In this post, I’ll describe my visit to Lisbon and the Azores islands in Portgual from Nov 26th to Dec 3rd. I had road tripped through Spain and Portugal in Sep 2021 and loved my time there. On this trip, I visited Sintra and Cascais near Lisbon and spent a few days in the Azores islands, an island archipelago about 1400 km west of Lisbon.
Some highlights of this blog..
- Practical tips to visit Sintra and Cascais
- Where to get the best views of Lisbon
- What to do in Sao Miguel, the largest island in the Azores
- Fun facts about sperm whales, dolphins and tea production
- Is it worth buying car rental insurance from Expedia?
- Why do we call our numbers “Arabic numerals”?
I flew a Tap Air Portugal flight from EWR to Lisbon. To get to the airport, I took a cab to Penn station (~$15), NJ transit to Newark (~$17) and the air train from Newark to EWR airport (~$8). The public transit portion cost $25, which is quite high for public transportation! Getting to JFK is cheaper–$2.75 to Jamaica if one takes the subway and about $6 on the LIRR. The air train from Jamaica to JFK costs about $9. Cost aside, it is nice to be able to get to airports entirely using public transportation.. this wasn’t the case when I lived in the DC area. There was no easy way to get to Washington Dulles airport using public transportation. The Washington area metro had been working on extending the silver line to Dulles for several years and finally opened that line about a month after I moved to NYC (Nov 2022)!
My flight departed around midnight of Nov 26th and I arrived in Lisbon around 11 AM local time. I stayed at Alecrim Ao Chiado, a small, boutique hotel in the heart of Lisbon. I quite enjoyed my stay.. The room was nicely furnished, the morning breakfast healthy and delicious and the service friendly and helpful. From the layout of the room–the toilet was a few steps up and separate from the bathroom, the hotel is likely an old house converted to a hotel. The hotel provided an option to book a pick up from the airport for $30, which I did. It was nice to have someone pick me up from the arrivals area. Otherwise it is easy to take a train from Lisbon airport to downtown.
I’ll split the blog in two parts. In part 1, I’ll describe my visit to Sintra and Cascais near Lisbon. In part 2, I’ll cover the Azores islands.
Part 1: Sintra and Cascais
Lisbon: Day 1 (Wednesday)
Since I only had less then 2 full days in Lisbon, I got to sightseeing right away. I had managed to get some sleep on the plane, so I wasn’t too tired. I got a nice breakfast and headed over to the main attraction in Sintra–Pena Palace, a Romanticist castle, about a 45 min train ride from Lisbon. The castle stands on the top of a hill in the Sintra mountains, providing lovely views of the Atlantic ocean and surrounding hills.
A brief history of Pena palace. In the middle ages, Pena Palace was a monastery, housing about 18 monks. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake destroyed most of the monastery, except the chapel. In 1838, Ferdinand II, member of the Portuguese royal family decided to acquire the old monastery and the surrounding lands including the nearby Castle of the Moors and a few other estates in the area. King Ferdinand then set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. The palace stayed in the royal family who spent significant time there. In 1889, it was purchased by the Portuguese State, and after the Republican Revolution of 1910 it was classified as a national monument and transformed into a museum.
There are several trains from different train stations in Lisbon to Sintra. I boarded a train from Rossio station, a 10 min walk from the hotel. A one way ticket costs ~$2.5. From Sintra train station, one can take a bus to Pena Palace for about $6. For about $10, you are able to get on/off the bus at other destinations along the way as well. The entry to Pena Palace costs $20. The tickets are timed entry tickets and I enjoyed the views of surrounding countryside and took some pics while I waited for my turn.
The interior of the castle were adapted to serve as the summer residence of the Portuguese royal family. The castle tour takes you through the living, working and entertainment areas of the royal family and their retinue. It reminded me of the chateaus I visited during the Loire river valley bike tour in July 2024.
