Oh wow, way ahead of me knowing the countries. I watched a lot of Spain Revealed videos with James Blick. Many are about food and tourism but he also focuses on helping people move there.
Claudia, based on your comments and recommendation for longer in Lisbon, we were able to add another day at the start of our trip. We are doing our air with Tauck so thankfully, it is easy to change the flights, add a hotel night and the airfare stayed the same. I read about Sintra and will try to find the best tour...feedback is welcome. We go the end of August. The forum is so helpful...thank you all.
Nancy, I went back and forth about visiting Sintra on our own or booking a tour. There are different companies that offer tours but it's also supposed to be pretty easy to do it yourself. I recommend buying Rick Steves Snapshot Lisbon guidebook. I got his Portugal guidebook but really the snapshot has the bulk of what you need for this tour. The 2021 version is on sale now but the next updated version is out in April. There are people on his travel forum who have taken tours there or gone on their own who would have recommendations. Good luck.
Our "Week in Portugal" tour last May spent a morning in Sintra. We were at the palace before it opened. When we came out after our tour, there was a HUGE line waiting to get in. So maybe a tour would be better at avoiding the line. I'd check out the various tour offerings and see whether there are any that say that they skip the line. And if you wanted to spend more time in the town, you could always leave the tour and take the train back to Lisbon.
We did a small group Viator tour. Just 8 of us in a SUV. The driver emailed us the day before telling us what time to purchase our tickets for the palace for 9:00 - the opening time. He dropped us off close enough to walk up to the palace. Another option is when you buy your entry tickets you can purchase bus tickets. It’s an uphill hike. We walked it, but wished we had taken the bus. It’s a long walk We were worried we would miss our entry time. We didn’t.
After the palace we had time for the town - not a lot. Then we went to Cabo da Roca. We had been there earlier, but this day was clearer. So we we were glad we went there again. Last stop was Cascais for about 2 hours. We had lunch in Cascais and a pastry in Sintra.
It was a full day 8-5. Pick up spot was the Hard Rock Cafe
Our Sintra and Cascais tours were included in Tauck's Spain and Portugal tour. I highly recommend doing both. I also suggest sending an e-mail to the concierge at Tauck's Lisbon hotel in advance and inquiring about day tours that they either offer or can assist in securing for you. We have done that several times on other tours and/or independent travel and have always been pleased.
We used Your Friend in Lisbon. Great company, great tour. Unfortunately I do not see that they offer the Sintra and Cascais tour we took. As for Viator: I know a lot of people use them, just know they are not a tour company per se. They are a consolidator. All the vendors they offer pay Viator a hefty fee. I tend to look to book directly. Without too much looking I found this company https://nomaptours.com/. I have no first hand knowledge of them but the tours fit the bill, IMHO. We enjoyed Sintra, less impressed with Cascais. It’s a town popular with Brits and British ex-pats so many pubs and the like. We dined along the coast in a restaurant on a cliff above the ocean. Great seafood. Can’t find the name, darn it!
I visited Lisbon independently - I used Lisbon Explorer for all of my private tours including Sintra. I was extremely impressed with the tours and their guides. I highly recommend!
I believe the Cascais restaurant Folsomdoc is referring to is Mar do Inferno.
Yes, wonderful fish and seafood...the octopus and white asparagus (seasonal) are fabulous. Beautiful views, especially if you are lucky enough to get a table on the terrace. Cascais also has a lovely food market and some great shops to browse in. The market might only be open on Saturdays, however.
So many of the tours I found for Sintra included Caiscais which I didn't have any interest in either though Cabo De Roca might have been nice on a good day.
The concierge at the Intercontinental was helpful when we got there but I could never find a direct way to contact them ahead of time.
The RS guidebook will tell you how to get there and around plus recommended tour companies if you'd prefer that. We've had good luck with viator tours but I always check the details like cancellation policy which can vary.
As most know this tour includes a lot of port tasting opportunities. About 3 different ones I found I liked well enough to be interested in buying. Mostly the white and rose ports. We were assured they had US distributors so we opted not to go thru the hassle of toting them home in our checked luggage. Big mistake. I had visions of happily going into our local Total Wines outlet and finding our new favorites. Nope.
Total Wine website does have some of the wines from the particular vineyards we visited but not the specific wines we liked. They mostly just carry standard ruby and tawny ports which generally were not my favorite. One wine I found thru the portugalwineyards.com. Wine cost about $15 a bottle and shipping $29.
Long story short, if you find one you like, buy it there even if it means carefully wrapping it and packing in your checked baggage.
Ill just have to hope the market in the US for white and rose ports grows.
Comments
Oh wow, way ahead of me knowing the countries. I watched a lot of Spain Revealed videos with James Blick. Many are about food and tourism but he also focuses on helping people move there.
