8 Days in Portugal - Part 2, Sintra & Porto

From Lisbon, there are many options of cool day trips you can take, but since we were only there for a limited time we had to pick one. At the recommendation of nearly everyone, we landed on Sintra. Sintra was easily accessible by a 40 minute train ride, and once you’re there the town totally walkable. Our first stop in Sintra was to walk to the center of town and hit Piriquita for pastries. They are known for Travesseiro in Sintra so we each got one of those and tried a pastels de Sintra (which was basically like a nata but with a sugary crust on top). Walking through the little town, there are wine bars and shops and places to get a shot of Ginja, cherry liquor served in a chocolate shot glass. We walked around before heading to the bus stop for the Pena Palace. 

There is a loop ticket you can buy (about 11 Euro per person), but the walk back (downhill) is reasonable and takes about 20 minutes so you can save a few bucks if you get the one way ticket up. We rode up the winding switchbacks to the Palace, where you have the option to buy a ticket to the grounds alone, or the grounds and palace interior. We opted to skip the interior, and found that the park tickets (14 Euro) were sufficient. You can walk along all the walls and terraces of the palace and get pics of the colorful exterior. The palace was great, and despite the bad weather during our visit, we still spent an hour just walking around the grounds. There are paved paths all over leading back to little hobbit holes and other sights. 

From there, you can easily walk to the Mourish Castle, which was built in the 12th century. We also just opted to walk around the outside and got some cool pics. Catching the bus back down to town, we got a late lunch at Romario do Baco at the recommendation of Kate where we had delicious garlic oil shrimp. She also recommended some beaches you can get to from Sintra, Azenhas do Mar and Praia Adraga, and had the weather been better we definitely would have checked them out. 

Another beach day trip from Lisbon is Cascais, which we would have liked to do with more time. From Cascais, we would have checked out Praia do Guincho, which was recommended to us.

After 5 days in Lisbon, we packed our bags and headed to the train station. It was easy to navigate, but a little unclear where our tickets would be validated. Once on board and on the move, a ticket agent came around and just asked for our IDs which he checked against his ledger. The ride to Porto took about 3.5 hours through pretty countryside and small towns. Pulling into Porto, you go over a very high bridge with the city view down below and its such an exciting welcome. The city sits on the Duoro river and has the iconic red rooftops we also saw in Lisbon. We checked into our AirBnb which was very central to the main touristic shopping and dining area. 

After dropping our bags and taking a moment to collect ourselves, we went out for lunch to A Sanderia, recommended by our friend Rosie. These sandwiches were bomb, with crispy rolls and a handful of delicious flavor combinations (it was hard to choose!). We grabbed wine at a few cute stops around the neighborhood, the tasting room Morro d’amores and Orpheu (which also came recommended for food). We couldn’t snack too much because we had reservations for a Fado dinner show.

Fado is traditional Portuguese music, and is typically kind of melancholy, but the newer generation of Fado performers are bringing a bit more rhythm and fun to it. We picked Casa da Marquinhas for our Fado experience because it was highly recommended and is the oldest Fado house in Porto. Reservations are a must for this prix fix meal. The performers were so talented and the food was great, too. Dinner also included a bottle of wine, and we added a little port for dessert. 

The wine kept flowing the next day when we went on a day trip to the Douro Valley. This was something I booked through AirBnB experiences to ease the coordination of transportation & reservations and to make sure we learned some things besides wine flavors. Our guide, Leandro, picked us up at 9am and we drove the 1.5 hours, through a 4-mile tunnel, into the Douro Valley. The landscape of terraced vineyards and dramatic hills is very different from the wine country near us in Sonoma or Napa Valley. The terraces were all built by hand and they carve every hillside. 

Our first top was Quinta da Pacheca, a beautiful winery with a very cool hotel on site. The rooms are all converted giant wine barrels! We got a tour of their facilities and cellars and learned about wine- and port-making before tasting 4 wines. You can buy wine here and have it shipped; to get it back to the US was $85 for 6 bottles and $135 for 12.

We drove down to the river where we hopped onto a boat for a river cruise and snacks. We drank port, ate cheese and crackers, and learned about the port trade and the history of the river valley from our (very funny) guides. The sun was shining and the water was calm making for a very relaxing hour on the Douro river. 

Our final stop was Quinta do Bucheiro, a small family-run (9th generation) winery where we were also served a big lunch of sausage, beef, potatoes and veggies, and more. We got to see the cellars where they store their vintages and get a more personal side of the trade.

That evening, we took a night off from exploring to have burgers and chill at our AirBnB. We learned from our Paris experience the importance of having your lodging be a place you’d actually wasn’t to chill, since a trip this long requires some down time. We also went to a mall for warm jackets since the weather in our next few stops is looking wintery.

For our last day in Porto, we had a delicious brunch at Mercador Cafe before crossing the river to Gaia to check out the port tasting caves. We didn’t end up going to any caves, just a couple of tasting rooms, but we still got the gist. We had already had our fill of wine history so we just wanted to do tastings and play hangman. We rode the gondolas to the top of the hill where we walked across a super high bridge back to Porto. It was a quick ride but between the view and not having to hike up the hill for it, it was worth the 6 Euro each. 

We finally got to try the famous Francesinha steak sandwich at Pregar before returning home to pack and relax. One last dinner and an early night for us, as our flight the next morning was at 7:10 am. And that’s a wrap on Portugal!

Something unique about our time in Portugal was that we knew a few expats there who shared their experience of moving to a new country. Portugal is very welcoming to young people moving there and its one of the easiest places in Europe to move and get citizenship. We came to learn that its still very hard for many folks to make a living there as the minimum wage is only $700 per month while rent and everything else keeps going higher and higher. We were fortunate to spend time with both expats and native Portuguese people to help us get a better picture of this beautiful and historic country.