I can’t believe its already been over a week since we got back from our trip! I’ve been behind and catching up on work, but still have a lot of fun content from the trip to share! One of our stops was in Lisbon, Portugal (full post coming next week). After doing a little research, we knew we wanted to take a day trip to Sintra, and I loved it so much (and took so many pictures) I decided to dedicate a post to this little adventure! We worked with the concierge  at out hotel to set up a private car for the day to take us to some of the sites in Sintra, and to see some of the coastal towns.  You can definitely sign up for a group tour to do this slightly cheaper, but we really wanted to customize our day to maximize the short time we had.

To start off, Sintra is a picturesque Portuguese town that sits amongst beautiful rolling hills and has a slightly cooler climate (as compared to Lisbon). Once the summer home to the noble, Sintra is filled with exquisite palaces, beautiful gardens and historic buildings. It is one of the most popular day trips from Lisbon and about a half hour drive from where we were staying. Although we heard in the summer traffic to Sintra can be crazy and take up to 2 hours!

Just a little side note, I have had a lot of you ask about bags for travel and which work best, I love this Nantucket tote from Barrington Gifts. It is durable, roomy and has lots of pockets to store items when out and about for the day! They also have some of my favorite accessories to toss inside and make everything more organized (this accessory case, laptop case and key ring wallet are a few of my favorites).

WHAT TO DO:

Palacio of Pena – Quite literally a castle in the sky! This palace is filled with bold colors, original interior décor, and view that is not worth missing! There are many palaces in Sintra, but we were told this one was the most beautiful, and if you only had a short amount of time this is where to spend it. It took us approximately 1.5 hours to see the palace.

Town of Sintra – We spent some time (about an hour) walking around the cute and charming town and grabbed an ice coffee at a local restaurant.

After seeing Sintra, we were excited to spend the rest of the day on the coast. I’ve heard many times before that the coast of Portugal is stunning and it certainly did not dissapoint! Truly insane views every where you looked.

Mar do Guincho –  The YUMMIEST spot for lunch overlooking the beach. We opted for the local “salted sea bass.” It comes out with about an inch of a hard salt cover, which they crack in front of you at the table, revealing the fresh fish below.  I’m pretty sure after one bite, the rest of our meal I just kept repeating how this was the freshest fish I have ever had in my life .

Cascais – After lunch, we drove to Cascais, a coastal town in Portugal. This was the last stop on our day trip and one of my favorites. The beaches (while on the smaller side) were packed and it was the perfect place to grab gelato and dip our toes in the water. The town itself was absolutely beautiful, had tons of character. It definitely made me want to come back in the summer and do a week checking out different coastal beach towns.

Cabo de Roca – On our journey, we also stopped at the western most point in all of Europe and we were welcomed by the most breath taking view – it truly was a surreal moment to just soak it all in after a wonderful day.

WHAT I WORE: