We love exploring the coast and Portugal is a perfect place to drive, stop and wander along the way. We started our road trip in Lisbon and drove south to the Algarve. There are plenty of great little towns to stop at along the way. No need to rush to the Algarve, take your time exploring.
Sintra:
Our first stop was just a short drive outside of Lisbon. Sintra is about 40 minutes outside the city. Many people do this as a day trip from Lisbon but we chose to visit on our way out to the coast. From our research online we knew that you can buy tickets ahead of time for your visit to the castles. We also knew that for the Pena Palace specifically the tickets are time slotted.
It seemed from our reading that we would be able to walk/hike around and get views of the castles from the trails in the area. We had saved a trail on Alltrails intending to do just that. With further research the night before we planned to drive to Sintra, we realized you can’t park anywhere near the castles. You can park for free at one of the lots in town and then you need to take a bus up the hill to see the castles.
The bus cost was 11 euro a person and that got you endless hop on/hop off rides for 24 hours. After taking the crowded bus up to the top of the hill we got off at the Pena Palace stop. The line to buy tickets and to enter the palace was insanely long. We also saw no why to get any sort of close view of the palace or surrounding grounds without a ticket. We walked a short way back down the hill to visit the Moorish castle instead. This castle had a very short line. Tickets were 8 euro a person.
We did enjoy climbing the walls of the Moorish castle and we did get pretty good views of Pena Palace from the castle. While we were glad we visited, this was probably our least favorite part of the trip. We enjoy less crowded areas and getting off the beaten path. If you have a very strong desire to see the castles this place is beautiful and likely worth a stop for you. If you are like us and like avoiding the crowds, skip Sintra and move on. You will have plenty of other opportunities to see castles in Portugal.
After exploring the Moorish castle we headed back down the hill and into town. We stopped for lunch at Kebabish. This place had really good doner kebab for a great price! While we don’t highly recommend Sintra, we do highly recommend lunch here if you do decide to visit!
Peniche:
This is a sleeply, little beach town. It does get a bit of surf tourism when the waves get big. There was not much going on while we were in town. Peniche is out on a small peninsula meaning lots of great coastline to explore here. We stayed near the water at Guest House Beach Break. We would highly recommend this place! Our host was so great, he gave us several great recommendations.
We got into town in the late afternoon. After settling in we began walking along the water. The views along the sea cliffs here as stunning! After taking our time exploring we grabbed an uber to arrive at our dinner location before sundown. Our host recommended dinner at Marisqueria dos Corticais. This restaurant is build down into the rock, right on the water. The full glass panels along the wall allow for great ocean views as you eat. We arrived at 7pm which was right when they opened for dinner. This was just before sundown so unfortunately we only got to enjoy the view for a few minutes. The views would be better enjoyed while they are open for lunch.
We were a group of four so we decided on their seafood platter. The amount of food easily fed the four of us! This is a great way to try a large variety of seafood if you are in a group and can share. Our waiter also recommended a really nice wine that was a great price! We had the entire restaurant to ourselves that evening. Our waiter also gave us several other wine recommendations before we left so we could find good bottles at the local grocery store.
After dinner there were no ubers available so we ended up walking back to our booking, across the peninsula. Surprisingly, there was a very large grocery store in town. We were able to grab snacks, wine and toiletries on our walk back.
The next morning we hiked out to the end of the small peninsula near our booking- Pedra Alta e Forte da Luz. This is an easy hike and the views are worth it!
From there we drove the short distance to Baleal. You can park for free at Parking da Praia do Baleal. From there you can walk along the sidewalk that runs along the center of two beaches. The beaches are full of people surfing and just enjoying the beach. We stopped at a small beach-side cafe for coffee and a snack. Our last stop in this area was to walk out to the Baleal view. Again a very short, easy walk and the views at the end were beautiful!
Obidos:
We stopped in this small, medieval town on the recommendation of our Peniche host. We were happily surprised to see a beautiful, walled city. This place is so pretty! After entering under a large arch which is part of the old, castle wall you will find small, windy, cobblestone streets. You can climb along the wall in parts of the town. After wandering the streets we stopped for lunch at Madok before heading out of town. Madok had great tapas for lunch and a warlock/wizard type vibe which our group enjoyed.
Porto Covo:
Once again, this is a sleepy, little beach town without much going on. We arrived late afternoon and really enjoyed our evening. We walked to the water and found a really nice trail that followed the cliffs with stairs down to most of the small beaches and coves.
We decided to stop into the local grocery store, grab some food to make dinner at our booking for the night. We grabbed a few beers and took in the sunset from the large deck area on the water before heading home for the night.
The next morning we wandered some more before heading off further south. There was a really nice bakery in town and a small coffee shop. That was all we needed while in town on this trip.
During peak, summer months this place is likely more lively. We saw several hostels and condos on the water that looked closed up for the season. There are also several restaurants and shops.
Sagres:
After our morning walk we set out to the furthest point south, Sagres. We stopped for lunch at the Laundry cafe. This place had nice salads and smoothies as well as coffee or alcoholic drinks. There is literally laundry in the back of the restaurant. The place is full of young travelers and surfers hanging out, working remotely and of course, doing laundry!
After lunch we walked along the main beach in town- Praia da Mareta before driving to the Sagres point. You will feel you are at the end of the world, looking out over the large, white sea cliffs there.
From the point we headed to the Surf beach- Praia do Tonel. We spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying a beer on the beach and watching the surfers.
Lagos:
Our final stop was the Algarve. We chose to stay in Lagos, and we spent two nights here. Our first night we wandered around the marina and around town before heading to Mar restaurant for dinner with a view. The food was good, overpriced from what we had seen so far on our trip but worth it for the beach views from the top of the cliff.
We ate at Studio Coffee Roasters for breakfast while we were in town and really enjoyed that. Our final night in town we had dinner at
Nah nah bah burgers. The burgers were great and just what we were craving after many miles walking around town and the coastal cliffs.
We had pretty foggy weather but we still loved exploring along the Farol da Ponta da Piedade hike. If the weather hade been better we were hoping to kayak along this route but with the fog and wind we opted for exploring by land.
You can walk down to several of the small beaches along the hike. Once on the beaches you will find small paths that are only open at low tide and allow you to walk to several other beaches.
Back in town, we walked Praia dos estudantes to take in views of the roman style bridge right in the rocky coastline. We would highly recommend taking your time and just wandering these beautiful beaches.
From Lagos we set off further into the Algarve to do the Seven Hanging Valleys hike- Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos. We only ended up doing part of this hike before our group was hungry for lunch. We would love to go back and do the entire thing! Again these cliffs and rocks along the coast are so pretty and worth taking time to explore!
Evora:
From The Algarve we headed to Sevilla, Spain for a few days before heading back to Lisbon. One of our previous hosts had recommended we visit Evora on our way to the Algarve. We didn’t have time to stop on our down the coast but we did do a quick stop on our way back into Lisbon.
This small, medieval town again is surrounded by old, castle walls. There are some old, Roman ruins in the center of town and a very nice central square. After walking around we stopped for lunch in the square. The food here was not great but the town was worth stop so all in all we called it a success!
We really enjoyed our road trip through this part of Portugal! It was a very easy country to travel through. We found enough English spoken to get us by and everyone was very friendly and happy to help us along the way!
What do you love about Portugal? What did we miss, where should we go next time we are in Portugal, let us know in the comments below!