Portugal – Lisbon, Algarve and Alentejo

Olá! Jet-setter here. I just returned from 5 days in Iceland, 10 days in New York, then 11 days in Portugal. Have you missed me? I’ve missed you. For Portugal, we didn’t book flights until 8 days before. That meant we did very little planning. The whole time we were there, we said we wished someone had written a blog about the places we went, things to know, and the necessary things to see. Maybe someone did write one and we just didn’t have time to research. Or maybe no one has and that’s why I’m writing one now. Don’t worry, I won’t take you step-by-step through our journey because it was so long! But there are a few things we did that I wouldn’t want you to miss.

First of all, you need to know where we went. We landed in Lisbon (non-stop flights FTW), stayed there for a few days while some of us worked remotely. Then we went to the south coast (Algarve). We stayed in Portimão but traveled to Sagres, Lagos, and Albufeira. Then we drove up to the Alentejo region where we stayed in Cuba and traveled around to wineries and Evora. Then we drove back to Lisbon and stopped in Montemore-o-Novo for lunch at A Ribeira. See below, you won’t want to miss that place.

Let’s start with things you need to know about Portugal:

First of all, they are very laid back around time. Things are super sleepy in the morning, and just like siesta time in Spain, most things close from 3-7 in the afternoon. Don’t expect to eat during that time. One of my friends had to settle for gelato, which, tbh, is never a bad thing. Also, since the dinner time is relatively short (8-11 pm), you’ll need a reservation in most places. Our first Airbnb in Lisbon had a binder of useful info, and we learned one of the best tips from it: the app called TheFork. This app is a combination of TripAdvisor, Groupon, Seamless and OpenTable. You can read reviews, see the menu and pricing, book a table, and best yet, a lot of restaurants offer huge discounts if you book a table through them! We ate at 4 different restaurants where we got 30% off our meal (food only, not wine) just by reserving a table on the app. You can’t beat that. Also little-known fact, since parts of India were Portuguese colonies for 400 years until the 1960’s, there are a lot of amazing Indian restaurants. When we were tired of seafood, we had Indian (twice) and it was a delicious change of pace.

Important tip: taxes are HIGH. Like 23% high. This means that if you are renting a car, expect those extra charges to add up big time. 5 Euro/day/extra driver is a lot more when you add 23% tax! Good news is, tipping is not really a thing, so restaurants are still way cheaper than in the US. At least cheaper than New York by far. And remember to use TheFork!

Another important tip: ROUNDABOUTS. The Portugese loveeee them. There are barely any traffic lights outside of the main cities. At first, we thought they were super fun. That is, until we realized they have super complicated laws about them and they are STRICT. We saw 3 police cars pulling people over for violating the rules in a very tiny town. Read up on your roundabout rules, especially for the 2- and 3-lane ones.

Fun fact (sorry about this Mommy): Strip clubs. We were approached by a promoter in Portimão to come to a strip club because it was 10 Euro entry fee and it included a drink. WHAT? So cheap. Most importantly, the strippers are on salary. I guess this makes sense, since they don’t want people throwing coins on the stage at unsuspecting half-naked (or full naked) people. But the fact that they are not begging for money makes it an entirely different experience. It’s like a drink and a show instead of a crazy hectic pushy environment. Also, at this particular club is was men and women strippers that switched off. Unfortunately we were too busy having fun and dancing at a nearby bar so we only got there 10 minutes before closing, but this was still a hot tip I couldn’t leave out.

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Hot tip: take a unique tour. I didn’t write a blog about Iceland, but I was supposed to do a snowmobile tour on a glacier and it got canceled. After that experience, I really wanted to do something unique. We knew we needed to get on the water in the south so we could view the caves, particularly the famous Benagil cave, from a unique view, and we booked a sunset boat tour. Unfortunately, when we got to the port, the boat was coming in from the last tour and they said they had an engine problem and couldn’t take us out. That may or may not have been true, but we knew we needed an alternative plan. We got some gelato (always the answer) and started trying to rearrange our itinerary for the next day so we could take a different tour. One of my friends was pushing for a kayak tour, because she thought we would be able to go into smaller caves unreachable by boat. She was right. I was nervous about my arms (10 days of no Peloton and copious amounts of wine meant I was very out of shape), but we took a tour that was half catamaran, and half kayak, about one hour on the kayaks. It. Was. AWESOME. We went in about six caves, and we were able to pull up on the beaches and walk around. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Plus we got a workout and amazing photos.

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If you aren’t sure where to eat, check google and TripAdvisor reviews. You never know what you will find. For example, on our way back from the standing stones, Almendres Cromlech, we wanted lunch and looked to google for suggestions. We found a restaurant that mentioned singing and stand-up comedy. We were sold. We didn’t realize it would be singing, stomping and clapping on a center table the whole time. It took us an hour to realize he was singing THE MENU. We were in for a real treat when we paid the bill – he sang the entire thing to us in Portuguese while pointing to the things on our table and explaining. And he made sure to add “plus whatever you want to give me as a tip” at the end. It was a true experience. Plus it was cheap and delicious!

Last hot tip: WINE IS SO CHEAP. This is true everywhere in Europe, but honestly you can buy wine for $4-6 American dollars for a BOTTLE. The “expensive” wine from the wineries is still under $15/bottle. Related hot tip: red wine doesn’t really give you a hangover. Also cheap: UBERS. I mean dirt cheap. We took $4 Ubers all throughout the south coast. We couldn’t understand how they made money! We had a rental car, but this way we didn’t need a DD. They didn’t have many Ubers available in the Alentejo region, but along the south and in Lisbon, they were readily available. Even our Uber from the airport was $13 USD.

Now for a quick list of places NOT to miss:

Sagres: we went there in the morning for a quick excursion, and we were so glad we did. This used to be thought of as the end of the world. It’s the Southwestern tip of Europe. Portugal was the world power in exploration in the 15^th century, and many famous explorers left from here, never knowing if they’d make it back. The views are breathtaking, and you can climb along a lot of the cliffside.

Lagos: Again, cliffside climbing but here there are boardwalks with railings so you can feel safer. You will see a lot of people climbing all the way down the cliffs but there are many, many signs warning people not to do this. In fact, there are spots where you can see the cliffs have collapsed. Stay on the boardwalks or far from the edge.

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Evora:

Chapel of Bones. This place is literally made of human bones. It’s creepy but also very cool! Only 5 Euro and includes a museum that has hundreds of Nativity scenes made from different materials.

Aqueduct and Roman Ruins: If you haven’t been to Rome or Athens, Evora is an awesome place to view Roman ruins and step wayyy back in time. The Aqueduct is truly impressive. We ate in an Italian restaurant right under the aqueduct and asked our server if the water was from the aqueduct. He either didn’t understand our joke or just didn’t think we were funny.

Sintra: This is a very adorable town 30 minutes from Lisbon. We took an Uber there because they were so cheap, but you could also take an inexpensive train. There is a big castle (Pena Palace) at the top of a hill which you could walk to, but we took a tuk-tuk and it was SO much fun. Our driver was a little bit crazy (he had a little flag that said “tip driver, help buy wine”), which made it even better. The views are spectacular, and they have huge gardens to walk through as well as a chalet made of cork that looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale.

Overall, the trip was so much fun, and I feel like I need to go back to Portugal so I can explore the north, like Porto and the Douro Valley. I’m feeling sad because I don’t have any other international trips on the books for 2021, but who knows – maybe I’ll book something with 8 day’s notice again soon!

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