Travel Guide to Lisbon and near places

[Will W.]

If you are basing yourself in Lisbon, it is best to take the train to both Sintra and Cascais: the tickets are inexpensive and there is no need to buy in advance, assuming that you would be travelling in an opposite direction of the commuters arriving in Lisbon for work. And whilst not impossible, parking can be inconvenient in both towns, particularly during the tourist season, and it is time consuming to get into central Cascais by car when there is any sort of traffic, owing to the limited number of access roads running to that point.

The sights in Sintra are somewhat spread around, which is to say that there is a fair bit of walking involved, generally up- and downhill. The two person electric 'cars' to which you refer offer no advantage insofar as (i) one still have to navigate traffic and (ii) find someplace to park. The low profile of the 'cars' makes them somewhat dangerous to the occupants, because the locals - whilst courteous drivers - are generally inattentive behind the wheel and still (in my view) unaccustomed to the vehicles in question. Should you become fed up with walking in Sintra, there are tuk-tuks and buses to take one around, though I expect that the tuk-tuks are expensive, being as they are a novelty for tourists.

The bits of Cascais of interest to visitors fall into a relatively small area of the town, which is to note that one can easily walk everywhere.

In my experience, the best time to visit both towns is during the week: the locals (from Lisbon) pile into Sintra at the weekend for walks around the rather fetching park; they head to Cascais at weekends for the restaurants and, during the fairer weather, the beach.