A day in Cascais during your Lisbon trip

Hello, everybody!

I always try to keep up with the best travel destinations, and I know that in the past few years Lisbon has been a really searched destination for many people’s holidays. What might be overlooked by many of them is the fact that it’s not only the center of Lisbon that is a major attraction - Lisbon is surrounded by beautiful places, which you can reach with a 40 minute car ride.

20 minutes away from Lisbon you will find the beautiful villa of Cascais: this place holds a very special spot in my heart since I was born and raised here, and cannot think of a better place to be living at the moment. However, I can be impartial and see that Cascais is an actual amazing place to visit even if you’ve never been here before.

This is the reason why I prepared a one-day itinerary for you to include on your Lisbon trip!

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Getting to Cascais

I will start by saying that, in fact, you don’t need a car to visit Lisbon or some of the places around it - the public transportation works quite well and you don’t have to go through the trouble of finding parking spots (which, especially during high season, can be quite hard to find) and paying for them.

Right by the Lisbon old center you have the Cais do Sodré train station. There are trains going all the way to Cascais for as low as 2.25€ (4.5€ round trip, plus 0.50€ travel card if you don’t own one already). There are automatic machines where you can request the travel card, or insert yours if you have one already, and charge your card with the ticket to the zone you are planning on going to. If you prefer, there’s also an in-person desk where you can ask for your tickets. Afterwards, you’re good to go.

The trains work from 5h30 in the morning, and the last ones leave at 1h30 in the morning. In Cais do Sodré, if you’re travelling during busy hours (from 6h50 t0 10h00 and from 17h00 to 20h30) make sure you catch the train that goes directly to Cascais - there are some going to Cascais and some to Oeiras, which is about halfway, and then you will need to swap trains. It’s not hard, it’s just unnecessary if you catch the right one. When you’re in the train, you will have a 40 minute ride to the Cascais train station; it’s the last station, so you don’t need to be stressed out thinking about when you need to get off. Pro-tip: if you’re facing the head to the train, try to get a seat on your left hand-side (and on the right hand-side when coming back) so you can enjoy the river and ocean views during your train ride.

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Arriving in Cascais

When you are getting off of the train and exit from the door on the left side of the station, you will be right in the center of the villa. If you start walking towards the left, you will go to the area of Cascais where you can enjoy plenty of different beaches. However, beaches in Cascais are quite small and they can get really busy if the weather is good, so I will not include these ones in this program. I will instead get you some information on other stuff you can enjoy here, and how to get to the nicest places around Cascais.

What To Do

Walk around the old town

Although Cascais is a small villa, it has some pretty picturesque views! For me, the unmissable part of it goes all the way from the train station to the narrow alleys near the Cascais bay.

Start by going through Rua Direita (nowadays called Rua Frederico Arouca, but it will never stop being Rua Direita for locals) — this is one of the oldest streets in Cascais, and probably one of the most busy ones. It’s fully covered by the famous Portuguese “calçada” and you can find several shops and restaurants along the street.

When you get to the end of the street, feel free to check out the main Avenue where you’ll be in - this part of town is now full of LA vibes with the pink road and palm trees along the sidewalk. If you cross the street and get into the alleys, you will be in Largo Luís de Camões.

Largo Luís de Camões is a tiny square named after one of Portugal’s most famous writers. This part of town is frequently visited by tourists and locals who are searching for a good place to eat, so it can be a bit busy, but the atmosphere is always fun.

After Luís de Camões square, you can go all the way into the bay: here you will be gazing at the beautiful tiles on the floor, the beach, the Cascais port and also the town hall. Now, into my favorite part: make sure you get lost in the alleys to the right side of the beach. There are some small streets that give you access to a residential part of town, where the alleys are narrow and the houses are colorful. Again, most of these alleys are covered by the “calçada”, and architecture photographers (and visitors who enjoy photographing anything) will love this place.

You can go all the way across these alleys, even go through the Marechal Carmona park, and you’ll find yourself near Farol Santa Marta, which is another breathtaking view.

Visit a museum

Cascais is a small villa, so you will not find any big museums to visit. However, there are a couple ones that you can check if you want to include some cultural activity on your day trip.

My personal favorite is Museu do Mar (Sea Museum). I love this one because it includes not only sea and ocean information, but it connects it to the history of Cascais.

In this museum, you will be able to learn a bit about sea life, sea birds, seafaring and ocean navigation, shipwrecks in the area of Cascais, sea fossils, oceanographic science and, my favorite part, Cascais and how the sea has created the villa’s identity.

The entrance is 3€ for a regular ticket and 1.50€ for reduced admission.

