The elegant towns of Cascais, Estoril and Sintra have plenty to offer, from romantic royal palaces to the best of Portuguese cuisine. O n a blue-sky Saturday morning, I joined a foraging hike in Sintra-Cascais nature park, a former municipal wasteland and now thriving ecosystem on the outskirts of Cascais in Portugal.
Sintra-Cascais nature park is home to wild horses and deer, 15 hiking trails, including the West Route, a three-day hike with optional glamping up to the Sintra mountains. Nippers can ride on a brown, cuddly, cute-as and, sadly endangered Miranda donkey. As someone who can recognise a Brussels-sprout tower but very little else in the edible wild, I think doing so might help with that plants-a-week health malarkey back home. How we feasted. Cascais itself is a well-heeled gem of a Lisbon outpost, 32km from the capital on the Atlantic coast.
Once a summer spot for Portuguese royalty, there is still plenty of wealth in Cascais and big villas, old and new, to show for it. Its lean, geometric aesthetic and two red concrete towers gesture to the National Palace in nearby Sintra. I chased off thoughts of oppression with a stroll through the Marechal Carmona park across the road. Turtles swam in the pond, peacocks wandered among the statues β very cheering.
Built in , the mansion is a Romantic, turreted folly showcasing Portuguese art and furniture. The road west leads to the wide, sandy beaches of Praia do Guincho and on to another celebration of Romanticism, the hilltop town of Sintra 18km to the north. Lord Byron, visiting in , likened it to Eden. Evening fell and it was time to feel the heat at Chefs on Fire, an annual nighttime music and culinary weekend festival in neighbouring Estoril. Visitors sat on hay bales and old sofas, sipping cocktails, teenagers hung out on tree swings.
Others joined strangers at trestle tables or took their sizzling plates to the live-music stage. A top, tasty night out. The next day, back in Cascais, there were more culinary treats to come. I had to forego dessert in order to squeeze in our afternoon in Sintra. Though teeming with tourists, Sintra is a Romantic theme park β take your pick of fanciful palaces and parks.