Claudia - I will check out the James Blick videos if it happens that I decide to move.
Claudia, based on your comments and recommendation for longer in Lisbon, we were able to add another day at the start of our trip. We are doing our air with Tauck so thankfully, it is easy to change the flights, add a hotel night and the airfare stayed the same. I read about Sintra and will try to find the best tour...feedback is welcome. We go the end of August. The forum is so helpful...thank you all.
Nancy, I went back and forth about visiting Sintra on our own or booking a tour. There are different companies that offer tours but it's also supposed to be pretty easy to do it yourself. I recommend buying Rick Steves Snapshot Lisbon guidebook. I got his Portugal guidebook but really the snapshot has the bulk of what you need for this tour. The 2021 version is on sale now but the next updated version is out in April. There are people on his travel forum who have taken tours there or gone on their own who would have recommendations. Good luck.
Our "Week in Portugal" tour last May spent a morning in Sintra. We were at the palace before it opened. When we came out after our tour, there was a HUGE line waiting to get in. So maybe a tour would be better at avoiding the line. I'd check out the various tour offerings and see whether there are any that say that they skip the line. And if you wanted to spend more time in the town, you could always leave the tour and take the train back to Lisbon.
We did a small group Viator tour. Just 8 of us in a SUV. The driver emailed us the day before telling us what time to purchase our tickets for the palace for 9:00 - the opening time. He dropped us off close enough to walk up to the palace. Another option is when you buy your entry tickets you can purchase bus tickets. It’s an uphill hike. We walked it, but wished we had taken the bus. It’s a long walk We were worried we would miss our entry time. We didn’t.
After the palace we had time for the town - not a lot. Then we went to Cabo da Roca. We had been there earlier, but this day was clearer. So we we were glad we went there again. Last stop was Cascais for about 2 hours. We had lunch in Cascais and a pastry in Sintra.
It was a full day 8-5. Pick up spot was the Hard Rock Cafe
Nancy,
Our Sintra and Cascais tours were included in Tauck's Spain and Portugal tour. I highly recommend doing both. I also suggest sending an e-mail to the concierge at Tauck's Lisbon hotel in advance and inquiring about day tours that they either offer or can assist in securing for you. We have done that several times on other tours and/or independent travel and have always been pleased.
Best of luck to you.
We used Your Friend in Lisbon. Great company, great tour. Unfortunately I do not see that they offer the Sintra and Cascais tour we took. As for Viator: I know a lot of people use them, just know they are not a tour company per se. They are a consolidator. All the vendors they offer pay Viator a hefty fee. I tend to look to book directly. Without too much looking I found this company https://nomaptours.com/. I have no first hand knowledge of them but the tours fit the bill, IMHO. We enjoyed Sintra, less impressed with Cascais. It’s a town popular with Brits and British ex-pats so many pubs and the like. We dined along the coast in a restaurant on a cliff above the ocean. Great seafood. Can’t find the name, darn it!
I visited Lisbon independently - I used Lisbon Explorer for all of my private tours including Sintra. I was extremely impressed with the tours and their guides. I highly recommend!
I believe the Cascais restaurant Folsomdoc is referring to is Mar do Inferno.
Yes, wonderful fish and seafood...the octopus and white asparagus (seasonal) are fabulous. Beautiful views, especially if you are lucky enough to get a table on the terrace. Cascais also has a lovely food market and some great shops to browse in. The market might only be open on Saturdays, however.
Yes, that was the place! And here was my lunch!
So many of the tours I found for Sintra included Caiscais which I didn't have any interest in either though Cabo De Roca might have been nice on a good day.
The concierge at the Intercontinental was helpful when we got there but I could never find a direct way to contact them ahead of time.
The RS guidebook will tell you how to get there and around plus recommended tour companies if you'd prefer that. We've had good luck with viator tours but I always check the details like cancellation policy which can vary.
Great comments…thank you all!
An update to the review.
As most know this tour includes a lot of port tasting opportunities. About 3 different ones I found I liked well enough to be interested in buying. Mostly the white and rose ports. We were assured they had US distributors so we opted not to go thru the hassle of toting them home in our checked luggage. Big mistake. I had visions of happily going into our local Total Wines outlet and finding our new favorites. Nope.
Total Wine website does have some of the wines from the particular vineyards we visited but not the specific wines we liked. They mostly just carry standard ruby and tawny ports which generally were not my favorite. One wine I found thru the portugalwineyards.com. Wine cost about $15 a bottle and shipping $29.
Long story short, if you find one you like, buy it there even if it means carefully wrapping it and packing in your checked baggage.
Ill just have to hope the market in the US for white and rose ports grows.