglected to mention we always rent apartments vs hotels for the space, convenience if we don’t want to go out to eat, etc. We found one in Cascais that is a bit outside the main town but walkable to the train station to get to Lisbon and reasonably priced.

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