On this post, we’ll show where we walked through and what we visited in that charming region, surrounded by amazing places with beaches, hills and an amazing city as Lisbon, which has so much history and a fantastic vibe.

Restelo

We found an awesome location of Airbnb in the district of Restelo, where we stayed for almost one week. There, you can find a lot of touristic attractions, such as Belém Tower, built almost inside Tagus river in 1514. You can find more information about the tickets to visit inside it on torredebelem.pt. Another place is Padrão dos Descobrimentos, awesome place to take photos and remember about History classes, as that is where the discoverers of Brazil left from.

The gardens of Belém are charming too, as there are many pubs and restaurants very next to them. That’s where some fairs take place on weekends, such as the Thai one, which we ended up seeing.

One place that is one of the greatest attractions is the bakery where some delicious sweets named ‘pastéis de Belém’, or ‘pastéis de nata’ are sold, and we closely checked it, hot and with cinnamon, sugar and some coffee. They’re really delicious, and we also tasted some very delicious coxinhas (pear-shaped, deep-fried chicken filled croquettes). Learn more about their history and products on the link pasteisdebelem.pt.

Praça of Comércio

That is a historical symbol and also the entrance to one of the main streets in the center of Lisbon, the so-called rua Augusta and its grand arch. We can consider this last one as a real outdoor mall. That’s the perfect place for whomever wants to taste and enjoy the typical local food, or go shopping, besides seeing other touristic attractions such as this ones that we visited: Santa Justa Lift, Money Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Largo do Carmo, Luís de Camões Square, and Bertrand bookstore, the oldest one in the world.

Avenida of Liberdade

After leaving rua Augusta, we started walking through Rossio square. We saw a fair, we passed through Ascensor da Glória and walked through Avenida da Liberdade until Marquis of Pombal square and Parque Eduardo VII. This last one, as said, is a great viewpoint to all the center of the city, with charming landscapes.

Talking a little more about the avenue, that’s where you’ll find a lot of brand stores, such as: Victoria Secret’s, Michael Kors, Rolex, etc…

Mercado of Ribeira

In front of Cais do Sodré train station, you can find an interesting market, inaugurated in 1882. In one part, usual fair products, such as fruits, vegetables, meats and fish, are sold. And there’s another part that has 24 restaurants, 8 bars with a great cuisine, from finger food to super refined dishes. You can find more details on timeoutmarket.com.

Alfama

For whomever wants to visit more places and not waste time on displacement, there are countless tuk-tuks around the city. They may take you quickly, but if you prefer, you can take a chilling tour, enjoying even more the guide services of drivers.

We met Carla and Carlos, who own the Instagram lisboaesperaporti, which carries out a lot of tours around Lisbon and nearby, and they took us to visit the district of Alfama, from Miradouro das Portas do Sol, which has a terrific view of all the bay of Tagus river, and we saw a lot of stairways and narrow alleys, a store of decorated handmade tiles, the cathedral of Lisbon, and lots of pubs playing fado, very traditional music from Portugal.

The company Lisboa Espera por Ti is reliable and they carry out personalized tour according to your needs, and the best part, with small groups. They’re Brazilian, but they have been in Lisbon for a long time, carrying out amazing tours around Lisbon and nearby.

Here are their contacts:

Address: Avenida Liberdade, Lisbon

+351 939 378 688

Sintra

We walked a lot through those mountains and we visited all of the touristic attractions, all on foot, facing a lot of uphill, downhill and stairs! But take it easy! There’re also accesses for whomever wants to go there by car or by bus. I’ll talk about what we visited:

Quinta da Regaleira: It’s an amazing palace full of details on its walls, gardens, ponds and charming caves. The price of the ticket and other details are on regaleira.pt.

Castle of the Moors: On the hilltops of Sintra, it has a wonderful overall view, and a very interesting story about the invasion of Portugal. It was built in the 8th century. Tickets on parquedesintra.pt.

Pena Palace: With remarkable shades of yellow and red, which can be seen from far, it’s even more beautiful to see closely the details of the walls, towers, gardens and the chapel. It was built in 1847. Tickets on parquedesintra.pt

And there’s still much more to enjoy around Sintra, the ones above were what we could visit in one day. Here are the names of some other options, such as National Palace, Saint Martin’s Church and museums. The little town is full of excellent restaurants and coffee shops. There’s also the electric tram which goes to the beach Praia das Maçãs, which we visited, and still in another day we went to the beach Praia Grande and Azenhas do Mar, as our Airbnb was very close to them.

