Unforgettable Adventure in Portugal in Just Three Days!

Before we embarked on our three day roadtrip through Portugal, we had a to first connect in London.

Our flight to Lisbon included a connection in London that put us on an A380 (the “pilots” preference). We were fortunate to meet the flight crew in the security line at SFO who then invited us to visit them on the flight deck when we arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport. This was a highlight for both Roy and Greg because they got to climb into the pilot’s seat, as well as sneak up to see what the second level of the A380 looked like. I feel that this British Airways crew was about the most friendly one we have ever experienced.

A Brief stop in London, England

We had an entire day to kill in London before our nighttime flight to Lisbon. (This always seems like a good idea when I am planning the trip, but isn’t all that great of a plan when we are all going on an hour of restless sleep. Oh well.) We purchased tickets on the Heathrow Express which took us to Paddington station in 15-minutes. Our plan was to walk around London and take in as many sights as we could so that we never had to dedicate one of our vacations to primarily visit London. (Doug and I have both been there, done that a number of times.)

We managed to walk to Buckingham Palace, Harrods Department Store, and Kensington Palace. We did not see the Royal Family or the Changing of the Guards and spent a good amount of time “resting” on a bench in St. James park. When we returned to Heathrow, we had to clear security and boy was it a doozy. The British TSA (whatever they call themselves) took every single liquid and gel, from every single passenger, and ran them through, one at a time, a machine. Doug and I were both intrigued by the complete lack of efficiency, particularly at 5PM on a Friday night.

I have “Platinum for life” status on American Airlines (Emerald for oneworld) from all the travel that I did when I worked for IBM, so that gave us access to lounge. The lounge offered us every amenity we could ever dream of except a power outlet. They were all in use. Greg wound up making friends with a little British kid in the game room who happened to also be flying to Lisbon. By the time we all made it to the gate, they were besties. (I love how kids managed to do this when you travel!)

Sintra, Portugal

We arrived in Lisbon just before midnight, gathered our luggage, and a rental car from SixT. The guy at the rental car counter reminded us of the tennis player, Carlos Alcaraz, but soon we realized that everyone here did. The drive to Sintra was just under thirty-minutes. Our brief stay was at the Villa Bela Vista, where the owner had agreed to meet us in the middle of the night to unlock our room. Sintra was magical. We wish we would have booked a longer stay.

After a few hours of sleep, (yes, only a few!) we were up to enjoy a spectacular breakfast with an incredible view. We then loaded our things into our rental car that was parked in one of the four spots in town. (The benefit of staying there and arriving in the middle of the night!)

Palacio da Pena

We walked into town and took the 434 bus to Palacio da Pena where we had 9:30AM tickets. Palacio da Pena is the main attraction in Sintra and where everyone wants to go. I had purchased timed entry tickets from GetYourGuide, which provided a barcode but NOT a QR code. As a result, they were not valid. Apparently this happens all the time to Americans? I feel this was a little bit of a scam because we didn’t have any trouble anywhere else in Portugal or Spain, but whatever, we did here. So be warned. Either way, they were nice and “allowed” us to buy more tickets to walk the grounds, and just not tour the inside.

The Palace was pretty incredible even from the outside. Sure, we were faced with our first occurrence of Portuguese hospitality when a lady working at the Palace railed on an Asian couple, Greg and I, for unknowingly walking through a door that she had unlocked and opened for us, but whatever. We soon learned she was nothing compared to the warm welcome we would receive once we crossed into Spain.

The Moorish Castle

It was a short walk to the Moorish Castle so even though we were all incredibly jet-lagged, we didn’t want to skip it. Isolated on its lofty perch, this castle is a fortification founded in the 10th century during the period when the Moors occupied the Iberian Peninsula. The famous walls snake across the hills with their granite blocks interlinking the boulders and the cliffs. These walls, the ancient cistern, and the walk up to the King’s Tower, with its 360 degree views, were the highlights for our crew.

Quinta da Regaleira

Quinta da Regaleira is a historic estate built in the early 20th century. It is known for its unique architecture and includes underground tunnels and initiation wells and was listed as something not to miss when traveling with kids. We took the 434 bus from The Moorish Castle to get here and had booked tickets in advance.

One of the things I was most keen to see in the gardens were the wells referred to as the “initiation wells”. One such finished well is almost 90 feet deep with a spiral staircase circling to the bottom comprised of nine levels of 15 steps. This is thought to signify the nine levels of hell from Dante’s Inferno. At the bottom of the well, a mosaic depicts a cross over a compass. There was a long line to enter this “well” and we were pretty sure this was some sort of trick to lure a bunch of unsuspecting tourists into a hole that we couldn’t get out of, but that fortunately wasn’t the case.

After wandering the gardens, we decided to check out the mansion or “main house”. We entered through some magnificent double doors into what used to be the dining room and then proceeded through some formal rooms, such as the music room, before exiting onto the porch running along the front of the house and getting hopelessly lost trying to find the exit.

From here we took the 434 bus back to town, but it got stuck in traffic so we decided it was faster to walk. When we made it back to our car we noticed that a car seemed to have side-swiped us, leaving a bright yellow mark on our bumper. We learned that drivers have very little respect for parked cars in Spain and Portugal.

Cascais, Portugal

Our vrbo for the next two nights was in Vila do Bispo, about three hours away. On our way there, we stopped off at the Boca do Inferno in Cascais, and Santini’s, Portugal’s longest running family-owned ice cream parlor. The boys all split an ice cream and then we were off to our “bungalow in a quiet location with a pool“.

It was here that we learned that “air conditioning” in Spain and Portugal would not qualify as “air conditioning” in the United States. It basically means that there is a fan. There are also bugs a plenty. The place we stayed was nice, but there were so many ants that we started to name them. Oh, and then there was the owl. He really started going just before sunrise.

Lagos, Portugal

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Benagil Caves – Speed Boat Tour

We had a 5PM trip on a speed boat through the Benagil Caves that we did not want to miss. Our tour guide was a young kid from Germany that spoke a bunch of languages (clearly overqualified) but did not want to be there. Because of our presence, he made a large number of Donald Trump jokes which weren’t all that were kinda lost in translation. I think the point was that every rock formation looked like President Trump, mostly because they were all orange.

The particularly stunning Benagil Cave is located along the coast, next to Benagil Beach, in the Algarve Portugal. We did not have the place to ourselves by any stretch of the imagination but it was still fun enough. Our tour left from Portimao, and we booked it with Atlantis Tours. We paid $100 for the four of us. Aside from riding on a fast boat, the kids were excited that Benagil Caves is on the screensaver for Microsoft Windows.

Burgau Beach, Portugal

Praia do Burgau is a lovely little sandy beach located in the small (and relatively unspoiled) fishing village of Burgau. This was located close to our vrbo so we decided to check it on on our last night and see if there was a place that we could all agree on for dinner. (We did not, and ended up dining on cereal in our room.)

After another warm night with our ant friends, we were off to Spain in the morning.