If you are looking for an art museum, you can visit Casa das Histórias by Paula Rego, who’s a very famous Portuguese abstract artist. You also have the Museum-Library Condes Castro Guimarães, which sits at the heart of the main Cascais park and, basically on the other side of the street, the museum of the Santa Marta lighthouse, which I personally never visited but it is definitely on my list.

Lunch at Flecha Azul

Cascais is full of nice local restaurants. Being a fisherman’s villa, most restaurants serve traditional Portuguese fish, but also other dishes. Flecha Azul is a very well known restaurant: the food is amazing, it is in the heart of Cascais and it is very affordable. I haven’t gone there in a while, so I don’t have pictures to post here, however click here to visit their Tripadvisor page.

My personal favorite dish is the grilled sea bass. Portugal also has a very well known clam dish called “Ameijoas à Bulhão Pato”, which are clams cooked with olive oil, garlic and herbs, and they are absolutely delicious!

If you’re looking for a meat dish, you can always try the “bitoque”, which is also a typical Portuguese dish that has beef, a fried egg on top and it comes with french fries and rice.

Although this is a good restaurant in Cascais, there’s plenty more you can find around town, depending on what you’re looking for:

• Moules & Gin: their specialty is moules (surprise surprise), but they also have some other small dishes;

• Hamburgueria do Bairro: is a famous group of hamburguer houses around Lisbon, also frequented by locals;

• House of Wonders: they have an extensive menu of light meals, and also some fuller meals - this is very vegan friendly and has the most amazing rooftop where you can sit;

• Jardim dos Frangos: a chicken restaurant that has the best chicken you will ever have in your life;

• Confraria: one of the most famous sushi places in Cascais.
  

Eat an ice cream at Santini

Santini is one of the most famous Italian ice cream shops in Portugal, and it was born in lovely Cascais. Founded in 1949, it has become a Portuguese tradition to go to Santini for the best ice cream in town. In fact, the store that was opened in 1971 in Avenida Valbom (in the center of Cascais) is still open. Around 2009, Santini was partially sold to a new partner, who has opened new Santini stores in several different locations throughout the country. However, I can say, Santini in Cascais tastes better!

They have an extensive menu and you can pick from different ice creams, snacks, cakes and so on. A regular cone or cup, with two flavors, costs 3.20€ - it is a bit pricier than other ice cream stores around town, however it is very worth the price. I usually go for the strawberry (the best strawberry ice cream you will ever have) and cream, but you will see that it’s not easy to pick from their large amount of flavors. I also really like the caramel.

Walk along the coast

I decided to map this one so I could make it easier, but here’s the thing: this is one of the best walks you will have! I truly feel blessed to have this as a backyard.

It can be quite long, especially on a hot day, so you can always rent bikes or just walk partially until the end of the route.

If you start from the center of Cascais, you will go up to the Marina and, a bit afterwards, find a bike path that goes on for several kilometres until Praia do Guincho. This path follows the coastline, and is surrounded by a lot of greenery, beautiful coastal rocks and sand dunes by the end.

Pit-stop at Boca do Inferno

Boca do Inferno, also known as Hell’s Mouth, is a rock formation located about a 15 minute walk from the Cascais marina. This rocky cliff forms an arch to the ocean and it is a very well known site to visit in Cascais. It was originally a sea cave, however the top collapsed a long time ago and now you can see a beautiful view of the ocean coming in from the arch.

Legend says that there used to be a castle placed near Boca do Inferno, in which a wizard lived. He decided to get married to the most beautiful woman, and ordered his guards to go rescue her. After seeing her, he became greedy and possessive due to her beauty, so he locked her up in a tower and ordered the only guard who had never seen her before to protect the tower. After years of both of them feeling lonely, they decided to see each other, and they fell immediately in love. They decided to run away on a white horse, and the wizard’s fury made the rocks open wide and swallowed them both, losing them in the sea.

Bike ride to Guincho beach

As I mentioned before, Cascais has a bike line that goes all the way from the center until Guincho Beach. Personally, going to Guincho is a must for people who enjoy breathtaking views (and, if the weather allows it, for those who also enjoy surfing, going to the beach, windsurfing, kitesurfing and so on).

Guincho beach is known by locals for being a really windy beach, however in good days, there’s no better beach to go to than this one or one of its neighbors. It has a huge view of Cabo Espichel, which is the most western point of continental Europe. The beach is surrounded by plenty of sand dunes, and there’s a pathway that goes through them directly to the beach.

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Cascais is full of wonders and, as a local here, I could not recommend it more if you have time. It is a small villa, so you don’t need to stay overnight unless you’re planning on taking some beach holidays or are looking forward to having a quiet stay away from the big city. I know you won’t regret including Cascais in your Lisbon itinerary!