Sam28 Portugal Trip Aug 2022

[sam28]

 Portugal Trip Aug 2022

Day 1 Tuesday

We went to visit London for a few days, from there we went to Portugal. We booked Ryan Air because they had the times that we wanted, from Stansted airport at 7pm arrived in Porta at 9pm. It’s a 2-hour flight.

Our flight tonight

 

We were out of the airport in less than 20 minutes. We went to pick up our car by SIXT car rental, it was crazy expensive but I had no choice.
From the airport we drove 1hour and 10 minutes to a nice small village called Cumeeira, in the Douro Valley. It’s 25 minutes from Pinhao. We stayed in a very nice hotel M W Spa with amazing views of the vineyards and the valleys. Wherever you looked you saw grapes growing surrounded by mountains.

We arrived to the hotel 12am. Unpacked and called it a night!

Our hotel for the next 2 nights

 

 

 

 

Day 2 Wednesday

We woke up and now we got to see how nice it looks outside! Wow so relaxing. We davened, ate a good breakfast and drove to the town of Pinhao. The whole drive till Pinhao was beautiful. We stopped so many times to take in the views. Seeing all the grapes on these little trees and the curvy roads was magnificent. We bought tickets for a 2 hour boat tour. We took an old wooden boat to tour around the Douro Valley. It was beautiful and very relaxing. 
It was a good time of the year to go, because they were starting to harvest now so all the grapes were ripe. You could just take it off the tree and eat it.

View from our hotel

 

Driving view

 

Found a lock.
 


Boat ride

 

 

Just look at all this vineyard

 

 

 

 


After the boat ride we went to do a buggy tour. It was about 5:30 then and we were the only one on the tour. We told them we want to see a winery. We drove the buggy between olive trees and grape trees for about two hours. Beautiful scenery up and down the hills. We stopped to take some pictures. The buggy tour guide called her friend who has a winery and asked if we can come for a tour.

And sure enough we got a private tour. They explained to us exactly how wine is made, the whole process. Which grapes are good for which wines. We became very knowledgeable, which wasn’t meant to be part of this tour but they did it for us. It was really very interesting. We were very thankful for them for giving us such a nice tour with so much patience we gave them a nice tip which at first he didn’t want to take but in the end he did. Our tour was over 3 hours long. And we only booked the buggys for 2 hours and we still had to drive back.

Our ATV

 

View on our ride wow wow

 

Closer look on the grapes

 

 

The winery we visited.

 

 

 

We got back to the hotel after 9, had a good supper and called it a night!

[sam28]

Thursday day 3

We checked out of our hotel and was out by 10am since we had a long day with lots of driving.
First we stopped by a few viewing points. We couldn’t get enough of the grape trees and the beautiful views. Then off we went to our next stop

View from our room

 

 




More views next to our hotel

 

Our next stop was a town called Trancoso, it’s a small village surrounded with old city walls on top of a hill with a lot of Jewish history. The way up there was beautiful, stunning views. The way took almost 2 hours. We walked around saw all the Jewish sites and then visited the shul. The shul had a wall with the names of all the people that were killed there 700 years ago. The shul was very interesting. It had drawn pictures on the walls how the people lived there in those times. We were in the area about 2 hours because we had to wait for the shul to open, it was closed for lunch from 12-2.

On our way to Trancoso

 

Old walls of the town

 




 

Inside the shul

 

Some of the names that they killed on the wall of the shoul

 

From there we drove anther 2 hours to Aveiro they call it the Venice of Portugal.
We arrived about 4:30, walked around the old town, took a gondola ride in the canal and left. It’s a nice town to visit if you have the time.

St of Aveiro

 

Taking the gondola tour

 

 

 

 

Form there we went to our next hotel in the town of Cascais where we stayed for the next 4 nights.
The reason I chose this place because we wanted to be near Chabad for Shabbos. We had a 30-minute walk till Chabad. And it was close to Sentra and Lisbon.

We could have stayed closer to Chabad but I was looking for a nice hotel. We did not mind to walk with such views.

We stayed in Grande Real Villa Italia Hotel. They have the best service gorgeous views, they upgraded us to a beautiful suite, we loved it.
We arrived about 10 pm, unpacked and called it a night.