After the Pena Palace tour, I walked about 10 min down to the Moorish Castle, built by the Islamic rulers of Iberia (geographical name of the peninsula comprising Spain and Portugal) to defend the surrounding territory and control maritime access routes to the city of Lisbon. During the reconquesta (reconquest of the Iberian peninsula by the Christian forces from the Moors, who had ruled Iberia from the 8th century onward), the castle was handed over to Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, following the conquest of the cities of Lisbon and Sintra in 1147.
I learnt an interesting side story related to the reconquesta from “Empire”, one of my favorite history podcasts. Ever wonder why the digits in the number system we use are called “Arabic numerals”? The city of Toledo in Spain housed a vast library containing numerous Arabic texts on mathematics, including those utilizing the Arabic numeral system (which in fact derived from the Indian number and calculation system, invented by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta in the 7th century). After the conquest of Toledo by Christian forces in 1085, the library was thankfully left alone. Soon, scholars from Italy, England and France descended upon this library, and translated the Arabic text into Latin and other languages. The introduction of Arabic numbers and mathematical concepts, specially the concept of zero (called “shunya” in Sanskrit, from where the word “cipher” comes from) dramatically simplified calculations involving negative and fractional numbers, spurring advances in accounting, navigation, astronomy etc. Until that point, mathematics in Europe still used Roman numerals, which were very cumbersome to use (imagine multiplying XVII with CXV or something like that!)
After the castle tour, I lost my way a bit and ended up walking all the way down to Sintra train station, about 2 Km away. Along the way, I passed by several nice houses, restaurants etc. I took the train back to Lisbon, got dinner and walked around a bit. The streets were beautifully decorated in Christmas lights with different streets decorated with their own lighting patterns..
Lisbon: Day 2 (Thu)
I was scheduled to fly to the Azores islands from Porto on Friday at 12:40 PM. So I had to leave for Porto at some point on Thu. I checked the train schedule from Lisbon to Porto and was happy to see that there was a train almost every hour. Most trains took about 2.5 hrs to cover the ~300 km from Lisbon to Porto. I decided to take the 8 PM train, which meant that I had most of the day for sightseeing. Since I had already seen several of the Lisbon sights (Jeronimos monastry, main town square etc) on a previous visit, I decided to visit Cascais, a seaside resort about a 45 minute train ride from Lisbon. The train from Lisbon to Cascais hugs the coast most of the way, offering nice views of the Tagus river. You also pass by the Jeronimos monastry , Belem tower (a 16th-century fortification that served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon during the age of exploration in the 16 and 17th centuries), the 25 April bridge (named after the date of the Carnation revolution in 1974, which overthrew the remnants of Antonio Salazar’s dictatorial regime that ruled Portugal from 1933 to 1974) and many other Lisbon landmarks.
I didn’t have a concrete plan for what to do in Cascais. After getting out of the train station, I started walking in the general direction of the marina, when I noticed a bike rental shop. I went in and rented a hybrid bike for about $15. The shop manager showed me several landmarks I could visit along the ride. Here’s the path I followed:
The first part of the ride hugged the coast and offered nice views of the ocean and the jagged, craggy coast
Shortly after passing Crismina beach, I commenced a relentless 4.5 KM climb as shown in the map
After making it to the top of the climb, I took a breather and got some water and a coffee.
From the top, I continued to switchback my way up along the hills. I wanted to make it to cape Roca, a nice viewpoint, but with the stiff wind and relentless ups and downs, I just gave up after some time. I got lunch at the 3 Gomes restaurant in Azoia, a small town along the way and turned around.
