The Estoril coast, incorporating holiday hotspots offers great beaches and a choice of historic sights. We stop at cosmopolitan seaside town of Estoril with its famous Tamariz beach and the biggest casino in Europe, its gardens, cafes and esplanade. We stop at Cascais fishing port swiftly expanded to an elegant, cosmopolitan, coastal resort. Once stop of navigators like Columbus and Vasco da Gama. From the harbor there’s a nice view of Estoril bay, a flash marina and a castle.
Drive across the luxuriant Sintra Mountain and its gardens - "The Glorious Eden" - by twisted roads bordered by several plants, its mystical hills dotted with fairytale palaces and extravagant villas that have bewitched visitors for centuries. We stop at Sintra’s historical town center, a listed UNESCO world heritage site. It is made up of a charming maze of steep, narrow streets lined with fine examples of old palatial homes hiding behind lichen-covered walls, while local pastry shops provide the famous Sintra ‘queijadas’ (cheese pastries), ‘travesseiros’ (egg and almond pastries) and local wine. The town is also full of shops that carry many of the local crafts like pottery, ceramics and lace.
Go up to one of the highest peaks of the mountain through a narrow and crooked road crossing Sintra forest, passing by the mysterious Moorish castle. We stop at the fairy tale Pena palace and its surrounding park, billed as "a consummate specimen of Portuguese romantic architecture", with a profusion of eclectic styles, 500 meters above sea level, on a rocky promontory that looks purpose-built for a castle. From the palace, one has a spectacular outlook onto the mountain and its surroundings.
