I’m so sorry for that title, I meant to use the pun in an Instagram caption, but the right opportunity just didn’t come along. Anyway. If you follow me on Instagram (which you should, as I’m so cute and funny), you probably noticed my mom and I spent last week in Portugal. This was one of those trips I kept saying I was going to plan on my own, until one day my mom was like, “well, do I want to go to Portugal? Why don’t we just go together?” And that we did.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to format this, and ultimately decided the best move was to do a day-by-day breakdown of where we went, what we saw and of course, what we ate. Feel free to skim and just look at the pictures (if you’re a fake fan), because this is about to be a NOVEL.
SATURDAY
After a lovely flight on which two people asked if my mom and I are sisters, we arrived in Lisbon early Saturday morning and headed over to drop our bags at our hotel. The Santiago de Alfama is a cute lil 16-room, boutique hotel that used to be a palace, and as Debbie noted multiple times during our trip, it’s the only hotel we’ve ever stayed at that looks better in person than it does online.
After a great breakfast at the hotel (this post isn’t sponsored I swear I just loved this hotel so much), we visited São Jorge Castle and walked around town until our room was ready for nap time. I know everyone says napping makes jet lag worse, but we simply had to do it.
That night, we ate dinner at By The Wine, a super cute wine bar (obviously)/tapas-ish place that we LOVED. Would recommend to anyone visiting Lisbon. Huge fan of the quesadilla – yes, I have the palate of a 7-year-old. Only downside of this dinner was that Google Maps said it was a 20 minute walk away, but because that walk was entirely uphill, it took us 45 minutes. I lost my navigating privilege after that.
SUNDAY
We slept in (as in, Debbie woke up at 7:30 and I woke up at 11), then went downstairs to share banana pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We then proceeded to eat this exact same breakfast every day. Worth it.
In the afternoon, we had a kind of unnecessary tour of Lisbon. It was nice to have someone actually teach us about the history of the places we visited, but my mom and I are kind of fast-trackers in museums/churches/castles, and the guide really slowed us down. Still, we visited the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (tile museum), which was sooOOOOoo cool, followed by Jerónimos Monastery, which was absolutely beautiful. Debbie’s favorite church she’s ever visited. Also located next to Pastéis de Belém, the best place to try the famous local ………. Custard tart?? Not exactly sure what it is, but after I choked on the cinnamon I poured on top, I was a huge fan.
That night, we Ubered to dinner at Peixola (too many hills!!!), which was also AMAZING. Highlights include prawn tacos, tuna pica pau (whatever tf that is), tempura codfish and CARAMEL LAVA CAKE. Our waiter essentially forced us to order dessert, and we were not disappointed.
MONDAY
So, I originally planned on booking a tour to Sintra, but decided we were strong independent women who could explore a new town on our own. As it turns out, we are not.
I knew we had to catch a bus from the train station to Pena Palace, but we made the mistake of paying for the 20€ tourist bus instead of the local bus, and ended up only riding it one stop, never to see that red bus again. Sad. We also made the mistake of paying to go inside Pena Palace at all – it was beautiful outside, but the interior was so crowded we were practically pushing people out of our way to get through (fast-trackers, remember).
The crowds inside the palace, however, weren’t nearly as bad as the hike I accidentally took us on at Quinta da Regaleira, after we were probably scammed by a guy in a jeep who dropped us off a 15 minute walk away from the entrance. The main attractions at this castle are two old wells that you can climb down into, but I’m not a big paper map girl, so I just lead us around aimlessly until my mom and I got into a fight (she ruined her shoes following me through the dirt… sorry, mom) and she took the map and got us to the right place.
Thankfully, our last stop of the day, Monserrate Palace, was also our favorite stop of the day and made all the stress worth it. I think.
We ended our day in Sintra with an extremely late lunch (does 5 p.m. even count as lunch?) at Incomum, as recommended by a Portuguese girl we met in Budapest in December.
Then, per the recommendation of the owner of our hotel, who my mom befriended at breakfast, we Ubered back to Lisbon so we could stop in Cascais and Cabo de Roca (the westernmost point in Europe!). Absolutely worth it.
TUESDAY
We started off our day with a visit to Palacio dos Marqueses de Fronteira, which is possibly my favorite palace I’ve ever seen. It’s also 100% confirmed the venue of my future wedding. See you all there in September 2030.
We spent the afternoon walking around the Príncipe Real neighborhood, where we went shopping (I got some pink-lensed sunglasses my mom wanted for herself) then ate Lebanese food for lunch. We also visited a couple of churches in the area that I can’t remember the names of because Portuguese makes no sense to me.