With the hard climbs behind me, the way down was a breeze. Upon returning back to Cascais, I locked the bike and walked around the marina. The marina is built along the side of a 15th century fort and has many yacht clubs, upscale shops, restaurants, bars etc. I got myself a well deserved Acai protein shake 🙂
I returned the bike and took the train back to Lisbon, making it back by 5. I still had time to squeeze one more activity before dinner and train back to Porto. I decided to visit Saint George’s castle, a Lisbon landmark located on a hill in the Alfama district. The hill on which Saint George’s Castle stands has played an important part in the history of Lisbon, having served as the location of fortifications occupied successively by the Phoenicians (~1000 BC), Carthaginians (~400 BC) , Romans (~200 AD), and Moors (~800 AD), before its conquest by the Portuguese in the 1147 Siege of Lisbon. Since the 12th century, the castle has variously served as a royal palace, military barracks, home of the National Archive, and now as a national monument and museum. The castle walls offer the most amazing views of the city and are a must see.
An interesting observation about the Alfama district. As shown in the map below, Alfama is a delightful maze of narrow cobblestone street, lined by traditional houses. This is in sharp contrast to the largely grid like street pattern to the left of Madalena street. How did this come to be? The answer lies in the unequal damage caused by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that leveled ~90% of the city, but spared the Alfama district, possibly due to its hilltop location (which protected it from flooding caused by the tsunami). The Marquês de Pombal, a major figure in Portuguese history was appointed to lead the reconstruction efforts. He rebuilt the destroyed parts of the city following the contemporary grid like pattern. However Alfama having suffered less damage, retained its medieval, Moorish character.
Historically, Alfama was one of the poorer, grittier parts of Lisbon. However today Alfama is recognized as an artistic, fashionable part of Lisbon, that retains its unique and rich heritage.
After the castle tour, I walked back to my hotel, sipping mulled wine along the way. I got dinner at a restaurant near my hotel. Nearby, a group of black musicians were playing violin and saxophone to popular English songs. I quite enjoyed the performance!
After dinner, I grabbed my luggage from the hotel, took the taxi to the train station (<5 Euros for a 10 min ride!) and took the 8 PM train to Porto. Arrived in Porto around 10:20 PM. I took the taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver only accepted cash, and I had to find an ATM to withdraw some cash. This is the only time during this trip that I needed cash!
Part 2: Azores
Day 1 (Friday)
My flight to Azores left around 12:30 PM so I didn’t have much time to do any sightseeing.. I just got a nice, big breakfast and then took the train from Trindade station to the Porto airport. The flight time from Porto to Ponta Delgada the capital of Saint Miguel (also referred to as Sao Miguel henceforth) island is about 2 hours. Ponta Delgada airport is small and efficient. It took about 20 min to get out of the airport. You need a car to drive around the island, and I had booked a convertible Fiat 500 (~40$ for 2 days, all fees included!). The car rental station was right outside the airport and picking up the car was quick and efficient. The roads in Saint Miguel are excellent, and there is internet access everywhere, so it is easy to drive around following Google map directions. It was about a 15 min drive to my Airbnb. Since I arrived a bit earlier than expected, the apartment wasn’t ready yet. I drove around to explore the island enjoying the lush green landscape, dotted with rolling green pastures full of cows happily grazing away..
Some facts about the Azores.
Azores is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 1,400 km (870 mi) west of Lisbon, about 1,500 km (930 mi) northwest of Morocco, and also about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada. There are nine major Azorean islands clustered in three main groups. These are Flores and Corvo, to the west; Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, and Faial in the centre; and São Miguel, Santa Maria, and the Formigas islets to the east.
A bit about the geology of the Azores. The islands are located above the junction between the North American, Eurasian and African plates (truly a geological melting pot!). On a geological timescale, the islands are very young. Santa Maria, the oldest (and most eroded) island is 8.12 million years old and Pico the youngest was only formed 0.27 million years ago. For comparison, the big island in Hawaii is about 0.5 million years old. There are 26 active volcanoes on the Azores. The last major volcanic eruption occurred in Sep 1957 on Faial island. Subterranean geothermal activity feeds the numerous fumaroles (vents where volcanic gasses and steam escapes) and hot springs.