We had a good time there, as we rented a tent from the airbnb, that’s right, in an all structured place, with a kitchen, a pool, restrooms, recreation areas, and a great green area with animals.

Cascais

We found another Airbnb very close to the beach Praia da Parede and enjoyed that place for one week, what we really loved. It’s full of touristic attractions, casinos, parks, amazing beaches. And the center of Cascais has a lot of tourists and much agitation, with pubs, restaurants, bars and divine coffee shops, and all on the edge of a marvelous view of the beach.

We also visited the famous Boca do Inferno, a place with rocks inside the sea, but the access, on foot, is on the coast. Due to natural actions, a hole among the rocks was formed, creating an amazing visual.

That’s the perfect place to relax and enjoy each day, with lots of beautiful beaches and places to enjoy during day and night. Be sure to visit the store of sardines made according to each birth year. It’s very cool, right next to the central sidewalk of Cascais.

Where to stay

We chose to stay with Airbnb, and we found an excellent place, a complete apartment, just 8 km from the center very close to the Belém Tower and some tourist spots, we still had full attention by our host. We also stayed in the Janas region, a very quiet place and close to the apple and watermill beaches, and also to Sintra. Another place we spent a few days was at a beach near cascais called wall. Let’s leave here our Airbnb link, so you can get a discount too, Good!

https://abnb.me/e/goNilApbcU

Here in Lisbon and region we stayed in many cool airbnbs, if you want to see it, access our instagram in the highlights of the stories, there we show the details of the place and when it cost. Follow the link.

https://www.instagram.com/coutrips/

Means of Transport

We arrived via Flixbus bus from Porto, worth 20 Euros (90 reais) each ticket. Once inside the city we went by bus to our Airbnb, as the bus stop is in front of the bus station. The means of transport are great and very comfortable, it is very easy to use, there are totems where you can buy tickets 1.5 Euros.

Link: http://www.flixbus.pt

Safely of City

For the period we stayed we found it very safe, and we saw a lot of policing in the streets and in the tourist spots. We walked a lot throughout the city during the day and it was very quiet, people are super friendly and helpful. We also avoid walking alone after 9 pm. We love walking around here.

Travel Insurance

For you to travel in peace, it’s important to have a travel insurance which keeps you safe and has a comprehensive coverage. We always ensure with April Brasil Seguro Viagem,  which covers all around the world, it has an app that is easy to access, for you not to keep all that paperwork when you need to use it, the best part, you can access it from everywhere in the world with service in our language.

So, don’t waste time and hire something safe, and we have a discount coupon, we’ll leave the link below too! Run and use it.

DISCOUNT COUPON: COUTRIPS10%

https://www.aprilbrasil.com.br/coutrips

Internet For Your Trip

To keep your connection during all the trip, you need a great SIM card, with a worldwide coverage, internet 3G and 4G. For that, we used Easysim4u, the best internet SIM card in the world for your trip. And see that we have been through some countries and we always had the coverage of the plans of Easysim4u. Don’t waste time, run and hire your SIM card for your next trip.

Here’s the link for you to access and ensure your connection to the internet in the world.

https://www.easysim4u.com/?sourceCode=coutrips

Kind of Currency

The local currency of Lisbon is the Euro, and the dollar exchange rate in July / 2019 is $ 1.00 to 0.90 Euro. We recommend changing the currency in a safe place such as an airport or an Exchange, bank in the city. It is good to always have the local currency.

Total Expenses

Our currency expenses (REAL) in Lisbon for 5 days for the couple looked like this:

Food: R$ 127.00 (market, snacks)

Transportation: R$ 39.00 (bus + trains)

Accommodation: R$ 403.00 (Airbnb)

Our currency expenses (REAL) in Sintra for 4 days for the couple looked like this:

Food: R$ 69.00 (market, snacks)

Transportation: R$ 98.00 (bus)

Accommodation: R$ 363.00 (Airbnb)

Our currency expenses (REAL) in Cascais for 4 days for the couple looked like this:

Food: R$ 356.00 (market, snacks, birthday Tami)

Transportation: R$ 56.00 (bus + trains)

Accommodation: R$ 355.00 (Airbnb)

Portugal really surprised me. We found lots of different regions, with grand cities, sea, hills and all calm places!

We had a lot of fun everywhere, and we definitely hope to go back and enjoy again what we miss there.