[sam28]

Friday Day 4 Cascais Portugal

[sam28]

Friday Day 4 Cascais Portugal

Outside of our hotel they have a walkway about 10KM long with a view of the sea. You can walk on top of the cliffs, at some places you can go down very close to the water and see how the waves crash into the cliffs. You can sit there and watch it all day. They also have E bikes or electric scooters to rent and ride on the boardwalk. It was a lot of a fun.

We were supposed to go to Sintra to see the two palaces on Monday. We saw Friday we have time we decided to see one of the palaces on Friday and the other one Monday. It turned out to be a good idea.

Hotel pic



We had a corner sweet so we had balcony from all sides
 

 


 

 

They made me breakfast in the morning sent up to room

 

 

We left our hotel about 11 and went to Sintra to see Quinta Da Regalia, it’s a beautiful palace with lots of gardens. We parked our car and had about a 10 minute walk till the palace. Once we got there they had two lines for tickets, one for whoever bought online and one to buy there. We already had tickets so our line took 15 minutes till we got in. 

We spent there about 2 and ½ hours. It’s a lot of walking and very hilly. But wow it was beautiful! It was so worth it. Then we walked around the town a little then headed back to Cascais to get ready for Shabbos.   

First look of the palace

 

Some pic of the outside of the palace

 

 

The dawell

 

Going down it takes u to underground cave

 

 

 

 

Walking in town


Part of our food

 

 

Taking a dip in the crystal clear water before shabbes

 

Shabbos in Cascais

Two weeks before our trip I sent my passport and all my information to Chabad to be able to eat there. They charge $25.00 per person, very cheap. They have a beautiful building there.

The week we were there they had a special Shabbos. The donor of the buildings kids and a group of friends from Israel came for Shabbos. So by the meals they had over 100 guests.

The davening Friday night and the meal were very nice. Davening by day was way too long. They gave a Kiddush after davening and we ate there. Its always good to have a Chabad when you go out of town. We schlepped along so much food for our trip, at least for Shabbos we didn’t have to worry
about food.

Shabbos afternoon we walked along the coast and enjoyed watching the water crash into the cliffs. It was a beautiful relaxing Shabbos and we enjoyed every minute.

[sam28]

Sunday Day 6 Aug 21/2022

We booked a tour guide to tour Lisbon for three hours and then we would go to all the famous spots. I called the guy Motze Shabbos he said I never confirmed with him and he wasn’t available. I tried to get another guide but no one was available. I was stuck and had to go on my own.

Breakfast from hotel

 

We left our hotel about 1pm. First we went a 5 minute walk from our hotel to Boca Do Inferno where you see the water crash into the cliffs and the rocky walls. The view out there is wow, no words. People come here to watch these views from all over. From there you can go down some stairs and climb on the rocks. You can climb down even lower to a private beach.

 

Boca Do Inferno

 

 

 

 

This is the road we walked shabbes to Chabad

 

We took a e scooter to ride along the coast stopped by all the nice viewing points wow, it was nice!

At about 1 we left to Lisbon

The first stop was the Belem Tower Torre De Belem. They have parking there. The views from there are outstanding. We waited about 25 minutes to go into the tower, it’s nice but it’s not a must to go inside.

 

 

]

View from 2fl

 

 

Next we took the Tram 28. They say it’s a must to do, I don’t see why. We visited the commerce square. Walked around the city. Took a boat tour on the

Tagus River for two hours. It was very nice.

St in Lisbon

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We wanted to go to the jewish synagogue and see all the jewish history but it was closed. And I had no tour guide, so I’ll have to come back for that. From there we went to Historic Santa Lift. We saw it from the outside. It was closed for two hours to go inside so we skipped it.

Historic Santa Lift

 

The weather while we were there was beautiful. It was sunny all the time, you couldn’t see a cloud in the sky. So we thought why not go to a nice place to see sunset. We went to a place, not sure how it’s called. Once we started driving up the weather got so bad. We drove high up on a mountain, we were still 3 miles away from the spot we wanted to get too, but the clouds were so heavy, we couldn’t see anything in front of us. So we turned back and the weather was nice again, so no sunset for us from that viewing point.

[sam28]

Monday Day 7 Aug /2022

We were supposed to go today to visit the other castle in Sintra, but all the castles were closed due to very hot and dry weather. They’re scared of fires. It was a shame to miss it, at least we got to see one castle on Friday.