Sao (Saint in Portuguese) Miguel is the largest and most populated island, with around 140,000 residents. The capital of Saint Miguel, Ponta Delgada, is also the largest city in the Azores.
The Azores are located almost on the same latitude as NYC, but the climate of the Azores is very mild for such a northerly location. This is because of the Gulf Stream to the north. Daytime temperatures normally fluctuate between 16 and 25 C. Feb is the coldest month with an average temperature of 14 C, and Aug the hottest, with the average temperature of 22 C. Dec is the rainiest month. I was expecting a lot of rain and packed some rain gear, but it didn’t rain that much, and mostly in the evening.
Back to my trip.. I was expecting lots of cute cafes and restaurants, but Ponta Delgada, the capital is where most of the population in Sao Miguel is concentrated (bit like Reykjavik in Iceland). There are small urban clusters scattered around the coast, and those are languid, sleepy small towns without many options to eat/drink. I finally found a sea side hotel with nice views of the water and had a sandwich and coffee there.
After dinner, I drove back to the AirBnb, which was ready by now. My host showed me around to my apartment, a nicely furnished, one bedroom apartment with good views and a Jacuzzi (which I didn’t use). It rained heavily in the evening for about an hour. After the rain stopped, I drove to a grocery store in Ponta Delgada to get some oatmilk, yogurt, orange juice and wine. I read a bit and then went to bed. An annoyingly persistent rooster started crowing super early in the morning and woke me up much earlier than I wanted to.. the downside of staying in a cute airbnb surrounded by farms!
Day 2 (Sat)
My friend Sam arrived in next morning. I picked her up and we drove around the island, following this Tripadvisor itinerary. Some pictures and their locations are shown below. The island is full of incredible views, but the volcanic crater lakes are undoubtedly the star of the show, specially Sete Cidades on the North Western part of the island, the largest natural freshwater reservoir in the Azores.
Near the Sete Cidades viewpoint, we met some hikers who recommended the boco-de-inferno hike, a 1.6 mile out and back hike. We were glad we did, because at the end of the hike you are treated to an incredible view of the crater lakes and the surrounding hills..
Later, we had dinner in Ponta Delgada, and then drove out to the Poca Do Dona Beija spa in Furnas, a small town built on a dormant volcanic crater about 50 Km South East of Ponta Delgada. Furnas abounds with fumaroles, hot springs, and thermal pools. The spa has several hot pools (~38 C) that are fed by hot spring waters. It costs ~8$ to spend 1.5 hrs at the spa. Towel and locker rentals are extra (so bring a towel!). It is a very pleasant and relaxing experience, a must do if you like spas. Some other things to do in Furnas are: hiking/paddling in the Furnas lake, eat Portuguese stew cooked in fumaroles, and visit the several calderas and fumaroles in the center of the town. I only visited the spa, so all these activities are for the next visit!
Day 3 (Sun)
Whale and dolphin watching is another popular activity in Sao Miguel. We had booked a whale watching tour the previous day. The tour left from the marina in Ponta Delgada at 8:30 AM. However we were a bit late arriving at the marina. By the time we parked the car and rushed to the embarkation point, the boat was leaving right before our eyes. Thankfully, the tour operator booked us for the tour leaving the next day.
It was a nice, sunny day, and I wanted to do a hike. However I found it hard to find good information about which hikes to do! I wanted something around 7-8 miles, of moderate to hard difficulty level, well marked, with good views. The concierge at the hotel suggested visiting the tourist information center, a short walk from our hotel. By this time, Sam and I had booked separate rooms at Casa Hintze Ribeiro in the center of Ponta Delgada, a very nice hotel with good amenities and friendly and helpful staff. We walked over to the information center, but found it closed. There was a QR code on the window that pointed to a website, but we didn’t find the information helpful. AllTrails had hundreds of hikes listed, but it was difficult to know which ones are truly worth doing.