Dinner was at Yakuza First Floor, where we had aaaamaaaazinngggggg sushi. Sorry if you want more realistic reviews of the restaurants we visited. I loved everything.
WEDNESDAY
Actually went on a group tour today because our best hope at getting to all of these little towns was renting a car, and we don’t trust ourselves to drive in foreign countries. We started the day in Fátima, where the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared in 1917. Unclear if we believe that, but it was still a cute spot.
After that, we visited the Batalha Monastery before moving on to the cute lil town of Nazaré for lunch. The server at our restaurant brought out a platter of four freshly caught fish and we just pointed to the one we wanted (sea bass). We ate with a British couple from our tour group who told us they come to Portugal THREE TIMES A YEAR. Although I guess if I could fly to Portugal for 45€, I would also go three times a year.
We finished off the tour in a town called Óbidos, which is entirely surrounded by the walls of the local castle thanks to a generous queen who wanted to protect her people. I wanted to walk around the whole town on the wall, but the lack of guardrails convinced my mom we simply wouldn’t make it around without me falling over the wall. Pretty likely, if you’ve seen how clumsy I am. We were astounded by the lack of guardrails around everything we climbed in Portugal, and equally astounded by my ability to not fall off anything for one whole week.
Anyway. Once we got back to dinner, we had Spanish/Portuguese fusion tapas at a place called Tapisco, which serves wine and cocktails on the sidewalk through a little window in the restaurant. 10/10 atmosphere, but probably my least favorite meal of the week. It was good, but not life changing.
THURSDAY
This was a much more chill day. Our best friend/the hotel driver, Kevin, took us to Arrábida national park, where my mom would not allow me to paraglide from the top of a mountain down to the beach. Disappointed, but not surprised. Still, we spent a lovely afternoon relaxing by the ocean before going to another restaurant that served whatever fish they had just caught ten minutes ago.
We went to the Time Out Market for dinner, which was an awesome way to try a bunch of local foods without committing to one restaurant. We tried Travesseiros de Sintra, a pastry we missed out on while actually in Sintra, and um…. Gyoza and pizza. Yum. I love traditional Portuguese food.
FRIDAY
For our last day in Portugal, we decided to do what three local Portuguese people told us not to do: take a day trip to Porto. They told us the six hour round trip was too much to take on in one day, but as Nebraskans, that didn’t scare us. If we drive for three hours in one direction, we get to Iowa (ew) or Kansas City (fine), and Porto seemed much more worth it.
After a scenic train ride through the Portuguese countryside, we visited Livraria Lello, the bookshop that inspired Flourish & Blotts in Harry Potter. We paid 5€ to go in, which was kind of worth it, as that turns into a 5€ discount on your purchase. Did I buy a copy of a Harry Potter book I already own? Yes. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.
After that, we toured and tasted Taylor’s Port Wine. Neither of us were huge dessert wine people before this tour, but we may be convinced. This is especially helpful, as I received a case of port for my 21st birthday that my grandpa bought the year I was born. After forcing my dad to leave work to check on my wine in the basement at home, we learned my port is actually from Taylor’s. Maybe I’ll actually drink it now !! (Seriously, if anyone likes dessert wine please hit me up next time I’m in Nebraska, I’d love to share it).
We went to Café Majestic for afternoon tea after the wine tasting, because that’s become a tradition of ours (see: MaddieStuDiesAbroad blog post about Scotland), and while we were there I decided to book our train tickets home that evening. Alas, all of the trains were sold out. In a panic, we went to the train station to find out if we could buy tickets in person, but NO.
So we Ubered three hours back to Lisbon. Oops.
After that lovely road trip, we decided to stay at the hotel for dinner (because again, the restaurant was great), and ended up befriending a Canadian couple after eavesdropping on their conversation about guns in America. I stopped my mom from interrupting to say “well I have a gun right here!” although admittedly, it would’ve been funny. The same couple asked my mom and I how we knew each other, if she lives in Nebraska and I live in New York. Nice.
I’ll spare you all the details of our uneventful travel day home, as this is already almost four times the length of my normal posts. But hey, I had a lot to talk about.
Moral of the story: Portugal was amazing, 10/10 would recommend. Might visit again during the summer (not this year obviously, but sometime) to go to the Algarve region.
If you made it this far, congratulations and I’m sorry. Give yourself a pat on the back for gaining nothing from this story.