kettamic

My wife and I will be in Cascais for a few days and plan of visiting Lisbon from there by train. My wife can only do a limited amount of walking and for the most part can not do hills. I believe I read somewhere that the train from Cascais does not go to the Rossio Station. Is this so, and if so, does it go to a station that is within fairly short walking distance of the main attractions of central Lisbon?

Also, from looking at the city map of Lisbon, it appears that it would not be too difficult to drive to Belem. Would parking be a problem in this area?

Any comments and advice would be appreciated.

lreynold1

Hi Kettamic,

The train from Cascais arrives at the Cais de Sodre train station, where there is also a metro stop. It's about a ten minute walk from there to the Praca do Comercio, which is also on the water and pretty centrally located for tourists. (not a very pretty walk, I have to say, however). The metro is excellent, and you could easily get to most tourist destinations on it.

Driving to Belem is not hard, whether you start in Cascais or Lisbon. But it's the parking that's complicated. Street parking, no big parking garages that I can think of. The best bet aside from lucking out on snagging a street spot is probably the lots that are to the west of the monastery, near the naval museum. There (and in many places where parking spots are in short supply) you will find guys who try to make a few euros by "directing" you into spots. Though I always give them some change, my Portuguese friends never do and have never had anything happen to their cars.

Belem is well connected via public transportation, so that's what I'd use if you're new to the city.

adrienne

If your wife cannot walk far I would use taxis which are inexpensive and prevalent in Lisbon. Save the walking for seeing the sights.

kettamic

lreynold1, thanks for the great infomation, and thank you adrienne. I try to avoid taxis as much as possible but I may need to use them now. We took one from the Rome airport into the city a few years ago and we were lucky to get out alive.

adrienne

I only took taxis a few times but the drivers were all courteous and didn't speed. I know what you mean about the Rome taxis.

Robert2533

Lisbon is not Rome,

Sher

kettamic. I just returned from Portugal and we spent two weeks in Cascais.
One day we drove to Belem and I must say it was very easy to do but we did have a GPS,
We were able to find a parking place on the street. I noticed that there are handicapped spaces there but I don't know how you go about being able to park in one.
I have to tell you that the area covered with the monuments and the museum of coaches, and the monastery is quite large. I have some difficulty walking for long periods of time and I understand your concern. But the area is flat so that will help.
We really liked the area around Cascais. It was quite beautiful along the coast. The fresh fish is wonderful.
Enjoy your time.

chapla

I suggest you use the on/off bus for your visit to Lisbon.

suec1

You can easily take the same train from Cascais to Belem as to Lisbon - you can exit very close to the Belem sights. If you take the train into Lisbon you probably want to purchase the Andante card at the metro station that will give you unlimited use of the metro, buses, trams and funiculars - that should help you get around the city fairly easily. I will say we did have a frightening taxi ride from Lisbon to the airport. Just plain crazy fast. On another occasion a taxi overcharged us (make sure they have the meter on, we didn't) but we did take 2 taxi rides that were ok. When we returned a few months later I booked a car to pick us up at the airport and transport us to Cascais - it was well worth the euros.

I really liked staying in Cascais - do you want restaurant suggestions? We really enjoyed 5 Sentidos / Casa Largo (goes by both names) and also B & B. 5 Sentidos is nicer, has a varied / "fancier" menu but B & B has very good "simple" food - the whole grilled fish was wondergul. Enjoy!

kettamic

Thanks for the info Robert, I'll be sure not to ask for directions to the Spanish Steps.

kettamic

sueC1 - Thanks for the restaurant recommendations. I read your trip report a couple of weeks ago and made a note of them at that time.