Cascais Portugal

Cascais is a beautiful small town at the western edge of the beautiful Lisbon coastline.  Historically the town was a favourite of the Portuguese nobility, and today the town is an elegant blend of grand 19th century architecture, traditional Portuguese charm and outstanding tourist facilities. It is great holiday destination but also an enjoyable day trip from Lisbon, which is less than 20 minutes away by train. Since I was staying at Estoril I had the chance to explore Cascais as well because is just 5 minutes by train from Estoril.

Unlike many other Mediterranean beach resorts, which suddenly sprung up with the advent of mass tourism, Cascais has been established as a holiday destination since the early 19th century. Historically Cascais was a minor fishing port but this forever changed when King Fernando II (1816-1885) proclaimed Cascais as his favoured destination for his summer retreat.

The decampment of the Portuguese nobility from Lisbon to Cascais during the summer months encouraged the 19th century high-society of Europe to flock to Cascais as well. This influx of money and political power funded the construction throughout the town of grand residences, lavish entertainment venues and fine parks.

This trend of the high-society has continued through to the present day, with many of Lisbon’s rich and famous living within the vicinity of Cascais, providing the region with a prosperous and sophisticated atmosphere.

The center of Cascais, is filled with family owned restaurants, open-air cafes and stylish bars.  There is nice shopping area with some famous chain stores but also some Portuguese stores such as Natura, etc.

If you are visiting Lisbon you should definitely find time to visit this pretty town. There is a regular train between Lisbon and Cascais.

 The train departs from the Cais do Sodre train station (end of green metro line), the journey takes 30-40 minutes, and a return ticket costs €4.30. If you travel from Lisbon airport to Cascais using public transport requires both the metro and train and takes around 1.5 hour. From the airport you can take red line to Almeda. At Almeda you change to the green line to Cais do Sodre, from where you can take regional train to Cascais.

The Lisbon-Cascais region has many beautiful beaches.

If I was at the Cascais in the summer time I would definitely go to see the famous Guincho beach but I didn’t, I hope next time I will. This beach is considered as one of the finest surfing beaches of western Portugal. It is 8km to the north of Cascais. Guincho beach faces a westerly direction and is pounded by massive Atlantic Ocean waves, ideal for experienced surfers.

Cascais and the Lisbon region have long hot summers, pleasant spring and autumns seasons, and mild but possibly wet winters. Food and transport in Portugal are significantly cheaper than many of the other European countries.  Hotels, cafes and restaurants do not shut down for winter at the Cascais.

The Praia da Rainha beach is a very pretty but small beach that is surrounded by cliffs and overlooks the fishing harbor. The beach is named the Queen’s Beach (Praia da Rainha) as it was the private beach of queen Dona Amelia (the last queen of Portugal). This beach is right in the centre of Cascais.

The Praia da Ribeira is the beach directly in front of the Cascais fishing harbour.

If you have time you can also walk from the Cascais train station to the Estoril through the walking and cycling path by the coast, it will take you around 45 minutes walking but is amazing experience. You can then have the chance to see all the beaches of Estoril area, a lot of people are jogging, fishing and surfing there.

If you walk up to the hill from the Praia da Ribeira beach you will pass by very beautiful mansions.

On the top of the hill is the Cidadela de Cascais, the 15th century fort.

It is above the minor fishing harbor of Cascais and Marina Cascais.

The king John II wanted the defensive tower to be constructed there at the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the River Tejo. The Santo Antonio Tower was completed in 1490.

The tower was built for the defense of Lisbon but a thriving fishing community grew around the protection that the tower provided from pirates and raiding parties. The Cidadela de Cascais  was almost destroyed because of the 1755 earthquake and the resulting tsunami, and both the Fortaleza da Luz and the Santo Antonio Tower’s was severely damaged. Later on Cidadela de Cascais was rebuilt.

During the peninsular war part of the Napoleonic wars the Cidadela de Cascais was involved in numerous battles against the French. In the 19th century Cascais became popular with the Portuguese royal family and King Luis terminated the military occupation and converted the Cidadela de Cascais into a lavish summer palace. The Cidadela de Cascais was the first area of Portugal to have outside street lighting which was installed in 28th September 1878.

The Marina Cascais is located below the Cascais Cidadela on the southern tip of Cascais with the main seaward entrance opening on to the Atlantic Ocean.

Marina Cascais has a total of 638 berths spread over two large sections of water. Other facilities include a 70 tonne crane, dry storage, repair facilities and car hire. The coordinates for the Cascais Marina are 38°42’N and 09°25’W.

At the Cascais Marina there are a lot of shops, restaurants, bars you can also book the boat cruse ride or helicopter ride, rent a bicycle, scooter or car.

Above the Marine you have to climb to one more cliff in order to visit the Casa de Santa Maria and the Light house of Cascais. But don’t imagine that is faraway from the center. It took me about 15 minutes walking from the center and the  Praia da Ribeira beach to reach the light house.

