best Lisbon excursions

Enveloped in a Moorish wall, the diminutive whitewashed village of Óbidos was deemed so enchanting that it was gifted to a queen, not once but many times throughout the centuries.

The great suspension bridge over the River Tagus opens the route to the scenic wonders of Lisbon’s southern shoreline, but the attractions are by no means confined to the coast.

Located at an isolated spot high in the Sintra hills, the Convento dos Capuchos is an extraordinary hermitage comprising just twelve tiny cells hewn from the living rock above a wooded dell in a densely forested setting.

Following in the footsteps of the great English Romantic poets, few tourists can resist the lush, green setting of Sintra just a few kilometres west of Lisbon.

In 1830, when Gaspar Henriques de Paiva left his home in Monsanto, central Portugal, for the village of Azeitão in the Arrábida mountains close to Lisbon, he took with him the winning formula for one of Portugal’s best cheeses.

Nestling among vineyards and olive and cork trees, Azeitão is a pretty little town situated on the old road between Lisbon and the port city of Setúbal at the foot of the Arrábida mountains just 40 km south of the Portuguese capital.

Towering over Lisbon‘s southern coastline, the great limestone ridge of the Serra da Arrábida, 40 km south of the city and clearly visible from its higher points, is home to some of the world’s oldest living examples of Mediterranean vegetation.

On the road to Colares, just 2 km west of the historic village of Sintra and a short drive from Lisbon, lies the delightful Palace of Monserrate, one of the most impressive examples of Romantic architecture in Portugal.

The delightful old town of Alcochete is located on the south bank of the River Tagus, in close proximity to the Tagus Estuary Nature Reserve.

Napoleon’s attempts to conquer the Iberian Peninsula came to an abrupt halt when his army under Marshall Massena encountered the Lines of Torres Vedras, a defensive stronghold designed to protect Lisbon.