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We spent five lovely days in Portugal. We used Lisbon as our base and took a few day trips from there. It was simple to use public transportation to get from the airport into the city.
We tend to like to be outdoors so when we arrived in Lisbon, we rented bikes and rode the bike trail along the Tagus River. There are several rental shops close to the bike trail. Once in our Airbnb, we explored the city by foot. Our Airbnb was just off the Praça Luís de Camões, a square with a cafe and a wonderful place to relax and people watch. We spent our days exploring. We wandered up to Campo dos Mártires da Pátria, which is a lovely park that is elevated with wonderful views of the city. There are a few cafes there and restaurants around that area.
One note is to bring comfortable shoes because Lisbon is full of hills. You can always rent electric bikes or ride buses or the metro to get around more comfortably.
One day we walked around the city with our destination of St George’s Castle (Castelo de S. Jorge). There are many neighborhoods to wander through on your way to and from the castle. Don’t forget to stop and take in the views.
We took the train out to Cascais. We got the train at the Cais de Sodre metro station. It was about a 45-minute ride on the train, and they ran frequently. Once there, we rented bikes and rode the bike path out to the Guincho beach, which is beautiful and very inviting. You can rent bikes at the train station. We found a wonderful outdoor cafe at the end of one of the beaches which is worth the ride. It is called Bar do Guincho.
We also went down to the coastal town of Sesimbra. Our sole purpose was to go kayaking in the Atlantic. We arranged the 4-hour kayaking trip ahead of time with one of the several renting shops. The views were beautiful, and the kayaking was fun.
All in all, we had a wonderful trip to Portugal. We were able to visit the sites that we wanted to and navigate our way around Lisbon with ease. There were plenty of outdoor activities, so in our opinion that made it a very successful trip.
