Portugal Photo Diary

Lisbon

We spent our first few days in Lisbon, and stayed at the Four Seasons. Firstly, Portuguese people are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Is it odd that I consider Lisbon the San Francisco of Europe? As you’ll see below, Portugal’s 25 de Abril Bridge is just like the one in SF. Plus, trams are a common mode of transport to get up and down Lisbon’s very hilly streets. Okay, that’s pretty much as far as it goes, but I found the vibe to be quite similar! The Uber drivers are especially nice, I guess they have to be … but I feel like they are nicer here than in other cities. To get around, we did a lot of walking, and Ubered when we couldn’t be bothered walking anymore, haha! On our first morning, we took a sidecar tour around Lisbon for three hours. I would highly recommend this to anyone! It was so nice to ride through Lisbon in the breeze. During our sidecar tour, we were taken to eat the famous Portuguese tarts from Pasteis de Belem which, which pumps out over ten thousands tarts … per day. We were also blessed with such amazing weather during our entire trip.

The streets and architecture are so rich in life, colour and history. Our sidecar driver took us around to see some historically significant building in Lisbon, including the oldest bookshop in the world. Little things like this make me fall in love with a city even more. I can’t wait to return to roam the streets some more! Oh, and the seafood. Yum! Also, I think we ate seafood for almost every meal… hehe – not complaining! On our last night in Lisbon, we went to Park Bar, which is located above a carpark, you can see the whole city from up there, so I’d definitely say go there for some sunset drinks!

Lagos

Following Lisbon, we hired a car and drove down to Lagos. On the way down, we took the route without tolls. This took us five hours! It was fine, as we had nowhere to be, but it did make us arrive quite late. We stayed in this Airbnb, with the loveliest hosts, José and his wife, who work in the tourism industry. They went above and beyond to make sure our stay was enjoyable. To be honest, our time here was such a magnificent blur, I had to really back track to remember everything we did. I’ve just made a little list below of thing I recommend.

Things I recommend in Lagos:

Sunrise at Ponta De Piedade, Acai Bowl for breakfast at Super Coffee & Crafts, order a seafood Cataplana for dinner, chill on the beach at Praia Do Camilo, have a swim at Praia Dona Ana, bar hop in the town strip – all the bars are next door to each other in the town centre so it’s great to get around town!

Sadly, I didn’t make it to Benagil Cave, as it was fully booked. If you want to do this in peak season, make sure you book well in advance!

Sintra

We drove back up to Lisbon, taking the toll route, which took two and a half hours, and had a few hours to spend somewhere before flying out. We chose to visit Sintra, as I had heard good things about it. Sadly, our time was cut a bit short as we were involved in a minor car accident upon entering Lisbon. (Don’t text and drive people!)

While we only spent a few hours here, I love love loooved it. When I visit Portugal again, I’ll be sure to stay in Sintra next time. Sintra is full of castles, and life, culture and history, and we managed to visit Quinta Da Regaleira, to see the famous well and walk around before returning our car back in Lisbon.

I’ll be back for sure, Portugal!

I didn’t know much about Portugal before travelling there, as my friend had planned most of the trip. I think having no expectations is always best when travelling to new places, which is probably why I loved Portugal much more than I expected. I’m so happy to finally share these snaps with you all. It was a ‘true’ holiday, as I wasn’t concerned about taking photos, or working on any jobs while I was there. So here are some random snaps from my phone and camera that I took along the way.