The Casa de Santa Maria (House of Santa Maria) is a building from 1902 and is one of the most emblematic works by the architect Raul Lino, who began his career precisely in Cascais, designing a series of houses for some friends.

Right next to it is the Farol de Santa Marta and the Farol Museu de Santa Marta (Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum). The exhibition area is divided into two spaces, located in the former lighthouse keeper residences.

 The space 1 is related to Portuguese Lighthouses: Technology and history reveal, among other things, large Fresnel lenses with special emphasis on the optical panel device of the Berlengas Lighthouse which reaches a height of 3.70m.

The space 2 is taking you from the Fort to the Profession of the Lighthouse Keeper, focuses on the experience of the Farol de Santa Marta (Santa Marta Lighthouse) through the ages. There, you can see the diary of the lighthouse keeper who meticulously records the occurrences of foggy days and lit nights.

In the auditorium, the film Lighthouses of Portugal is playing all the time and it is on English language. The 15 minutes film is telling the story, through the witness of lighthouse keepers, of the company that erected and maintained these monuments along the Portuguese coast.

If you wish to visit the light house here is the timetable:

Wednesday to Friday: 11:00am to 12:00

Fourth Saturday of the month: 11:00am to 01:00pm

If you wish to visit the museum here is the timetable:

Tuesdays to Fridays from 10:00am. to 05:00pm

Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00am to 01:00pm and from 02:00pm to 05:00pm

It is closed on Mondays and public holidays.

Santa Marta Lighthouse was built in 1868 on the site of a 17th century fort the lighthouse only came into operation after the site was stripped of its military status.

Santa Marta’s distinctive blue and white striped tower stands at 8 metres (25ft) tall and still stands guard over the mouth of the Tagus.

Until 1981 it was manned continuously by lighthouse keepers, however these days the light is automated.

It isn’t so difficult to climb at the top of the light house.

The balcony is very narrow though, and you need to be careful. That is the reason that they allow only one visitor on the balcony at the time.

The view from the balcony is breathtaking and it is worth climbing.

There is a pleasant little cafe on the terrace of the fort, overlooking the Cascais cliffs next to the small gift shop where you can also buy the tickets to the museum.

The night life at the Cascais is as varied as it is lively.

For a relaxed evening watching the world go by head to the Hotel Baia Grill Restaurant, the best-placed eatery in town located on the ground floor of the Hotel Baia Cascais with a broad terrace offering panoramic views out across the bay.

We choose to have our dinner at the O Poeta restaurant in the center. The service was great, the prices as well. The food was delicious, fresh and well prepared.

For starter we chose one common Portuguese dish, fried octopus, that they are serving along with fresh deep and homemade bread, olives and Serra da Estrela Cheese (Queijo Serra da Estrela).

For main course I had roasted piglet with potato’s.

My boyfriend had the steak with mustard sauce.

We also met a new fluffy dog friend Lorenzo. The waiter asked if the dog was annoying but we liked dog’s company very much. Lorenzo is so sweet, clever and polite dog. The waiter said that Lorenzo is walking about 4 kilometers every evening to Cascais for the last 9 years,  just to have his dinner there. Everybody knows Lorenzo at the Cascais.

After dinner we walked around, most of the shops were open till 9 o’clock in the evening.

We visited the shopping mall that is placed behind the train station.

I wish that Dutch supermarkets had the variety of seafood like the Portuguese does.

There is also a lot of fast food restaurants at the top floor and several nice shops along with a big supermarket.

For the best coffee and sweets I can recommend the Bijou de Cascais pastry shop, the shop is there since 1929. There you can try the best Portuguese custard tarts pasteis de nata, fresh made and warm.  

Walking by the Travessa da Misericordia shopping street we saw the Motörhead flag from the street at the sealing of the bar. The window was open and we heard an Iron Maiden playing loud. The bar is located at the first floor of the old building and has the view on the shopping street Travessa da Misericordia.

They play heavy metal and rock music only and this is something that we liked the most. The name of the bar is Crow Bar. The ambiance was nice, smoking is allowed,  we tried two local craft beers there. The one we enjoyed very much was a beer named Pato (red color label with the duck on it).

Above the bar there was a sign that says: Don’t do music requests, but if you insist you can pay €2 for metal song , €50 for pop  and €100 for all the other crap.

Besides this one there is another sign that says: Please be polite to the barman, even the toilet can handle only one asshole at the time.

Some people write on the TripAdvisor that barman at the bar was unfriendly and almost impossible to engage in a conversation, but we did not sat at the bar and we did not tried to have any conversation with him. We sat in the corner by the window, because of that I can not express my opinion about the barman.

The Cascais is definitely worth visiting no matter what time of year and during the whole day everybody can find something interesting there for sure. At the Cascais, there are world-class hotels, excellent restaurants and a social nightlife scene, all of which are set within the traditional streets of the historic center.