As much as I love Lisbon, there are more places in Portugal that are worth visiting. Our journey continued  to Sintra, Algarve and Évora – beautiful parts of the country that offer so much.

Trip to Sintra

If you are staying in Lisbon for couple of days, you might consider visiting Sintra. It’s a small touristic city, located 50 km North. The whole city is under Unesco Heritage protection.

The easiest way to reach the city is by train. There is a direct one every 20 min from station Rossio in the center of Lisbon. In about 40 min you will reach Sintra, the last train stop.

Exploring the city is also very easy. Just in front of the station there is a touristic information, where you can learn more about the places worth seeing. There is a bus going to all of them and it costs 5.50 euro for a round trip. Go early in the morning, because the ques are long.

We visited Pena palace and National palace of Sintra. Ask for a combined ticket, if you want to visit both. It will cost you 2 or 3 euro less. These palaces are really beautiful, so I completely understand so many tourists wait in line to see them.

If you want to have a very good meal, choose one of the restaurants in front of the National palace. It was Hokey café with a nice view to the palace. The food there was really good and I really loved the rosé as well. I couldn’t resist and ordered yet again Bacalhau à Bras. I know, it’s not original, but I’m kind of addicted to this dish.

The one in this restaurant tasted and looked great. The other dish that is worth trying is Braised pork cheeks in wine sauce. It was so well made that it was melting in your mouth.

Enjoying Algarve

After visiting Lisbon and Sintra, we drove South to Albufeira. I’m sure most people visited this place already and it’s not so weird.

Albufeira has a totally different feel than the rest of the country. At night every restaurant is full,  it’s noisy and crowded (at least the old part of the city). There are people from all ages everywhere drinking, eating and having fun. You have to see it at least once.

My favorite restaurant in the city is Tasca Viegas Terraço, located at Rua da Bateria 5. It has a beautiful sea view from the terrace and it’s open for lunch and dinner. This is the place where you can find the best sangria in the city, so I highly recommend you to try it, if you visit Albufeira.

The fish dishes are sure fresh and delicious. We tried the grilled squid and the monk fish-shrimp kebap. The grilled sea bream is very good too. All in all it’s a great place to have delicious and very plesant dinner.