Day Trip From Lisbon
 

We'll be in Lisbon for four days in the first part of September.

The original plan was to go to Sintra on a day trip. After doing some reading all I saw was crowds and waiting in one line after the other. Not as relaxing as we would have liked so we switched to Cascais.

We travel in Europe by train when ever possible and have never rented a car. So we won't this time either.

I noticed that Sintra and Cascais are more or less the same distance from Lisbon. However, the train ride to Cascais takes about twice as long.

So I looked at the train schedules in more detail (you have to look at the details to see this) and noticed that the train to Cascais requires 3 changes starting at the Rossio station that's right near our hotel. In some cases there's almost no time between connections.

Has anybody done this and is it as hectic as it appears?

And one of the changes with no time in between is Transporte Complementar and no train number.

Any idea what that means?

Take a taxi or the metro to Cais do Sodre train station.

http://www.cascais-portugal.com/Guid...o-cascais.html

I thought of taking a taxi to a different station but looked at those with train changes.

You picked the best one.

We're a 3 minute walk from our hotel to the Rossio Metro station and then 7 minutes to the Cais do Sodre station by Metro.

That also makes it a 40 minute train ride to Cascais.

Thank you very much. Exactly the info I needed.

I'm surprised to see that it's so complicated to get to Cascais. The train itself leaves from Cais de Sodre, what you have at Rossio is the metro. So it´d be much easier to just go to Cais de Sodre, either on foot or in a cab.

But I hope you aren't disappointed by a day trip to Cascais. It is essentially a Lisbon suburb for the upper middle class and is plagued by endless traffic and big cars. It has a few blocks of an "old town", but IMO doesn´t have much charm at all. Lots of fancy shops, and there is a mall as well. I don´t know if you can get to Cabo da Roca from Cascais, but I thnk that would be a nicer visit, even though it is also mobbed. Just my opinion.

Well, we got very much turned off by the crowds and waiting in lines at Sintra.

I'm an amateur photographer and I've found some interesting sites along the way that are of interest.

What we might do is at mid-afternoon take a bus to Sintra and just see the sights in the town if the lines aren't too long. Then return to Lisbon from there.

Or we can rent bikes and ride along the bike path along the shore for a while.

We can decide when we're there.