We just took it easy in the morning, got a leisurely breakfast and and visited a pineapple plantation nearby. We were greeted by a liquor made from pineapple juice and saw several greenhouses with pineapples in various stages of growth.
After spending about an hour at the pineapple plantation, we drove to the Gorreana tea plantation in the North of the island
We saw several machines used in the harvesting and roasting of tea leaves and watched a video about tea production. Tea has been grown on San Miguel island since the mid 19th century. The soil quality, high precipitation and humid climate provide ideal conditions for growing tea. No chemicals (eg., insecticides) are used in tea production on San Miguel because there are no pests and diseases on the island. Some fun facts about tea and its production:
- All teas come from dried leaves of the plant “camellia sinensis”, a member of the Theaceae family. The difference in teas is based on the leaf selection and processing
- Both black and green tea come from the same plant. The difference lies in how the leaves are processed after harvesting. To obtain black tea, the leaves are wilted for 8-14 hrs to help them lose their moisture. After wilting, they are rolled and partially crushed. Then they are exposed to air and undergo a slow natural process of oxidation. After being oxidized, the leaves are dried. To produce green tea, after wilting, the leaves are sterilized with water steam, which prevents their oxidation and retains the green color and produces a tea rich in tannin and antioxidants. The entire process between plucking and packaging takes about 24 hrs. This is a good article on tea processing.
- “Tea” and “Chai” (or “Cha”) both refer to the same drink that originated in China. They just entered English through different routes. Chai via the Portuguese in the late 17th century, and Tea via the Dutch in the 17th century. Tea was called “Tea” or Cha” in different parts of China and the Portuguese and Dutch adopted the pronunciation commonly used in the region they traded more.
It was around 5 PM when we finished the tea plantation tour and I still wanted to do a hike. We asked some locals at the tea factory and they recommended a hike nearby about a mile long. We drove to the trail head and parked near a farm. The first part of the hike was a steep descent leading to a small waterfall over a stream that flows into the sea. From the waterfall, we slowly ascended back up, passing some abandoned houses and farms.
I quite recommend this hike. It is called Moinhos da Ribeira Funda on AllTrails.
Upon finishing the hike and walking back to the car, we were greeted by quite an unpleasant surprise. Someone had broken the front passenger window. In a bit of panic, Sam and I checked to see if anything was stolen from the car.. to our relief (and some surprise), nothing was taken. We speculated if a person or stray animal was responsible. We reasoned that a stray animal was unlikely to just break the window without causing any other damage (there were no dents or other damage to the car) so it must be a person, perhaps a local unhappy about us parking near their farm..
We cleaned up the glass shards the best we could and placed the towels (still in the car from the spa trip the day before) on the seats. We slowly drove back to Ponta Delgada to return the car. The folks at Sixt, the rental car company were very kind and understanding. They told us that vandalism is uncommon, but not unheard of. We were lucky that there was no damage to the canvas roof of our convertible, which would have been expensive to replace. I did have insurance, but it was purchased through Expedia not with Sixt directly. Thus, I’d need to pay for the damage myself and then submit a claim to my insurance and try to obtain a refund. Sixt took the car back and gave us an identical car. Few days later, I got a damage assessment (only ~200$) and submitted a claim to my Expedia insurance (underwritten by AIG). I considered forgoing even submitting a claim, because I didn’t think it would amount to anything but annoying back and forth.. to my surprise, the claim was approved in a few days and a check issued! So it is actually worth buying car insurance when you reserve a rental car. Buying insurance through a third party company such as Expedia is generally a lot cheaper than buying it from the rental car company.. However to keep things simple, I purchased full coverage for the new rental with Sixt. It cost me around ~$60 on top of the car rental cost.