We enjoyed the hotels grounds and we check out about 12

On our way we decided to check out the kosher store in Lisbon. They carry a lot of stuff but we bought with us most of the food.  We only bought some stuff and off we went. The grocery is called Portuel.

Then we drove all the way up South to the Algarve. It took us about three hours. We stayed in Tivoli Carvoeiro Algarve Resort for the next three nights. 
We chose to stay in this beautiful resort because they have their own beach and it was near everything we wanted to cover. 

The hotel grounds were amazing. The views from the hotel were just wow!  From there you can walk to a lot of popular places. And its 30 minutes from Lagos, the other place we went too.

We got there about 4 pm, checked in. Then checked out the hotel grounds, took a nice swim in the pool and then in the beach.
To access most of the beaches in the Algarve you have to walk down a lot of steps., then climb on rocks, but once you get there its stunning beautiful, you can just sit there all day!

We left the hotel about 7pm to watch sunset. We walked to the town of Carvoeiro. We went to the boardwalk and watched a beautiful sunset. You pass some beaches on the way, the views are wow!

Sunset night one

 

The boardwalk

 

[sam28]

Tuesday day 8

Woke up and relaxed in the hotel till 11:30. Then we book a boat tour to go see all the caves in the water.

Hotel pictures


 

 

 

Breakfast view

 

View from our room

 

U can see the stairs how u go down to the beach in back of our hotel wow


 

Just look on this view

 

 Panorama photo I took.





 
 
U can swim in to this cave

 

 

 

You go to the Marina De Lagos. From there, there are many companies that offer you all kind of boat tours. We took a two hour tour. They take you to see the caves, they make a few stops. You can swim in the caves too. It was a nice tour.

It was a little over cast in the morning

 

 

 

 

 

After that we went to Ponta Da Piedade. It’s a must to do. We parked our car almost by the lighthouse then we walked for about 3 miles on golden cliffs with stunning amazing views of rocks and the sea. You pass many beaches that you can visit by going down a lot of steps and then back up all the steps to continue the walk. It took us about 3 hours. You can spend there all day if you want to sit by the beach. The way back we took an uber to our car.

Starting our hike pictures don’t do justice,



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to our hotel, and they were very nice and ready to warm up our meals that we bought along.
Sunset

 

[sam28]

Wednesday Aug 25 day 9

[sam28]

Wednesday Aug 25 day 9

We woke up to another beautiful morning, relaxed by the pool a little. About 11:30 we left our hotel, drove 3 minutes to a place called Praia Da Marina. It’s the start of the most beautiful hike in the Algarve. Its called the Seven Hanging Valley Trail. It’s a cliff top trail along the coastline, with amazing views of the sea arches and access to all the nice beaches. We did the trail, went down to the beach, stopped at Praia Do Carvalho, took in all the views and ended up on top of Benagi cave.

It took us more than three hours. You can buy drinks along the trail. By some beaches it’s a must to stop at if you’re in the area. The way back we took a taxi. It was a 6KM hike, wow it was nice, and worth it!

Start of the hike

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top of the cave

 

 

Nice swimming spot

 

did not take much pictures of this day


We went back to our hotel, rested a little, warmed up our supper, then went to sunset 5 minutes from our hotel to Carvoeiro boardwalk. It’s a beautiful place for sunset with gorgeous views.

[sam28]

Thursday Aug 26 our last day in paradise

We woke up early, spent some time at the pool and beach. Then we packed up all our stuff and we were on our way to the airport. We stopped at a place called Algar Seco.

We shouldn’t have left this place for the last place. I hope to come back and visit this place again. It’s a nice walk and you can swim between the cliffs. It’s a boardwalk along the scenic rocky coastline with caves. See it for yourself. We spent there about an hour and then we left to the airport.

Algar Seco.

 

 

 

Our flight to London was about 3 pm from Fro Airport. The took about an hour from our hotel. We returned our car to the rental. And after 3 hours we

landed in London for the weekend then back to the USA!

FRO airport

 

Saying good bye

 

I hope this trip report will help people looking to go to Portugal. We had an amazing time there, and for sure hope to go back one day!

[justmeha]

Taking a dip in the crystal clear water before shabbes

 

do your happen to remember where this is?

[sam28]

do your happen to remember where this is?

Yes, this is on the boardwalk in Cascais it was 3 min from our hotel where we stayed. Grande Real Villa Italia Hotel