Day 4 (Monday)
Having missed the whale watching tour the previous day, Sam and I made sure to arrive at the tour embarkation point (a 10 min walk from our hotel) well in time. There were about 50 people on the boat, not including the staff. We were given a tour brief that included some fun facts about dolphins and sperm whales, which parts of the boat we could access and stuff like that. I was curious how the boat captain knew where the fish are.. according to the tour guide, the captain is in contact with people manning lookout towers on land, who are scanning the waters for schools of fish.
The boat headed west, following the coastline for about 40 min, when we had our first dolphin sighting. A naturalist onboard provided commentary as the boat approached the fish. The dolphins were quite a sight. We came across several groups of about 8-9 dolphins gracefully swimming around the boat, exposing their blowhole every 60 sec or so to breathe.
After about an hour, we saw a group of 4-5 sperm whales. Because the boat can only approach the whales from behind and stay at least 50 m away, you can only see an outline of one side of the whales. You get a brief glimpse of the tail fin as the whales prepare for their next dive into the depths to feed. If you have good binoculars, bring them! The whale watching tour should really be called a dolphin watching tour!
Some fun facts about dolphins and sperm whales:
- These are long lived creatures. Bottlenose dolphins can live for 25-40 years, while sperm whales up to 70 years!
- Social behavior of sperm whales is quite interesting. Female Sperm whales form lifelong social pods of around a dozen individuals, who cooperatively raise their young. Young males leave their mother’s pod when they are between 4 and 21 years old and travel in “bachelor schools,” comprised of other males that are about the same age and size. As males get older and larger, they begin to migrate toward the poles and the bachelor schools become smaller; the largest males are often found alone. Sexually mature males (in their late 20s) travel to tropical breeding grounds to mate. Males can be 3 times as large as females!
- Sperm whales hunt for food (squid, deep sea fish) during deep dives that routinely reach depths of 600 meters and can last for 45 minutes. They are capable of diving to depths of over 3,500 meters (10,000 feet). After long, deep dives, they come to the surface to breathe and recover for approximately nine minutes. Because it is completely dark at that depth, Sperm whales primarily find their food using echolocation; they produce high-frequency sound waves from a specialized organ in their head, which bounce off prey like squid and fish in the deep ocean, allowing them to detect the location, size, and shape of their meal through the returning echoes. How do whales survive the crushing pressure (~70 times that on the surface of the ocean) at a depth of 600 meters? Their rib cage and lungs collapse under pressure, squeezing all the air the lungs contain into a small space. Their blood also contains very high levels of the oxygen binding molecule hemoglobin.
Nature is just amazing!
It was an overcast and wet day. After the whale watching tour, I just lounged around town the rest of the day. We had a big dinner in the evening, comprising of beef and several kinds of fish.
Day 5 (Tuesday)
Sam left early in the morning and my flight was around 5 PM in the evening. Having already done all the popular activities on Sao Miguel, I finally decided to do a hike. I took a chance on the Lagua do Fogo hike, a ~7.5 mile loop about an hour drive from Ponta Delgada.
On the way up, I passed by a water channel that is likely an irrigation channel. The lush green vegetation along the way was beautiful. It felt like walking through a natural garden!
At the top of the hike, you are greeted with nice views of Lagua do Fogo
The trail was quite muddy in places, so sturdy, water resistant hiking shoes are recommended.
The way back followed a dirt road and was much steeper and far less enjoyable. About halfway down, I ran into a herd of cows and felt a bit anxious the cows might attack me, as I stepped around them. It was a good reminder of how much physically weaker we humans are compared with many other animals we are used to lording over!
I completed the 7.2 mile loop in about 2.5 hrs! Not bad! 🙂
After the hike, I got a nice lunch and drove around a bit. I considered visiting a spa near the Furnas area, but it was the opposite direction from the airport and I didn’t want to risk missing my flight.. so that was it! I had a memorable time in Portugal, and would consider visiting the Azores again, specially to visit the other islands.
Hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Post a comment if you did!
Thank you for sharing the story of your trip. I enjoyed reading it and might use your suggestions on the future.